February, ipog. 



American ^Bge Journalj ;^^ % 



ara district is famous. Of course, the 

 bee-keeping program is yet in emljryo, 

 and announcements as to the probable 

 line of investigations to be carried for- 

 ward, will be looked for with interest. 



A station of that nature, properly 

 equipped and "manned," camiot help 

 but be a source of great benefit to the 

 Province at large, and the project will 

 no doubt have the hearty co-operation of 

 all Canadian bee-keepers. One of the 

 most important things necessary to make 

 the scheme a success, is to see that a 

 thoroughly competent person is in charge 

 of the work. Barring that essential, 

 everything else being perfect, an experi- 

 mental apicultural station would be a 

 negligible quantity. It is to be hoped that 

 when an appointment is made, that that 

 thought will be uppermost in the minds 

 of "the powers that be." 



Foul Brood Treatment — License to 

 Keep Bees. 



Seeing an article on page 339, "Feeding 

 Sugar Instead of Honey," lias caused me to 

 ask you a few questions. 



1. How did your friend positively know 

 that liis bees were free from tlie disease of 

 foul brood? 



2. In following the McEvoy plan of treat- 

 ing this disease, I have followed all direc- 

 tions to the letter, and the bees have passed 

 to nice, clean, white, full-capped combs of 

 new brood, and are hatching nicely. -\t what 

 length of time and under what conditions may 

 I look for the disease to reappear? All parts 

 of the hive are new. 



3. If in shaking on comb-foundation the 

 second time you were to find only 3 cells of 

 diseased brood on one frame in this second set, 

 would you remove only the one frame, or 

 would you shake the third time? 



4. Do you think this shaking treatment in 

 the hands of the average person who keeps 

 bees in the "any old box or hive plan" would 

 check or spread this disease? 



5. Should this treatment be used by any 

 but an up-to-date or expert handler of bees? 

 I If so, that lets »ie out.) 



6. How long after we see the slim, glossy, 

 shining bees crawling in front of the hives 

 out in the grass to die, may we look for the 

 disease to appear, and does this always happen ? 

 I think this is one of the first symptoms in a 

 wet, rainy season. I mean the crawling out to 

 die. 



7. If a colony of bees not treated should 

 show all the symptoms of American foul brood 

 during a hot, wet season — say June or .July — 

 and then when the rain stopped and the bloom 

 came, and they should clean out all the de- 

 cayed cells and fill up full of clean brood, 

 and put in a super of fine honey, all the brood 

 hatch, and they should build up strong with 

 bees by October i, and have plenty of stores 

 for winter, and you could not find any trace of 

 the disease except the odor or smell, what 

 should be done with the honey? 



8. What would you think of a license to 

 keep bees, and in the license stipulate that 

 none but movable frames were to be used? 

 They would be much easier to inspect than 

 old washing-machines or salt-barrels or soap- 

 boxes. The license would help to pay the in- 

 spector. C. B. Palmer. 



Bradshaw, Neb., Dec. 7, 1908. 



1. Foul brood is very easy to see in 

 new white combs, and might be detected 

 by the veriest novice, while the more 

 experienced person would possibly over- 

 look the disease in an old black comb. 

 In the case you refer too, a thorough 

 examination was made by the inspector 

 and no signs of the disease was found. 



2. If abundance of honey is coming in, 

 and some of the diseased honey has been 

 left with the bees, the disease may not 

 appear for some time ; but, on the other 

 hand, if nothing much is coming in from 

 the fields at the time of treatment, signs 

 of the disease will nearly always appear 

 in the first generation of brood, and 



usually the larva; will be dead before 

 sealing. These remarks assume that the 

 treatment has not been properly done, 

 for if done right the disease will not 

 appear again, i. e., if there is no robbing 

 or other source of outside infection 

 present. 



3. Extremely risky to take out but the 

 one comb, but in the hands of a careful 

 person it might be tried, and results 

 well watched. 



4. and 5. No one should attempt the 

 treatinent unless fully understanding the 

 same. Once the principles of the cure are 

 understood, the treatinent is simplicity 

 itself. The handling of colonies in bo.\- 

 hives when treating, is a source of dan- 

 ger at all times when foul brood is pres- 

 ent, and no tearing apart of such hives 

 should be attempted except when honey 

 is coming in from the fields to keep the 

 bees from robbing. 



6. I do not think the symptoms you 

 mention are common to American foul 

 brood, at least not in our "locality." 

 Some other cause is clearly apparent for 

 the condition of the bees as described. 

 Personally, I could never tell by the out- 

 side appearance of a colony if the dis- 

 ease were present. Of course, if a col- 



ony is very weak at a time when they 

 should be strong, one's suspicion will be 

 aroused. 



7. Bees never to any extent clean out 

 the dried-down scales of American foul 

 brood, for the simple reason that they 

 appear unable to do so. With European 

 or black brood the scales do not adhere 

 to the cells so closely, and the bees do 

 often remove them. Under the condi- 

 tions you mention, I would strongly sus- 

 pect that there was no disease present, 

 and would lay the blame to starved 

 brood due to the long spell of wet wea- 

 ther. 



8. I would be entirely in sympathy 

 with such a move. The Ontario Foul 

 Brood Act gives inspectors power to 

 order any bee-keeper, when disease is 

 present in the apiary, to have all colonies 

 on movable-frame hives inside of a 

 given time stated by the inspector. The 

 law should go farther and make it com- 

 pulsory for all bees kept by anyone, to 

 be on movable frames at all times. But 

 say, some of the so-called movable- 

 frame hives in some yards, are about as 

 bad as box-hives, as the frames are often 

 "movable" only when a crow-bar or 

 something else as formidable is brought 

 into requisition. 



mmmmmmmmmmsmm 



Rcflectlotiif 



or SI 



alifomia Bee-Keepfi 



By W. A. PRYAL, Alden Station.IOakland, Calif. 



Legislating for Bee-Keepers. 



It looks as if the University of Cali- 

 fornia will succeed in having the pres- 

 ent law relating to bee-diseases so 

 amended that it may be said to be an 

 entirely new law. It will be a hot one, 

 and will make some one stand around, 

 even if it does not drive the dread dis- 

 eases from the State. It will put up 

 some pretty strong bars to keep diseased 

 bees, including queens, from coming 

 here. All colonies, nuclei, queens in 

 cages, etc., coming into the State, or 

 passing from one county of the State 

 into another county thereof, must be 

 accompanied with a certificate of good 

 health before they can be admitted. This 

 is much like the law relating to fruit- 

 trees which was adopted here a number 

 of years ago, and is now to be found 

 on the statutes of all or nearly every 

 State in the Union. 



Mr. Ralph Benton, of the Agricul- 

 tural Department of the University of 

 California, is working strenuously to 

 have this law enacted; in fact, I believe 

 he drafted the bill which is probably 

 before the Legislature by this. The bill 

 also provides that an annual appropria- 

 tion of $2,500 be made to carry on the 

 work, which is sought to be placed 

 mainly in the hands of the apicultural 

 division of the University. The person 



to be named by this institution may be 

 said to be Head Inspector of Apiaries, 

 and will have co-extensive authority 

 with the inspectors appointed by the 

 supervisors ; he may appoint deputy in- 

 spectors where the counties fail to do so. 

 I read the proposed law casually when 

 on a visit to Mr. Benton's office at the 

 University; some portions I approved, 

 and others I did not like. The matter 

 has been brought before several of the 

 bee-keeping bodies of the State and 

 was approved by them. While I am in 

 favor of laws to stamp out foul brood. 

 I think, however, it unwise for the State 

 to be creating too many officers for 

 such purpose. Either wipe out the 

 county inspectors and turn the Univer- 

 sity corps loose upon the State to work 

 scientifically, if it is possible so to do, 

 or let the present law alone. 



A Plea for a Revised Nomenclatiire. 



Queer, isn't it, how the pursuit of 

 bee-keeping has been loaded with some 

 terms entirely unfit for the purpose they 

 were intended to serve. I arise to post 

 a motion (I guess that is about the best 

 way to get it before the world) to 

 have the next National meeting of our 

 apiarists appoint a committee of five 

 of the ablest men we have (I beg to 



