276 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 1, 1902. 



Ccnvention Proceedings. | 



The Chicago Convention. 



Report of the Semi-Annual Convention of the 



Chicag'O Bee-Keepers' Association, Held 



Dec. 5, 1901. 



BY A SHOKTHAND REPORTER. 



iContinued from paffe 2oO.) 



FOUL BROOD — HOW TO GET RID OF IT. 



" How shall we get rid of foul brood ? " 

 Dr. Miller — Take the McEvoy treatment. 

 Mr. Clarke — Get a State inspector. In other words, get 

 rid of foul brood. 



Mr. Horstmann — There is only one way to get rid of foul 

 brood— clean it out. 1 have had experience with foul brood 

 for three years. I didn't know my bees had it until I got a 

 report from Dr. Howard stating what it was. In the summer- 

 time, during a good flow, drive the bees out on the starters of 

 foundation— (that's the McEvoy plan). After the brood 

 hatches out take the bees off the lioney and save it, and cut 

 the other combs out and burn frames and all. Scrape the 

 hives out clean, and use them over again. That's the way I 

 did, and I believe I have been successful. 



Mr. Moore — Have you any foul brood now ? 

 Mr. Horstmann — I cleaned out one hive, I think it was 

 Saturday. There was foul brood. The first of September I 

 noticed that there was some fo\il brood, and I took the bees 

 and drove th('m right off on frames; and this is an experi- 

 ment I am trying for next spring. The idea is to have the 

 bees consume all the foul honey they have this winter. 



Mr. Marvin — I suppose there are a great many here that 

 knew my brother by reputation. He kept bees for a great 

 many years, and his bees had foul brood. 



Dr. Miller — That was James Marvin, whom we all looked 

 up to as an authority along with Mr. Baldridge. 



Mr. Marvin — He was an authority. I have bees myself, 

 and I want to tell you all, for your benefit as well as those who 

 are in hearing, if you have any foul brood, why, get rid of it. 

 Don't try to monkey with it, but just burn it right up and get 



rid of it. 



Mr. Moore — How many have used the McEvoy treatment 

 and gotten clear out by that method ? 



Mr. Horstmann — How long a time will he allow? How 

 much time are you going to give us to try the experiment, a 

 year, or two years? You can hardly report on one year. I 

 cleaned some out last year and I took them out again this 

 year. I don't know whether it was the cause of the treatment 

 or whether the disease was spread by robbing. I think it was 

 caused this spring by robbing. I had a colony that was weak. 

 and had the hive-entrance closed. It grew very cold and they 

 knocked the entrance block off and the bees pounced in there 

 and cleaned it out. I believe that is what spread my foul 

 brood. I worked on the McEvoy plan but I won't be able to 

 report on that until next fall. 



Mr. Italdridge — The McEvoy plan will cure foul brood ; 

 there is no doubt about it. There is another plan, but I will 

 not detail that. You need not expect, if you get rid of foul 

 brood, tliat yo\i will keep rid of it. Therc^ is too much in the 

 neighborhood. I had it introduced in my yard several times 

 from the bees robbing other people's bees. My bees have foul 

 brood now. I can get rid of it, but it won't stay rid of it ; but 

 it will be introduced from other yards if it is not entirely 

 eradicated from the section of the country. 



Mr. Marvin — I believe, if you get rid of it — the trouble is 

 you don't get rid of it. There'is something about the hives, 

 the honey, the comb and the bees. You don't get rid of it. 

 Now I tell you, there is no other way but to burn it. . My 

 brother was a thorough-going bee-keeper. Dr. Miller knows 

 something about it. You cannot get rid of foul brood un- 

 less you exterminate. You won't get rid of it from neighbors' 

 bees. If you have it at home, get rid of it. My brother tried 

 everything he heard of. He had 6f)7 colonies of bees. He 

 lost all but three. 



• Dr. Miller— Has he three left yet ? 



Mr. Marvin — About three, I think, or half a dozen, anil 

 that was down at St. Charles. They weren't up with his 



others : if they had been, he wouldn't have any. Let some one 

 who has cured foul brood, get up. 



Mr. Muore — Have you cured foul brood, Mr. Clarke? 

 Mr. Clarke — I have not. My bees have had a touch of it 

 every spring, and I have a neighbor next door who labored 

 with it for about two years. Mr. Marvin spoke of 667 colo- 

 nies. I can imagine how it would spread to every hive if the 

 combs were burnt, and the work was not done properly, even 

 in half a dozen hives. I think it an entirely wrong idea to 

 burn up the combs, because, unless a person goes to work and 

 covers up entirely — we tried it — and the fire will not, and can- 

 not, consume the honey and wax, the honey will run down 

 and you move away the ashes and find honey under- 

 neath, and when moved away the bees will get in there and 

 take it off into all the hives. But when you say that you can 

 keep clear of foul brood by cleaning it out of your own apiary 

 when you have it within a mile of you, I would like to see the 

 man that tells me he has it but can do it. I don't believe 

 there is an apiary that has foul brood within a mile but what 

 I can find it in the cells. It may not form this year. The 

 honey that is ripened in the fall is in the cell; you don't get 

 any from the pussy-willow, but:the bees will naturally go to 

 work for brood. Those cells may lie in the frames and they 

 may not develop, but as sure as you have a month of May like 

 last year, if your bees have foul brood, by the middle of June 

 you will have it developed so that you will have to throw out 

 the whole colony. If you have foul brood thoroughly devel- 

 oped there is no mistaking it, even a single cell of it. You 

 can go to the hive and take everything out. If you go in the 

 evening, shake all your bees off into the hive and bury the 

 frames — put them down the same as you would in the bottom 

 of a well — you need not be bothered with foul brood again, if 

 you do it that way. Burning I am dead against. There is 

 not one in fifty I have known to do that way that is without 

 foul brood. 



Dr. Miller — Will Mr. Clarke tell us what he would do? 

 Mr. Clarke — I would bury every frame. The amount of 

 wax wouldn't be worth the trouble and the risk you run by the 

 bees taking the honey. I am dead against burning. 



Mr. Horstmann — I have burned the frames and I guaran- 

 tee there wasn't a bit of wax left. I have carried it into the 

 basement and was sure there wasn't a bee near, then I saved 

 what wax I could and also honey. The honey was all right, 

 and I have taken all the frames and put them into a furnace, 

 and they make the nicest kind of fire, and saved coal for me. 

 Take it out in the country where you can get lots of leaves, and 

 I know you can burn up every bit of it — not a germ left. You 

 can take the old wax and let it dry some place where the bees 

 won't get it, audi know you can get rid of it by fire a great deal 

 better than burying it. It may be dug up. I don't know but 

 what the disease may spread three or four years afterwards. 

 As to burning up the frames, bees and all, that is away be- 

 hind the times. I think we have bee-keepers in this country 

 that can exterminate foul brood without burning up the bees 

 and all. I don't like tlu^ idea of burning bees, and I wouldn't 

 do it. I think I have about as good a way as you can get. 



Dr. Miller — Is there any city ordinance against combining 

 the two, digging a pit deep enough to bury, and then burning 

 it and burying the ashes ? [Laughter]. 



ISIr. Dadant — I have had no experience with foul brood. 

 I never have seen a case even away from home, but I wish to 

 say that I buy beeswax to make foundation, as you know, and 

 in that way we certainly have many cases of foul brood ; and 

 our bees have access to the building in which we keep our crude 

 material, and our bees get to all the beeswax that comes to us. 

 If there is any honey about it they get It. And, remember, we 

 have been doing that for 25 or 30 years, and I have never 

 seen a case of foul brood. The scientists tell us that a tem- 

 perature of 212 degrees will destroy any germ of life. Germs of 

 foul brood, bacillus alvoi, are living germs, and just boiling 

 water will destroy them. Scientists tell us that, and I am satis- 

 fied that it is so. If it wasn't so I would have seen foul brood 

 before this. As to the burning of bees, some of you say if you 

 burn the hives you will destroy it. but perhaps some of the 

 other hives will have it. Do you r<'alize that foul brood is a 

 disease ? We had [ilagues — Asiatic eljolera and small-pox — 

 and there was a time when they put persons having either one 

 of these diseases in the pesthouse and left them there to die. 

 No one would go near them. Did that cure it ? No. It was 

 only when men devoted themselves to discovering a remedy, 

 ami in an assembly like this we don't want to advise burning 

 it. Find a remedy. When we have a case of small-pox we 

 vaccinate all who are around. You don't want to apply the 

 treatment only to the one colony, a|}ply it to every colony. 

 When you have one, you don't know how many side by side 

 may have the germs, just a small germ that may not develop 

 fortvvo or three months. If you treat not only the colony th 



