OCTOBER 1, 1914 



763 



keepers, hence the conversation was simply 

 and solely about the honeybee. 



Reflection has only added positive assur- 

 ance to this convincing line of reasoning. 

 There is no doubt but that foul brood will 

 some day — perhaps within the next few 

 years, who knows? — establish itself in this 

 fair southland of ours, so I am trespassing 

 upon tlie kindness of the editor and using 

 perfectly good space in Gleanings to issue 

 a warning to fellow beekeepers. The big- 

 gest beemaster, as well as the smallest 

 (perhaps the one-hive man) should begin 

 to spread the gospel of preparation and 

 thereby safeguard their own interests — now. 



It is the box-hive beekeeper, friends, to 

 whom we must in some manner carry the 

 work of enlightenment. Thereby hangs our 

 own salvation from a beekeeping stand- 

 point. Tell the unprogressive, ignorant 

 keepers of bees in box hives that he must 

 eliminate his ''gums;" spend a few dollars 

 for modern appliances, or else go out of the 

 business. He will make back his money 

 with interest the first year after changing 

 over to modern methods, and it is especially 

 the fellow with his few box hives "who 

 doesn't 3'et know that the civil war is over" 

 whom we must convince, first of all, that it 

 is to his personal interest to change over 

 from antiquated methods of a past and 

 forgotten age. 



"When foul brood does hit this section of 

 the United States it is going to be a veri- 

 table blessing in disgniise," my friend con- 

 tinued, "for it will sweep away the black 

 bee from the face cf the land; our box-hive 

 men will be put out of business, and it will 

 be the specialist with his hundreds and 

 even thousands of colonies who will then 

 control the production of honey." 



Even so ; Mr. Irish may be right ; and 

 yet, friends, can we stand the cost in actual 

 money to us? Will not the big man as well 



as the little fellow, the progressive as well 

 as the unprogressive, suffer alike in losses? 



Assured the specialist; the up-to-date- 

 bee-journal-reading man; the wide-awake 

 intelligent man or woman will finally pre- 

 vail against the disease, but at what cost of 

 time, labor, money, and anxiety? 



Would it not be better to spread che 

 warning now far and near — to convert, as 

 it were, the box-hive old-gum man into a 

 modern beekeeper? 



It is well worth the trouble, my friends; 

 let us be up and doing. 



Now there may be some who would reason 

 like this : "No chance on earth ; never any 

 foul brood in this section." Listen — here's 

 the point : If you buy a queen and she 

 comes in her cage with workers as attend- 

 ants and you introduce the queen to a col- 

 ony, and the man from whom you bought 

 her had foul brood and did or did not know 

 it, what about the chances of the disease 

 appearing? 



Do as the big fellows have advised; 

 turn the queen and her attendants loose in 

 a room near a window with lights down or 

 sashes if you lilease; recage the queen in a 

 fresh cage and kill every worker and burn 

 the whole shooting-match. Not much effort 

 at that; isn't the precaution worth while? 



In conclusion, let me emphasize with all 

 the vigor at my command, that, if you want 

 a queen, be sure to get her from some pow- 

 erful fair-dealing, painstaking breeder, then 

 your chances are reduced to a minimum 

 from a contagious standpoint. 



Foul brood is assuredly a thing to be 

 I'eckoned with in this "locality" some day, 

 and it behooves us, as progressives in the 

 business, to use every effort to eliminate 

 now and forever the abomination of bee- 

 keeping in the Southeast — the box hive and 

 the genus gum. Let's get busy now. 



Savannah, Ga., April 19, 1914. 



TEN GOOD ^^DONTS" FOM BEEKEEPERS FEARING FOUL BROOD 



BY V. V. DEXTEK 



For some time I have thought of writing 

 an article on foul brood from the standpoint 

 of the honey-producer. We have had plen- 

 ty of articles from the bee inspectors and 

 the queen-breeders telling how to cure this 

 disease, but it seems to me that it is a great 

 deal more important to keep from having a 

 disease than to cure it after we get it. 

 Where whole apiaries have become I'otten 

 with American foul brood, I hold that it is 

 usually the fault of the person who is caring 

 for said bees by neglecting to keep watch of 

 the brood-nest, and by spreading the disease 



from hive to hive. There may be localities 

 where there are so many shiftlass beekeep- 

 ers and so much foul brood that it is im- 

 possible to keep bees healthy, but I doubt if 

 there are many such. 



Three years ago I had typhoid fever and 

 it was impossible for me to care for my bees 

 as they should have been cared for. In tak- 

 ing off the honey late in the fall we found 

 one colony dead from foul brood and two 

 others diseased, in a yard of about a hun- 

 dred. We promptly burned them, saving 

 samples of the brood which were sent away 



