932 



GLEAJJINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



disease without a chance of his finding any- 

 tliing wrong. Yet I know the disease is 

 present. 



Last spring, during my absence for a 

 few days, Mr. P. H. Selwyn put out some 

 dozen supers which had been stored away 

 since disease first hit this district. They 

 contained dried-up lai*va) and honey — the 

 very best of materials to distribute disease 

 wholesale. These supers were put on strong- 

 colonies to receive the surplus, then begin- 

 ning to come in. At that time my hives 

 were, to all appearances, clean and strong. 

 Had this taken place in a yard of blacks oi- 

 Italians that never had encountered the dis- 

 ease, I have a fairly good idea what would 

 have followed. What do you suppose did 



happen? The immunity theory worked as 

 1 have outlined, and nothing ever came of 

 the unintentional experiment. 



There is work here for investigation by 

 the government officials in connection with 

 apiculture. It is no joke for the man de- 

 pendent on his bread and butler from the 

 bees to experiment with European foul 

 brood. 



Mr. Sladen, Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 

 did, I believe, try something of this sort 

 with the apiary in his charge, but I have 

 not learned the outcome of it. I know he 

 wished to secure from me a rattling good 

 case of disease (hive and all) to ti'y to re- 

 infect his bees. 



Kirk's Ferry, Quebec. 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD NOT A CALAMITY 



BY EARL SEAMAN S 



I consider European foul brood a bless- 

 ing. We have had it in Wyoming County 

 for the past eight or ten years, and every 

 year I have had some of it in my own yard, 

 and in no year have I failed to secure a 

 crop of honey. This season I found five 

 colonies affected with it in a j'ard of fifty- 

 eight colonies. 



European foul brood has compelled me 

 to purchase several Italian queens each year 

 to replace diseased queens. This has in- 

 creased the value of my stock, whicn has 

 proved to be one blessing. Then the disease 

 has put a number of slip-shod beekeepers 

 out of business. That is another blessing. 

 I have never lost or destroyed a single comb 

 on account of this disease. When it first 

 appeared around here I sent for the "Alex- 

 ander Book." That bojk was worth its 

 weight in gold to me. 



A hive containing European foul brood 

 should be labeled " Diseased queen," and 

 treated accordingly. The queen, and not 

 the bees, is the source of trouble. I have 

 placed as many as three upper stories filled 

 with foul brood on top of a healthy colony 

 with a sheet of queen-excluding zinc under 

 them to prevent the queen going up, and I 

 have never had thw disease carried from the 

 top down into the bottom. 



This summer I caged a queen from a 

 diseased colony about a week, and then put 

 her and the bees on clean combs. In one 

 month that colony was as bad as ever, which 

 proves that the queen carries the disease. 

 Shaking the bees into a hive filled with 

 starters or full sheets of foundation will do 

 no good unless the queen that was in the 

 diseased colony is killed. 



Ten years agg my brother bad several 



hundred colonies in this section when he 

 found European foul brood. He removed 

 all the brood and honey and destroyed it ; 

 then he charred the hive and put the bees 

 and queen back on full sheets of founda- 

 tion. Did it do any good? No. The queen 

 w^as diseased, and carried the disease into 

 the clean hive. He now has less than fifty 

 colonies. 



Kill the diseased queen; lift out all the 

 frames of bees, brood, and honey; put a 

 frame of clean brood and some clean combs 

 in the hive, and then shake the bees in front 

 of the hive, giving them a good Italian 

 queen. If during a honey-flow the queen 

 can be run in with the bees, at other times 

 she should be introduced by the cage meth- 

 od. The frames containing the foul brood 

 can be placed on top over a sheet of perfo- 

 rated zinc, or may be put over a sheet of 

 perforated zinc on another colony without 

 any danger of the disease being carried 

 below. 



This summer I tried to run in a valuable 

 queen with the bees at the entrance. They 

 killed the attendant bees and balled the 

 queen. I threw the ball of bees and queen 

 into a pail of lukewarm water. When thev 

 liberated her I put her back into the cage 

 and put a number of newly hatched bees 

 from the same colony into the cage with 

 her. Then I placed the cage on top of the 

 fram.es and let the bees "eat her out." They 

 accepted her all right. 



I have secured a good crop of clover and 

 Imckwheat honey. On the first day of Sep- 

 tember one of my hives sent out a very 

 large prime swarm, which is the latest date 

 I ever had one. 



Factorv'ville, Pa. 



