JUNE 1, 191'2 



more numerous after they have been con- 

 fined by dull weather for a few days, many 

 workers dropping to the ground as soon as 

 a general flight is attempted. The very 

 simple plan of spraying these affected stocks 

 with nothing more than warm water daily, 

 while they are thus confined, would alone 

 save the whole of these otherwise condemn- 

 ed bees; but this does not imply that they 

 would be permanently cured without a suit- 

 able medicinal agent. The want of water 

 alone is a very serious detriment to the sick 

 bees, not only when the weather does not 

 permit of flying, but from the first state of 

 infection the bee requires that moisture, al- 

 though it is becoming too lethargic to make 

 any attempt to secure it. 



I had a serious experience with bee paral- 

 ysis in 1878, and had no difficulty in over- 

 coming it without loss of stock; consequent- 

 ly I do not share that feeling of panic and 

 the hopeless outlook exhibited by the ma- 

 jority of English writers to-day. 



CHANGE OF QUEENS. 



In my early experience referred to I found 

 great benefit result from the removal of the 

 queen, giving a vigorous young one just 

 laying. This plan must always be consid- 

 ered a great factor in the cure of any bee dis- 

 ease, as I have always pointed out from the 

 issue of my earlier works. 



The addition of fresh healthy brood and 

 young bees is almost equally important. 

 Black bees, and also any but young queens 

 of any race, must be condemned where there 

 is any fear of this malady. Some contribu- 

 tors to Gleanings, perhaps ten years or 

 more back, declared that they disjwsed of 

 the trouble by collecting and destroying the 

 crawling bees daily, and until they did so 

 there appeared to be no abatement of the dis- 

 ease. This would probably be a sufficient 

 remedy in some localities where Italians 

 were used; but it is one that should be rig. 

 orously carried out in all cases of paralysis- 



I do not consider that the honey is affect- 

 ed. Combs transferred from diseased hives 

 have been known to transmit the disease, 

 but that does not prove that the honey con- 

 tains germs of the disease; neither is there 

 any reason for supposing robbers carry 

 home the germs in the stolen sweets rather 

 than by contact with the general contents 

 of ttie hive they may visit. 



As a matter of fact, both hives and combs 

 are readily disinfected without removing or 

 unsealing the honey; and I certainly would 

 not advise any unfortunate owner to expect 

 permanent recovery from any treatment un- 

 less he also thoroughly cleanses his hives 

 and fumigates the combs with sulphur, or 

 otherwise disinfects them, as they may be 

 removed free from brood. 



Heathfield, England. 



[Our correspondent seems to imply that 

 the Isle-of- Wight disease, so called, is noth- 

 ing more nor less taan our old friend the 

 enemy, bee paralysis. When we went over 

 the Macdonald article in our Jan. 15th is- 

 sue, it was our purpose to attach a footnote 



calling attention to the fact that the symp- 

 toms of the Isle-of- Wight disease were al- 

 most the same as those given for bee paral- 

 ysis; but the form containing it went to 

 press while we were absent, and consequent- 

 ly the footnote did not appear; but since 

 this article has come in from Mr. Simmins, 

 we are more than ever convinced that the 

 Isle-of- Wight disease is our old friend, bee 

 paralysis. We do not know much about 

 the moisture scheme of cure; but we suggest 

 that some of our friends in this country who 

 have the disease try it out and report. 



In this connection it may be interesting 

 to know that the Bureau of Entomology, by 

 the direction of Dr. E. F. Phillips, in Charge 

 of Apiculture, has sent one of its men, Mr. 

 Demuth, to Florida, to study bee paralysis. 

 We are glad to know that Uncle Sam is go- 

 ing to study this hitherto unknown disease. 

 While we do not believe, as we formerly did, 

 that bee paralysis is going to prove serious 

 over the whole country, yet if we could 

 know its real cause we would be in a much 

 better position to handle it. — Ed.] 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD 



Is it Necessary to Kill the Queen or to Melt the Dis- 

 eased Combs? Shaking Bees on Clean Combs, 

 and Placing Diseased Combs Above 

 an Excluder 



BY PERCY ORTON 



Mr. V. V. Dexter, North Yakima, Wash- 

 ington, March 1, p. 145, asks for articles on 

 producing extracted honey and keeping 

 bees healthy in yards where foul brood ex- 

 ists. If he means European foul brood or 

 black brood I am willing to give my exj^eri- 

 ence. I wish those California (and all 

 other) beekeepers would give this a trial, 

 and not worry so much. I used to worry: 

 but since discovering how easy it is to rid 

 combs of the disease, and to secure large 

 crops of extracted honey without destroying 

 any combs or killing any queens, I have 

 taken real pleasure in the work. 



When foul brood first appeared in my 

 yard I was told to melt up all combs, which 

 I did, including some from colonies wkich 

 were perfectly healthy. Among them was 

 one colony of Carniolans with an extra 

 amount of healthy brood. I questioned the 

 advisability of doing so; but my informant 

 said it would be safer, for it would be only 

 a short time before all of the others would 

 be diseased. I repeated this same wasteful 

 and useless method until I could not raise 

 money to buy any more foundation to fill 

 the frames. 



One day I took 50 Hoffman frames of dis- 

 eased brood and stacked them over a colony 

 with an excluding zinc between, and left 

 them for a month for what healthy brood 

 there was in them to hatch out before melt- 

 ing. Upon examining them at the end of 

 30 days I found that they were all cleaned 

 out nicely, the cells being polished like 



