Oct. 19, 1905 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURftAL 



729 



cational literature on this subject will do as much good as 

 i nspe<tting'. As soon as we can get tlie people educated I 

 nuestion if we will need any inspectors. [Applause.) As I 

 said yesterday, unfortunately in our State 1 find a very small 

 proportion of the bee-kecper< who read bee-literature, and it 

 is going to take some time to get them educated. Until that 

 time we will have need of those other devices. To those of 

 us here who have not seen foul brood, this sample I am tak- 

 ing with me to Washington— (by the way, it has odor enough ) 

 ■ — is a sample procured out of a hive in the city of St. Louis 

 while I was down there at our National Convention. That 

 disease was contracted from your State, across the river, by 

 bees robbing from the city of St. Louis, so that your State 

 transmitted it over there. It is a very serious case of disease. 



Mr. Wheeler — How can you prove that? 



Mr. France — We prove it in this way : The strongest 

 colonies of bees that this man had in St. Louis were, in the 

 fore part of the season, very busy bringing in honey and ap- 

 parently robbing from somewhere. He took chop dust and 

 put upon those bees so that he might see how long it would 

 take for them to go and come back again. He got the time, 

 and he discovered them all going directly east across the river. 

 He went across the river and found a bee-yard infected with 

 foul brood, and these bees with the dust on, going in and out. 



Mr. Wheeler — Did he have other colonies? 



Mr. France — Yes, there are three others that have stolen 

 away from this naughty colony which was the strongest, and 

 to-day is a dead colony in the hive. Now the disease in ap- 

 pearance varies according to the localities, but I find some 

 lew things that do net vary a great deal : The sunken cap- 

 ping; the ragged, perforated holes in the capping. I believe 

 in all the States that is common. The bee in the larval age, 

 at about six to eight days from the egg, will first to the naked 

 eye show the appearance of the disease : earlier than that you 

 would need a glass. I am taking this from the point of those 

 who want to use just the naked eye, as you can't, without a 

 .glass, see if before that. The bee will, in the larval age, in- 

 stead of crawling around as it should, stand upon the point 

 ends of that larva with its back up. It is diseased, in agony, 

 and in that condition it does not lie down naturally. There is 

 a little yellow cast on either side of the back. It fin:dly 

 straightens out the same as the natural larva, and in stand- 

 ing up it lacks the vitality to retain itself in that shape and 

 falls back again to the lower side-wall of the cell. That is 

 the time that the larva will make itself adhere to the side- 

 wall and will never let go. 



Now, there is a marked difference between black brrod, 

 pickled brood, and foul brood. Foul brood, when it once 

 strikes the lower side-wall, stays there as if fastened with 

 glue. The bees can not remove it except in one way. If 

 those combs have been thoroughly fumigated with formalde- 

 hyde it has a chemical action on those and they do remove 

 it in some cases, but not in all. That bee in the last dying 

 effort gets quite a dark color, and it throws out its tongue 

 frequently with force sufficient so that the tongue strikes the 

 upper side-wall and as such will hold as if put there by glue. 

 That will have a tendency, as the body of the bee dries out, 

 to draw the head up. This tongue has a tendency still to 

 hold, aind in the sample I have here there are many of those 

 larvae at that age with the tongue still holding thread-like to 

 the upper side-wall. That is the only reason I can give why 

 always in foul brood the head of the larval bee has a Chinese- 

 shoe-fashion or turn-up; it is because of that. 



Now, the body of the bee becomes flattened and dark- 

 brown, nearly coflfee-color, and just at that point in giving 

 way, as it drops down, there is a dark, very nearly a black 

 streak across the body of the bee, and apparently on either 

 side little brown streaks that will remain in that condition for 

 about two days. It will continue to dry on the point on the 

 lower side-wall until it is no thicker than the side-wall of 

 the comb, sometimes even thinner than that, but the head 

 end of the bee having dried in that curled-up shape shows 

 itself to the eye much quicker than the balance of it further 

 back. 



How to look at the comb is one of the most important 

 features that the bee-keepers of our country have not learned. 

 They take a comb and hold it looking straight down into the 

 cells. I confess I can't see foul brood in that way. For the 

 benefit of this bulletin we are getting out, I went to an artist 

 the other day with this comb and told him I wanted to be 

 photographed, but to take the picture from the rear I 

 wanted to show how to look down in the comb. As an i'lus- 

 tration we will suppose this to be a comb of foul brood, and 

 I want to look into it and there is the light — and by the w.iv, 

 never take candle light or electric light — you want good day 



light in order to see it satisfactorily. If I were to hold it 

 upright, and stand with the light coming over my shoulder, 

 I would still look down into the bottom of the cell and see 

 no foul brood. But let me tip the top towards me so that 

 my eye looking in there will strike the lower side-wall about 

 one-third the length towards the base, then I will see those 

 black-brown heads readily all through the comb. You need 

 never question it. Black brood or pickled brood will never 

 have the appearance that f<nil brood does. In every state 

 where I have found it, there is a marked difference. This 

 photo is simply showing where I am holding up the comb. 

 I made a streak on the negative showing the angle of the 

 rays of light. It should be coming over the shoulder, and 

 then tip the top of the comb towards you. 



Mr. Wheeler — Have you learned anything definite this 

 last year about fumigating? . , , 



Mr. France— I took one apiary badly infected where there 

 were several hundred combs, and from the fact that formal- 

 dehyde gas is one of the best disinfectants the medical world 

 has to-day, there was a great possibility, and I had a box 

 made by one of the best carpenters, which was perfectly air- 

 tight, all jointed, and white lead put in the joints. I put in 

 that box quite a number of combs, leaving about an inch and 

 a half space between each two combs. I had Mr. Weber's 

 lamp and followed his directions with one exceotion— I gave 

 twice the amount, and doubled the time in which it was fumi- 

 gated. I aired the combs, and two days later I put them back 

 into clean hives, put the bees back on those combs, and went 

 to Los Angeles to the National Convention : came home, went 

 immediately up there, and by the time I got back they had the 

 brood hatched. In about three-quarters of those hives I 

 found foul brood beginning to appear. I went to further in- 

 vestigation on the case and I found this, that every frame I 

 had fumigated had here and there a cell that was capp;d over 

 at the time Those that were not capped over the bees had 

 cleaned out, and I could not see any foul brood, but where 

 they had not taken that capping off, seemingly the chemical 

 properties of the acid had not destroyed the germs, and the 

 brood in those cells was diseased. So that if I were to fumi- 

 gate combs I should first uncap everything sealed and put it 

 in an extractor, and I would throw that brood till I was satis- 

 fied I had thrown everything out of it possible, and then 

 fumigate it. There is a possibility, but bear in mind we are 

 running a great risk and I would not recommend it. I have 

 carefully weighed the combs, carefully weighed the wax ren- 

 dered from a set of combs, and considered the price of foun- 

 dation, and in Wisconsin we can change a hive infected with 

 did and black combs to comb foundation at the cost of 12 

 cents per colonv. Why do we put any stress upon the loss 

 in that line? Those bees have as much new vigor and ambi- 

 tion to work on foundation, over the otlier one, as a boy has 

 over a new suit of clothes. 



Mr. Wheeler— We have heard a good deal about fumiga- 

 ting the hive with a spray; there is a man in California that 

 has practised that. He sprays the bottom-board and allows 

 the fumes to go up in the combs. , , , • 



Mr. France— I have tried that somewhat, but there is a 

 marked difference between California's dry atmosphere and 

 here I question, with the experience I have had within the 

 last two years, if the hive is thoroughly clean that there is 

 any danger. I put the bees right back into the same hive on 

 comb foundation, and I have no trouble. 



Mr. Wheeler— Do you shake them out twice? 



Mr. France— Yes. I tried two apiaries by shaking once, 

 and in the majority of cases it cured it. but here and there 

 would be a case in an apiary where it did not, and it would 

 not be safe. W'e do not lose a great deal if we do this at 

 the beginning of the honey-flow. As an illustration, up in 

 Central Wisconsin I reached an apiary of 15 or 20 colonies, 

 all infected, quite late in the afternoon or evening of the first 

 day of basswood bloom. The man was a very thorough man : 

 his surroundings all showed it. I repeated to hnn what I 

 would do with the apiary, were it mine. I said, "Do you un- 

 derstand it?" He said, "Yes." Now as a teacher I learned 

 that the best way to know that the student understood what 

 I told him was to let him tell it back to me again. I said. 

 "You tell me, if you please, what you are going to do with 

 those bees." He did, and I had to correct him only in two 

 places, so I was satisfied he understood how to do it, and do 

 it thorou,ghlv. Thirty days later I returned to the apiary to 

 see what the effect was. The same hives were there and 1 

 could find no indications of the disease. That was two years 

 ago, and there is none there yet. So I am satisfied it is 

 treated and cured. And on those hives was from IG to 18. 

 and on one hive 24 pounds of section comb honey within 30 



