November, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



663 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



ey to pay for them. The money order was 

 cashed, but there was no further acknowl- 

 edgment. Failing to get an answer to his 

 letter, he wrote the breeder a second time, 

 this letter being registered. The breeder 

 signed for the letter, but forgot to answer 

 it, just as he had forgotten to fill the order 

 for the queens or return the money. 



Two or three months elapsed, and by this 

 time our friend was getting a trifle hot un- 

 der the collar. He walked in to the post- 

 office one day, stated his grievance and 

 was directed to write a full history of the 

 case to the nearest postal inspector, whose 

 address wag given. After this, he heard 

 nothing of the affair for some time until one 

 day a letter came from a division inspector, 

 inquiring whether the matter had been ad- 

 justed. On replying that it had not, there 

 came another lull of a month or so. Finally, 

 there came a letter from the breeder — a very 

 unexpected sort of an epistle. The South- 

 ern man explained that he had been peeved 

 because Mr. Klabuhn had asked for his mon- 

 ey back so soon and had decided to make 

 him wait a while. But he wound up by en- 

 closing a postal order for the full amount 

 originally sent, with interest at 8 per cent, 

 beginning July 1 — this last by order of the 

 postal authorities. The inspectors may be 

 slow, but they are sure. 



The Klabuhn boys in scores of instances 

 have taken queens from colonies diseased 

 with European foul brood, put them in per- 

 fectly healthy colonies on combs with no 

 trace of disease, and in four weeks found 

 European foul brood. They say that queens 

 from colonies so diseased, will, if introduced 

 into healthy colonies, be responsible for a 

 reappearance of the disease in 95 per cent of 

 the cases they have tried. This is a point 

 over which there has been considerable con- 

 troversy. These young men insist that they 

 have tried it so many times that they are 

 sure the queen is responsible. 



Of course, it has been known for a long 

 time that Italian bees are more immune than 

 black bees, and that some Italian stock is 

 more immune than other Italian stock. 

 Now, if the contention of the Klabuhn 

 brothers is true, is it a case of transmitted 

 infection by the queen or transmission of a 

 weakness for (or tendency toward) this 

 disease, obtainable from common sources in 

 a locality? In other words, does the queen 

 carry the disease, or is a queen from a dis- 

 eased colony simply non-resistant to sources 

 of contagion accessible to all colonies? If 

 the latter is true, then a queen from a colony 

 diseased with European foul brood, intro- 

 duced to a perfectly healthy colony on 

 healthy combs in a locality where this dis- 

 ease had never been known, ought not to 

 result in trouble afterward. Who can give 

 posi:tive proof? 



Mr. Klabuhn and his sons, as mentioned 



above, are producers of both comb and ex- 

 tracted honey. Admitting the strong ten- 

 dency toward the production of extracted 

 honey now, they predict that in a couple of 

 years or so, the pendulum will again swing 

 the other way, and soaring prices will once 

 more cause a rush towards the production of 

 comb honey. 



Here in Medina we have had some experi- 

 ence I in buying out small beekeepers living 

 near by, more especially those who do not 

 take care of their bees and who might there- 

 fore allow them to become diseased. Several 

 of these we have bought out twice and even 

 three times, only to find that they have some 

 bees again after a year or so. The Kla- 

 buhns have had this same experience. When 

 we asked what they finally did in such 

 cases, they said, "Buy 'em out, bees, hives, 

 tools, and all. Don't let 'em even keep a 

 smoker. If they have a smoker lying around, 

 it will keep reminding them of bees, and 

 first thing you know they will have some 

 more." Perhaps that's the best way, to 

 take everything, even the nest egg. 



Of course intelligent beekeepers are always 

 welcome, whether they are beginners or ex- 

 perts; the dont-care kind are unwelcome 

 everywhere whether they are amateurs or 

 old timers. 



'"^[Later.] The question as to whether 

 European foul brood is transmitted to 

 healthy colonies by the introduction of 

 queens from diseased colonies, we decided 

 to test out for ourselves. We accordingly 

 obtained 37 queens froni colonies badly dis- 

 eased. These we introduced to two- and 

 three-frame nuclei, and so certain were we 

 that the disease would not appear that we 

 started this new apiary near Medina. In 

 four weeks' time the nuclei had built up 

 into full colonies, and now after a period 

 of nearly four months we are glad to say 

 that no disease whatever has yet appeared. 

 In the cases cited by the Klabuhn brothers, 

 we wonder if the disease would have ap- 

 peared, had the apiary been started in an 

 entirely new location, so that there could be 

 no possible source of infection aside from 

 the queens. 



Medina, 0. H. H. Root. 



A TIMELY TOPIC JUST NOW 



Is Membership in a Beekeepers' Association Really 

 Worth While? 



The above question has often suggested 

 itself to the writer, as perhaps it has to 

 others. The answer, of course, depends upon 

 the association, whether or not it is "onto 

 its job," and whether or not its officers are 

 men who are anxious that each member re- 

 ceive his due share of the profits and pleas- 

 ure. That some organization is needful for 



