1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



341 



The few colonies which probably be- 

 came infected in this way stood next 

 to heavily diseased ones. The infec- 

 tion possibly, in these few cases, re- 

 sulted from a heavy drifting of bees 

 or slow robliing. So far, however, ex- 

 perimental evidence is insut'ticient to 

 demonstrate to what extent the dis- 

 ease is spread by drifting bees or as 

 a result of different degrees of rob- 

 bing. 



Excepting the few cases just men- 

 tioned, the healthy colonies of the 

 experimental apiary suflfered no infec- 

 tion, apparently, from the diseased 

 ones present. From this fact, it may 

 l)e concluded that the disease is not 

 likely to be spread from flowers which 

 have been visited by bees from dis- 

 eased colonies and afterwards by 

 others from healthy ones. The same 

 fact leads to the conclusion that the 

 water supply of the bees of the ex- 

 perimental apiary was not a fruitful 

 source of infection. It should be 

 mentioned, however, that no stagnant 

 or slow moving body of water was 

 near by. A definite statement regard- 

 ing the e.xtent, if any, to which the 

 water suppl}' of an infected apiary 

 helps to spread the disease, is not 

 justified from the experimental evi- 

 dence thus far obtained. 



Since American foulbrood can be 

 readily produced experimentally, in a 

 colony, by feeding it syrup or honey 

 to which the spores of the germ have 

 been added, naturally the robbing by 

 bees of honey which contains such 

 spores would likelj' cause disease in 

 the colonies to which such bees be- 

 long. 



When brood frames from Ainerican 

 foulbrood colonies are placed in 

 healthy colonies they serve to trans- 

 mit the disease. Should this be done 

 by the practical apiarist during the 

 manipulations in the apiary, naturally 

 a spread of the disease in this way 

 would likely occur. 



The fact that there was practically 

 no spread of the disease, from colony 

 to colony, in the experimental apiary, 

 shows that the hands, the hive tool, 

 the smoker and the clothing are not 

 likely means for spreading the dis- 

 ease.* 



In these studies the hives in which 

 the disease had been produced by in- 

 oculation were flamed inside before 

 being used again. One reason espe- 

 cially for doing this, in case of 

 American foulbrood, is that the bot- 

 tom board becomes contaminated 

 with the spores of the disease at the 

 time of the inoculation. In no case 

 was the disease transmitted by the 

 flamed hives. 



It is not unlikely that the beekeeper 

 will find it to be a safe procedure to 

 omit in well selected cases the flaming 



• While conducting the experiments no dis- 

 infectants were used on the hands, hive, tool, 

 or smoker, and the clothing was not changed 

 in going from diseased to healthy colonies. 

 Reasonable care, of course, should always be 

 taken while working with diseased colonies. It 

 would not be well, for example, to test the 

 ropiness of the dead brood with the hive tool 

 and then the brood of a healthy colony without 

 first removing the disease material from the 

 tool. The cleaning of it can be easily and prob- 

 ably safely accomplished by thrusting it a 

 time or two into the soil — a method which bee- 

 keepers sometimes employ. 



or disinfection by other means. Such 

 cases would be those especially in 

 which only a small amount of the dis- 

 ease was present in the colony housed 

 by the hive. 



In a considerable number of in- 

 stances queens from diseased colonies 

 were introduced into healthy ones. 

 No disease resulted in any of these 

 cases. The observations in this con- 

 nection were not continued, how- 

 ever, over a sufficiently long period 

 to determine to what extent the dis- 

 ease is likely to be transmitted by 

 queens. The danger in this respect is 

 probably less tlian many at times have 

 supposed. 



Frequently the American foulbrood 

 colonies were used for experiments 

 on other diseases. If they were heav- 

 ily diseased, but sufficiently strong, 

 the combs were removed and burned 

 and the colony was given either 

 combs from healthy colonies or 

 frames with strips or full sheets of 

 foundation. Usually within 2 or 3 

 weeks the colonies were again in suit- 

 able condition for experimental pur- 

 poses. If the colonies were heavily 

 diseased and weak, the bees were 

 confined, chloroformed apd burned, 

 together with the brood combs* and 

 fraiTies. 



When a colony becomes diseased as 

 a result of inoculation it never dies 

 immediately. The length of time it 

 lives depends upon a number of fac- 

 tors — the amount of disease present, 

 the time of year and the strength of 

 the colony being among the import- 

 ant ones. It was found that if a col- 

 ony becomes diseased at any time of 

 the year it invariably dies sooner or 

 later. If strong and heavily infected 

 early in the season it will die before 

 or during winter, but if infected later 

 it will probably winter, but will die 

 the following bee season. If only a 

 cell here and there, in the brood nest, 

 contains diseased brood, death of the 

 colony may be very much delayed, 



* The wax was not saved during these ex- 

 perimental studies, as it was not economical to 

 do so. No e-xperiments were conducted di- 

 rectly on the question of the transmission of 

 the disease by way of wax from diseased col- 

 onies used as foundation. The facts at hand 

 tend to indicate that the disease is probably 

 not spread in this way. 



and in a small percentage of such 

 cases recovery possibly takes place. 

 For practical purposes, therefore, 

 American foulbrood colonies should 

 l)e considered as colonies which, if 

 they are untreated, will die sooner or 

 later of the disease, the exceptions to 

 this rule being few if, indeed, they oc- 

 cur at all. 



SOLDERING HONEY PAILS FOR 

 PARCELS POST OR EXPRESS 



F>y Ivan Whiting 

 During the last few months there 

 has been some discussion about sol- 

 dering honey pails and the spread of 

 foulbrood because of unwashed con- 

 tainers. It seems very reasonable to 

 believe that few containers would be 

 discarded if -they were useful after 

 the honey was removed. A honey 

 pail soldered between the pail and 

 cover becomes a useless container. 

 As advocated, a label requesting that 

 the container be washed before being 

 thrown away would be helpful and 

 should be required on all honey from 

 foulbrood yards. 



In disposing of my 1918 honey crop 

 I sent a few 10-pound pails by parcels 

 post about 150 miles. Some pails had 

 no protection, some were covered top 

 and bottom with lath strips between, 

 and some were boxed, but none were 

 soldered. Over half the honey was 

 lost. Some disappeared "without a 

 trace," some spilled in the mail sacks, 

 same on depot platforms, etc. In 1919 

 I sent about 30 pails the same dis- 

 tance, except one pail sent to Kenne- 

 wick, Wash, by express, all soldered 

 by my method, and no honey was lost. 

 I discovered it was absolutely neces- 

 sary to solder the covers on. 



The accompanying photograph 

 shows how my pails are fixed. Three 

 straps of light (IC) tin ^xl^ in. are 

 soldered on the pail, as shown at the 

 • left. Then the pail is filled, the straps 

 bent over the edge tight, fitted into 

 the cover, and soldered to the cover. 

 To remove the strap, cut it in two 

 witb can opener or pointed tool, grab 

 each piece with a pair of pliers and 

 pull it off. Nothing is left on the 

 pail except a little solder, which will 

 not interfere with the future useful- 

 ness nf the pr'il. It certainly takes 



Whiting's method of sealing honey pails for shipment by parcels post. 



