Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina. Ohio 



H. 11. Hoot, Assistant Editor E. R. ROOT, Editor A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager 



A. I. Root. Editor Home Department J. T. CALVERT, Business Manager 



Knfered at tlio Piiatoltloe. Me<llna Oblo. as Heconcl-ulass Mat er. 



VOL. XXXVII 



AUGUST 1, 1909 



NO. 15 



Editorial 



By E. R. Root. 



A PERMANENT BUILDING FOR BEE-EXHIBITS AT 

 THE MICHIGAN STATE FAIR. 



There seems to be a fair prospect that the 

 Michiiran bee keepers will have a permanent 

 building erected on the State fairgrounds to 

 exhibit the products of the apiary; but be- 

 fore this can be made possible it is important 

 that Michigan bee-keepers write at once to 

 Secretary E. B. Tyrrell, Detroit. Mich., of 

 the Michigan Bee-keepers' Association, cer- 

 tifying a desire for such a building, and that 

 they will furnish an exhibit of some sort. 



THE frontispiece OF QUEEN-CELLS GREATLY 

 ENLARGED. 



The frontispiece of our cover shows a cou- 

 ple of natural queen-cells that are about as 

 perfect specimens as one often sees. Of 

 course, the reader recognizes that they are 

 enlarged to nearly twice the natural size. 

 The purpose of increasing the size was to 

 show the indentations on the surface of the 

 cells; for it appears that the bees are not 

 (iuite able to cio away with the hexagonal 

 comb structure. When, therefore, they 

 build a cradle for their royal babies those 

 cradles show the bises of cells. 



Incidentally it may be remarked that these 

 very corrugations or indentations serve to 

 strengthen materially the cradle walls; and, 

 for the purpose of modern commercial queen- 

 rearing, it is of no small importance when 

 we consider that these cells have to be han- 

 dled more or less. But the queen-breeder 

 nowadays goes still further. He has every 

 cell attached to a wooden cup, and when 

 handling them he takes hold of the wood 

 only. 



It has been said that, when the bees by 

 mistake put a male larva or egg in one of 

 their royal cradles, they make the surface of 

 the cell wall perfectlv smooth; but the writer 

 has never been able to find a case of this 

 kind in his experience. 



THE E.KTENT OF EUROPEAN (BLACK) BROOD 

 IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The following lelter, just from the Bureau 

 of Entomology, in reference to the spread of 

 European foul bi'ood in the Unitea States, 

 will explain: 



United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C, July 14. 



Dear Mr. Root:— Your letter asking concerning the 

 spread of European foul brood is received. It would 

 certainly appear from our records that this disease is 

 spreading to new localities. Of course it may have 

 existed in some of these unknown for years, but this 

 hardly seems possible. In 1897, when it broke out in 

 New York State, it was not recognized elsewhere in 

 the United States, but now it is found in Vermont, 

 Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, 

 Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Michigan, 

 Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, and probably on west 

 across the Mississippi River. It is also found in West- 

 ern Mississippi and in the San Joaquin Valley, Cali- 

 fornia, with another small outbreak in the West this 

 year, reported to be in only one apiary. 



I doubt whether these cases all spread from the New 

 York outbreak, for it seems probable that that out- 

 break was due to buying colonies in a southern State. 

 At any rate, the situation is a serious one; and wher- 

 ever no inspection is provided, steps should be taken 

 to get this disease under control. The history of the 

 New York outbreak shows what this disease can do, 

 and the good results of the inspection in that State 

 should point out to bee-keepers the proper steps to 

 take. 



European foul brood seems to spread more rapidly 

 in an apiary than American foul brood. It is probably 

 not more difficult to cure. If there is any difference, 

 European foul brood responds more readily to treat- 

 ment. The chief difficulty is that bee-keepers general- 

 ly expect to find ropiness in diseased lai-va?; and when 

 they do not find it they often attribute the trouble to 

 chilling of the brood or to the so-called " pickled 

 brood." In this way the disease gets a bad start be- 

 fore it is realized that there is a disease present. 



There is good reason to believe that in several parts 

 of the country the bee industry is very poorly devel- 

 oped simply because disease has killed ofl' most of the 

 bees, and it has been attributed to "bad luck." This 

 condition should not continue, and every person in- 

 terested in bees should learn to look for brood dis- 

 eases whenever any thing goes wrong. 



I should be glad to have you repeat in GLEANINGS 

 that tlie Bureau of Entomology is anxious to get sam- 

 ples of both American foul brood and European foul 

 brood from every locality where they exist. We hope 

 to be able to use all this information by sending it to 

 State legislatures. It is important that the distribu- 

 tion of these diseases be known. 



E. F. Phillips, 

 In Charge of Apiculture. 



We hope our readers will not send any 

 more suspected samples of brood to Medina, 

 but to Dr. Phillips. 



TREATING AN APIARY INFECTED WITH EURO- 

 PEAN OR BLACK BROOD; THE BALDRICH 

 PLAN OF SAVING ALL GOOD BROOD. 



On page 399, July 1, we made the state- 

 ment that if black or European foul brood 

 should once get started in a yard of ours we 

 would treat trie whole apiary, irrespective of 

 whether the individual colonies showed dis- 

 sease or not, by putting every brood-nest on 

 the top of another body containing frames of 

 foundation with a queen-excluding honey- 

 board between the two. The idea of this 



