888 



GENERAL CO: 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



■PONDENCE 



DR. MILLER'S SHORT CUT IN TREATING EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER 



An Illinois beekeeper who says he has 

 read all my writings in Gleanings writes 

 me as follows: 



I have about 40 colonies of bees, and this summer, 

 for the first time, I noticed foul brood among my 

 bees. I may have had some last summer, but did 

 not notice it. I treated eleven colonies — all but one 

 successful. 



I still have about four colonies affected. Is there 

 any way of saving any of the combs so they can be 

 used again ? 



Must combs that have been used in supers be 

 destroyed, or can they be used in supers or brood- 

 chambers again ? 



What I want to know is how to cure foul brood 

 economically and quickly. Are there any short cuts ? 



The shortest answer to this letter would 

 be to say that I have written pages in 

 Gleanings about my experience with foul 

 brood, answering fully the questions asked, 

 and it will take a good deal less time for 

 liim to look up what I have written than 

 for me to write it all over again. Or I 

 might reply that my experience is given in 

 " Fifty Years among the Bees," and I would 

 rather make him a present of that book than 

 to write a private letter of reply. 



The fact probably is that he is entirely 

 honest in saying he has read all I have 

 written, yet it has not occurred to him that, 

 like thousands of others, he has skipped 

 every thing printed about foul brood until 

 the disease struck him. It would be space 

 well used if a whole page of large type 

 should be occupied telling beekeepers that 

 they should read up in advance on the sub- 

 ject of foul brood, provided it were certain 

 it would be read and heeded by all those 

 who as yet have not been visited by the 

 pest. 



Instead of that the average beekeeper 

 waits until he finds something to make him 

 suspect there may be disease among his 

 bees, and then all at once he writes to some 

 one who, he thinks, has had experience, and 

 expects by return mail all the help he needs. 

 I've had many a letter of the kind. Please, 

 please, friends, be reasonable. If I should 

 reply by mail to such letters it would take 

 all my available time. I am glad to answer 

 to the best of my ability letters desiring an- 

 swers in the bee-journals. Such replies 

 are read by hundreds instead of being read 

 by a single individual, and whatever of 

 value there may be in them will be multi- 

 plied many times ; but as to making private 



replies I must treat all alike, and so decline 

 to reply by mail. 



Before answering the specific questions 

 asked by my correspondent, let me say a 

 few words to those who as yet have no dis- 

 ease among their bees, in the hope that 

 they may be read by at least a few of those 

 to whom they are addressed. 



If you are wise you will inform yourself 

 in advance as to diseases of bees, and will 

 know something about what to do. Whether 

 you have been thus wise or not, when you 

 find something that you think is disease in 

 brood-combs, send by mail a sample of the 

 suspected comb three or four inches square 

 to Dr. E. F. Phillips, Department of Agri- 

 culture, Washington, D. C. Send it secure- 

 ly done up in wood or tin, writing Dr. 

 Phillips about it. Or write him first and 

 he will send you a tin box in which to send 

 the sample, together with a frank to cover 

 postage, and he will also send you printed 

 matter giving you needed instruction, and 

 for all of this there will be no charge. 



Now as to the questions asked : I don't 

 know how to reply, for I haven't any ink- 

 ling whether it is American or European 

 foul brood that is in question, and the two 

 are entirely distinct diseases. The only thing 

 is to answer as to each disease, keeping in 

 mind that my personal experience has been 

 only with European foul brood, knowing 

 nothing about American foul brood except 

 what I have learned from others. 



If the disease is American foul brood then 

 I doubt if there is any short cut " around 

 the McEvoy treatment " unless it is to get 

 along with one less shaking than was orig- 

 inally used. But if the disease is European 

 foul brood, then I may say that there is a 

 very short cut. It has been given again and 

 again in Gleanings; but as there are al- 

 ways those who, having skipped it in the 

 past, may now feel the need of it, it may 

 be well to repeat it. The late E. W. Alex- 

 ander discovered a plan away ahead of the 

 McEvoy plan, and I made a short circuit on 

 the Alexander plan. The saving to bee- 

 keepers by this plan has likely been worth 

 thousands ; and I may here remark, more in 

 sorrow than anger, and more in amusement 

 than either, that for my part in the plan I 

 have no vivid recollection of any word of 

 commendation ; but I do recall that I have 



