November, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



711 



miles away ontiiely outside of their pres- 

 ent range of flight, leaving them there a 

 week or two and then taking them to your 

 place. In the meantime the bees will have 

 forgotten their old home and will stay 

 where you put them. They should be left 

 in the box hives during the winter to be 

 transferred next spring. Transferring is 

 more easily accomplished in the spring, and, 

 no doubt, the bees will winter better if left 

 in the box hives until that time. They 

 should be protected during the winter from 

 strong winds, and for best wintering the 

 hives should be packed as described in this 

 journal last month. 



VENTILATION AND THE SIZE OF BEE CELLAR. 



Question. — Will five colonies of bees winter in 

 a cellar 8 feet by 4 feet and 5 V2 feet deep when 

 snowed under all winter and without provision for 

 extra ventilation ? Harold Hanson. 



Minnesota. 



Answer. — Your little cellar is plenty 

 large enough for five colonies. In fact, you 

 could winter 15 or 20 colonies in a cellar of 

 this size without danger from overcrowding. 

 Usually two square feet of floor surface for 

 each colony is considered ample sj^ace for 

 safe cellar wintering if other conditions 

 are favorable. The fact that the cellar is 

 covered over with snow all winter may be 

 an advantage, for it would help keep up 

 the temperature required for good winter- 

 ing. You do not say whether the cellar is 

 in a loose sandy soil that would permit con- 

 siderable ventilation thru the soil if the 

 walls are jjorous, or whether it is in a heavy 

 clay soil. If in a sandy soil you will, no 

 doubt, find that no extra ventilation is 

 necessary. Bees, when wintering well, re- 

 quire but little air because they are quiet, 

 but, if on account of poor food or too low 

 a temperature they become more active, 

 they will of course need more air. It will 

 be well for you to provide a ventilating 

 shaft, which can be closed during the cold- 

 est weather if the temperature tends to 

 drop too low with the ventilator open. 



HOW EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD IS CARRIED OVER 

 WINTER. 



Question. — I have two colonies of Italians that 

 have a few cells of European foul brood. If I unite 

 them and clean up the hive will they get the dis- 

 ease again next spring? If the disease is not in 

 the honey how can it lie carried over winter when 

 there is no brood? C. H. J. Baumbach. 



Wisconsin. 



Answer. — The disease may appear again 

 next spring, especially if the colony should 

 become weak during the winter or early 

 spring. The fact that no diseased larvae can 

 be found in the fall or at any time when the 

 colonies are very strong, does not necessar- 

 ily mean that the colony is completely rid 

 of it, for some of the virus may still be 

 lurking in the combs. On the other hand, 

 the colony may be entirely free from the 

 disease next spring. 



Experiments conducted by Doctor White, 

 in inoculating colonies with European foul 

 brood, show that if BacillKS Pluton (the or- 

 ganism which causes the disease) is present 



in honey extracted from diseased colonies 

 it will be destroyed within a few months 

 while in storage. Apparently there is but 

 little if any danger of the disease being 

 carried over winter in the honey. In pol- 

 len, however, it remains virulent much 

 longer, in some cases more than 10 months. 

 When dry within the hive, as in a film on 

 the walls of the cells not perfectly cleaned, 

 it would probably remain alive for more 

 than a year, so there is plenty of opportun- 

 ity for the disease to be carried over win- 

 ter while there is no brood, even tho no evi- 

 dence of disease can be seen in the combs. 

 Whether the disease will appear again next 

 spring, therefore, depends largely upon the 

 thoroness with which the bees clean out the 

 brood-combs. Strong colonies of Italians 

 usually do a more thoro job of cleaning out 

 the cells, which explains how they rid 

 themselves of European foul brood. While 

 Bacillus Pluton can remain alive for a long 

 time in a dried film within the hive, if ex- 

 posed to direct sunlight it will be destroyed 

 within a few hours, so the fragments of the 

 diseased larvae that are carried outside the 

 hive would not be dangerous to other colo- 

 nies after a few hours' exposure to the sun. 

 It should be remembered that European 

 foul brood is quite different from American 

 foul brood in its resistance. American foul 

 brood is caused by a spore-forming organ- 

 ism {Bacillus larvae), the spores being high- 

 ly resistant, remaining virulent in the dried- 

 down scales for years and in honey for long 

 periods of time. 



BEEKEEPING WHERE AMERICAN FOUL BROOD IS 

 PREVALENT. 



Question. — Would it be of any use for me to 

 try to keep more colonies of bees when American 

 foul brood is about? John Bieseman. 



Ohio. 



Answer. — You can continue to keep bees 

 in spite of American foul brood in your 

 vicinity just as you continue to keep them 

 in spite of the winters or swarming or any 

 of the many other things that trouble us. 

 Usually only a small percentage of the colo- 

 nies will contract this disease each season, 

 and by watching for it in its early stages, 

 whenever the colonies are examined, the 

 disease can be detected before it does much 

 damage to the colony. By visiting neigh- 

 boring beekeepers and showing them how 

 to detect and treat the disease, if they do 

 not already know, the amount of disease in 

 a community can be so reduced that only 

 an occasional case should appear. Such co- 

 operation among beekeepers is, of course, 

 more difficult in towns and cities on ac- 

 count of the difficulty in finding all of one 's 

 beekeeping neighbors. Many extensive hon- 

 ey producers are securing good crops of 

 honey year after year in localities where 

 American foul brood is present, and would 

 no more think of giving up beekeeping on 

 account of disease in their neighbors ' colo- 

 nies than the farmer would think of giving 

 up farning on account of the weeds on 

 neighboring farms. 



