DECEMBER 1, 1913 



857 



This question, in my experience, depends 

 wholly upon the time of year and season. 

 In a season giving a good honey-fiow and 

 during or immediately after such a flow, a 

 swarm seldom carries disease with it sufli- 

 cient to show when hived in full foundation 

 sheets, wliile in a moderate or slow honey- 

 How, where colonies are badly infected with 

 disease, I have known swarms to carry dis- 

 ease which would sliow in the first set of 

 larvaB in new combs drawn from full sheets 

 of foundation. A colony showing but a few 

 infected cells where disease is just begin- 

 ning to develop is not to be considered in 

 comparison with a colony in the advanced 

 stage. 



A swarm from the one showing but a few 

 cells can safely be given full sheets of foun- 

 dation unless it is previous to or long after 

 tlie main honey-flow. 



I had ten years' experience in keeping my 

 apiary at home free from American foul 

 brood. A number of my neighbors had a 

 few colonies of bees, and we all knew that 

 the maladj^ was lingering about, but no one 

 seemed at all alarmed about it. I had a 

 hard fight in making some exjDeriments. I 

 was defeated, as disease was so general I 

 didn't know whether my plans had been 

 given a fair trial. 



An apparently healthy swarm hived on 

 one-inch starters, a swarm which has built 

 a set of combs completely, and has honey 

 and healthy larvse, may become dis?ased at 

 this point, because a swarm from, a diseased 

 colony united with the bees in question, the 

 trouble showing' up in about two days. 



I do not think the Quinby treatment and 

 shaking of a diseased colony upon full 

 sheets of foundation can be favorably com- 

 pared. A swarm under normal circum- 

 stances can stretch foundation in full sheets, 

 with the addition of wax produced by the 

 bees themselves in 24 hours. They deposit 

 some honey, but that length of time is not 

 sufficient for them to consume all the honey 

 they carried. 



The Quinby treatment is to build from 

 the start, using only the wax produced by 

 the bees, resulting in the greater production 

 of wax, and more time taken to stretch colls 

 sufficiently to deposit honey. 



Barberton, Ohio. 



AMERICAN FOUL BROOD 



BY A. C. GILBERT 



After keeping bees over 35 years tlie first 

 case of foul brood I ever hacl or had seen 

 was in the summer of 1910. I had read 

 descriptions and had seen illustrations, and 

 realized, as soon as I looked at a comb, that 



it was a typical case. The combs were com- 

 23letely filled with dead and filthy brood, 

 and a very offensive odor was soon detected. 

 After trying the test of seeing if the dead 

 brood was stringy I knew for a certainty it 

 was the American variety. 



1 decided to find out how it found its way 

 into the apiary. Besides the colony so badly 

 affected 1 found seven others -with a few 

 cells in some of the combs. I then knew 

 that the one colony so much worse than the 

 others must have been affected the year pre- 

 vious. It was a colony with an Italian 

 queen I had bought. That was where the 

 trouble began. I introduced the queen in 

 the cage it was sent in. At the present time 

 there would not be any risk to run, since 

 the candy the cages are supplied with is 

 supiDosed to be free from all germs. The 

 safest way, however, would be to introduce 

 in a new cage. I said to myself, " I have 

 a job on hand to keep it from spreading." 



My first move was to contract all en- 

 trances to hives that were affected. I shook 

 .the bees of the badly diseased colony off the 

 infected combs on combs of solid honey 

 (except one or two empty combs). Any old 

 combs not perfect, that are free from dis- 

 ease, will answer to catch the honey the bees 

 may deposit for the first day. Then remove 

 and melt up. 



The other seven colonies I treated the 

 foUoAving si3ring during a fine flow from 

 the willow, dandelion, etc. The bees were 

 shaken, or, if the nectar was thin, brushed 

 on frames of foundation and one or two 

 empty combs to be disposed of as aforesaid. 

 If they lacked honey before berries and 

 clover yielded they were either fed syrup or 

 supplied with combs of honey. That was 

 the last seen of foul brood in our apiary, 

 and now it is completely wiped out. I think 

 the sooner the disease is discovered in an 

 apiary the better, for it is so much easier 

 to get luider control before it spreads. 



If inspectors would look after the care- 

 less beekeepers (those not up to date, and 

 who never think of looking into a brood- 

 chamber), I think it would soon be annihi- 

 lated. To sum up, if colonies are weak and 

 badly diseased, destroy them before taking 

 any chances of their being robbed. Leave 

 no honey around to start robbing. Keep 

 entrances contracted, which will often pre- 

 vent robbing. If a colony is found affected, 

 look over every one in the apiary to know 

 for a certainty whether it is affected or not. 



Honeoye Falls, N. Y. 



[Instead of shaking on old combs we be- 

 lieve it is far safer to shake on to starters, 

 so that in building comb the diseased honey 

 may be used up. — Ed.] 



