November, 1915. 



American Hae Journal 



might associate the beeman and stings, 

 and so lay the blame on him. So I got 

 out while the getting was good. After- 

 wards I learned she was very sorry I 

 passed on as she wanted to have a talk 

 with me about the bees. You just never 

 can tell. 



For pure unmitigated wickedness 

 and cussedness the bees in the north 

 part of Vancouver Island beat anything 

 I ever came across. I took the trouble 

 to trace the genealogy of the pesky 

 creatures, and found they went back to 

 the same apiary. 



One of the fiercest collections I ever 

 met belonged to a young lady on one 

 of the small islands. I found her scared 

 of them, and tried to jolly her into the 

 possession of a little confidence, but 

 within three minutes of starting to in- 

 spect her apiary I urged her to get into 

 the house. 



But the real fun began when I got to 

 her brother's apiary. I was pushed for 

 time, as I wanted to catch the noonday 

 boat, so he drove me over to his yard 

 in a little buggy. He hitched the horse 

 at the gate of the 3-acre paddock, and 

 laughed at my objections. When we 

 got to the third hive I heard a crash, 

 and felt sure the horse was in trouble. 

 The beekeeper left me on the run, and 

 did not return for nearly a quarter of 

 an hour. Then he explained that the 

 shaft of the rig had ripped out 1.5 pick- 

 ets of the fence while the horse was 

 protesting against the bee stings. 



About this time the steamer arrived 

 so I got on board. Next day I hap- 

 pened to be a passenger on the steamer 

 when she came to the same pier. Lean- 

 ing over the ship's side I asked him 

 how bees did on the island. He glanced 

 up, apparently recognized me, and at 

 once invited me to come on shore. I 

 regretted my inaliility to oblige, as 

 I was urgently needed elsewhere. But 

 he assured me I could get no warmer 

 reception anywhere than I would get 

 right there. 'Then he told me that after 

 I left not a soul had dared appear in 

 the streets of the village. The women 

 folks had been forced to stay in the 

 grocery store all day, while the men 

 had lieen driven to the hotel bar to 

 seek liquid antidote for the stings they 

 might get. Even the score of dogs 



that generally basked all day long in 

 the sun had been forced to take shelter 

 in the sheds on the wharf. 



I could also tell a tale of a Methodist 

 deacon, who searching his soul for 

 sounds to voice his woes, used lan- 

 guage that apparently brought great 

 joy to the heart of a French-Canadian 

 neighbor, but would certainly lower 

 his standing with his own church 

 members. 



It was past 6 o'clock when I was 

 through with his apiary, but the bees 

 followed us into the house. This was 

 a new experience to me, so I closed 

 the door of the room which faced the 

 north and was shaded by trees. To 

 my astonishment the bees came scout- 

 ing around until they found the open 

 window, then darted at us in the rear 

 of the room. They certiinly were the 

 most pugnacious wretches I have met 

 in my wanderings. 



Victoria, B. C. 



How Does European Foulbrood 

 Spread ? 



BY J. E. CRANE. 



FEW things have interested me more 

 than the first page of the American 

 Bee Journal for September and 

 the editorial comments on it, as to the 

 spread of European foulbrood. I have 

 given the subject a good deal of 

 thought and had come to the conclu- 

 sion that some of the commonly ac- 

 cepted views, that it was largely spread 

 by bees robbing diseased colonies, 

 would not account for the rapid spread 

 of this disease. Indeed, I had come to 

 doubt if it was carried by honey at all. 

 I have many times come across it in 

 inspection work, but have not had a 

 chance to study it very closely until 

 the present season. 



Last year it appeared in one of our 

 outyards, and the past spring the yard 

 was broken up and the weaker stock 

 brought home and transferred to other 

 yards, where the disease again showed 

 itself. Tlere has been, to me, some- 

 thing mysterious about the spread of 

 it. Does it go through the air ? Does 



HOME AND APIARY OK TOKIELD LEHMAN. OK KLGIN. IOWA 



the wind waft the spores or bacteria 

 from hive to hive or from yard to 

 yard ? Do the bees carry the germs to 

 the flowers, to be picked up by other 

 bees from healthy colonies and carried 

 to their hives to work destruction ? 



One thing I have observed in inspect- 

 ing is that where I found this particu- 

 lar disease, I was apt to find one or 

 more colonies in the later stages of 

 disease, in fact, nearly gone, and then 

 a number of colonies in the earlier 

 stages of disease. I have sometimes 

 likened these conditions to a hen with 

 a brood of chickens. I have never had 

 a single case of European foulbrood in 

 my home yard until this season. But 

 in every instance with one or two ex- 

 ceptions it has come to hives setting 

 beside hives brought in from away 

 that had first come down with this dis- 

 ease. We came to the conclusion that 

 it came from giving combs from a dis- 

 eased colony not knowing it to be dis- 

 eased. 



Another illustration : I found one 

 farmer trying to increase his stock of 

 bees. Among them I suspected one 

 colony of being diseased, but not alto- 

 gether sure. He put his bees into his 

 cellar to winter. I wrote him during 

 the winter, that when he took them 

 out, to set this particular hive by itself, 

 until I could again examine it. Instead 

 he set his hives out in two rows facing 

 south, and this hive in the north row, 

 with the result that when later I exam- 

 ined them I found not only this hive 

 badly diseased, but also one by its side 

 and two directly in front of it. So 

 many facts of this sort have come to 

 me that I had come to believe that one 

 most potent factor in the rapid spread 

 of European foulbrood was the drift- 

 ing of nursing bees from diseased to 

 healthy colonies. 



It is'quite significant that Dr. Miller 

 should have found disease in hive No. 



93 June 22 to be followed July 1 in No. 



94 and July 21 in No. 9.5 in regular or- 

 der. That disease germs in the honey 

 is not the main cause of the spread of 

 this disease seems evident, as a colony 

 may be badly diseased, but if of good 

 strength we may remove the queen for 

 two or three weeks and give them an- 

 other, when they will remain healthy 

 although they are using from the same 

 honey that was used three weeks be- 

 fore when so much brood was dying. 



There are some knotty problems 

 connected with this whole subject. If 

 the unsealed brood is removed during 

 the summer and the cells polished and 

 the disease disappears, why should not 

 the absence of brood from the cells 

 during four months of winter answer 

 the same purpose ? Is it because the 

 queen carries the germs of disease 

 within her ? It looks that way. And 

 yet when the disease lirst makes its ap- 

 pearance if we cage her for ten days or 

 two weeks and then liberate her the 

 disease may not reappear. Is it be- 

 cause she has not become inoculated 

 with bacteria? It looks that way. But 

 when she has been in a diseased hive 

 for some time she becomes so saturated 

 with bacteria, as you might say, that 

 they entrr the eggs which later cause 

 the death of the young larvae. It would 

 seem so. 



Again, where bees are wintered in 

 the cellar and taken out after brood 

 has been started, drifting bees may 



