268 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



in nature is determined largely by the 

 disposition made of the fragments re- 

 moved. 



The germ that causes European 

 foulbrood lives longer than either the 

 one that causes Nosema-disease or 

 the virus that causes sacbrood, but 

 not nearly so long, as the one that 

 causes American foulbrood. 



The disease may be present in a 

 number of colonies of the apiary and 

 not be transmitted to the others. 



Hives which have housed European 

 foulbrood colonies are not a fruitful 

 source for the spread of the disease. 

 Flaming them, while probably often 

 unnecessary, will surely remove all 

 possible danger. The hands and 

 clothing of the beekeeper and the 

 smoker and other tools used about 

 the apiary are not likely means for 

 the spread of the disease. 



The transmission of the disease by 

 way of flowers is not to be feared. 



Experimental evidence indicates 

 that if European foulbrood is ever 

 spread through the medium of 

 queens, drones or drifting bees the 

 method is not the usual one. 



Theoretically, the water supply of 

 the bees, if it is near an apiary con- 

 taining one or inore diseased colonies 

 and is a slowly changing one, might 

 possibly become at times a source of 

 infection to other colonies of the 

 apiary, but whether the disease is 

 ever spread in this way has not yet 

 been determined. 



Theoretically, also, under favorable 

 conditions, robbing from bee equip- 

 ment used about an infected apiary 

 might spread the disease. 



The spread of the disease in nature, 

 it would seem, takes place chiefly as 

 the result of robbing from diseased 

 colonies. 



The placing of brood-combs from 



diseased colonies into healthy ones 

 will spread the disease. 



Anyone, after having had a little 

 experience with European foulbrood, 

 can diagnose most cases of the dis- 

 ease very readily at the apiary. In 

 the laboratory all cases can be diag- 

 nosed from suitable samples by bac- 

 teriological methods. 



The tendency for the colony to re- 

 cover from the disease is greater in 

 European foulbrood than in Ameri- 

 can foulbrood, but is less than it is 

 in sacbrood or Nosema-di.'^ease. 



Considered from the technical 

 viewpoint, much has yet to be found 

 out about European foulbrood. For 

 practical purposes, however, it can be 

 said that sufficient information has 

 been gained to make it possible for 

 the beekeeper to devise a treatment 

 for the disease which will be log- 

 ical, efficient and at the same time 

 economical. 



LATE FEEDING CAUSING DYS- 

 ENTERY AMONG THE BEES 



By Kennilh Hawkins 

 So much has been written pro and 

 con concerning the trouble which 

 may be caused by feeding liquid food 

 to bees, either late in the fall or 

 during the winter, that the following 

 experiment may be of interest to bee- 

 keepers. 



One colony of bees which was nor- 

 mal in every respect, was set aside 

 here in Wisconsin, after all the 

 available sources of nectar had been 

 destroyed by frost. This colony of 

 bees was shaken off the frames on 

 which it was clustered and placed in 

 a hive containing empty drawn 

 combs. This was accomplished in the 

 heat of the day when it was not par- 

 ticularly dangerous to the colony be- 



Drone coml> liuilt next to worker combs, showing acconiniodalion cells. 



(Enlarged). 



cause of low temperature, and was at 

 a time when there was no longer any 

 brood in the hive, about October 1. 

 The bees were placed in a hive with 

 glass sides and the hive located in 

 a building where they were kept in a 

 temperature never less than 60 de- 

 grees F., but with an entrance lead- 

 ing directly out doors, facing west. 

 The size of the entrance was about 4 

 inches wide and a beespace high. 

 The colony was immediately fed with 

 a sugar syrup of two parts pure cane 

 granulated sugar to one of water, by 

 means of a pepper-bo.x style feeder. 

 The bees took the food readily and 

 stored it in their combs, but owing to 

 the low temperatures at night, were 

 able to seal very little of the syrup. 



By October 25, during rainy, cold 

 weather, with a temperature during 

 the day of 40 degrees F., the colony 

 was clustered quite compactly, and 

 the activity of the bees was quite no- 

 ticeable within the cluster, which was 

 up against the glass hive side. They 

 were again fed and were able to take 

 some of the food down directly above 

 the cluster. 



By November 11, in cloudy, cold 

 weather, with the temperature at 39 

 degrees F., the bees were again fed 

 and were able to take down some of 

 the syrup, although the disturbance 

 of placing on the feeder partly broke 

 up the cluster which the bees had 

 formed. They were again fed No- 

 vember 16, with the temperature at 

 32 degrees F., and again partly broke 

 cluster when fed. 



By November 19, when no more 

 feeding had been done, the bees had 

 been forced to change their position 

 on the combs because the sugar syrup 

 supply within their cluster was ex- 

 hausted. The effects of feeding syrup 

 when the bees had no full flights was 

 noticeable, as the abdomens of the 

 individual bees became distended and 

 shiny and the activity of the colony 

 within the cluster was erratic and at 

 times greatly increased. 



When observed November 27, on a 

 cloudy day, with the temperature at 

 17 degrees F., the activity of the 

 cluster was very erratic and it was 

 noticed that the queen had begun to 

 lay eggs. A number of the bees had 

 died and fallen to the bottom-board 

 of the hive. Each had a shiny, greatly 

 distended abdomen, and some were 

 able to crawl out of the hive to die. 

 The supply of syrup was adequate, 

 but the bees did not seem to be con- 

 suming quite so much. 



Observations made December \2 

 showed that none of the brood which 

 had been' started had been capped 

 and that it seemed to die from lack of 

 heat, as there were now nearly two 

 inches of dead bees on the floor of 

 the hive, and no more eggs noticed. 



Within a day or two after this, 

 when the colony was examined by 

 looking through the glass hive sides 

 again, it seemed as though the dis- 

 turbance caused a sort of explosion 

 within the hive and the cluster of 

 bees broke. Bees crawled in every 

 direction within the hive, sotne drop- 

 ping, and some voiding excrement and 

 dropping afterward. In a few hours 

 all the bees were dead or dying on the 



