ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



129 



In pickled brood' the juices are never 

 soaked out- because they are acid sour 

 and the bees don't have anything to 

 do with them. 



The cause of pickled brood — is a dif- 

 ferent proposition. I have a theory I 

 advance: My theory is that some bees 

 sometimes feed an excess of pollen; in 

 feeding the young bee; the bee never 

 dies the first three days before the pollen 

 has been fed, but always afterward; and 

 if an excess is fed, too much nitrogen, 

 and that would cause what we would 

 call indigestion. In this case that fer- 

 mentation causes that; this fermenta- 

 tion takes place and kills the larvae; 

 that is all theory on my part. I had 

 pickled brood that extended from the 

 spring all through the summer, into the 

 late fall, when it seemed to clean up; 

 yet some of those colonies had SO lbs 

 of comb honey on top of them. 



Pres. Huffman — I always considered 

 in a way that pickled brood was 

 starved brood; I never had much of 

 it. Where I have had it, I have given 

 them unsealed honey or feed and it 

 seemed to be cleaned up in a little 

 while; that is the reason why I thought 

 perhaps it must be starved brood, but 

 of course this theory you put forth is 

 altogether different from what I have 

 heard. 



Mr. Pyles — I should have stated that 

 Keverend Howard, at Gardner, treated 

 more than 100 colonies of bees; he had 

 thought it was foul brood, and it was 

 pickled brood. He had seen an article 

 I wrote for the American Bee Journal, 

 and when I went there he had begun 

 to think about it, and he wanted me to 

 see his bees; he thought then he had 

 pickled brood, and that is all I could 

 find. The bees will be strong ^'ith 

 pickled brood, although there are cases 

 where they get weak. Through the 

 honey flow, getting plenty of honey, 

 they will carry it along and produce 

 a fairly good crop of honey. 



Mr. Cavanagh — Did you ever try 

 paregoric for indigestion of baby bees? 



Mr. Pyles — No, when I am out I don't 

 carry a chest of medicine along, like 

 Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup and 

 those things. It is a problem, but I 

 am not scared of it. I do not think it 

 i.^ anything that amounts to anything, 

 or that it is contagious. 



I found it, two years ago, in Henry 

 •Stewart's place, in two colonies that 

 were very weak, and you could find 

 it in nearly every cell, and yet within 



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a month after that he wrote me that 

 his bees had cleaned up and were pick- 

 ing up nicely. That was at the end of 

 as fine a honey-flow as he ever had, 

 so there was plenty of nectar coming 

 in and' plenty of feed. I surely think 

 it is because some colonies are fed 

 an excess of pollen. I will ask Dr. 

 Phillips to take this matter up. We 

 can't mix them a dose, and say "Feed 

 your babies so much of this and so 

 much of that." 



Mr. Canavagh — It seems to me there 

 is some reason for substantiating this 

 theory; and at the same time Mr. Mc- 

 Evoy's theory might be confused; and 

 might be grounds through Mr. McBvoy's 

 treatment of sub^ntiating Mr. Pyles' 

 theory. 



Pres. Huffman — I would like to ask 

 Mr. Pyles this question in regard to a 

 bad case of pickled brood — do you think 

 it advisable to re-queen? 



Mr. Pyles — I don't think it would 

 make any material difference; you 

 would have the same nurse bees and 

 the siame conditions surrounding you; 

 you would have to get rid of them first; 

 that is only a matter of opinion. If 

 you were to go over the State of Illi- 

 nois, a spring like last spring, and 

 see large quantities of pickled brood 

 everywhere, and see the conditions 

 right in the same apiary — I know you 

 would begin to question the statement 

 that it is caused from starvation. We 

 have found pickled brood where there 

 was an excess of honey and plenty of 

 unsealed honey; and sometimes we 

 would find conditions where they were 

 living from hand to mouth and no 

 pickled brood there. 



Now about European Foul Brood. 

 With European Foul Brood the first 

 stages are not very noticeable — until the 

 European Foul Brood is scattered 

 nearly throughout the apiary; in cells 

 without any brood; and cells with eggs 

 in; cells without any larvae, and with 

 larvae in, up to the age where they are 

 capped over; then I would go through 

 the hives and look for dead yellow 

 larvae. 



I am sure when I find that ragged, 

 uneven appearance there is something 

 wrong, if it moves all over the apiary, 

 and sooner or later I will find it in a 

 very strong colony where they have a 

 large brood nest and a good deal to 

 take ciare of; I find the dead yellow 

 larvae there. That is, the first stages. 

 A great many men say, and in fact the 



