PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK 



AT $1.00 PER ANNUM. 





■■t*-r^»B»'~"''*^ ■"- -rl« AMERICA. J-- 



35 th Year. 



CHICAGO, ILL., MAY 23, 1895. 



No. 21. 



Cot^tributed /V^ticles* 



On Jjijporfant ^'tpiarjan SuhjGots^ 



Foul Brood Spread by Bees Robbing Fotil- 

 Broody Colonies. 



BY WM. M'EVOV. 



Oa pa^e 100 Mr. Graden takes the ground that " when 

 a colony infected with foul brood is robbed the infection is 

 not carried in the honey." 



It is over 19 years since I discovered that foul brood was 

 spread by robber bees, and that they carry the disease in pro- 

 portion to the amount of diseased honey that they convey to 

 their own hives. I l^now one bee-lceeper that lost 120 colonies 

 through his bees robbing some foul-broody colonies that his 

 neighbors brought into his locality. I know another bee- 

 keeper who lost a very large apiary through his bees robbing 

 out a few foul-broody colonies that one of his neighbors brought 

 near his bee-yard. I could give many such cases and prove 

 beyond every shadow of doubt, by many men in Ontario, that 

 they got foul brood into their apiaries through their bees rob- 

 bing foul-broody colonies kept by their neighbors. 



Before 1890, foul brood was spreading through the Prov- 

 ince of Ontario at an alarming rate, and to make matters a 

 thousand times worse, we had men selling many foul-broody 

 colonies and shipping them to many parts of Ontario. Then 

 as soon as these foul-broody colonies were robbed by the bees 

 from the surrounding apiaries, the disease began breaking 

 out iu'them. 



In September, 1889, Mr. Gemmill wrote to me that it 

 would only be a question of time when all the best bee-keepers 

 of our country would be driven out of the business, if we 

 didn't get an Act passed to stop the selling of diseased colonies 

 of bees, and to prevent careless neighbors from keeping foul- 

 broody colonies, which were fast spreading the disease to the 

 fine apiaries by the bees robbing the diseased colonies. He 

 also said that h3 was going to bring this matter before the 

 Ontario bee-keepers' convention, iii Belleville, and push it 

 until he got an Act passed to stamp out foul brood. 



When the bee-keepers met in Belleville, in January, 

 1890, Mr. Gemmill urged the convention to act promptly in 

 this matter. It was then moved by Mr. McKnight, seconded 

 by Mr. Darling, and carried, that Mr. Pringle and Mr. Gem- 

 mill be a committee to wait on the Minister of Agriculture, 

 and get an Act passed for the suppression of foul brood. 



The Act was passed on April 7, 1890, and I was ap- 

 pointed Inspector soon after. I knew from the many private- 

 letters that I had received for years from different parts of 

 the Province, that there was a great deal of foul brood in 

 Ontario. But when I went to work to examine the apiaries in 

 many counties, I became astonished at finding so very many 

 bee-yards in a horrible state with foul brood. I set to work 

 at once to straighten things up in the most peaceful way. 



With the help of Mr. Pringle, Mr. Gemmill and Mr. 

 Picket (the last three Presidents that I served under), we got 

 the foul-broody apiaries cured by wholesale. I warned the 

 bee-keepers everywhere to do all the handling of the diseased 

 combs and curing of their foul-broody colonies in the evenings, 

 so as not to have any robbing done, and to give the bees a 

 chance to settle down nicely before morning. In some api- 

 aries many of the diseased colonies could be cured by remov- 



ing their combs in the evening when the bees are gathering 

 honey and then left to build their own. But where an apiary 

 is badly diseased, and the bees have a quantity of unsealed 

 honey stored in the brood-nest in diseased cells, they cannot 

 be cured in the time of a honey-flow by putting the bees into 

 empty hives to build their own combs. Because when the 

 combs would be removing, the bees would rush right into the 

 unsealed honey in the stain-marked cells (diseased cells) so 

 readily gotten at without any uncapping, and then fairly 

 gorge themselves with the very worst of diseased honey. 

 •Then, as soon as the bees had a little comb made, they would 



Dr. Adolphus de Planta — See page 33:>. 



store part of the diseased honey in it, and then the disease 

 would break out again. 



Where foul-broody colonies are very badly diseased, and 

 weak in bees, the bees will, in the time of a houey-flow, store 

 a quantity of honey in the brood-nest, and a good deal of it 

 right in the cells where the foul-broody matter had dried down 

 and left its stain-mark on the lower side and bottom of the 

 cells. I have found hundreds of colonies in that condition, 

 and I had to see that every colony in all diseased apiaries was 

 perfectly cured or burn them. 



I also knew that nothing but a thorough cleansing pro- 

 cess would be of any use in curing all the foul-broody apiaries 

 that I would meet with on my rounds through the Province. I 

 told the bee-keepers everywhere to go to work in the honey 

 season and remove the foul combs in the evenings, and put in 

 frames with comb foundation starters ; and at the end of four 



