November, 1915. 



American Hee Journal 



in Colorado. I have had a dozen api- 

 aries underobservation the past season, 

 comprising nearly 400 colonies. Cag- 

 ing queens and requeening has not 

 met with any success at all. The Ital- 

 ian queens bought by the beekeepers 

 and coming through the mails do not 

 seem to have the resistance that vigor- 

 ous young queens reared at home do. 

 No evidence has been presented to us 

 that Italians are any more resistant 

 than hybrids. One colony of near 

 blacks has resisted the disease for two 

 seasons and stored large crops of 

 honey in an apiary that was practically 

 wiped out by the disease. May it not 

 be a characteristic of some colonies to 

 refuse admittance to drifting or wan- 

 dering bees ? 



One result of the introduction of new 

 Italian stock was to demonstrate how 

 thoroughly liees mix up in an apiary. 

 It was but a very few days after young 

 Italian bees began hatching until 

 golden and yellow bees were seen 

 going and coming at nearly all the 

 hives in these apiaries. 



The net result of the trial of caging 

 queens has been to drive the beemen 

 to a decision that requeening and a 

 transfer is the best solution. The slo- 

 gan to " keep all colonies strong" is 

 good, but it cannot be done by uniting, 

 with European foulbrood in the apiary ; 

 and, furthermore, it is not very practi- 

 cable. A weak colony of bees affected 

 with European foulbrood. requeened 

 and transferred in a good honey flow, 

 can "come back" to prosperity. Such 

 colonies have done it time and time 

 again. So much depends upon the 

 season. 



The district in which European foul- 

 brood is present in Colorado is quite 

 desirable from a honey-flow stand- 

 point. Sweet clover is very thick, and 

 considerable alfalfa is grown. If a 

 weak colony can once get away from 

 the disease and have a young queen, 

 a very few days are required to fill the 

 hive with comb, honey and brood. As 

 several people said to me, " What is the 

 use of wasting time trying to save the 

 old diseased combs when the bees build 

 new ones so fast?" The thorough 

 clean up of European foulbrood 

 pretty much on the same plan as for 

 American foulbrood, has meant hun- 

 dreds of dollars to some beekeepers in 

 Colorado, and the advice that combs 

 can be saved, and the disease cleaned 

 out of colonies by cagiing the queens 

 or requeening without transferring, has 

 cost others hundreds of dollars. 



Dr. Phillips' recommendations on 

 treatment of European foulbrood, as 

 given in "Treatment of Bee Diseases," 

 has been found to get results. The per- 

 centage of cures from transferring 

 (with requeening) has been almost as 

 high as for American foulbrood. We 

 have no success whatever to report 

 from caging queens. Some colonies 

 where the queens were caged were very 

 strong, and they made no honey, but 

 did build up in just fan- shape for win- 

 ter. Similar colonies that were trans- 

 ferred made good yields of surplus 

 honey and are in better shape for 

 winter. 



Ananging the hives in the apiary so 

 there can be no drifting or interming- 

 ling of bees is very important. No 

 kind of treatment will succeed with 



hives placed in close straight rows. 



The review of the pamphlet of Os- 

 wald Muck, in the September Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, deserves the careful 

 attention of beekeepers. One thing is 

 to be regretted in this review, and that 

 is the author's description of " Boes- 

 artige" or American foulbrood His 

 description of "Stinkende " or Euro- 

 pean foulbrood is so similar to our 

 American foulbrood that it leaves a 

 question in our minds whether his 

 findings are of any value to us here. 

 His description of " Sauerbrut " an- 

 swers very well some of the character- 

 istics of European foulbrood. 



His statement that " Sauerbrut" will 

 run into " Stinkende" brood is inter- 

 esting, as we have seen no European 

 foulbrood thatapproaches " Stinkende " 

 e-xcept in this particular. In the dis- 

 trict where European foulbrood flour- 

 ishes American foulbrood has been 



present for years. The colonies that 

 are affected with I'^uropean foulbrood 

 in the spring do not show much if any 

 symptoms of American foulbrood be- 

 cause the brood is all or nearly all 

 killed before it becomes old enough 

 for American foulbrood to affect it. 

 But as the European foulbrood begins 

 to disappear in July, August and Sep- 

 tember, the ."Vmerican foulbrood be- 

 gins to make its appearance. It is a 

 very simple and clear proposition with 

 us, and I am wondering if this may not 

 be the case with Mr. Oswald Muck, 

 when he says that "the lighter form is 

 ' Sauerbrut,' which can readily turn into 

 'Stinkende' (European) foulbrood, 

 and finally into American foulbrood." 

 It is rather strange to me that 

 "Sauerbrut" is called the lighter form, 

 for with us there is scarcely anything 

 left to get a heavier case after this 

 lighter form has had a free chance. 



FOUR DOUBLE TIER CASES OF CO.MB HONEY P.-VCKED IN CARRIER CRATES 



WITH STRAW ON ALL SIDES WILL CARRY SAFELY BY FREIGHT 



IN COLD WEATHER 



BEE-[ftEPiNG ^ For Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson. Mareneo. 111. 



American Foulbrood at Marengo 



July 21, in No. 98, a single cell of 

 dead brood was found that looked as if 

 it might be .American foulbrood. A 

 few days later no trace of it could be 

 found, but some days later still a good 

 many cells were present. Dr. Miller 

 thought it American foulbrood, and 

 that opinion was confirmed upon send- 

 ing a sample to Washington. 



It would appear that the disease does 

 not travel very fast — at least it did, 

 not do so in this case, for it had been 



within 12 miles of Marengo four or five 

 years ago. The disease was found in 

 another colony Aug. 11, and in three 

 other colonies, Aug. 19, 20. and 28. 



Diseased brood from other colonies 

 was piled on No. 98, the first victim ; 

 the bees of 98 were destroyed by car- 

 bon disulfide, and the combs in the 

 three stories burned in the furnace. 

 Although carbon bisulfide is better 

 than sulphur to destroy the eggs 

 and larvi of the waxmoth, it did 

 not prove so good as sulphur for kill- 

 ing bees; its work being less speedy 



