FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 319 



I mean each individual bee is stronger — when well win- 

 tered outdoors than when wintered in the usual close 

 cellar, and I think there will be that same strength when 

 wintered in a cellar with a furnace and a full supply 

 of outdoor air. 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD. 



In the year IDOT a number of cells of dead brood 

 were found in colony No. 13. I can not now be certain 

 of it, but I think a few such dead brood had been seen 

 a year or two previously. A large cherry orchard in 

 easy range of my bees had been sprayed before the 

 blossoms had fallen, and it was easy to believe that the 

 poison sprayed on these blossoms was accountable for 

 the dead brood. Nothing was done about it, and No. 13 

 turned out to be one of the best in the apiary. In 19U8 

 I think some cells of dead brood were found in two 

 colonies. The season was good, and no attention was 

 paid to it, the idea still being that the poisonous spray 

 was the cause of the trouble. 



Beginning with the year 19U9 I decided to give up 

 the last out-apiary (the Wilson) and keep all colonies 

 in the home apiary. Wlien I found out later wh^.t was 

 before me, I was thankful that all were in a single 

 apiary. Diseased brood was found to such an extent 

 and in so many colonies that I sent a sample to Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips at Washington. Back came the report that 

 European foul brood was the thing I had to do with. 

 I do not know how many colonies were diseased at the 

 opening of the season, but T do know that we had been 

 doing orr level best to spread the disease throughout 

 the whole apiary by indiscriminate exchanging of combs 

 of brood. 



It was fairly along in the season when I got the 

 word from Washington, and here is what I had to face : 

 A season of dearth, there being a dead failure of the 

 early honey-flow : bees in about 150 hives, counting 

 nuclei and all, and only 22 of them that showed no sign 



