166 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



"Yes, and they all died; we had bad 

 luck." 



I went up there and I examined 15 

 hive bodies; he formerly was a stone 

 mason by trade, and, as soon as a 

 colony had died, he had sealed it up 

 tight. 



There were all the stages that have 

 been described here: The sunken 

 cappings, in abundance. He had taken 

 one of those hives in that condition and 

 put this new swarra into it. 



I asked him: "How long ago since 

 you had bees?" 



"A long time." His wife said: "Don't 

 you' know when we had the last 

 swarm? It was when our boy was 

 born and he is eight years old." 



Now, it had been lying there idle, and 

 when the opportunity came it de- 

 veloped. 



McEvoy, of Canada, said that he be- 

 lieved, so long as that comb existed, 

 those germs would be waiting for a 

 favorable opportunity. 



On the other hand, it is said, that 

 freezing evidently would kill the dis- 

 ease. If freezing would do it, those 

 had been there eight winters, in a 

 building without heat. 



In our experimental station work, 

 we have tried . a temperature below 

 frp"7ins: point, and it is surprising th-^ 

 resisting power of American foul 

 brood. There is only one thing to do: 

 Boil it. Get it away from the bees, 

 and, if enough of it, boil the combs; 

 you can sell that beeswax to be made 

 into foundation. I do not believe it is 

 possible for foul brood to spread 

 through the use of foundation. 



Mr. Wheeler — There is one point that 

 still ranl<'lps me a little: I run up 

 against Mr. Kildow and Doctor Phil- 

 lips on it. 



Anybody, that has a case of foul 

 brood, can test it for himself all right, 

 but I have held, for a good many years, 

 the bees clear out American foul brood 

 before you see any pin holes — any dead 

 brood. I still hold to that. From what 

 has been said, you would think the 

 bees would not touch the disease; the 

 proof for which is: You take a tooth 

 pick, and you And that ropy cell; you 

 take and stir it up with a tooth pick 

 and draw the ropiness out; go back 

 there in twenty minutes and the bees 

 will have cleaned it out. 



If they will clean out one ropy cell 

 they will clean out hundreds of them. 



The bees, until they are overcome by 

 disease, continually clean, clean, clean, 

 ' as their nature is to keep the hive 

 clean. 



When they are overcome by it, they 

 hang back and the larvae is left in. 



Mr. Bull — I w^ould like to ask a ques- 

 tion in regard to treating for Ameri- 

 can foul brood — shake on starters or 

 full sheets, which? 



President France — That will depend. 

 If a beginner in the business, I would 

 say, take foundation starters; but, if 

 an experienced bee-keeper, who is 

 careful in watching these things, he 

 can use a larger amount of wax and 

 full sheets. 



The advantage in the use of start- 

 ers: > The bees have to draw out their 

 combs and are more liable to make a 

 perfect cure, but unfortunately a large 

 percentage of that new drawn-out 

 comb is drone comb, and you are in a 

 bad fix again. 



Mr. Bull — Is it not a fact, the amount 

 of disease in the hive makes it a large 

 factor? 



For instance, if, in a colony here and 

 there, a cell — would you not consider 

 It folly to shake that colony or colo- 

 nies? 



President France — Certainly, if you 

 have an extra strong colony. 



Mr. MaCkeim — I have tried a modi- 

 fication of the McEvoy treatment, by 

 shaking them into an empty hive and 

 putting on a queen excluding board 

 under cover. There is always bur comb 

 sticking to the queen excluding board; 

 they will build down and use honey 

 taken with them and there wuU be very 

 little in the cell. 



Take that same hive — take the cover 

 off, and raise up the queen excluding 

 zinc, with bees hanging to it — to comb 

 •that they have built. I hold that while 

 I put in frames of full sheets; then 

 shake the thing on top of frames; put 

 cover on and it has cured it; I take 

 away the bur comb that they have 

 built. 



Mr. Bull — While you are taking your 

 cover off, raising that excluder with 

 those bees on it, you have to smoke 

 them. The other way, ypu can pick up 

 that hive and set it on to another hive 

 and the bees will not know you have 

 touched them; it can be done in twen- 

 ty seconds; gives them no chance to 

 get any honey; when I shake a colony, 

 to start with, I see that those combs^ 



