ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



17 



practical modern scientific experi- 

 menters, a man of authority, has proven 

 beyond a doubt that chilled or common 

 dead brood does not produce foul 

 brood. I have, in the last five years, 

 also proven his statement to be true 

 in Wisconsin, but I do believe such 

 conditions of dead brood are the most 

 favorable places for lodgment and 

 rapid growth of disease. Also. I do 

 not believe foul brood germs are float- 

 ing in the air, for, if they were, why 

 would not every brood-comb cell of 

 an infected hive become diseased? I 

 believe that this disease spreads only 

 as the adult bees come in contact with 

 it, which is often through robber-bees. 

 Brood-combs should not be removed 

 from any colony on cold or windy 

 days, nor should they be left for a 

 moment in the direct rays of sun- 

 shine on hot days. 



2. The foul brood may be caused by 

 the need of proper food and tempera- 

 ture. Generally this disease does not 

 appear to be serious during a honey- 

 flow, but at the close of the honey sea- 

 son, or at time of scarcity, it is quite 

 serious, and as the bees at such times 

 will rob anywhere they can find stores, 

 whether from healthy or diseased 

 combs, it is the duty of every bee- 

 keeper to keep everything carefully 

 protected. Hive -entrances contracted, 

 no old combs or any article with a drop 

 of honey in where the bees can get to 

 it. While honey is coming in from 

 the various flowers, quite a portion is 

 used direct as food for the larval bee, 

 and with such no disease would be 

 fed to the bees. Such fed bees, even 

 in a diseased hive, will hatch, as is 

 often the- case. I never knew a case 

 where a bee hatched from a brood cell 

 that had ever had foul brood in. If 

 the germs of disease are there in the 

 dried scale attached to the lower side 

 walls, bees will store honey therein; 

 the queen will deposit eggs, or the cell 

 may be filled with pollen, or beebread, 

 a.s some call it. Said honey, or pollen, 

 when it comes in contact with those 

 germs of disease, or the food given to 

 the young bee, if in the proper temper- 

 ature, said germs of disease will grow 

 and develop rapidly. 



Causes of Contagion. - 



I fully believe that if the history of 

 foul brood in Wisconsin were known, 

 nearly every case could be traced to 

 contagion from diseased combs, honey, 



or from home diseased queen -breed- 

 ers' cages. There are some instances 

 where I have traced the history of con- 

 tagion in Wisconsin: 



1. Diseased apiaries, also single col- 

 onies, sold either at auction or private 

 sale. Several law suits have resulted 

 in the settlement of some of the cases. 



2. Brood-combs and various imple- 

 ments from diseased hives, used by 

 other bee-keepers, and borrowed ar- 

 ticles. 



3. All the bees in an apiary dead 

 from foul brood, and the hives having 

 an abundance of honey in the brood- 

 combs, said combs placed . out by the 

 side of hives, so that neighbor's bees 

 might get the honey. From those 

 combs I lined robber bees to seven 

 other apiaries, and each time became 

 diseased and were treated. 



4. Robber bees working on empty 

 honey packages in the back yards of 

 grocery stores and baking factories. 

 Said honey came from diseased api- 

 aries, some located in far distant 

 states, even Cuba. 



5. Loaning of hives, combs, extrac- 

 tors, and even empty honey-packages. 



6. Buying honey from strangers, or 

 not knowing where it was produced, 

 and feeding it to bees without boiling 

 the honey. 



7. Too common a practice of using 

 old brood-combs from some apiary 

 where the owner's bees have, died from 

 "bad luck," as he calls it. 



8. Queen-bee — ^by buying queen 

 bees from strangers and introducing 

 them in the cages they came in. I have 

 traced several new outbreaks of the 

 disease to the hives where such queens 

 were introduced, and the queens came 

 from distant states. To be safe, on ar- 

 rival of queen, put her carefully alone 

 in a new and clean cage with good 

 food in it. Keep her in there, warm 

 and comfortable, for a few hours be- 

 fore introducing. The shipping cage 

 and every bee that came with the 

 queen should be put in the stove and 

 burned. I do not think there is any 

 danger from the queen so treated, 

 even from diseased hives, but I do 

 know of many cases where disease 

 soon appear in the hives, where the 

 shipping cage and bees were put in 

 with the colony. The great danger is 

 in the food in said cage being made 

 from diseased honey. I was called to 

 attend a State bee-keepers' meeting 



s-^ss 



