February 1913 



Nore About European Foul 

 Brood 



BY F. \V, L. SLADEN. 



I was pleased to see Mr. Morley 

 Pettit's insistence on bad smell as a 

 frequent symptom of European foul 

 brood, in a recent issue of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. In England a stink- 

 ing smell is considered one of the 

 chief symptoms of this disease, while 

 American foul brood is regarded as 

 odorless. As European foul brood is 

 said in America to have little or no 

 smell, and American foul brood is the 

 odoriferous kind, no little confusion 

 has been caused on the other side, and 

 English bee-keepers are inclined to 

 think they are dealing with a different 

 pair of diseases. 



I recently had an opportunity of 

 studying an outbreak of European foul 

 brood among hybrid bees in England. 

 As long as only a dozen or two larv:e 

 were affected, there was only a slightly 

 sour smell when the hive was opened, 

 but when the disease advanced and 60 

 or more larvae were rotting, an ex- 

 tremely strong and penetrating odor 

 was given off. To me it was a " gamey " 

 smell, like high meat, but opinions dif- 

 fer, and when I suggested to my as- 

 sistant that it was an appetizing odor, 

 he protested loudly, and had no word 

 to sufficiently express its offensiveness. 



Ottawa, Canada. 



No. 3.— Thk Ui tE.N i.N THE Act of Laving an Eg' 



Loaf Sugar for Winter Feeding 



BY EDWIN BEVINS. 



I felt some reluctance about telling 

 the story of 1912, but Miss Wilson's 

 account of what occurred at the Dr. 

 Miller place emboldens me. 



In the fall of l;M 1 I packed 85 colo- 

 nies for winter on the summer stands. 

 The hives seemed heavy at the time of 

 packing; but I fear that many were 

 heavy with something besides honey. 

 My winter losses amounted to 38 colo- 

 nies. A few more were so weak that 



they died in the spring. My spring 

 count was about 40 colonies. 



When the days began to lengthen 

 and the cold began to strengthen, last 

 winter, and the snow got to piling up 

 around the hives so that the entrances 

 had to be cleared almost every day, I 

 began to use cube loaf sugar. Unfort- 

 unately I did not use enough of it, and 

 hence my heavy loss of bees. 



The season was a poor one for 

 honey, and the surplus not at all satis- 

 factory, amounting to about 2200 

 pounds; two-thirds of it was extracted. 

 I made an increase of colonies this 

 season, so that at its close I had 76 

 colonies. I sold and shipped 5il of 

 these in November, and lost one by 

 queenlessness. I have 2-5 packed on 

 summer stands. 1 sent to Chicago 

 ■ and secured a hundred-pound drum of 

 cube loaf sugar. A common tin wash 

 basin holds about 4 pounds of it when 

 a little more than level full. I filled a 

 basin full for each of the 2.') colonies. I 

 gave the sugar a good sprinkling with 

 warm water, and then dumped the 

 basin across the center of the top-bars 

 after lifting the back ends of the quilts 

 and chaff cushions. Some of the hives 

 were so heavy that they seemed "tied 

 to the ground," but I served all the 

 colonies alike. 



Dr. Miller does not feed the heavy 

 colonies, but he winters his bees in the 

 cellar and I winter mine out-of-doors. 

 The above has been written mainly 

 with a view to call the attention of bee- 

 keepers to the use of cube loaf sugar 

 as winter feed. I am persuaded that 

 bee-keepers can save many colonies by 

 its timely use. 

 Leon, Iowa. 



[J. L. Byer tells us that up in Ontario 

 they feed the bees as much sugar syrup 

 as they will store in the brood-cham- 

 ber before winter. They think it pays. 

 — Editor,] 



Notes and Sidelights From tlie 

 New York State Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Meeting in Roches- 

 ter, Dec. 17-1 9, 191 2 



BY F. CREIXER. 



In an address on foul brood, S. D. 

 House said that pickled brood was the 

 fore-runner of foul brood and that the 

 whole cause of the disease was "filth," 

 claiming that some strains of bees, 

 and particularly the native black or 

 brown bees, were such poor house- 

 keepers that they often allowed dead 

 larvae in the combs a sufficient length 

 of time to undergo the process of de- 

 composition. Then the dangerous and 

 destructive bacilli would develop 

 spontaneously, and the foul brood 

 originate. 



This idea or theory was later com- 

 batted by Prof. Burton Gates from 

 Massachusetts, who claimed that the 

 foul brood could not thus originate; 

 there would have to be spores or 

 germs of the disease present; without 

 them there could be no beginning of 

 the disease. 



Mr. House further said that the 

 American Foul Brood was harder to 

 eradicate than the European. An old 

 discarded bottom-board had started the 

 disease again in his yard, the bees 

 gathering the propolis therefrom, 

 which contained the spores. 



This able speaker could not place 

 emphasis enough on keeping Italian 

 bees. It is the only sure way to dis- 

 pose of the diseases, he said; and il 

 he had a black colony and he knew the 

 disease was in the State, he would at 

 once kill the old queen and after ten 

 days substitute a ripe queen-cell of 

 pure Italian blood. 



The foul brood inspectors of the 

 State and others testified that we have 



