162 



stroy all queen-cells, and at the same time 

 give a ripe queen-eell, or introduce a virgin 

 queen from the best available Italian breed- 

 ing stock, keeping her confined to the lower 

 story by an excluder. This will usually re- 

 sult in a fine colony, free from disease, no 

 loss of combs, and, if favored with a good 

 honey-flow, a good crop of clean honey. 



It is apparent that this method disposes 

 of all the infection to be found in the api- 

 ary at the first treatment, which is very 

 important, and it is also economical of 

 time. It also gives us the best use of all 

 our bees, and these strong hospital colonies 

 will store honey in a manner not excelled 

 by the best of the other colonies. 



THE VALUE OF RESISTANT STOCK. 



It is a well-established fact that certain 

 vigorous strains of Italian bees are the 

 most resistant to European foul brood, and 

 yield more readily to treatment of the dis- 

 ease, than other strains. And it is not too 

 much to say that good resistant Italian 

 stock contributes more to successful treat- 

 ment than any other single factor. The first 

 step, therefore, that should be taken for its 

 prevention or treatment is to requeen with 

 a resistant strain of Italian bees, if they 

 are not already of that race. It is seldom 

 that the native black bees or their hybrids 

 will successfully resist the disease or attain 

 a permanent cure. With resistant Italian 

 bees the problem is comparatively easy. 



When inspecting and treating the first of 

 my apiaries to be attacked by European 

 foul brood I noticed that three or four 

 unusually strong and otherwise excellent 

 colonies of Italian stock never showed any 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



trace of the disease. The queen of the best 

 of these was used as a breeder; and every 

 [live in the apiary, except these three or 

 four, was requeened with queens reared 

 from this breeder. The next season all the 

 queens cf the i^revious season's breeding 

 were removed, and requeening was done 

 with queers reared from the same breeder. 

 A part of the apiary was requeened in the 

 same manner the third season, and would 

 have all been so requeened had not the 

 breeder been suddenly superseded. The 

 object of this line breeding was to fix the 

 resistant qualities so that in future breed- 

 ing there would be a fairly good prospect 

 of their being transmitted and a strain of 

 Italian bees established that could be de- 

 jiended upon to put up a good resistance 

 to the disease. 



Subsequent results proved the wisdom of 

 breeding with European-foul-brood resis- 

 tance as the object sought. Resistance is 

 not obtained at the expense of other desir- 

 able qualities, as it apparently goes hand in 

 hand with vigor, good wintering, and good 

 honey-gathering characteristics. This par- 

 ticular breeder was doing service for the 

 third year when she was superseded, and 

 possibly for a year or two before I had oc- 

 casion to select her, which adds the further 

 quality of vitality to the stock selected. 



Kenmore, N. Y. 



[This is the tliird of a series of four 

 articles by Mi-. Hershiser on the history and 

 treatment of foul brood. In the fourth and 

 last article, which will ai^pear in the March 

 15th issue, he will complete and summarize 

 his discussison of methods of treatment. — 

 Ed.] 



" Barklot Buzzer " apiary, u\\ iicd )i,\ l)r. ('. KUuii Llanchard, Yountjstown, Ohio. Six of the colonies 

 were made from two-pound packages of tiees. Each was put on empty combs and foundation, with a queen 

 about May 1. The doctor considers his hobby a paying one, as a good crop of comb honey was secured, 



