42 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



Suppose another case, and not an uncom- 

 mon one. Suppose Jones has found a favor- 

 able locality where a hundred or more colo- 

 nies can easily be supported in one apiary. 

 At considerable expense he moves to that 

 locality, starts in with 25 or 50 colonies, and 

 expects to build up to 100 colonies. Claim- 

 ing that the field is not occupied, I plant 50 

 colonies right beside him. Pretty rough on 

 Jones, but I insist the field was not over- 

 stocked, and who is going to tell me I've no 

 right there? There's no such conflict about 

 a eow-pasture; and why should there be as 

 to a bee-pasture? 



There are other ways in which trouble may 

 come — in which trouble has come. I tell 

 you, good friends, the present loose way has 

 never been satisfactory, and never will be. 

 I suppose I've had less interference than the 

 majority, but I'd give a fair price to-day to 

 have absolute control of a given territory. I 

 suspect there isn't a possessor of 50 colonies 

 anywhere in the land who does not feel the 

 same way, although it may not be popular 

 to say so. Is there any good reason why a 

 man who makes his living from bees, or part 

 of his living, should not ieel just as secure 

 in his field as the man who makes his living 

 from cows? Just keep this in mind: No 

 bee-keeper in this land has a legal right to his 

 bee territory. 



Marengo, 111. 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. 

 The Cure a la Alexander. 



BY C. F. BENDER. 



Dr. Miller's excellent articles on European 

 foul (or black) brood remind me that per- 

 haps I owe the bee-keepers an article on this 

 important subject. I am glad to see that the 

 doctor has tried the Alexander method. 

 Shaking on foundation has been recommend- 

 ed so persistently that many of us hardly 

 realize that there is another and a better 

 remedy. 



My experience of the past seven years has 

 convinced me that there are only two meth- 

 ods of treatment worth mentioning for either 

 form of foul brood — the shaking plan, with 

 or without starvation, and the method of de- 

 queening for three weeks and requeening 

 with hardy stock. For the American form 

 the dequeening method is useless; for the 

 European form it is safer and better than 

 the foundation treatment. 



I had practiced the Alexander plan, without 

 knowing it, for two or three seasons before 

 it was put before the public. The way of it 

 was this: In the summer of 1905 I had begun 

 to run short of bees from repeated losses. 

 As most of the affected colonies were strong 

 I shook them on foundation and set the 

 brood in a new location to hatch out, intend- 

 ing to shake the combs again at the end of 

 three weeks, and form new colonies with 

 the young bees, thus treating them and get- 

 ting increase at the same time. When the 

 brood had all hatched out those combs and 



bees looked so clean and smelled so sweet 

 that I decided to requeen them, and try them 

 another season. They stayed healthy; but 

 as I had requeened at the same time with 

 different stock, I hardly knew whether to 

 attribute the cure to the stock or to the de- 

 queening. To be on the safe side I kept on 

 doing both, and still think that both are nec- 

 essary. 



Since the Alexander articles came out I 

 have been following his plan as a regular 

 routine. About the first of May I begin ex- 

 amining all weak or otherwise suspicious 

 colonies. When one is found with dead 

 brood the queen is promptly killed, even if 

 that means the probable loss of the colony. 

 Toward the last of May the queens, instead 

 of being killed, are used to requeen the ear- 

 lier cases, though only temporarily, as they 

 are usually killed later, and young queens 

 of other stock substituted. The doctor tells 

 us not to attempt treating weak colonies, 

 and he is entirely right; but he does not go 

 quite far enough. Instead of uniting before 

 treatment we must unite before they be- 

 come diseased; that is, we must never allow 

 a weak colony on the premises. 



"To bee or not to bee," that is the ques- 

 tion to the novice who has a serious outbreak 

 of disease. It has been such an important 

 question to me that I think I have been rath- 

 er careful in making experiments; I know I 

 have been careful in keeping records; and 

 these same records have taught me to drop 

 entirely the nucleus method of making in- 

 crease. Sixty per cent of colonies built up 

 from nuclei, though apparently healthy the 

 first year, will develop the disease the fol- 

 lowing season. So I think best to make all 

 increase from natural or shaken swarms. 



After this disease has once started in an 

 apiary there are three principal ways in 

 which it spreads: By exchange of combs, by 

 robbers, and by nurse bees entering the 

 wrong hive after taking a flight. Of course, 

 all exchange of combs should be stopped at 

 once. Strong colonies and Italian stock will 

 control the robbing if one is at all careful 

 about opening hives during a dearth of hon- 

 ey- 



I am a little diffident about speaking of 

 the spread by nurse bees, because I have 

 never heard any one mention it as a matter 

 of any importance. But the fact seems so 

 clear to me that I will tell you how I came to 

 notice it. My hives are arranged in pairs, 

 mostly facing south, with six to ten feet be- 

 tween the pairs. In April, 190H, the first 

 case of disease occurred in a left-hand hive 

 toward the front of the apiary. About two 

 weeks after I had discovered this case, two 

 more appeared in hives immediately behind 

 the first, both on the left-hand side oi the 

 stand. The cases kept coming in regular se- 

 quence until there were ten, all except one 

 on the left side of the stand, forming nearly 

 a regular row across the apiary. I could see 

 no explanation except that it had been car- 

 ried by bees entering the wrong hive, most 

 likely by nurse bees which had been caring 

 for the brood in the infected hive, and im- 



