(Entered as second-class matter at the Post-office at Hamilton. 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.) 



Published Nonthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL., SEPTEMBER, 1915 



Vol. LV..— Ho. 9 



I>oes the Queen Convey Euro- 

 pean Foulbrood ? 



Among the questions sent me for 

 reply came one asking how the queen 

 conveys European foulbrood, and re- 

 ferring to something said by the Editor 

 in the May number. On referring to 

 that number I find on page 173, in a 

 foot-note, this closing sentence: "It 

 very probably would be insufficient in 

 cases of European foulbrood, since 

 this is usually transmitted by the 

 queen." It is marked with pencil, 

 showing that I intended to have some- 

 thing to say about it. but through press 

 of other matters it escaped attention. 



Like enough, if I were to meet in 

 person the much respected Editor-in- 

 chief of the American Bee Journal. I 

 would ask, " How do you know t" As 

 that is a pleasure I'm not likely to 

 come within a hundred miles of for 

 some time, I must use more diplomatic 

 language, so I'll not ask that question. 

 I may say, however, without fear of 

 violating the proprieties, that we are 

 none too well informed as to the actual 

 manner in which European foulbrood 

 is conveyed. To be sure, a few years 

 ago a theory was evolved — perhaps I 

 better not try to appear modest and say 

 it was a theory of my own evolving — 

 to account for the manner in which the 

 disease is ordinarily continued in a 

 diseased colony. That theory is that 

 when a larva becomes diseased and 

 dies, before it b -comes at all putrid 

 the nurse bees suck its juices and feed 

 them to healthy I arva\ which in their turn 

 become diseased. To be sure, this is 

 on a theory, but no one hasyetohal- 



lenged its correctness, and it serves 

 well as a basis to account for the de- 

 queaning method of the cure of Euro- 

 pean foulbrood. 



But this has reference only to the 

 continuance of the disease after it has 

 once made its entrance into a colony. 

 How does it make that entrance ? 

 What's the beginning ? Promptly a 

 number of hands will be up, and the 

 answer will be, "Through the honey of 

 a diseased colony." I don't knoiu that 

 that's the wrong answer, but I'm not so 

 dreadfully certain that it's the right 

 one. Pretty certainly the first entrance 

 into an apiary is through the visit of 

 some of the bees to a diseased colony 

 in another apiary, said visit being made 

 for robbing. 



Right here it may not be out of 

 place to say that if there were some 

 way by which none but capable bee- 

 keepers were allowed, there would sel- 

 dom be any chance for the disease to 

 pass from one apiary to another, for a 

 capable beekeeper seldom allows rob- 

 bing to occur. 



Once introduced into an apiary, it 

 may be spread through robbing. Likely, 

 however, that way of spreading occurs 

 in only a small proportion of cases. 

 Too often it is spread by the beekeeper 

 himself taking brood from one colony 

 for another. It is possible that bees 

 from a diseased colony so netimes en- 

 ter the wrong hive and carry the dis- 

 ease with them. That does not seem 

 so very probable when we consider 

 that the Baldridge treatment of Ameri- 

 can foulbrood is based on the idea that 

 bees leaving the hive go empty, and so 



would not be likely to carry diseased 

 matter with them. Of the si.x cases of 

 European foulbrood that occurred in a 

 mild form in my apiary this season, four 

 were in adjacent colonies. June 22, a 

 few bad cells were found in No. 93 and 

 in No. 94. July 1, No. 95 was found 

 aflfected, to be followed by No. 96 July 

 21. That gives color to the belief that 

 bees may have by mistake entered 

 wrong hives, yet it does not absolutely 

 follow that they carried the disease in 

 their honey-sacs. Which raises the 

 deeper question as to just how bees 

 carry the disease from one hive to an- 

 other. 



The general belief is that it is car- 

 ried in the honey. Maybe so generally, 

 maybe not always. It is not hard to 

 believe that honey may be taken from 

 an infected colony without disease 

 going with it. I have fed honey from 

 the super of a diseased colony without 

 harm following, and it is not hard to 

 believe that unaffected honey may also 

 be in the brood-chamber of a diseased 

 colony. It is possible that even where 

 honey is taken without any disease in 

 it, the germs may be carried on the 

 feet of the robbing bees, and also that 

 a bee entering the wrong hive by mis- 

 take might thus carry the germs, even 

 with an empty honey-sac. 



But this is too much in the nature of 

 guessing, and it is much to be desired 

 that we should have more definite 

 knowledge. If the disease is transmit- 

 ted by the queen, that can hardly have 

 reference to its being carried from one 

 hive to another. That it is usually 

 transmitted by the queen after being 

 once introduced into a colony is, I 

 think, somewhat new, but that does 

 not prove it is not true. r. c. .m. 



The Editor-in-chief will readily ac- 

 knowledge his own information is only 



