Oct. 15, 1911 



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619 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD STILL IN DR. MIL- 

 LER'S YARD. 



A Summary of the Results of the Treatment. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



April 20, 1911, European foul brood was 

 found in one of my colonies. At the same 

 time it was found that the colony was queen- 

 less and had queen-cells. It reared a queen 

 which, in spite of its being so early, was 

 fairly good, and there was no more foul 

 brood in that colony. The term of queen- 

 lessness had served as a cure. 



May 5 a second case was found, and anoth- 

 er on each of the following dates: May 9, 

 10, 11, 16. 18, 19, there being two found May 

 18. Then a case was found June 3 and June 

 7. Then cases were found as follows: 



June 15, 7 cases; June 19, G; June 24, 3; 

 June 26, 4; June 27, 7; June 28, 1; July 5, 2. 



I give these dates thus particularly, as 

 there seems to be some breaking of rule, the 

 rule being said to be that the disease appears 

 early in the season, and then disappears 

 more or less as the season advances. It will 

 be observed that only 11 cases were found 

 before June 15. On and after that date 30 

 cases were found. It might be said, how- 

 ever, that the season didn't "advance," for 

 it was a season of terrific drouth and dearth. 

 Not till August did the pastures turn green 

 again. 



In my favor was the fact that the colonies 

 were strong, and remained strong in spite of 

 the dearth. For it will be remembered that 

 an important part of the treatment of Euro- 

 pean foul brood is to make the colonies 

 strong. 



As to the severity of the disease — in a few 

 cases only a single bad cell was found; in 

 some, 2 or 3 bad cells; in some, 5 or 6; and 

 none that could be called very bad. In order 

 to know something definite I went to the col- 

 ony that I believed was the worst, selected the 

 worst frame, and on that the worst 4 inches 

 square. Ithinkitwas July 7. The queen was 

 4 years old. In the space marked off were 23 

 rows with 19 cells in a row, making 437 cells. 

 Of these 437 cells, 76 were bad, or 17.4 per 

 cent. Considering that less than one cell in 

 five was bad in this worst spot in the hive, 

 I suppose it would be safe to say that not 

 one cell in ten was bad in the whole hive. 



Now comes something that was a surprise 

 to me. It is generally understood that in 

 European foul brood the affected brood usu- 

 ally dies quite young; and if I had been ask- 

 ed what proportion of the diseased cells were 

 sealed I might have said perhaps one in 

 fifty. Indeed, I might have said so in the 

 present case if I had not counted and cm-e- 

 fully scrutinized the sealed cells in counting. 

 As a matter of fact, of the 76 bad cells 14 

 were sealed or partly sealed. That is, 17.4 

 per cent, or nearly one in five. Without 

 careful scrutiny I would not have suspected 



any thing wrong with these, for most of 

 them were perfectly sealed, and without 

 picking them open nothing could be seen 

 wrong with them, unless it be that the seal- 

 ing was a trifle darker than that of the sound 

 brood. 



Of the eight cases found in May, five suf- 

 fered a relapse after being treated, although 

 there is no certainty that they were not 

 freshly affected from some surrounding dis- 

 eased colony. Indeed, it looks a little"as if 

 most of the cases were from the latter source, 

 for it hardly seems likely that, if the disease 

 was a home product, it would have appeared 

 in most cases only after the middle of June. 

 Yet I have an uncomfortable feeling that I 

 would still have had trouble if no neighbor- 

 ing bees had been within a thousand miles. 



In the two previous years it was rather 

 common for a colony to clean up itself where 

 the disease was mild. But it seemed no use 

 to wait for any thing of the kind this year, 

 as it occurred in only one case. Was this 

 on account of the dearth? So in the first 

 week in July I made a business of treating 

 every case, no matter if only a single bad 

 cell was found. Except in the one worst 

 case, the queens seemed active and vigorous, 

 so I killed only that one queen. In the oth- 

 er cases I caged the queen, and left her caged 

 seven to twelve days, generally ten <lays. 

 Ten days later all were found clean; but for 

 how long, I am not prepared to say. 



Please note that I am talking about Euro- 

 pean foul brood, not American, and that 

 nearly all cases were very mild. In severe 

 cases I would have given a cell or a very 

 young virgin in place of the old queen. 



Marengo, 111. 



WHOLESALE REQUEENING. 



Finding Queens in Populous Black Colonies Dur- 

 ing a Time of Robbing. 



BY J. L. BYER. 



While an article on finding queens and re- 

 queening colonies from which the queens 

 have been taken may be a bit unseasonable 

 at this time of the year, yet in view of the 

 fact that I have just recently had an inter- 

 esting experience in this line of work 1 feel 

 that perhaps some who may have similar 

 work to do in the near future may be bene- 

 fited by knowing just how the work was 

 done, and may thus be in a position to form 

 their own deductions and avoid the mistakes 

 that we made. 



Last spring we bought an apiary of 220 

 colonies about 2o0 miles east of our home; 

 and with some increase, made by natural 

 swarming, the yard now consists of 2so col- 

 onies. The bees were all blacK; and as Euro- 

 pean or black brood is approai-hing the lo- 

 cality from at least two direftions we came 

 to the conclusion that it would be best to re- 

 queen the whole apiary with Italian blood. 



