164 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



makes this treatment. There is a very 

 important subject. 



Mr. Stewart — If there is a shortage 

 of food, does it not increase it? 



Mr. Miller — If the bees are storing, 

 are getting a good deal of nectar, and 

 any dead larvae in there, they are apt 

 to cover it up and it is hard to And it; 

 when they eat down to it, they come 

 down to the disease and transmit it 

 again. 



Mr. Stewart — I want to know how 

 they start it. 



Doctor Phillips — That is what I 

 would like to know. There is one 

 thing with the theory that Doctor Mil- 

 ler suggests, of feeding the juice of 

 the dead larvae to other larvae; that 

 will explain a good many things about 

 European foul brood. Here is one that 

 has not been explained. How does the 

 disease come to the first colony in the 

 spring? 



Mr. Stewart — Starvation? 



Doctor Phillips— No. 



Mr. Wheeler — I believe there is 

 something in that starvation business; 

 the more I watch them I think there 

 is something in that starvation busi- 

 ness; they get short of stores — of 

 honey, and the bee is a very economi- 

 cal fellow; he eats up eggs when he 

 does not have any use for them, and 

 I think he eats up larvae in the same 

 way; it might be possible; it is ques- 

 tionable in my mind. 



Mr. Kildow — I can't take any stock 

 in that starvation business; we had 

 lots of colonies that starved to death 

 before European foul brood was dis- 

 covered. 



Bees, for ages back, before this Eu- 

 ropean . foul brood appeared, have 

 starved to death every year. If that 

 had been the case, it would have de- 

 veloped years ago. 



Mr. Stewart — I am taught that 

 germs are in the air all the time in this 

 climate; and, if our system gets in 

 proper condition, we get disease; who 

 knows but what the bees, feeding their 

 brood on that, starve — it weakens them 

 down and puts them in that condition. 



Mr. Wheeler — This point we have 

 noticed: That, in a poor season when 

 very little honey is coming in, foul 

 brood, European foul brood or Amer- 

 ican, either one, is worse in a season 

 when honey is not coming in plenti- 



fully — when the bees are short of 

 stores. 



If they are short of stores, they re- 

 sort to other food, like pollen and 

 possibly to the other larvae. 



If they can't get honey enough to 

 feed the brood they may resort to- 

 making a jelly of bee food. Diseases 

 are worst during honey drought. 



A member — I have had bees running 

 for twenty years and never had Euro- 

 pean foul brood. Always give bees 

 penty to winter on, two frames of 

 pollen and requeen every year from 

 some part of the country. 



President France — There is some 

 wonderfully good advice. Requeens 

 nearly every year, with best of food — 

 new blood, and with all this number of 

 colonies, and yet, to find the first case 

 of disease. Foul brood within walking 

 distance, all around. 



A member — The statement was made 

 that insect or any animal life are in- 

 clined to succumb to disease if they are 

 not strong, but so long as they are 

 strong, and in a healthy condition, they 

 can resist those germs of disease; they 

 can expel them from their system; but 

 as soon as they get weak they lose that 

 strength — that power, and they are, be- 

 fore long, gone. That it is with every- 

 thing like that; so if we keep our bees 

 healthy and strong so that they can 

 expel all disease they will not be ex- 

 posed as weak colonies are; therefore, 

 keep the colonies strong; all these 

 things, requeening and so on: If we 

 get strong colonies and healthy, the 

 disease will not attack the healthy, 

 strong colony. 



Doctor Phillips — It may be correct in 

 theory but there is one difficulty in 

 observation which has to be overcome: 

 It is the strongest colony in the yard 

 which gets American foul brood first 

 in almost all cases; and I seriously 

 doubt whether the organisms which 

 cause American foul brood can enter 

 any colony without the disease appear- 

 ing. The organism is a most tenacious 

 and tough proposition, and, if a strong 

 colony gets out and succeeds in robbing 

 from a diseased colony in the neigh- 

 borhood, the disease will appear. 



With European foul brood, the con- 

 ditions are different, but American foul 

 brood is no respecter of size, of age, of 

 race or of anything else that I have 

 been able to find out; and while I don't 

 believe that diseases originate through 



