48 



TENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



In the meantime, the queen heading 

 the colony when treatment is to be 

 begun is to be destroyed. In fact, to 

 kill the queen is the first step to be 

 taken. But the reason for destroying 

 the queen has not, to my knowledge, 

 been given by any one. 



And to me it is something of a 

 mystery why simply caging the queen 

 for 30 days would not fill the bill, and 

 especially so in case the queen be a 

 good one at the time she is taken from 

 the infected colony, and to my mind 

 there has not been a good and suffi- 

 cient reason given as to why she 

 should be destroyed. 



In case this * matter has not been 

 fully tested I would suggest that some 

 one take the queen from a colony in- 

 fected with European foul brood, and 

 put her at the head of a colony on 

 comb foundation, and if the ailment is 

 at all traceable to the queen or her 

 eggs, the disease will quickly show up. 



I have called attention to this matter 

 for the reason that it seems to me that 

 a good queen is worth saving in case 

 the infection is not traceable to her or 

 her eggs. I would test the matter for 

 myself, but have no European foul 

 brood in my apiary. 



But there is another important item 

 that must not be omitted: In treating 

 European foul brood, when the Alex- 

 ander method is adopted, namely: 

 keeping up the strength of the colony 

 in numbers — as the matter of brood- 

 rearing is suspended for 30 days and 

 must cause great depletion in num- 

 bers, and must be kept up at the ex- 

 pense of other colonies that cannot 

 possibly well afford to be thus taxed — 

 this brings us to the point where it is 

 but a matter of business to inquire 

 whethfer or not the Alexander method 

 of treating European foul brood has 

 any advantage over the McEvoy 

 method of treating European loul 

 brood, the McEvoy plan being to put 

 the colony on comb foundation, which 

 does not stop the laying of eggs but 

 from one to three days, so that at the 

 end of 28 days young bees will begin 

 to emerge. 



Moreover, ready-constructed combs, 

 if at hand, may be given them in a 

 very few days after they have been 

 transferred to new quarters, and the 

 process of brood-rearing can go on 

 with but little interruption. But 

 whether there be comb at hand to sup- 



ply the colony with or not, the queen 

 will be saved under the McEvoy 

 method of treatment, so that in case 

 the colony at the time of treatment be 

 reasonably populous there will be no 

 serious delay in the matter of brood- 

 rearing. At any rate no more than 

 occurs in treating bees for foul brood of 

 the American type under this method. 

 But as to whether or not the destruc- 

 tion of combs which the McEiVoy sys- 

 tem requires will cause more loss in 

 brood-rearing as regards time than 30 

 days loss in egg-laying and in develop- 

 ment of brood under the Alexander 

 method, is a question that I am not 

 fully prepared to answer at present, 

 and will suggest that bee-keepers test 

 the matter, as I think it worth looking 

 after. 



G. BOHRER. 

 Lyons, Kans. 



Pres. Bowen — You have heard the 

 paper by Dr. Bohrer, is there any dis- 

 cussion? 



Dr. Bohrer — I would like to hear 

 from Dr. Phillips as to whether the 

 disease is traceable from the eggs. 



Dr. Phillips — ^We find a number of 

 organisms present in European foul 

 brood, the same as in American foul 

 brood, and have good reason to think 

 that one of them is the cause of it, but 

 we do not know which one. Dr. 

 Bohrer brought up the question of the 

 treatment of European foul brood as 

 to whether it is cheaper to use the 

 Alexander treatment for foul brood 

 or the McEvoy treatment, or whether 

 it is not really better in every way to 

 stick to the old stand-by, the shaking 

 treatment, and compel the bees to 

 build a new comb. My personal opin- 

 ion is that it is rather unwise to use 

 the Alexander treatment, as it is 

 sometimes called, because so many 

 people are getting bad results. In the 

 hands of a good bee-keeper, who is 

 careful, undoubtedly the Alexander 

 method is very often successful, but 

 since so many people are unable to get 

 satisfactory results with it, and since 

 we do not know why it works some- 

 times and not others, I would prefer to 

 recommend the shaking treatment. 

 The shaking treatment has been in use 

 for 150 years. 



Dr. Bohrer — ^That is, take away the 

 comb and melt it up into wax? My 

 experience has been that boiling any- 



