APRIL 1, 1916 



27r 



bees. They gathered but little honey, and 

 were very poor resisters of European foul 

 brood, while experiments with them cost me 

 a number of colonies before I awoke to the 

 fact that they were not what I wanted. 



Keep up your spirits, Mr. Hollermann ! 

 You'll tind European foul brood much less 

 serious than you think, if you have Ital- 

 ianized, and I feel sure that you have. I 

 do not agree with Mr. Selwyn when he says 

 that the Italians must first suffer from it 

 too. Mine did not, and that is reason 

 enough for me to disagree. It does not 

 take much trouble to find the disease in a 

 yard, and requires very little more inspec- 

 tion than should ordinarily be given a nor- 

 mal apiary. In the first i^lace, if bees get 

 thru the spring months and to the clover 

 flow without contracting the scourge, it is 

 almost a sure thing that there will not be 

 any until a scarcity of honey again; so, 

 outside of treating the colonies that con- 

 tracted it before this time, one need not be 

 looking for new cases but devote his time 

 to the honey harvest. One need not be so 

 expert as Arthur C. Miller in understand- 

 ing the conditions inside of a hive from 

 outside appearances, to know foul brood is 

 present. It is easily noticeable without 

 tearing the hive to pieces to find it. 



I have tried many methods of treating 

 European foul brood, and I don't blame 

 Mr. Holtermann for feeling the world on 

 his shoulders if he is considering many that 

 are recommended. To follow the instruc- 

 tions of many bee-doctors, one would have 

 to destroy all combs and hives in the infect- 

 ed area, and do nothing but treat sick bees. 

 I don't destroy any hives, and but very few 

 combs; yet I manage to clean up the dis- 

 ease and get a good crop of honey. My 

 treatment follows Dr. Miller's, except that 

 I kill the queen from the diseased colony 

 and introduce fine Italian stock, so as to 

 have a new queen laying at the expiration 

 of the ten-day period. I never attempt this 

 plan during the spring or fall, but only 

 during a good honey-flow, as the bees very 

 rarely clean up the disease unless plenty of 

 nectar is coming in. I attribute this to the 

 fact that bees always seem, during a flow, 

 to feed the fresh honey to the larvae; and 

 as this honey, as a rule, is free fi'om the 

 germs, there is very little reinfection in the 

 colony. In the fall or eaily spring, more 

 radical treatment is necessary. If the combs 

 in a hive have more than one-eighth of the 

 unsealed brood diseased at a time more than 

 two weeks in advance of the clover flow, I 

 shake the bees ofl on to full sheets of foun- 

 dation, giving them one comb of sealed 

 brood from a good Italian colony; and 

 after a week I kill the old queen and intro- 



duce Italians. If the colonies to be treated 

 are fairly strong, and there are more than 

 one of them, instead of destroying the 

 brood I stack it up two stories high, leav- 

 ing enough bees adhering, after the shak- 

 ing, to hatch out the sealed brood. At the 

 end of ten days I open up these stacked 

 queenless colonies, cut out all queen-cells 

 that have been built, and introduce good 

 Italian queens. The infected combs should 

 be melted up and the hive burned out with 

 gasoline. 



In the fall I simply destroy the colonies 

 as stated, for it has never paid me to keep 

 a diseased colony over until spring. 



However, the nicest way to use Dr. Mill- 

 er's method, and still get a crop of honey 

 from the bees (unless the disease has gone 

 too far), is to commence treatment at the 

 beginning of the clover harvest. Make the 

 infected colonies queenless, and unite as 

 many together as will make up one strong 

 colony and then introduce choice queens 

 after the ten-day pei'iod, hnt first make sure 

 of destroying all queen-cells started by the 

 colonies. Instead of laying queens I prefer 

 introducing choice cells, because I have 

 plenty of choice drones flying, and cells are 

 much more easily accepted by hives that 

 have been queenless for ten days than 

 frisky young queens. Dr. Miller's plan 

 works all right Avith me, and I think it will 

 with others, provided they use it as I do. 



Mr. Holtermann. in my opinion, will not 

 find European foul brood such a calamity 

 after he has dealt with it a year or so, 

 especially if he uses the afore-mentioned 

 treatment. Hencefoi-th, because of a little 

 more watchfulness he will get bigger crops 

 of honey and have finer bees. Where there 

 are now ten beekeepers to compete against 

 in his vicinity, there will soon b? but one. 

 Nothing but the right kind of beekeeper 

 Avill be left in the business, and better prices 

 will be obtained for honey. In short, fight 

 the plagne now and reap the harvest later, 

 for virtue, in this case, will surely give a 

 reward. 



The time is not far off when, because of 

 European foul brood, there will be no finer 

 bees nor better class of beekeepers in the 

 country than in m}' own county of Wetland. 

 However, I see no reasnn why all other 

 counties, including Mr. Holtermann's, be- 

 cause of these diseases, cannot correspond- 

 ingly improve. The wintering problem right 

 now is far more troublesome to me than 

 any bee disease; and our good friend, since 

 lie lias mastered the former so well, certain- 

 ly will not have much trouble with the 

 latter. Therefore, Mr. HoKer^nann, be not 

 pessimistic. Better times are surely in store 

 for you if you care (o work for them. 



