May, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



of Anioriean foul brood it is practically im- 

 possible to remove an entire scale. Further- 

 more, instead of being brittle like the 

 American scale, these irregular masses will 

 bend like a piece of old rubber. 



Owing to the fact that European foul 

 brood has been so neglected in California, 



Fig. 4. — Miss Whipple of Mendleson & Wliipple, 

 Ventura, Calif., in her farmerette suit. Miss Whip- 

 ple has general charge of the farmerettes in rearing 

 queens. 



due to the custom of treating for American, 

 Bacillus alvei, the secondary decomposing 

 organism, has increased to such numbers 

 that it has changed some of the symptoms 

 of the disease in its last stages particularly. 

 Therefore it is not safe to jump at conclu- 

 sions too hastily in the case of brood dis- 

 eases, since there are stages at which it is 

 very difficult to differentiate without the aid 

 of a microscope. If it is impossible to get 

 a microscopic diagnosis, Mr. Sturtevant 

 recommends that the best plan is to treat 

 the ease vigorously as if it was European 

 foul brood, by dequeening the colony and 

 building it up strong by doubling with oth- 

 er queenless colonies and then watching de- 

 velopments. This kind of treatment with 

 good Italian stock and making the colonies 

 strong is good beekeeping, disease or no 

 disease, and is the only way to secure a crop. 

 If it is European foul brood it will clean 

 under this treatment. If it is American foul 

 brood it will not clean up, and soon the def- 

 inite characteristic appearances will de- 

 velop. This will eliminate the melting-up 

 of combs in European foul brood and is the 



safest course to pursue where European is 

 known to be prevalent. 



The microscopic diagnosis will, as Mr. 

 Sturtevant clearly demonstrated, bring out 

 this difference at once, since the germs caus- 

 ing the disease are so characteristically dif- 

 ferent. The microscope, aided by other 

 laboratory methods, also explains the ab- 

 normal symptoms which may appear in 

 European foul brood when there are large 

 numbers of this secondary contaminating 

 organism present which causes a different 

 type of decomposition. 



Recapitulation. 



So far it is apparent from Mr. Sturte- 

 vant 's investigation, that there are only two 

 brood diseases the same as we have hereto- 

 fore known. This confirms the conclusions 

 which he had already reached in his labora- 

 tory w^ork on brood diseases. The American 

 remains just as it was without any change. 

 The European, however, takes a later stage 

 somewhat resembling the other disease. At 

 first all the symptoms that heretofore have 

 been given for European appear. Later on, 

 if nothing is done to effect a cure, a sec- 

 ondary organism. Bacillus alvei, comes in 

 nnd modifies the symptoms to such an extent 

 that European takes on a form similar to 

 American, but yields to the treatment of 

 European. The Bacillus alvei apparently 

 slows up the action of the Bacillus plutou, 

 which is the real cause of European, so that 



Fig. 5. — Mrs. C. C. Black, one of the farmerettes 

 working for M. H. Mendleson. who stands in the 

 foreground. She is looking in the finder of the 

 '•amera oblivious of the fact that Jay Smith was tak- 

 ing a shot of her with his ever-ready Graflex camera. 



