Ausr. 2, 1906 



669 



American Hee Journal 



[The members of the Convention arose, and the suggestion 

 was greeted with applause.] 



Mr. McEvoy — I never heard a paper in my life that I 

 liked so well as that one. 



Mr. Moore — Dr. Phillips, in his very excellent article, 

 has touched on a point that I think we are all intensely 

 interested in. and we have with us one who has perhaps the 

 best experience of any person in this country, and 1 would 

 ilggesl he now address the convention on his personal ex- 

 ice in connection with foul brood. I refer to Mr. Win. 

 McEvoy, of Canada. [Applause.] 



Mr. McEvoy — I could not help but take keen notice of 

 what the Doctor was saying about these different kinds 



of In 1— black brood and foul brood — and I can not help 



but think that there were many mistakes made in some of 

 the kinds that were sent ; that they were mistaken for some- 

 tiling else. It has been thirty years since I first handled 

 foul brood. In 1875 it broke out in my own yard, and I 

 worked out the cure I have given to the world on that. 



Speaking of the kind of dead brood, I meet it every 

 year. Last year all over Ontario and in many parts of the 

 United States there were immense quantities of dead brood 

 mistaken for foul brood, and by many that had had it be- 

 fore, and felt sure they knew what they were talking about. 

 It was simply starved brood. After the apple-bloom failed, 

 for a long period before they touched clover, in many places 

 they started brood, and they ran out of unsealed stores, and 

 when they are caught like that they will not uncap the old 

 honey fast enough to keep pace with the amount of larvae ; 

 the result is death. Part of the brood is well fed, some of it 

 is starved and some does not get enough just before it is 

 capped. Some of them will die under the cappings and 

 some hatch out, and you cut the cappings and it will be re- 

 capped. The bees are poorly fed. Every year I have been 

 called out in connection with these cases, and I found no foul 

 brood. For every 4 or 5 cells of foul brood you will find 

 19 or 20 starved in the comb, and this is what causes mis- 

 takes and confusion. They say, "Oh, I have had it before 

 and the bees cleaned it out." But sometimes it is foul brood, 

 and it will clean the yard out, and it is just as well to be 

 careful of what they get hold of. The bee-yard is no place 

 for a burying ground or a graveyard. But I would advise 

 that you sacrifice your bees by treating the whole yard as 

 dead brood. Let us go to work and feed them, and give 

 them a double shake. 



There have been men in Ontario and the United States 

 who have treated it for foul brood when it was starved 

 brood, and it was feeding that it wanted. This treatment 

 only aggravated it, and it still did not get enough. If the 

 bee-keepers will feed they will not have this ordinary dead 

 brood. Some queens are good feeders under poor circum- 

 stances, and others, again, are poor feeders under good cir- 

 cumstance?. I have never heard a paper I liked better than 

 that, especially where he spoke of breeding, and I do think 

 90 percent of all the queens on the continent of America 

 want killing. I like the bees that under trying circum- 

 stances will feed the larvae well; and in feeding that larvae 

 in these periods we will have bees that will double the honey 

 crop. It will pay to feed during these periods. But come 

 to the disease, that is what so often causes the confusion; 

 it is this finding of so much dead brood. There is lots of 

 it this summer. It took a dark color and almost a blue 

 nature, and it would stretch almost a quarter of an inch; 

 but hadn't the stench, although it had a pretty heavy odor. 

 I notice that, all over, the bee-papers speak of so much 

 chilled brood. That was a little out of place. It was starved. 

 The flow shut off, and the bees didn't uncap the old honey 

 fast enough. Feed during these periods, and it means a good 

 deal. Feed, and watch the results, and you will see how 

 fat, and plump, and white the larvse are. That which is 

 half starved, you will see little hollows that you can put the 

 head of a pin in. 



I have not in 20 years opened a hive of bees, but what 

 I have taken a close look; and some places they have said, 

 How do you find the queen? How do you like the color of 

 the bees? I didn't look at the bees. I could see how they 

 were feeding the larvse. Come to find out, they had gotten 

 the queen from certain parties in the United States; and 

 I would say, kill every one you have got and breed from 

 this good one. The Doctor is right. 



The treatment I give is the only practical one. Drugs 

 are of no use. Don't be deceived with drugs. You can't 



cure any apiary if it is bad. You may use gas, and so on, 

 but where they fill the comb and fill in on the hard crust 

 old foul brood and cap it over, you can't kill that and make 

 a success. The only way to do is to take away the combs 

 and follow the bees for the honey they take from the combs, 

 and let them build combs for days in bad cases. Now put 

 the honey and case in the bee-yard, and give it one shake and 

 it will generally cure it; but there are also several that would 

 fail, because the next thing they do when they get weak is 

 to fill in the center. The honey to become diseased in a bee- 

 hive must first of all be stored in a diseased cell. Nearly 

 all the honey in the top of the comb is sound. Why? It is 

 clean honey from the fields in queen-cells. But where it is 

 stored close to the ring, in on the old crust, that is where 

 the disease is. 



Mr. Lyons — Do you consider pickled brood has the germ 

 of the disease? 



Mr. McEvoy — I never like to say anything about any one 

 else's treatment. If you do the feeding at the proper time 

 you will never have pickled brood. You feed now at the 

 close of the honey-flow and help your bees up the hill. 

 The spring of 1889 was one of the most favorable springs 

 in Ontario. Things went booming along. On May 28 came 

 frost, which was followed by 3 or 4 days of rain. I said to 

 all the bee-keepers, the brood-chambers will be a mass of 

 dead matter. The bees arc caught out, the brood-cham- 

 bers are full, and they are going to use up the unsealed 

 honey; they won't uncap the old stores fast enough, and 

 great starvation will take place. All over Ontario they 

 were spreading, and they had foul brood, and dead brood, 

 and everything, and run short of the honey crop. The last 

 two weeks in May and the first week in June, in 1894, we 

 had three weeks of rain, rain, rain all over Ontario. Dur- 

 ing that time the bees run short of bringing in stores to 

 keep pace with them, and that year there was a lot of dead 

 brood all over Ontario the same way. Then last spring was 

 a bad one, and the spring before. There is not enough 

 attention paid to help the bees during that gap. 



Mr. Lyons — That has been exactly my experience this 

 spring. I had 50 or so of those Alexander feeders and I 

 put them right on after fruit-bloom and it worked very 

 well. 



Mr. McEvoy — Pickled brood will turn on its back and 

 turn up. You will notice some of the cells thin capped. 

 The bees as much as uncap and say, What is the matter with 

 you? You will find in some cells that a cap is not cut. 

 The bees have not enough strength to move the jaw. Feed 

 will save all that. 



Mr. Rice — Wouldn't uncapping honey answer the same 

 purpose ? 



Mr. McEvoy — Yes, you are right. That is business, and 

 I do that, too ; and I would rather do it while there is 

 honey. Give 2 or 3 frames; do not bruise or scratch it; 

 shave that off neatly and then it will not run. Skip the 

 next night and then give 2 or 3 more frames. Take a jar 

 and turn it upside down and put it on the center of that, 

 and you set that food down where the bees most need it, 

 and feed continuously. In 1894 I tested it. I was feeding, 

 and the food kept going, going, going, but there was a 

 little drawback about it, that got onto the honey-flow and 

 at last my out-yard nearly went to pieces. Eut the bees 

 were vigorous. You will get these bees from a fed colony 

 that will come right down in showers. There is a vim, 

 and a snap of life in the bees that are fed, compared to what 

 there is in the others. It is best to feed in this bare period. 



Mr. Moore — I wish Mr. McEvoy would help us clear 

 up this question as to the difference between foul brood 

 and black brood, and what bearing it has to a layman ; 

 and as to bacillus alvci being found in foul brood or* black 

 brood? 



Mr. McEvoy— I am not able to tell that, when it comes 

 to black brood ; I have seen it, and handled it. and treated 

 it the same as the other. When you speak of a specific germ, 

 you are going beyond me. You will have to take the scientist 

 for that. But in either case this treatment has got to come 

 in. No drugs will be of any use with foul brood. 



Mr. Hatch — I understood Mr. McEvoy to say that there 

 would be no such thing as pickled brood if we feed between 

 fruit-bloom and clover bloom. 



Mr. McEvoy — You will never have pickled brood un- 

 der those conditions. 



Mr. Hatch — I found it in California. I had 250 colonies 



