22 MONTANA EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 504 



keeping in Montana. In addition, a new and more efficient system of 

 keeping records on all Montana beekeepers has been set up. A qnarterly 

 publication. The Montana Beekeepers, is being published and goes free of 

 ?harge to all registered beekeepers. 



The State Apiarist is frequently called upon to act as the arbitrator 

 between beekeep>ers in territon,' disputes. Other duties involve inspection 

 and quarantine of all bees on comb and other possible disease-carrying equip- 

 ment which is brought into the state. 



In 1954 Montana had 166 registered beekeepers, 63 of whom are 

 commercial men who make all or at least the greatest percent of their living 

 from bees; 103 registered small beekeepers or hobbvists: plus an undetermined 

 number of small nonregistered beekeepers. While having nonregistered 

 beekeepers is undesirable, it has been impractical for the State Apiarist to 

 find and register all of these small beekeepers. The State Apiarist has 

 allowed treatment of American Foulbrood with sulfathiazol and terramycin 

 when it could l)e determined that such treatment was properly carried out. 

 This so-called leniency has allowed the beekeeping industry to expand into 

 many heretofore unworkable locations, which were so contaminated with 

 American Foulbrood as to make beekeeping unprofitable if not impossible. 

 These areas were in the vicinit\- of rimrocks. trees, and old buildings which 

 harbored contaminated bees, and under such situations it is impossible to 

 eliminate them with present known methods. A more distressing problem 

 than American Foulbrood has been relatively recent outbreaks of European 

 Foulbrood. The State Apiarist has set up experimental work on this bee 

 disease and is at present recommending the use of dihydrostreptamycin and 

 terramycin as a possible cure. 



Beekeeping has expanded from 30.000 colonies in 1941 to around 62,000 

 colonies in 1954. Howe\'er. the large honey crops of the 1940's are appar- 

 ently a thing of the past. However, Montana still rates far above the na- 

 tional average in honey production and even above the average for the 

 western part of the United States, as is showTi in the following table. 



POUNDS OF HOXEY PER COLONY 



Year — 1948 



Montana - 122 



United States 36.0 



Western U. S 52.9 



