(Entered as second-class matter at the Posl-Office at Hamilton, 111., under Act uf March 3, lS7a, 



Published Monthly at $1.06 a Year, by George W. York & Company, First National Bank Building 



C. F. D.\D.\NT. Editor. 



UR. C. C. MILLER. Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL., AUGUST, 1912 



Vol. LII-No. 8 



Editorial ^ Comments 



Brood and its Treatment," the possi- 

 bility of having strains of bees which, 

 from long combat against foul brood, 

 might become immune from it. As 

 the Canadians say, " It is Nature's own 

 plan, and the most effective of all." 



Kiiropeaii Foul Brood, Starved 

 aud Pickled Brood 



Mr. France sent to the Editor in 

 June a typical sample of what is now 

 called pickled brood. The larvs are 

 almost black, about full grown, some 

 sealed, and none in the first stages of 

 growth. Concerning this he writes : 



" The sample sent to you. from one of my 

 out-apiaries, was taken from a hive which 

 had at least 30 pounds of honey, some of it 

 right over the pickled brood, but. like 

 misers, they were too saving to uncap it to 

 feed brood. I tiad 8 such colonies in a yard 

 of 62. No unsealed honey in any of them. I 

 scraped the cappines and gave each one a 

 comb with plenty of unsealed honey, and in 

 a few days the pickled brood was carried 

 out. The sample sent you had some early 

 stages, disease was quite general, about 40 

 percent of the brood being affected when I 

 took sample. Now it is all gone. That col- 

 ony is doing fine." 



The two letters following suggest 

 cures for European foul brood : 



San Kersando. Calif.. June 18. igi2. 

 Mk. I-',pitor: — Here is my experience on 

 European foul brood, of which I had sent a 

 sample to Dr. Phillips for identification. 

 The first thing I did was to make the colo- 

 nies Queenless. and in i days introduced 

 young virgin queens. They came out all 

 right. I took a queen away from a colony 

 badly diseased and gave her to a queenless 

 colony, then introduced a young Italian 

 queen in tlie old colony and both came out 

 all right. Ioseth F. Bali.auer. 



Chicago. III.. June 12, igi2. 

 Here is a receipt for European foul brood; 

 One ounce of belanaphthol dissolved in one 

 pint of wood alcohol. Mix i'= tablespoons- 

 ful to a gallon of feed; in 4 or s days all 

 affected cells will have disappeared, if this 

 mixture is fed for that length of time. I 

 have used it on 30 hives; one-half of the 

 brood was dead. When i looked at them 

 again 1 weeks later, everything was clean 

 and filled with brood. A. H. Offer. 



We hesitated about inserting this 

 last letter, but upon enquiry from a 

 high authority, we were informed that 

 it is doubtful whether drugs have as 

 yet been tried in the United States 

 upon European foul brood. We all 

 know that they fail ignominiously with 

 the American variety. However, so 



many instances are on record of suc- 

 cess with drugs in Europe, where they 

 had not yet recognized the difference 

 between the two diseases, that we think 

 it well worth while to make enquiry. 

 Will those of our readers who have 

 made experiments give us the results, 

 whetherthey are a success or a failure ? 



In a visit away from home the Editor 

 was shown, by one of the deputy in- 

 spectors of Illinois, some combs from 

 which the queen had been excluded 21 

 days or more for the cure of European 

 foul brood. The bees had cleaned out 

 all the cells but a dozen or so which 

 contained a brownish, slimy substance 

 somewhat resembling the American 

 disease. This was passed upon by the 

 Department as European foul brood. 

 Those who saw the combs agreed that 

 they would not be safe to breed in, and 

 should be melted up. 



Since Dr. Miller told us that his Ital- 

 ians had had the disease, the Editor 

 saw an apiary of Italians with nearly 

 every colony diseased. Evidently they 

 are not immune, though they may over- 

 come it better than other races. 



We call the attention of the readers 

 to the several letters on this subject in 

 the contributions. Mr. Pyles' position 

 makes it clear that he establishes a dif- 

 ference between pickled and starved 

 brood. We want to hear more on this 

 subject. But do not give anything as 

 facts of which you have not made posi- 

 tive proof. Incorrect reports published 

 do harm, for they lead the reader as- 

 tray. 



Immunity from Disease 



The Canadian Bee Journal, in its 

 June niimber, calls attention to the de- 

 sirability of immune strains of bees. 

 This is in reference to the Isle of 

 Wight disease, but it also mentions the 

 possibility of races immune to foul 

 brood. Bertrand has already men- 

 tioned, in his small treatise on " Foul 



The Odor of Bees 



Some writers in French magazines 

 are going to great lengths to deny that 

 each hive has a special odor. One 

 writer, especially, after acknowledging 

 that the odor of hives is plainly per- 

 ceptible to our senses, holds that it is 

 absurd to expect each hive in an apiary 

 of 200 -colonies, to have its own pecu- 

 liar odor, distinguishable by the bees 

 from that of any other colony. If we 

 stop a minute to think of the wonder- 

 ful scent organ of dogs, we will cease 

 to doubt. 



The dog not only recognizes his 

 master's special odor among hundreds 

 of people, but he follows his route for 

 miles, with only the faint smell left by 

 the imprint of his shoes. Yet we all 

 wear shoes with surely a similar odor. 

 The effluvia left by us are in some man- 

 ner recognized by well-trained ani- 

 mals, and endure sometimes, on the 

 ground which we have trod, for several 

 hours. When we think of this, can we 

 doubt that the wonderful smell organ 

 of the bees may enable them to recog- 

 nize each other. True, they do not rely 

 on this alone, and often welcome 

 strangers who come te them laden with 

 provisions. So will your dog welcome 

 a stranger who in some manner pleases 

 him. Yet you would hardly say that 

 his organs of smell are then at fault. 



The fact that bees welcome a stranger 

 who comes to them laden is very pret- 

 tily compared, in the June " Apicol- 

 tore," to the behavior of human beings 

 toward their own race in similar cir- 

 cumstances. They quote the Tuscan 

 adage : 



•" Porta aperta a chi porta. 

 Chi non porta parta. " 



(Open the door to him who brings. 

 Let him leave who does not bring.' 



The loss of the queen by the bees, in 

 a hive that contains tens of thousands, 



[*Try reading it aloud, making all the a's 

 sound like in fur." and the "chi ' like 

 "key." and trill the r's.J 



