426 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1921. 



lasd i-t*-'"'" 



J^EMTHE^IElD^raF^: 



-' %^f?::TS^ 



TREATING AMERICAN FOUL BROOD 



Advantages of Destroying Diseased Colonies at the 

 Close of the Honey Flow 



American foul brood is a disease which I 

 am satisfied ^Yill always remain with us. 

 The tact that we have no control over the 

 jilaces our bees visit, or the places wild bees 

 house themselves, helps to confirm this be- 

 lief. This being the case, it seems to me 

 that we must find some better system of 

 handling the disease than that now in use. 

 The treatment now generally used has many 

 grave faults. 



While employed by the State of Ohio as 

 an apiary inspector I found that very few 

 were making a real success of treating dis- 

 ease by the shaking method. I also found 

 that I was not 100 per cent .successful when 

 following the treatment I was advising bee- 

 keepers to use. It is true that in a large 

 percentage of the cases I was successful, but 

 I failed in enough cases to condemn the 

 treatment as far as I was concerned. 



When we become very familiar with 

 American foul brood we find it is quite regu- 

 lar in its habits. We can depend on just 

 what it is going to do, and about how long 

 it will take to do it. This allows us to 

 handle it in a way that is impossible with 

 European foul brood. Every beekeeper of 

 my acquaintance who has had much Ameri- 

 can foul lirood to contend with and who 

 has made a fair success in handling it, now 

 has no fear of it. The thing that bothers 

 him most is the extra work it makes, and 

 the fact that the shaking treatment cuts 

 down his crop. I probably should state that 

 I am considering this from the extracted- 

 honey producer 's standpoint only. 



Few commercial beekeepers have the time 

 to spare during their surplus honey flow to 

 give to the treatment of disease. This being 

 the ease, I began to consider other plans to 

 control this disease, and after talking with 

 Miany beekeepers about it I finally decided 

 on the following treatment: 



I first built a small building to be used 

 as a honey-house for diseased colonies. In 

 it I installed a separate extracting outfit. 

 All combs and equipment for use on dis- 

 eased colonies are stored in this building. 

 On my spring examinations I mark all dis- 

 eased colonies and usually leave them alone 

 until the clover honey flow. About the sec- 

 ond week of the honey flow I cage the 

 queens in these colonies. On about the sev- 

 enth day after caging queens I destroy the 

 queen-cells. Supers are then supplied as 

 needed until the honey flow is over when 

 the honey is removed by means of the es- 

 cape-board. The colony is then destroyed, 

 and its hive is taken to the disease house. 



This is done in the evening. By caging the 

 queen instead of killing her the colony will 

 probably be more contented and work bet- 

 ter. But the great value of caging instead 

 of killing the queen is that, as long as a 

 queen is in the colony, fertile workers will 

 not develop. 



I have saved many colonies after having 

 run them for honey by shaking them into 

 an empty hive after the honey flow was en- 

 tirely over, leaving them in the empty hive 

 three or four days and then supplying them 

 with a full set of combs, a young laying 

 queen, and plenty of food. This works well 

 if the colony is still strong, but I consider 

 that the bees are not worth the trouble for 

 reasons already given. 



Colonies operated by this plan give a lar- 

 ger average than queen-right colonies of 

 the same strength. I presume it is because 

 of the fact that they had no brood to feed 

 and nearly all bees can go to the field. All 

 colonies that develop disease after the clo- 

 \er flow are destroyed. Our fall flow is 

 never good enough to treat these colonies 

 if we desired to. And to treat them and 

 feed enough to put them in a condition that 

 would insure first-class colonies for the next 

 season' would cost more than they would be 

 worth. 



Disease has cost American beekeepers a 

 large amount of money. But I feel sure that 

 it has made us enough better beekeepers 

 nearly to balance the account, if not more. 

 A beekeeper that survives attacks of either 

 American or European foul brood is pretty 

 certain to be a better beekeeper because of 

 his experience. 



To make good my numbers I make in- 

 crease during the honey flow to replace these 

 destroyed colonies. It is rather easy for a 

 large beekeeper to make all the increase he 

 desires. In fact many have troxible holding 

 their increase down. This being the case, 

 what good re.nson is there for saving dis- 

 eased colonies? There is no doubt but that 

 much disease is scattered by the treatment 

 some are giving. When our numbers are 

 made good hy making increase we can be 

 reasonably certain that these are healthy. 



Weston, Ohio. A. C. Ames. 



INTRODUCINGVALUABLE QUEENS 



A New Method for Introducing; Making Increase, 

 and Uniting Weak Colonies 



Here is something that has caught on 

 with a number of prominent beekeepers here 

 for the purposes outlined above. It has 

 been well tried out for two seasons and has 

 ]))o\eil \ery successful here. I have used 

 it in my own ajnary with 100 per t»ent sue- 



