764 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Some time ago I was on the verge of 

 conteracting the theory of the germs of 

 foul brood being in comb foundation 

 unless subjected to a certain high degree 

 of heat. Now with what experience I 

 have had with foul brood, I do not think 

 that the disease can be spread by the 

 use of comb foundation, and no matter 

 if it only has been heated enough to 

 work into foundation ; provided, how- 

 ever, that the foundation has not after- 

 wards been exposed to the disease. 



But now comes Mr. C. J. Robinson, 

 (see article on page 606) who says : 



" Here I record my discovery of what 

 I know to be a fact in Nature, well 

 knowing, too, that none will believe my 

 assertion or doctrine at present." 

 Further he says : " Pure honey, while 

 in comb-cells, never is — never was — 

 charged with foul brood virus." 



Now, as I wrote my experience with 

 foul brood in 1889, I know that I have 

 not exaggerated the article, but with 

 what experience I have had since, I 

 could add a great deal more to it. If 

 Mr. Robinson had seen that article, he 

 would have noticed that I claimed that 

 bees in robbing a foul-broody colony, 

 and flying less than one-half mile, did 

 not get the disease, and would now also 

 add that said apiary was since moved to 

 within 15 rods of my own apiary, and 

 whenever anything goes wrong with my 

 neighbor's bees, he comes after me to 

 see what the matter is. Still, I never 

 have seen any, or never heard of any, 

 foul brood among my neighbor's bees. 



Oh, no, Mr. R. is not the first one to 

 discover that "pure honey, while in 

 the comb-cells, never is — never was — 

 charged with foul brood virus ;" for if 

 it was so charged and contained the 

 germs of disease, why, it would certainly 

 not be pure ; and the bees that I referred 

 to in my article (see page 166 of the 

 American Bee Journal of March 16, 

 1889] would have become diseased. 



Now, for the benefit of those that 

 might be unfortunate enough to get the 

 disease among their bees, I will extend 

 this article a little further, and will say 

 that in the latter part of the season of 

 1891, my business took me away from 

 home about two months. Upon my re- 

 turn home, I walked through my apiary, 

 which was about the last of October, 

 and I noticed a small cluster of bees — 

 about two teacupfuls — on the branch of 

 a cherry-tree, and as it was quite cool, 

 and very few bees flying, except at two 

 hives the bees were very actively flying, 

 and upon going to the hives I found that 

 one colony was robbing the other, so 



that what bees were left in one hive 

 swarmed out and clustered where I 

 found them. 



Now let me say right here, that this 

 colony was rather weak in the spring, 

 but they built up quite rapidly during 

 the honey-flow in July, so that I thought 

 they would cast a swarm, and I put a 

 case of sections on the hive, which they 

 entered and built the sections full of 

 comb, and stored some honey, but did 

 not cap it. Along about the first of 

 August they hung out in large clusters 

 during hot spells, but now upon examin- 

 ing the cause of the robbing, I found 

 that they were rotten with foul brood. 



Now let us follow the colony that did 

 the robbing, as they were located about 

 80 feet from the foul-broody hive, and 

 they had carried out the most of the 

 honey from six frames of the Gallup 

 pattern, and, as it looked, took some of 

 the honey from every frame. The hive 

 contained 14 Gallup frames (that is, the 

 foul-broody one), and the robbers were 

 in a ten-frame Simplicity hive, and they 

 wintered and came out strong in the 

 spring. 



As my bees cast only about one swarm 

 to every 10 colonies of bees this season, 

 the colony that did the robbing was 

 watched very closely for the disease to 

 appear, but they cast a swarm of bees 

 and stored a case of 28 sections of comb 

 honey, and when I prepared them for 

 winter, they appeared just as healthy as 

 any in the yard. 



Mr. R. and others claim that it is the 

 weak colonies that become diseased first; 

 but that is not my experience, as at least 

 two-thirds of the colonies that became 

 diseased in my apiary were my strongest 

 colonies. 



In the spring of 1884, my 16 colo- 

 nies of bees dwindled away until I lost 

 all I had, and upon cleaning out the 

 hives I noticed that the combs and hives 

 had a very bad smell, and that the 

 combs contained a rotten mass of brood, 

 but I thought it was chilled brood that 

 had rotted on account of being left in 

 the hive too long after the bees had 

 died ; but I cleaned out the hives as 

 best I could, and rendered the combs 

 into wax, and purchased another colony 

 in a ten-frame Simplicity hive, for which 

 I paid $10, and started again. 



That season they did well, and in- 

 creased to 4 colonies, which wintered in 

 good condition, and everything went on 

 nicely until about the close of the honey 

 harvest, or July 20th or 25th, when I 

 examined some of my strongest colonies 

 that had not as yet cast a swarm. I 



