1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



611 



the bee-keeper if he can make enough mon- 

 ey out of his bees during a good year to tide 

 him over the bad seasons. The facts are, 

 many tliousands of colonies starve in the 

 off years in California. This fact alone is 

 evidence ihat the Eastern fellows had better 

 think twice before they migrate into Cali- 

 fornia. Of course, we admit that, when the 

 Californians do have a good year, their 

 average yield i)robably goes away beyond 

 the average yield of many Eastern apiaries; 

 but divide that yield by three and possibly 

 five, and it is not so big. 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD; CAN THE COMBS 

 INFECTED BY THIS DISEASE BE RENDER- 

 ED SAFE TO USE AGAIN? A SERIES OF TEN 

 ARTICLES FROM S. D. HOUSE, A MAN WHO 

 KNOWS THE ART OF PRODUCING NEARLY 

 ALL FANCY COMB HONEY. 



In a recent triji through the State of New 

 York we called on ^r^. S. D. House, of Ca- 

 millus, and there learned that, although 

 European foul brood is very prevalent in 

 that vicinity, our friend has no disease of 

 any kind among his bees. When asked for 

 an explanation he said, "Mr. Root, the se- 

 cret lies largely in having nothing but pure 

 Italian bees of vigorous stock. While the 

 yellow blood alone won't prevent infection 

 from an apiary affected with this disease, 

 yet when this race is used in connection 

 with other preventive measures, it can be 

 very easily kept out of a yard.'' Further 

 inquiry reVealed the fact that Mr. House 

 uses either the Alexander treatment or the 

 McEvoy; much depends upon circum- 

 stances. In some cases it is more practic- 

 able, he said, to use the Alexander. In 

 speaking of this treatment Mr. House said 

 Mr. Alexander probably did not know the 

 great importance of having pure Italians. 

 While he said that Italians were an element 

 of the treatment, he probably did not appre- 

 ciate the fact that there was' more virtue in 

 the race than there was in the dequeening 

 part. Dequeening is important; but he 

 went on to explain that one can practice 

 either the Alexander or the McEvoy treat- 

 ment, but ought to understand that it is 

 necessary to have pure Italians of a vigor- 

 ous strain. 



We looked over a good many of his colonies, 

 inspecting brood here and there. It was all 

 clean and healthy. We also examined the 

 apiary of one of his pupils, Mr. Irving Ken- 

 yon, who, a year or so ago, bought a yard of 

 black bees tliat were rotten with European 

 foul brood. Mr. F. A. Salisbury, of Syra- 

 cuse, X. Y., in telling us of the circum- 

 stance, related that he told Kenyon that he 

 had made a bad bargain; but Kenyon, he 

 says, went to work requeening with fine 

 Italian stock, using the House-Alexander 

 treatment. The result was, he cleaned Eu- 

 ropean foul brood out entirely, and that, 

 too, ivifhouf destroying a comb. In this 

 connection Mr. House showed us one colony 

 that had been rotten with the disease. It 

 was a hive of blacks that he had bought. 



He had expected to shake this on to foun- 

 dation a la McEvoy. In the mean time he 

 killed the old queen and i)ut in a vigorous 

 Italian. Circumstances prevented his shak- 

 ing; and when he went to look at the hive 

 again, lo and behold! the bees had nearly 

 cleaned up the combs. " Now," said he, "I 

 thought I would just let them go and see 

 what they would do." A short time after- 

 ward they had cleaned it all out. We look- 

 ed over tiie combs of the hive, and a motley 

 lot they were; but there was not a trace of 

 disease of any sort, and, mind you, this col- 

 ony had never been shaken. 



While Mr. House did not go so far as to 

 say that requeening with Italian blood would 

 cure American foul brood, he was most de- 

 cidedly of the opinion that it was a very 

 important element in any treatment, wheth- 

 er McEvoy or any shake-out plan that has 

 ever been advocated. He then made the re- 

 markable statement that European foul brood 

 does not thrive readily except in a place 

 where there are black bees or hybrids; that 

 with any kind of intelligent management 

 it can make no progress in a good Italian 

 apiary. If Dr. Miller would get rid of his 

 blacks and hybrids the Alexander treatment 

 would producr results. European foul brood 

 had no more terrors for him than the bee- 

 moth. 



When we told him that we were fearful 

 that European foul brood might some day 

 land at Medina, he very confidently assert- 

 ed that we need have little fear so long as 

 we kept a good strain of Italians and used 

 reasonable precautions. 



Mr. House went on to say that the Alex- 

 ander treatment would not necessarily clean 

 out all the disease the first year, even with 

 Italians. Some little of it would show the 

 next season; but, never mind, the Italians 

 would clean it up if they are given a reason- 

 able chance. 



When asked as to whether he used the 

 Alexander treatment exclusively, he said 

 no. Sometimes it is more convenient and 

 much more profitable to use the McFlvoy. 

 This he will explain in detail later. 



Mr. House gave us a number of kinks of 

 the trade; and before we left we engaged him 

 to write a series of ten articles. While at 

 his place we used our Graflex camera and 

 took something like one hundred pictures, 

 showing him in his various poses in han- 

 dling bees. 



He is certainly an origincd genius. He 

 knows the production of both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey from A to Z. We are satisfied 

 that these ten articles that he is to write for 

 us will be some of the most valuable that 

 we have ever given to our readers. When 

 we consider the fact that they will be illus- 

 trated by a series of moving pictures, it will 

 seem almost like visiting Mr. House in his 

 yard. One can form some idea of tlie value 

 of what he bas to say when it is known that 

 he produces some of the very finest comb 

 honey that ever finds a market. If is near- 

 ly all "fancy." He has a number of tricks 

 of the trade that he will explain. 



