FEBRUARY 1, 1916 



103 



unless there is very little food coming' in, 

 when they are just as liable to starve their 

 brood as a weaker colony. In my experience 

 strong colonies never succumb to the dis- 

 ease when there is plenty of food coming' 

 in. 



I have never heard of a ease of European 

 foul brood found in bees taken from trees. 

 Has any one else? Yet these sa/ne bees 

 transferred into a modern roomy hive in an 

 infected locality quickly contract the dis- 

 ease. Bees in a tree, left to their own de- 

 vices, generally have quite a small brood- 

 nest ; for if the cavity is large, surplus 

 room is quickly taken up with surplus 

 stores, and in the spring- there is seldom 

 more room than that supplied by winter 

 consumption. As a consequence the period 

 of extensive brood-rearing is much shoi'ter. 

 and the bees reach the swarming condition 

 earlier. In other words, the chance of any 

 brood being: neglected is reduced to a mini- 

 mum. How else can the immunity to Euro- 

 ]iean foul brood found in trees be explained 

 than that they do not get a chance to spread 

 their brood like other bees, resulting in 

 more or less partial starvation and weaken- 

 ^ed vitality? 



My explanation of my method of treat- 

 ment of this disease is quite simple ; but 

 before giving it I wish to state that I do not 

 claim that it is a proven cure or even prov- 

 en exjjerience to hold good in all localities 

 and under all conditions. With my bees 

 and local conditions it works so well that 

 I consider it a cure. However, I have nevei- 

 handled black bees, nor have I ever experi- 

 enced in my apiary European foul brood in 

 its most virulent form, nor do I believe any 

 one is liable to with good Italian bees. 

 Possibly my method may not work with 

 black bees or a different locality. I should 

 hate to try to cuie it with poor bees. The 

 experience of others may contradict rather 

 than support this article. I give it for what 

 it is worth. 



SIMPLY CROWD THEM ! 



Now for the cure : In the treatment of a 

 colony or nucleus, no matter of what 

 streng-th, take away every bit of room the 

 bees are not fully occupying, oi' a little more, 

 and then contract the hive down till the 

 bees are croioded, using a division-board if 

 necessary. They must not have unoccupied 

 room if they are reduced to even one comb. 

 If nectar is coming in, that's all that is 

 necessary. If it is not, apply a stimulative 

 feeder. I have not found it necessary to 

 dequeen, altho if the case is bad it is liable 

 to be because the stock is poor, and for this 

 reason I would requeen the worst cases. 



Their only fault may be an overtendency to 

 spread broed. 



In swarming time this i.s liable to result 

 in swarming. Frankly, I do n.ot use it 

 much at this time, but unite all of the worst 

 cases, making rousing colonies of them, 

 dequeen, and feed as by the usual method 

 of treating disease. However, with me I 

 consider this treatment almost an annihila- 

 tion of my investment, and only the worst 

 cases are so treated — not as a cure, but to 

 prevent the spread of the disease. How- 

 ever, I have very few bad cases — almost 

 none in which the disease would overcome 

 the bees if I cared to let them wait before 

 treating. I must, however, admit that 

 spring months in this locality are much 

 more favorable than in most. Prior to 

 swarming time, and while colonies are not 

 yet strong, they may be more or less crowd- 

 ed, if nece?sary. In deciding whether a 

 colony will si and this treatment, there is 

 room for quite a bit of judgment and 

 knowledge of the humor of bees and what 

 they will probably do. 



Sooner or later bees treated by this meth- 

 od will require more room. Do not give a 

 colony super room until it can occupy and 

 have use for it; and in giving nuclei addi- 

 tional brood-nest, never use drawn combs. 

 Use full sheets of foundation and put it on 

 the outside, at least with diseased nuclei, 

 never spreading the brood. Your nuclei, 

 you will find, will build up almost or quite 

 as fast in the long run as if you had given 

 them abundance of room. 



In regard to brood-spreading, to me it 

 has always seemed that bees do best where 

 they were not given too much room, and 

 they seem to make the room themselves just 

 as soon as they really need it. I have never 

 yet practiced brood-spreading where I knew 

 that I derived any benefit from it. On the 

 other hand, many times I know it has cost 

 me money. Tliere may be times when there 

 is a profit in it, but I do not know when it 

 is. Mrst beginners always make the mis- 

 take of giving too much room to their bees, 

 and simply tingle with a burning desire to 

 spread brood as soon as there is any to 

 spread. I believe this is the most common 

 and costly mistake beginners make, for 

 verily it keeps the bees in a state of abso- 

 lute discouragement and demoralization. 



Of course, where one or two men are 

 looking after six or eight yards of 500 to 

 1000 colonies of bees one occasionally has 

 to give more room than the bees really 

 ought to have, for in this case the item of 

 labor is supposed to counterbalance any 

 loss of crops. But where proper attention 

 can be spared, I consider the giving of room 



