ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEBS ASSOCIATION. 



ir 



five years, also proven his statement to be 

 true in Wisconsin, but I do believe such 

 conditions of dead brood are the most 

 favorable places for lodgment and rapid 

 growth of disease. Also, T do not believe 

 foul brood germs are floating in the air, 

 for, if the}' were, why would not every 

 brood-comb cell of an infected hive be- 

 come diseased? I believe that this disease 

 spreads only as the adult bees come in 

 contact with it, which is often through 

 robber-bees. Brood-combs should not be 

 removed from any colony on cold or windy 

 days, nor should they be left for a moment 

 in the direct rays of sunshine on hot days. 

 2. The foul brood may be caused by the 

 need of proper food and temperature. 

 Generally this disease does not appear to 

 be serious during a honeyflow, but at the 

 close of the honey season, or at time of 

 scarcity, it is quite serious, and as the 

 bees at such times will rob anywhere they 

 can find stores, whether from healthy or 

 diseased combs, it is the duty of every 

 bee-keeper to keep everything carefully 

 protected. Hive-entrances contracted, no 

 old combs or any article with a drop of 

 honey in where the bees can get to it. 

 While honey is coming in from the various 

 flowers, quite a portion is used direct as 

 food for the larval bee, and with such no 

 disease would be fed to the bees. Such 

 fed bees, even in a diseased hive, will 

 hatch, as is often the ca^e. I never knew 

 a case where a bee hatched from a brood 

 cell that had ever had foul brood in. If 

 the germs of disease are there in the dried 

 scale attached to the lower .^ide walls, bees 

 will store honey, therein; the queen will 

 deposit eggs, or the cell may be filled with 

 pollen, or beebread, as some call it. Said 

 honey, or pollen, when it comes in contact 

 with those germs of disease, or the food 

 given to the young bee, if in the proper 

 temperature, said germs of disease will 

 grow and develop rapidily. 



CAUSES OF CONTAGION. 



I fully believe that if the history of foul 

 brood in Wisconsin were known, nearly 

 every case could be traced to contagion 

 from diseased combs, honey, or from home 

 diseased queen-breeders' cages. There are 

 some instances where I have traced the 

 history of contagion in Wisconsin: 



1. Diseased apiaries, also single colonies, 

 sold either at auction or private sale. Sev- 

 eral law suits have resulted in the settle- 

 ment of some of the cases. 



2. Brood-combs and various implements 

 from diseased hives, used by other bee- 

 keepers, and borrowed articles. 



3. All the bees in an apiary dead from 

 foul brood, and the hives having'an abun- 

 dance of honey in the brood-combs, said 

 combs placed out by the side of hives, so 

 that neighbor's bees might get the honey. 

 From those combs I lined robber bees to 

 seven other apiaries, and each time became 

 diseased and were treated. 



4. Robber bees working on empty honey 

 packages in the back yards of grocery 

 stores and baking factories. Said honey 

 came from diseased apiaries, some located 

 in far distant states, even Cuba. 



5. Loaning of hives, combs, extractors, 

 and even empty honey-packages. 



6. Buying honey from strangers, or not 

 knowing where it was produced, and feed- 

 ing it to bees without boiling the honey. 



7. Too common a practice of using old 

 brood-combs from some apiar>' where the 

 owner's bees have died from "bad luck," 

 as he calls it. 



8. Queen-bee — by buying queen bees 

 from strangers and introducing them in the 

 cages they came in. I have traced several 

 new outbreaks of the disease to the hives 

 where such queens were introduced, and 

 the queens came from distant states." To 

 be safe, on arrival of queen, put her care- 

 fully alone in a new and clean cage with 

 good food in it. Keep her in there, warm 

 and comfortable, for a few hours before 

 introducing. The shipping cage and every 

 bee that came with the queen should be 

 put in the stove and burned. T do not think 

 there is any danger from the queen so 

 treated, even from diseased hives, but I do 

 know of many cases where disease soon 

 appear in the hives, where the shipping 

 cage and bees were put in with the colony. 

 The great danger is in the food in said 

 cage being made from diseased honey. I 

 was called to attend a state bee-keepers' 

 meeting in another state, and I asked if any 

 there had had experience with foul brood. 

 There was a goodly number of raised hands. 

 Then I asked: "Do any of you think you 

 got the disease by buying queen-bees?" 

 Again several hands were raised. Even 

 bee-keepers there had traced the disease 

 in their apiaries to the bujing of queen?, 

 and all from the same breeder. If you 

 get queens from abroad, I hope you will 

 do with them as I have described above. 

 Better be on the safe side. 



— 2 B A 



