ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



159 



that check of suspicion of disease, and, 

 in corresponding with some of them 

 later on, I found they had the disease. 



Who is to blame? The men who 

 owned the bees didn't know it; the 

 neighbor kept it still to himself; and 

 I was censured for not cleaning up foul 

 brood; it was only a few days ago I 

 had heard of it. 



We have to co-operate in the 

 eradication of bee diseases — but as for 

 this topic, American foul brood, is there 

 anything further on the description of 

 or the treatment of it? 



The treatment of it has been re- 

 peatedly, over and over again, written 

 up. 



Mr. Miller — In recent modern cases, 

 what has been the mode of treatment, 

 any different? 



President France — Perhaps Mr. Phil- 

 lips can give us a better reply on be- 

 half of' something more modern in the 

 treament of American foul brood. 



Doctor Phillips — Still recommending 

 the shaking treatment as usual. It can 

 be modified in various ways. 



Get the bees from the combs and 

 start anew. Mr. Walrus has taken them 

 out through a tube, which is all right, 

 also. 



President France — Some experiment 

 has been tried, getting the bees off 

 from infcted combs by gradually 

 drowning the bees out by water; in a 

 good many cases it proved a success; 

 in some cases it did not. 



So that, whatever the method may be, 

 we want to get the bees as quickly as 

 possible away from the infected combs; 

 and look out, in getting them away, 

 that they don't fill themselves with in- 

 fected honey and carry it. 



The Baldrige method is allowing the 

 bees to go out undisturbed and they are 

 not likely to carry disease. 



Mr. "Wheeler — ^What objection have 

 you heard to the drowning out meth- 

 od? Do they stay on the brood? 



President France — No, the bees had 

 to get out or be drowned so that any 

 that didn't leave went with the infected 

 combs, but the bees, when they were 

 put on other quarters in two cases, I 

 have known the disease appeared 

 again; evidently they carried it with 

 them. 



Mr. Wheeler — They always do when 

 -shaken out. 



President France — In Minnesota, Mr. 



Leonard, I believe, was the originator 

 of following out Mr. Baldridge's plan 

 in a modified way. 



• The new hive was connected with a 

 tube and the bees went through this 

 into their new quarters. There is a 

 man owning bees in six different 

 states. His method has been to put one 

 dry extracting comb in the center for 

 twenty-four hours that the bees com- 

 ing there would undoubtedly deposit 

 infected honey they had into this 

 comb; and then, quietly remove that 

 one. That has worked well. 



The idea all the way through with 

 the American foul brood is to get the 

 bees away from the infection and then 

 get the infection entirely away from 

 the bees thereafter. I was told this 

 morning that a party had very care- 

 fully gone through all of this; had 

 taken the brood away and cut out the 

 comb and rendered it into wax, and 

 then threw the frames which were 

 more or less soiled with honey, out 

 where his bees could clean them up. 

 Some little detail like this, not taken 

 care of, spoils the whole thing. 



I tried, a few years ago (it was the 

 year we had our annual meeting in Los 

 Angeles up in the center of the state) 

 to treat a yard for American foul 

 brood where the infected combs were 

 submitted to a treatment of formalde- 

 hyde gas. 



I went to a lot of expense; had the 

 carpenter make double-walled wooden 

 box, lined in a tinshop by a tinner, 

 making the inner case; put in there 

 the infected combs and fumigated 

 them; put in the center so that they 

 had ample space some healthy brood, 

 just at the point of hatching. 



After leaving them in the proper 

 amount of time, upon inspection, I said, 

 "we must double the dose." On open- 

 ing the box I took a piece of brood 

 comb and removed the cappings. With 

 a pair of tweezers, I took a bee out of 

 the cell and it crawled more than the 

 length of my hand; and, when the 

 fumes will not kill the life of a bee, 

 it will not kill germs it cannot get at. 



I took those infected combs and put 

 those into a hive body and put a col- 

 ony of bees that never had the dis- 

 ease on to them. 



I went on to the National Conven- 

 tion, and, on my return a month later, 

 new brood nicely being capped ov^r 

 showed early stages of American foul 

 brood. 



