760 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Dec. 15 



General 

 Correspondence 



SOME " DISCOVERIES •' ON THE ALEX- 

 ANDER TREATMENT FOR EURO- 

 PEAN FOUL BROOD. 



Dr. Miller's Modification an Apparent Suc- 

 cess. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



When I began treating foul-broody colo- 

 nies last summer I piled the brood of four 

 colonies over an excluder on a fifth colony, 

 this fifth colony being equally foul-broody. 

 At the end of three weeks the combs over 

 the excluder would be emptied of brood and 

 ready to melt up. But the combs in the 

 lower story would be as bad as ever. Then 

 a new set of piles would have to be made; 

 and, no matter how many times this would 

 be repeated, there would always be left the 

 foul-broody lower stories. Then it occurred 

 to me, "If there is any thing in the Alexan- 

 der plan, and if bees queenless three weeks 

 will clean out their frames, why will they 

 not clean out the frames in these upper 

 stories? It's worth trying, any way." 



So when the piles had put in their three 

 weeks, this is the way I did: I took the 

 whole pile off its stand. On the stand I put 

 the second story — that is, the story that had 

 been immediately above the excluder. Into 

 this I brushed the colony — that is, the bees 

 and queen that had been in the lower story. 

 In most cases this was an entire success, the 

 colonies being and continuing entirely 

 healthy. 



So here was what may possibly be an im- 

 portant " discovery," — with apologies to A. 

 I. Root for the use of the word. The dis- 

 covery is that, at least in some cases and 

 under some conditions, a diseased colony 

 with a queen may clean out combs over an 

 excluder so that they will be entirely 

 healthy. But if any credit is due for this 

 discovery, the chief credit belongs to our 

 good friend the late E. W. Alexander; for 

 without his lead I never would have thought 

 the discovery possible. 



Possibly some do not know what the 

 Alexander plan for the treatment of Europe- 

 an foul brood (black brood) is. It takes but 

 a few words to tell it. Make a colony strong; 

 make it queenless, and let it remain queen- 

 less three weeks; then give it a vigorous 

 young laying Italian queen. That's all: the 

 bees do the rest. 



THE ALEXANDER PLAN NOT SUITABLE FOR 

 AMERICAN FOUL BROOD. 



I desire to record here my belief that, in 

 giving us this plan of treatment, Mr. Alex- 

 ander has given us something of real and 

 lasting value. 



Failures with the Alexander plan, I be- 

 lieve, have been reported. It is possible 

 that with it there will always be more or less 



failures. It is just possible, also, that, where 

 failures occurred, Mr. Alexander's teachings 

 were not strictly followed. Were the fail- 

 ures with Luropean foul brood, or with 

 American? Mr. Alexander never insisted 

 that his plan would succeed with American 

 foul brood, although I believe he thought it 

 might do so. 



I very much doubt that it will often, if 

 ever, succeed with .\merican foul brood. In 

 European foul brood the dead larva dries 

 down in the cell in such a way that it is not 

 so very difficult for the bees to clean it out 

 entirely. In American foul brood the dead 

 larva dries down upon the cell wall like so 

 much glue, impossible of removal. At least 

 that is the way I understand it. 



THE COLONIES SHOULD BE STRONG. 



Another cause of failure may have been 

 from failing to note or sufficiently emphasize 

 Mr. Alexander's instruction to make the col- 

 ony strong. A weak and discouraged lot of 

 bees should not be expected to do very vig- 

 orous work at cleaning out their cells, es- 

 pecially when queenless. 



Mr. Alexander found that a strong force 

 of bees would clean out their cells provided 

 they were rearing no fresh brood to keep up 

 the infection. I went just a step further, 

 and found that such a force witn a queen 

 would clean out combs to which they, but 

 not the queen, had access. 



A VARIATION OF THE ALEXANDER PLAN. 



The last performance I have mentioned — 

 taking away the pile and leaving the colony 

 in what had been the second story — still left 

 the lower story with its infected brood to be 

 dealt with. There were several of these, 

 and upon them I tried another variation of 

 the Alexander plan. Upon a new stand I 

 make a pile of them, four or five stories high, 

 taking with each enough bees to care for the 

 brood, also a few extra to make up for the 

 bees that would return to their old stands. 

 Understand that each story contained a full 

 quota of brood in all stages from the egg 

 to the young bee just emerging, but theie 

 was no queen in the pile. 



Of course, queen- cells were started. In 

 ten days I destroyed all of them, and put in 

 the lower story a virgin of choice stock. 

 There was an excluder over the first story, 

 for the purpose of confining this young 

 queen to the lower story. In about three 

 weeks from the time the pile was formed, 

 the queen was laying in what generally 

 proved to be clean combs. 



It is possible, if not probable, that wher- 

 ever the bees did not clean out the combs 

 perfectly it was because they were not 

 ■ strong enough. At any rate, if it were to do 

 over again, not so many colonies would be 

 thrown on foundation, and more would have 

 the Alexander treatment. But I would cer- 

 tainly continue the variation of giving the 

 young virgin in 10 days rather than a laying 

 queen at the end of '21 days. Many a lime 1 

 have noticed in a nucleus having a young 

 queen not yet laying how the workers polisn 

 out the cells before she begins to lay. In- 



