146 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



used simply to start the fire. However, we 

 think that as Httle of it should be used as 

 possible. After some practice you can start 

 the fire quickly with a very small amount of 

 oil.— Ed.] 



ANOTHER WHO HAS USED THE ALEX- 

 ANDER PLAN OF CURING EURO- 

 PEAN FOUL BROOD. 



BY F. W. LUEBECK. 



I do not know what previous experience 

 Dr. Miller has had with European foul brood; 

 but all through his article tnere is evidence 

 that he must be a new hand with the trouble. 

 If he thinks his bees are now cured he will 

 be sadly disappointed, and next season in 

 May or June he will have another story to 

 tell. During the summer a newly infected 

 colony, or a colony just starting a new brood- 

 nest, will remove all diseased larvae, and ir- 

 regular brood or brood of different ages 

 close together is the only evidence of the 

 disease. However, as soon as the bees come 

 again to a state of low vitality, as in the 

 spring, they will not remove the dead larvae, 

 consequently the disease will make headway 

 very fast. Italians having a vigorous queen 

 will succeed to a certain extent, while the 

 blacks or hybrids will make no effort to 

 clean out the foul matter. 



Combs above an excluder, taken from 

 foul broody colonies and given immediately 

 to health)^ colonies, will start the disease in 

 a short time; that is, if unsealed brood is 

 present in the healthy colony at the time 

 that such combs of honey are given; but, on 

 the other hand, if the combs are away from 

 the bees for some time there would be no 

 direct infection, as the germs can thrive 

 only in dead animal matter. But it is just 

 possible that some of the cells of honey con- 

 tain the spores of the germs; then, as soon 

 as such cells are opened and the honey fed 

 to the larvae, infection is the result. 



I tried the Alexander plan on about 50 It- 

 alian colonies when they were fairly strong, 

 and when there was not too much dead 

 brood, and perfectly healthy brood has been 

 the result. 



Now, it is not my intention to discredit the 

 McEvoy treatment for European foul brood; 

 for when the disease breaks_out for the first 

 time, and most of the combs are a mass of 

 dead matter, there is, perhaps, no other way 

 than to remove them; but as soon as possible 

 thereafter, all queens of such colonies should 

 be superseded by those of a more immune 

 and vigorous strain of pure Italians. Hy- 

 brids and blacks should not be tolerated un- 

 der any circumstances in a locality where 

 this disease is present. Nature's object in 

 the disease is to improve the races of bees 

 by destroying and weeding out the weak 

 ones; so if we breed our queens only from 

 the most immune strain, we shall aid nature 

 direct, and the trouble will disappear as our 

 bees improve in vigor and vitality. 



It is now four years since my apiaries were 

 struck by this disease. I have 81 colonies at 



f (resent, which were all nice and clean last 

 all, but I believe the disease will appear 

 again next spring. However, I am not wor- 

 rying much about it, as I have learned to 

 control the trouble without destroying the 

 combs, so that I shall not be obHged to inter- 

 fere with the gathering of a honey crop. 

 Knox, Ind. 



♦ ■ ^ m 



PREVENTING ABSCONDING WHEN 

 TREATING FOUL BROOD. 



Do the Bees Ever Mix Honey and Foul 

 Brood In the Hive? 



BY E. M. GIBSON. 



As Dr. Miller has broken the ice I may say 

 a few things in corroboration of what he 

 says on page 728, Dec. 1. From what he has 

 written or from what I may write, if any one 

 gets an idea that foul brood is not a bad dis- 

 ease to combat I can assure him that he will 

 change his mind if he is so unfortunate as to 

 get it among his bees. The doctor says he 

 got desperate because so many colonies were 

 absconding. This could have been avoided 

 by putting a queen-excluder on the bottom- 

 board of the hive in the same manner one 

 would place it between the super and brood- 

 nest, leaving it on three or four days, when 

 the bees would have cells drawn, and honey 

 and eggs in many of them. The excluder 

 could then have been removed without any 

 danger of bees leaving. This, of course, can 

 be done only with interchangeable hives, or, 

 at least, not with hives with the floor nailed 

 on. I did not disinfect or burn out my 

 hives, and did not use lye in the water that 

 I scalded my frames in. Mine was American 

 foul brood. 



As to infection being carried into the su- 

 per, I would say I put eight colonies on to 

 foundation, putting all the combs from the 

 brood-nest into the supers and putting them 

 on top with a queen excluder between them. 

 All the combs put above were more or less 

 infected. I left them until I could not find a 

 cell not filled with honey. I marked hun- 

 dreds of those infected cells, but never found 

 one with honey until it was thoroughly clean- 

 ed out. When the scale was too nard to be 

 removed they invariably tore the cells out 

 and built new ones. I use those combs now. 



I have never been able to find honey and 

 scale in the same cell. Has any one? I am 

 curious to know from what source the honey 

 was obtained in which chemists have found 

 foul-brood spores, whether extracted or 

 taken from a well-filled comb. Extracted 

 honey thrown from a diseased comb could 

 not fail to be infected; but with two years' 

 diligent search I have failed to find it mixed 

 in the comb; yet the microscope might show 

 particles too infinitesimal to be seen with 

 the naked eye; but with my present knowl- 

 edge and experience I would not hesitate to 

 feed back honey taken from the super above 

 a queen - excluder of a diseased colony. 

 Those eight colonies all had to be treated 

 again as I expected. 



Jamul, Cal. 



