136 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



Bets Poisoned from Spraying 



1. What size of mesh should a wire-screen 

 be to prevent bees from feeding through it ? 



2. Does Doison such as bees get from the 

 sprays in orchards kill them if they carry it, 

 or must they eat it to affect them ? 



3. Do working bees eat nectar or honey 

 from the hive ? 



4. What time of day do they eat when 

 there is a good flow on ? 



5 I would like to keep six or eight colonies 

 in a district where there are orchards. I 

 kept a number last summer, but the fruit 

 spray poisoned them. Is there any way to 

 work them so the spray will not kill them. 

 or so they will not carry the spray ? The 

 spray is on at two different times of about 

 three days each. I don't care to shut them 

 up. Would they continue to go to the fruit 

 bloom if each colony was divided into nuclei 

 and each nucleus was fed with a stimulative 

 feeder? Washington. 



Answers.— I. I don't know that screen 

 is made with so fine a mesh that bees 

 on one side cannot reach through to feed 

 bees on the other side. To prevent that 

 you can have two screens one-fourth inch 

 or more apart. 



2. lam not sure, but 1 suppose taking the 

 poisoned liquid into their honey-sacs is 

 enough to kill them. 



3. Both. I think. 



4. I suppose at any or all times. 



5. I don't believe feeding in nuclei would 

 Drevent the bees from getting the poisoned 

 spray. 



Bees Resisting Foulbrood 



1. A year or so ago J. L. Byer made the 

 statement that a young_ vigorous pure- 

 blooded Italian queen was immune from the 

 contagion of European foulbrood. What is 

 meant by an immune Italian queen ? Are 

 we to understand that the pure blood of the 

 queen overcomes the germs of the disease 

 by the law of phagocytosis ? 



2. If a colony of bees becomes infected with 



European foulbrood and the queen is caged 

 for ten days, or a young vigorous queen is 

 introduced at the end of ten days, and the 

 disease disappears, in what manner or un- 

 der what law would the disease be elimi- 

 nated ? Would it be by the police force of 

 the bees made vigorous by being made 

 queenless ? 



J If a colony of bees die from foulbrood 

 and the fi.xtures and dead bees removed, 

 and a colony of bees, honey and brood in 

 all stages absolutely pure placed in this dis- 

 eased hive and the disease appeared again, 

 in what way would the germs enter the 

 larval bee ? 



4. Can a foulbrood germ come into exis- 

 tence in any other way only through the 

 larval bee ? 



5 Why do good men say their bees are so 

 vigorous and strongthat they resist the foul- 

 brood germs, and do not tell in what way 

 they do it i" Pennsylvania. 



Answers.— 1. 1 suppose that by an immune 

 Italian queen is meant a queen whose prog- 

 eny is immune to European foulbrood. that 

 is. would not contract the disease; but I 

 never saw it claimed that phagocytosis had 

 anything to do with it. 



2. I don't think anyone has claimed that 

 the colony has become more vigorous by 

 queenlessness. I don't know that any the- 

 ory has been advanced to explain how the 

 cure. takes place through queenlessness. 

 except the one advanced by myself. Since 

 no one to my knowledge has objected to it. 

 and since no other theory has been ad- 

 vanced, it is possible that my theory may be 

 correct. The theory is this: It is well 

 known that when a larva is crushed, the 

 bees promptly lick up the juices of the 

 crushed larva. When a larva is affected by 

 European foulbrood in a short time it dies, 

 and then the workers will suck its juices, 

 and then when they feed other larvae the 

 disease will be conveyed. But that's only 



for a short time; as soon as the dead larvae 

 becomes decayed and unpalatable, the nur- 

 ses will have none of it. Suppose now the 

 queen be caged, killed, orremoved. In about 

 eight days all the brood will be sealed, and 

 there will no longer be any chance for the 

 nurses to eat diseased juices Indeed, they 

 will probably have ceased before that time, 

 for the diseased larvae will be mostly so far 

 decayed that they are not to the taste of the 

 worker. Then let egg-laying begin again in 

 the hive. It will be three days before there 

 are any larvae to be fed. By that time the 

 nurses will have nothing but wholesome 

 food for the babies, and generally the dis- 

 ease will not again appear. Plenty of the 

 disease in the hive, but not in condition for 

 the nurses toconsume it. and so it is not fed. 

 This theory may serve until some one pro- 

 poses a better one. At any rate it works 

 out all right in actual practice, that's the 

 important thing. 



3. Under the circumstances you mention 

 I should not expect the disease to appear at 

 all. But if it did it would be by the germs 

 being fed to the larvae. 



4. In the hive, no; although scientists may 

 rear the bacilli from the spores with any 

 larvae. 



5. I don't know why they don't tell; possi- 

 bly they don't know, and possibly they don't 

 think it very important to understand any 

 farther than to know how to get rid of the 

 disease. As to immunity from the disease 

 because of vigorous bees, I have doubts as 

 to there being any bees that are entirely 

 immune; but a vigorous colony will do bet- 

 ter work at cleaning out the diseased dead 

 brood than will a weak colony. 



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