ALEXANDER'S PLAN 219 



Detection by Odor. — In some localities European foul brood 

 is said to be attended with a decided odor, although unlike that 

 of American foul brood, being more like that of decayed fish, 

 according to Morley Petit, of Ontario. 



Resistant Bees. — For some reason Italian bees seem to be 

 much more resistant of this disease than the hybrids or blacks, 

 and the best insurance against this malady is to re-queen all 

 colonies with vigorous Italians. Some strains seem much more 

 immune than others, so that if is desirable to secuie a strain 

 thai) has demonstrated its disease resistance. 



Treatment. — There is much confusion on the part of the 

 inexperienced bee-keeper between the two diseases, and since the 

 treatment advised for one is entirely unsuited for the other it 

 is important to make sure which disease is present. What is 

 kno\vn as the Alexander plan is now generally regarded as the 

 only dependable treatment for European foulbrood. The essen- 

 tial element of this plan is the saving of the combs instead of 

 melting them up as is the case of the other disease. There are 

 many modifications of the plan as proposed by the originator. 



Alexander's Plan. — To begin with, the queen is removed 

 from the diseased colony in order to check brood rearing. The 

 bees being relieved of nursing young brood, turn their attention 

 to cleaning out infected matter from the hive with the result 

 that given a new queen a few days later they often remain free 

 from the disease. Mr. Alexander believed it to be necessary 

 for twenty-one days to elapse from the time the old queen was 

 removed before the new queen began to lay. Of late many bee- 

 keepers have found that under favorable conditions a much 

 shorter time is sufficient. In order to be successful with this 

 method several things must be borne in mind. First the new 

 queen must be a vigorous young Italian. Then the colony must 

 be very strong and the treatment must be given in early stages 

 of the disease. If the combs are fairly rotten with decaying 

 larvae it is too much to expect that the bees will clean them up 

 again. Hybrids or black bees are seldom, if ever, able to rid 



