GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



May, 1922 



wWi^mt^ 





SfK&M THWffiEDWBC 



EUROPEAN FOUL BROOD 



Two Difficulties Encountered in Cleaning up Thi; 

 Disease and How One Was Solved 



For three years I have battled with Euro- 

 ])ean foul brood in my West Virginia apiary 

 and have encountered every form and phase 

 of this deadly disease. During these years 

 I have given the subject much study and 

 have learned more than I ever expected to 

 know. I have been fighting the disease 

 against fearful odds, as I can not get to my 

 apiary until the last week in May, and any 

 one familiar with the disease knows what 

 frightful ravages can be wrought during 

 the months of April and May, even in this 

 latitude, if the season is propitious for 

 brood-rearing. 



I have reached the definite conclusion 

 that the beekeeper may as well make up 

 his mind to fight this disease year after 

 year, if it ever gets a foothold in his neigh- 

 borhood, because, although Ave can secure 

 perfect co-operation of all the beekeepers 

 and eradicate it in our apiaries, there will 

 remain a continual source of re-infection 

 from the bee-trees in the vicinity. So I for 

 one have joined battle to the bitter end. T 

 am not discouraged at the prospect, because 

 T have learned how to clean up the disease 

 in m}"- apiary. (When I left in September T 

 was convinced after the closest inspection 

 of all my colonies, that I did not have a 

 single diseased larva.) I am also encour- 

 aged, because I know that the native black 

 bee, which is of questionable value, is 

 doomed. As the bee-trees become inhabited 

 with pure Italians, the chance of infection 

 will be much less. Furthermore, T am en- 

 couraged, because the jack-leg beekeepers, 

 who store their bees in boxes and "bee- 

 gums." will soon drop out. 



I shall not discuss all phases of the sub- 

 ject, but shall turn to the two real problems. 



In my experience I have never succeeded 

 in cleaning up the disease by removing the 

 queen for a period shorter than 27 days. I 

 have requeened with the very best Italian 

 queens T could buy and in every colony into 

 which I have introduced them on the tenth, 

 the fifteenth and the twentieth day, I have 

 found an outbreak of the disease within two 

 weeks. I feel sure that the infection came 

 from inside the colony, for in the same yard, 

 where there might be cases of robbing in 

 hives that are weakened from disease, I 

 have not yet had a single case of re-infec- 

 tion during the same season, in colonies that 

 had been kept qucenless for 27 days. I do 

 not dispute the experience of others in this 

 matter, but I am simply giving the facts 

 from my own experience. 



Allow me to make a statement for tlu> 

 benefit of those beekeepers who have not 



had experience with this disease. It is es- 

 sential that tliree things be done, if the 

 fight is to be won. First, the very day you 

 detect the disease, remove the queen. Sec- 

 ond, do not try to clean up a weak colony. 

 Put two weak ones into one hive and de- 

 stroy any frames having brood that you can 

 not get into this one hive. I have found 

 that frames of honey taken from a diseased 

 hive will not transmit the germs to a 

 healthy hive, though I do not advise trans- 

 ferring such frames to healthy hives. Third, 

 never allow any colony in your yard to be- 

 come weak, for you may have overlooked 

 diseased larvae at your last inspection and 

 robbers from the healthy hives will spread 

 the disease all through your apiary. This is 

 most important. 



Now we are ready for the gravest diffi- 

 culties I have encountered. 



It has been my experience that any colony 

 that is forced to stay queenless for a long 

 period will become very slack on honey- 

 carrying, but very strong on pollen-carrying. 

 And their combs soon become pollen-bound. 

 In my beekeeping experience I know noth- 

 ing that so demoralizes me as this. T do 

 not know any practical plan of overcoming 

 it. T have tried placing these pollen-bound 

 frames, two at a time, in a hive-body over a 

 new swarm that has been hived in a brood- 

 chamber with only two frames of drawn-out 

 comb, the rest being only foundation, or 

 over a colony obtained by dividing. This 

 has occasionally resulted in cleaning un the 

 pollen-bound frames, but I can not call it a 

 success at all commensurate with the trouble 

 involved. I am not ready to offer a solu- 

 tion for this difficulty. Will some other bee- 

 keeper tell us how to meet it? 



The more serious difficulty, however, has 

 in a fashion been overcome. This difficulty 

 is the development of laying-workers in the 

 colony that has been kept queenless so long. 

 Any one Avho has ever had those crazy old 

 maids to deal with, when they once get the 

 taste of having children, knows something 

 of the seriousness of this difficulty. 



T find that about three out of five colo- 

 nies that have been kept queenless for 27 

 days will develop laying-workers. 



Here is my plan for preventing it: Ee- 

 move the queen on the first day; cut out 

 queen-cells on the ninth day; introduce a 

 capped queen-cell in a protector on the tenth 

 day; the queen emerges about the fourteenth 

 day and the queen is mated on about the 

 nineteenth day. Cage the queen on the 

 twentieth day'; introduce the new Italian 

 queen in a cage on the twenty-fifth day, and 

 release her on the twenty-seventh day. 



Not once has this plan failed to stop lay- 

 ing-workers. IT. B. Arbucklo. 



Davidson, N. C. 



I 



