122 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



EXPERIENCES OF A FOUL-BROOD INSPECTOR 



Eradicating tlie Disease Not Difficult if the Bee- 

 lieepers Co-operate 



BY J. E. CRANE 



Continued from page S6. Feb. 1. 



The more I have seen of foul brood, and 

 especially of the European type, the more 

 fully I am satisfied that, in order to make a 

 success of inspection, the work must be 

 done in the most thorough manner. It is 

 not enough when a case of foul brood is 

 found to clean that up and go on one's way 

 feeling that his whole duty is done. Unless 

 every yard in that section is found and in- 

 spected, the work is likely to be of no per- 

 manent value; for if there should happen 

 to be a yard just over the hill or across the 

 fields half a mile away, where disease exists, 

 it will soon break out again, and no lasting- 

 cure will be effected, and perhaps the cause 

 will be attributed to the method of treating 

 the disease. Of course, an inspector can 

 not find every colony of wild bees, so we 

 must watch with great care until we feel 

 sure that every wild colony has gone out 

 of. existence. We shall then have the matter 

 in our own hands. 



As yet, there are few States that are will- 

 ing to appropriate a sum large enough to 

 do all the work that should be done as it 

 ought to be done; nor have we enough in- 

 spectors to do the work. But I believe it 

 would be better to do thorough work than 

 to extend it over too large a territory and 

 thus spread it so thin that, almost as soon 

 as the inspector is gone, the disease will 

 spring up. 



It m.ay often happen that a single yard 

 is all that is affected in one locality, while 

 in others it is scattered over a whole town, 

 and in one case over almost one entire 

 county. 



There are some serious problems con- 

 nected with these diseases. Already some 

 States have forbidden the importation of 

 colonies into their borders unless accompan- 

 ied by a certificate that each colony is free 

 from disease. This is already causing some 

 trouble. How about the time when various 

 States will jDrohibit the importation of hon- 

 ey from diseased aijiaries? And why should 

 they not do so? Honey is consumed in our 

 larger towns, and the containers are thrown 

 on the dump to scatter disease if there was 

 any in the honey used. 



The ignorance of a great many beekeep- 

 ers enters into the problem of how to get 

 rid of disease. Many have never heard of 

 such a thing. I have visited several bee- 

 keepers; and as we have opened hive after 



The Spencer boys, who are expert at extracting fish 

 from the lake and honey from the combs. 



hive, and have found only webs and cocoons 

 and filth, the moths have received the exe- 

 cration of the owners, as they have no con- 

 ception of disease. 



BOYS THAT KNOW HOW TO WORK. 



It is no easy job to clean up a large yard 

 where foul brood has a strong foothold. 

 In one such yard I found the owner at 

 work. Hearing a noise in his honey-house 

 I went in there and found his two sons, one 

 eleven and the other thirteen, dressed in 

 overalls. One was uncapping, the other 

 turning the extractor. Both were working 

 like old men. I send their photos as worthy 

 of a place in Gleanings. They live near a 

 lake, and it seems evident that they can ex- 

 tract fish from its waters as well as honey 

 from the comb. 



One beekeeper to whom I wrote, asking 

 if he had had any experience with disease 

 among his bees, replied that he had lost 

 about half of them during the winter, and 

 what he had left were quite weak; but he 

 thought that there was no disease among 

 them. I improved my first opportunity to 

 visit him, and found that most of the colo- 

 nies that remained Avere more or less dis- 

 eased. While I talked bees with him, his 

 good wife talked to me on the subject of 

 religion, for she was anxious to know if I 

 was prepared for " the solemn hour of 

 death." I was somewhat embarrassed. I 

 didn't quite know what to say. I thought 

 I was in some m.easure prepared to live, 

 which seemed to me to be of much greater 

 importance. Of course, she meant well, good 

 soul that she was, and it is an awful thing 

 to think of one's going through life at odds 

 with the Almighty, earing nothing for him 

 when we may live with him on terms of 



