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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



November, 1921 



ments were being carried out in British Co- 

 lumbia, Arthur C. Miller of Providence, 

 R. I., was testing it out in this country and 

 that these tests were likewise successful. 



Various antiseptics have been used in 

 England for years in the treatment of brood 

 diseases, some recommending that the combs 

 be sprayed, some feeding the drug to the 

 bees in syrup, and others depending on fumi- 

 gation. Strange as it may seem to beekeep- 

 ers in this country many beekeepers in Eng- 

 land still practice feeding medicated syrup 

 to their bees as a preventive measure against 

 brood diseases. The disputes and confusion 

 in England as to the effect of drugs on the 

 brood diseases apparently have come about 

 by the failure to differentiate between Euro- 

 pean foul brood and American foul brood. 

 The cures reported in the literature by such 

 men as Cheshire, Simmins, and Cowan from 

 the use of drugs indicate that they were 

 working with European foul brood, and the 

 failures reported by others indicate that 

 they were working with American foul 

 brood. 



In this country the use of drugs in the 

 treatment of brood diseases was abandoned 

 years ago; but the statement of such men as 

 W. J. Sheppard and Arthur C. Miller as to 

 the efllcacy of sodium hypochlorite will, no 

 doubt, create renewed interest in this sub- 

 ject. 



There are, however, several questions 

 which those who are well seasoned from a 

 long experience with European foul brood 

 will want answered before they pin much 

 faith upon the new treatment. The behavior 

 of the disease during treatment, as described 

 by "W. J. Sheppard, is interesting. When the 

 combs were treated in the spring, there was 

 considerable re-infection, but later a strong- 

 er solution was used and the disease was 

 cleaned up. The following is given as typi- 

 cal of what occurred later in the season: 



"June 28th, 1921. Colony at Langley, European 

 foul brood very bad; at least 60 per cent of brood 

 dead. Sprayed 8 oz. of B.-K. to gallon of water, 

 to which four teaspoonfuls of "3 in 1" oil was 

 added. 



July 2nd. Colony cleaning up well; no new in- 

 fection. 



July 14th. About 5 per cent new infection. 

 Sprayed again, same strength as before. 



July 29th. 100 per cent clean. No trace of 

 European foul brood. Full of brood from side to 

 side and storing honey well." 



This is almost e^cactly what might be ex- 

 pected in strong colonies of a resistant 

 strain of Italians if no treatment had been 

 given. No doubt, check colonies were used 

 in these experiments, and probably the data 

 from these will be published later to show 

 just what difference there was in cleaning 

 up between the treated and the untreated 

 colonies. Until this is done the data on the 

 treated colonies are of but little value. The 

 erratic behavior of European foul brood and 

 its tendency to disappear later in the season 

 make it ditBcult to measure accurately the 

 efficacy of any given treatment. 



The solution when sprayed with a fine 

 mist sprayer, so that it penetrated well into 

 each cell, is reported to kill all the eggs 

 but not the larvae, and the bees apparently 

 are stimulated to clean the combs after 

 they were sprayed. Both the destruction of 

 the eggs and the stimulation to clean up 

 would tend in the direction of a cure wheth- 

 er the material functions in killing the 

 germs of the disease or not. If this treat- 

 ment should prove effective in the practical 

 control of European foul brood, it would be 

 interesting to know to what degree the ma- 

 terial destroys the infection and how much 

 of the cure is effected by reducing the 

 amount of brood and stimulating the bees 

 to greater activity. 



However effective sodium hypochlorite 

 may prove to be after further experiment, 

 beekeepers who have learned to control 

 European foul brood, by fortifying their api- 

 aries against its inroads by means of strong- 

 er colonies of a good resistant strain of 

 Italians, will probably not often need to re- 

 sort to the drug treatment; but when pre- 

 ventive measures fail, the drug treatment, 

 if dependable, may be of great value. 



:2n ^ PC 



IN OUE "Gleaned by Asking" department 

 in this issue, the question comes up as to the 

 amount consumed by 

 Amount of the bees during the 

 Shrinkage in process of feeding. 

 Feed Given. When feeding for win- 

 ter beekeepers count 

 on a considerable shrinkage, but there is no 

 agreement as to how much to expect. So 

 much depends upon the time and the man- 

 ner of the feeding that experimental data 

 obtained under one set of conditions may be 

 entirely misleading and lead to conclusions 

 far from the truth. Some contend that there 

 is a shrinkage of one half or more in the 

 weight of the syrup that is fed when it is 

 finally stored in the combs, while others con- 

 tend that the shrinkage is only a small per- 

 centage when the syrup is thick so that but 

 little if any ripening is necessary. The 

 great difference in the amount of shrinkage 

 with syrup of the same density depends, of 

 course, on the degree of activity of the bees 

 during the feeding process. This is well il- 

 lustrated in the difference between stimula- 

 tive feeding in the spring and feeding for 

 winter late in the season. 



About 25 years ago when most of the 

 honey produced in this country was pro- 

 duced in sections, many carefully conducted 

 experiments were carried out by different 

 beekeepers to determine the amount of honey 

 that reappeared in the form of comb honey, 

 when feeding back extracted honey at the 

 close of the honey flow to complete unfin- 

 ished sections. The data from these experi- 

 ments recorded in the beekeeping literature 

 at that time indicate that favorable condi- 

 tions were necessary to secure as much as 



