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ILLINOIS STATES BEE-KEEPE3RiS' ASSOCIATION 



49 



thing short of 30 to 35 minutes is not 

 safe. ^ 



Dr. Phillips — I don't think it is nec- 

 essary to keep thip wax hot that long. 

 As to the matter bf boiling, you don't 

 know the time that is necessary. The 

 length of time necessary to kill the 

 germs in European foul brood has 

 never been determined, and we cannot 

 determine it until \ve find out what 

 the organism is. V 



Mr. Pyles — Is the Europeg-n disease 

 transmitted? 



Dr. Phillips — ^Just the same as Amer- 

 ican; undoubtedly through honey-rob- 

 bing, the same as the American foul 

 brood. 



Mr. Seibold — I had foul brood in my 

 apiary, and at different times have 

 experimented in boiling the frames 

 and using them again; in boiling the 

 frames there is always more or less 

 wax accumulates, and a little honey 

 sticks to it; in using those frames 

 again in most caseS' the disease re- 

 appeared, and I believe it is in the 

 honey; I can't help but think, if there 

 is a particle of honey left it is in the 

 honey; I am satisfied it is in the 

 honey, but I think the frames and hive 

 can be used by using a gasoline torch, 

 or burning it with coaloil and brushing 

 with a stiff brush; I think it is in the 

 honey. 



A member — Tou think it is not safe 

 to use them even if they are boiled 

 for 30 minutes? 



Mr. Seibold — Not unless you get all 

 the wax out by scratching them to 

 get it out; I think it is in the honey. 



Dr. Phillips — There is one factor in 

 the discussion of European foul 

 brood that is almost always left 

 out of consideration. If the disease 

 is very bad in the colony it will 

 remain in the colony all during the 

 year; but when different men talk 

 about the treatment with which they 

 have been successful, they forget that 

 the probabilities are that if that 

 colony had been given any kind of a 

 show it would clean itself up. I know 

 men who think it is not necessary to 

 treat; some men do just enough to 

 give the colony a good start towards 

 its own recovery, and then they attri- 

 bute it to a certain treatment. 



A great many colonies clean up the 

 disease themselves, provided they 

 don't get too far along. If a colony 

 is not badly affected it will oftentimes 



clean itself up, and if you boost a 

 colony and give therh a chance to 

 clean up without doing any one of the 

 hundred different things that have 

 been given as treatments, which are 

 simply stimulants, they will clean 

 themselves up. 



Mr. Diebold — ^If we give them a good 

 honey- flow, would that help? 



Dr. Phillips — The only time to in- 

 spect European foul brood is when 

 there is a honey-fiow. In Indiana, 

 as soon as the honey-flow starts, men 

 leave the European foul brood districts 

 and go to American foul brood. 



All these things that have been sug- 

 gested as treatments and advocated as 

 cures, or most of them, act as stimu- 

 lants. They help the colony .over bad 

 places and then the colony cures 

 itself; but the colony that cures itself 

 gets the disease next year! 



Mr. Moore — If the bacillus is in the 

 larvae and the bees carry that outside 

 in the cleaning process, is there any 

 danger of it spreading? 



Dr. Phillips — I have no doubt of it; 

 no doubt it is spread by that means. 



Mr. Moore — I should think it would 

 spread worse than we have any rec- 

 ords of. I should think that dry lar- 

 vae would blow around, and would 

 cause the disease to spread more than 

 we have any knowledge of. 



Dr. Phillips — It would have to get 

 with other larvae before it would pro- 

 duce disease. In Indiana, last year (in 

 1909) the inspector kept a careful ac- 

 count of the apiaries inspected, and 

 the number of diseased apiaries he 

 found, and he found that where the 

 American foul brood existed, about 

 one colony in ten was infected in that 

 region; and where European foul brood 

 existed, it was very much higher. In 

 regions where American foul brood 

 was found it was rare not to find 

 often 25 per cent infected. 



I never heard of any European foul 

 brood in California, but the American 

 foul brood is much more virulent there 

 than in the East or North. The Ehiro- 

 pean foul brood is spread much more 

 rapidly than the American, but on the 

 other hand it sometimes disappears of 

 its own accord. 



A member — iHow is it possible to 

 disappear of its own accord? 



Dr. .Phillips — The disease, for some 

 reason which we do not understand, 

 increases in the spring and decreases 



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