April 1915. 



American "B^e Jonrnaij 



us. Some colonies, breeding earlier, 

 had become very strong, while others, 

 a little slower, were im'cii/lin^i; when the 

 first evidences of European foulbrood 

 made themselves apparent about April 

 25. 



Had we been Dr. Miller, or had we 

 immediately practiced what has been 

 previously written, we would have pro- 

 ceeded to " make our European foul- 

 brood colonies strong," but we wanted 

 the experience, and we got it. One 

 thing we did do, however, as fast as 

 we could, was to requeen the whole 

 apiarywith pure Italian stock. 



Rather than give a detailed account 

 of what transpired during the season, 

 I will give an illustration showing our 

 method of keeping a record on colo- 

 nies, then a diagram generalizing the 

 situation for the whole apiary. 



Our records are kept on the back 

 end of our deep telescope caps in blue 

 pencil. Under ordinary circumstances 

 the back of one cap will hold the rec- 

 ord for two years, when the cap is re- 

 versed. Thus, we have three or four 

 years' record by simply observing the 

 cap. The recordsare not minute ; that 

 is, we do not record every feeding, 

 every super given, etc. 



Table for the year follows. Remem- 

 ber that we did not usually help weak, 

 diseased colonies with two or three 

 frames of brood unless they were ex- 

 tremely weak, as most colonies were 

 not rich in brood. We did requeen as 

 fast as possible with Italians, thus 

 making the table more against the 

 hybrids and blacks than it might other- 

 wise have been. 



From our experiences so far, Eu- 

 ropean foulbrood is much preferable 



to American foulbrood. No destroy- 

 ing of combs; an invigoration of stock 

 which, I think, would be a blessing in 

 some apiaries where poor stock is not 

 constantly weeded out, if indeed you 

 could give such a beekeeper credit with 

 ability to catch the disease in time to 

 fight it successfully. 



The remarkable points in my estima- 

 tion are: 



1. Colonies should be made strong 

 in order to increase their fighting 

 strength to a maximum. 



2. In ten cases, three badly diseased 

 combs were given to stro/iff colonies. 

 They did not suffer as a consequence. 

 (This proves the futility of destroying 

 combs in fighting European foulbrood.) 



3. Preponderance of Italian blood 

 in those which were either untouched 

 or cured themselves, or overcame the 

 disease given them from another colony. 

 (One Italian queen, after caging twice, 

 was killed. Her colony was made 

 strong, but she did not have the vigor 

 needed, or probably had been injured 

 in transit.) 



4. In three cases very prolific queens 

 from diseased colonies were given to 

 healthy weak colonies, either queenless 

 or in which the p')orer queen had been 

 killed. Every one developed European 

 foulbrood. A fourth queen from a 

 diseased colony was carried to an- 

 other apiary 20 miles distant, and im- 

 mediately introduced to a queenless 

 colony. Again the disease was trans- 

 mitted. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



To prevent the disease, keep your 

 colonies strong, headed by vigorous 

 queens. Keep only pure stock, Italian 



cT/ 





KEEPING RECORDS ON THE BACK OF TELESCOPE CAPS 



A. J. KOCH 



Apiary 

 Warsaw, Illinois 



90 Colonies 

 spring 



count 



1 K. foulbrood cured by shaking. 



, 10 colonies Italians not touched. 



38 healthy ^^ colonies given 3 frames bad E. f. b. 



I in place of healthy showed no disease. 

 (2 weaker, similarly treated, caught the 

 disease — all Italians.) 

 18 requeened early remained healthy. 



Italians (slightly diseased) cured 

 themselves. 

 I :! cured by requeening with Italians. 

 51 with I (i cured by givingSframes healthy brood 



I after caging had presumably failed. 



E. foulbrood i 28 cured by caging 8 to 1 1 days and 

 I giving Italian queen if they had hybrid. 

 3 cured by caging twice 8 to 11 days. 

 3 lost by doubling (uniting). 

 3 still have it (1 black). 



I 



preferred. (I have no reason to run 

 down other races since we have had 

 no experience with them recently.) 



When you have the disease do not 

 destroy the brood combs. Make your 

 colonies strong. Cage the queen 8 to 

 II days. If necessary strengthen again, 

 and cage 8 to II days again. "Keep- 

 ing everlastingly at it brings success." 



Hamilton, 111. 



Co-operation 



BY FRANK R.\UCHFUSS. 



SOME time ago, wishing to show the 

 benefits of co-operation, we asked 

 Mr. Frank Rauchfuss, secretary of 

 the Colorado Honey Producers' Asso- 

 ciation, to supply us with some infor- 

 mation concerning their co-operation. 



The success of co-operation depends 

 in a great part upon its management. 

 Mr. Rauchfuss is an excellent and de- 

 voted manager, as all who know him 

 will testify, and if he has found hearty 

 support it shows that his earnestness 

 is appreciated by the beekeepers of 

 Colorado. We believe that Colorado 

 is showing a good example in co- 

 operation. 



He has supplied us with the follow- 

 ing paper which he read at the National 

 meeting ; 



WHY WE CO-OPERATEU. 



One afternoon during the latter part 

 of August, 1896, a small bunch of Den- 

 ver beekeepers met to discuss their 

 honey crop marketing problems. 



The honey business of Denver was 

 then in the hands of the commission 

 merchants, who naturally were only 

 interested in buying at as low a figure 

 as possible, and the beekeepers them- 

 selves were helping them to accom- 

 plish this with little effort in the fol- 

 lowing manner: 



Some five or six beekeepers would 

 each come in with a load of comb 

 honey. If the market was compara- 

 tively bare the first comers might be 

 able to secure a fair figure, but: at each 

 successive offer the buyers would be 

 inclined to make lower bids, realizing 

 that these producers would not care to 

 take their loads home again and the 

 buyers would also conclude that, if 

 such a quantity was offered in a day, a 

 heavy crop was being harvested; the 

 statements of the beekeepers reporting 

 a light crop would not be taken seri- 

 ously. The impression prevailed, among 

 the producers, that the buyers were 

 working in harmony. Whether this 

 suspicion was well founded or not does 

 not matter, but it was a certainty that 

 the beekeepers themselves had a merry 

 war in cutting prices to get rid of their 

 crop, irrespective of what it cost to 

 produce. Result, the crop was often 

 sold below cost of production. None 

 of these commission firms were mak- 

 ing an effort to develop a carload trade. 

 Two reasons, and very important ones, 

 that nobody else cared to venture into 

 the honey shipping business extensively 

 were, first, the lack of uniform grad- 

 ing, and second, the absence of a stand- 



