146 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



and leaked and the leakage would more 

 than have paid for the additional ex- 

 pense of new cans; and he also con- 

 tracted the disease before he got 

 through with it. 



Is it necessary to describe American 

 and European Foul Brood? 



Our Bee Journals and our literature 

 have given us so much on this subject 

 it does seem as though we ought to, 

 every one, know. 



American Foul Brood with its brown 

 decayed matter at that one stage where 

 it is quite offensive for years was 

 known as foul brood; the other was 

 known as black brood. 



I know of no remedy by which we 

 can save infected combs in hives 

 where that condition exists. The only 

 thing to do is to render them into wax 

 and entirely renovate or clean up the 

 hive. Any method, which has not for 

 its object the entire removal of all in- 

 fectious material beyond the reach of 

 both bees and brood, will prove detri- 

 mental and encourage the recurrence 

 of the disease. 



With European Foul Brood, which 

 seems to be our black brood as it was 

 formerly known: — In advanced stages, 

 it becomes hardened, nearly black in 

 color, and in time dries down to be as 

 thin as the side walls of the cell. With 

 strong colonies and a young ambitious 

 queen replaced from the others they 

 will clean house and that seems to be 

 an end of it. 



I had one party who said to me: I 

 had two colonies that were not very 

 strong. I thought to take away that 

 queen would deplete them, so I put the 

 entire swarm on full sheets of founda- 

 tion; and here is the hatching brood 

 in those new clean combs as bad as 

 before. I said, "You have not removed 

 the cause; the queen was at fault and 

 you kept her with the bees. Take 

 away that queen and give them good 

 Italian blood without any further ren- 

 ovation and see the result; they will 

 clean house." 



There is a difference in resistance in 

 different strains of bees; some seem to 

 ifsist and not take this European foul 

 trood while others will take it very 

 quickly. The ordinary black bee is 

 more susceptible to it. 



The state of New York was almost 

 wiped out of bee-keeping at one time 

 with this black brood. Bee-keepers 

 who were not troubled began to raise 

 queens and give them to the neighbors 



so as to clean up the neighborhood, and 

 that has been the salvation of the 

 state of New York. 



A point came up yesterday about 

 shipping the disease. 



I hope the time will come when we 

 will have uniformity of state laws, by 

 which the shipping of queens or nuclei 

 has to be followed with a certificate of 

 health, the same as in our farm stock. 

 The cages also ought to be supplied 

 with food that we know is free from 

 any germs of disease. 



I had a case in Wisconsin, where 

 every other hive in one row and all 

 new hives that season had American 

 foul brood. 



In hunting up the cause I said it 

 cannot break out so uniformly; the 

 bee-keeper is at fault. I found the 

 queen cages and those identical hives 

 that were diseased was where queens 

 had been introduced. 



I was in Texas in a beeyard later 

 where those queen cages had come 

 from and found American foul brood 

 galore; so we have to be on our guard, 

 and — although Wisconsin is too far 

 north for successful queen breeding — 

 queen breeders have to have their 

 queens inspected twice a %year and a 

 certificate of health goes with every 

 cage from the yard. 



Two weeks ago two empty stock 

 cars were shipped from your city from 

 near the stock yards up to one of my 

 near neighboring cities; were loaded 

 with high bred animals, valuation over 

 $200 per head. They were inspected 

 and furnished with a certificate of 

 health. 



They 'started for the Pacific coast. 

 Before they had gone anywhere near 

 their destination they were quaran- 

 tined and two carloads were ordered 

 slaughtered. 



The inspector was called upon, as it 

 was endangering, and did contaminate 

 not only cattle in the vicinity but 

 hogs contracted the disease in the 

 stock yards where these cars were un- 

 loaded. 



Back tracing has shown that those 

 two cars had come from Chicago where 

 the foot and mouth disease had been. 



The same could be done with queen 

 breeders who buy queen cages with 

 food in it infected. 



The party from Texas bought cages 

 already supplied with food. I traced 

 back the record of that until I found 

 out where it came from. 



