JUNE 1, 1916 



431 



BEEKEEPING AMONG the ROCKIES 



Wesley Foster, Boulder, Colorado 



Almost everything in the arid 

 regions needs special methods 

 adapted to our special conditions. 

 As an example, take the water 

 treatment for foul brood. Some 

 let the hives down very slowly into 

 the water, or, rather, push them 

 down, and, when clear down, put a lieavy 

 weight on top to hold them down. Here in 

 the West we have a very easy method. We 

 irrigate the foul brood. Go to the edge of 

 the irrigating-ditch and dig a nice square 

 hole, about six inches or so larger than your 

 hives to be treated; then place your foul 

 colony in the hole with the new hive on 

 top, and a sufficient weight on top of that 

 (sit on it if you want to). Dig a little 

 ditch from your irrigating ditch to the hole, 

 and let the water run in slowly and fill the 

 hole. When you get one colony treated, 

 take the old hive and comb out and dip out 

 the water and treat another in the same 

 way. One disadvantage of the water treat- 

 ment is that the old hives and combs do not 

 burn very readily; but suppose you have 

 just one hive to treat — you can dig the hole 

 a little deeper; and when you get the bees 

 all out just cover the whole thing with two 

 feet of earth. 



Transferring box hives can be done by 

 the water method ; but the loss of brood will 

 be considerable unless the box hive has cast 

 a swarm one week previous to the treat- 

 ment, in which case nothing of value need 

 be lost by the treatment with water, as the 

 honey is not hurt for bee-feed, and the wax 

 is not injured. The hive, being only a box, 

 is worth nothing anyway. 



CONTROL OF BEE DISEASES BY RESTRICTING 

 SHIPMENTS OF BEES AND QUEENS. 



The development of beekeeping to its 

 highest possibilities cannot be accomplished 

 without the shipping of bees and queens 

 from one point to another; neither can it 

 be accomplished without certain restrictions. 

 American foul brood cannot be transmitted, 

 it is believed, by shipping bees and queens 

 in combless and honeyless packages. Eu- 

 ropean foul brood has been pretty certainly 

 carried by sending queens thru the mails. 

 American foul brood is easily transmitted 

 in extracted and comb honey shipments. 

 What are we to do in these contingencies? 



Here in Coloi'ado it has been recommend- 

 ed to the beekeepers that they refrain from 

 purchasing bees and queens from outside 

 the state. Inasmuch as we have European 

 foul brood that may have been introduced 

 by receiving queens from an infected dis- 



trict in another i^late it has been decided to 

 caution beekeepers. And we are just as 

 anxious and just as much concerned that 

 no bees or queens shall be shipped out of 

 this infected district. We believe we should 

 take our own medicine, and are taking more 

 of it than we ask any one else to take. 

 Therefore beekeepers of Colorado are cau- 

 tioned against buying bees and queens out- 

 side the state, and shipments of bees and 

 queens are prohibited from the district in- 

 fected with European foul brood in so far 

 as our law will permit. 



Shipments of infected honey are not al- 

 lowed to go into general trade. They are 

 directed to cracker-factories. However, 

 beekeepers are too careless and indifferent 

 in this regard, and we must mend our ways. 

 An act i^rohibiting the sliipment of comb 

 or extracted honey from an infected apiary 

 would meet with the writer's approval. At 

 the present time it would be doubtful if it 

 could be enforced; but we shall come to it 

 sooner than many of us think. It would 

 cause a furore, the like of which the hubbub 

 over the net-weight law' would be tame. In 

 three years after such a restriction is passed 

 the counti'y would be freer of foul brood. 



If the beekeepers would have notice 

 served upon them that in two years all 

 diseased apiaries would be pi'ohibited from 

 shipping honey until such apiaries are free 

 from disease, it would make us hustle. 



The editor of Gleanings recently spoke 

 of too strict legislation in some states, and 

 there is no doubt that some of the laws are 

 more detrimental than helpful to beekeep- 

 ing interests. I should like to see full and 

 free discussion of the points over which 

 there is dispute. The editor mentioned that 

 if shipments of bees and queens were pro- 

 hibited from one state to another the bee- 

 keej^ers would be handicapped in getting 

 disease-resistant stock. But it is probably 

 true that there is not a state but that con- 

 tains beekeepers who have vigorous Italian 

 stock that could be secured without going 

 beyond the state lines for it. 



Personally I do not believe that thei'e is 

 such a thing as stock becoming immune to 

 the disease by long contact with it. There 

 is no immunity without strong vigorous 

 colonies headed by young prolific queens. 

 And I have observed no advantages of the 

 Italians over hybrids, strength and vigor 

 considered. 



A vigorous black colony so cross that no 

 drifting bees are allowed to enter will fur- 

 nish good imnnmity. [See Editorial. — ^Ed.] 



