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86 



TEN-TH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



particular, and would eat this diseased 

 larvae more plentifully, and at a more 

 advanced stage of decomposition. 



Mr. Taylor — ^He said they had no 

 disease. 



A member — Apparently had none; 

 they had the year before. Under the 

 same conditions they were clean in the 

 spring, and seemingly you could not 

 find any disease, until the period of 

 dearth, Avhich seems to strike us here 

 in Illinois for about 3 weeks, and just 

 after the dandelion and before the 

 clover. 



Dr. Miller — I would say the disease 

 may enter a colony, and under some 

 circumstances the bees will keep it 

 cleaned down if there is only a little 

 of European foul brood; (I know prac- 

 tically nothing about American foul 

 brood) ; but about the European, they 

 ^A-il] often keep it cleaned up — a good, 

 strong colony. I have had more than 

 (jne colony that had the disease in a 

 few cells, and have simply let them 

 alone, and thej' cleaned it out them- 

 selves; a vigorous colony will do that. 



I want to say upon this whole sub- 

 ject that I believe if any of your bees 

 f,'et European foul brood that you will 

 do well to experiment at least on the 

 Alexander plan, or a modification of it, 

 because I have gone so far from it you 

 would hardly call it a modification. 

 You will do well to experiment on it 

 because we know nothing about that. 



When I first started dealing with 

 European foul brood, I melted up good 

 combs by the thousand; (there were 

 at least 2,000 of them), and it would 

 have been a great saving to me if I 

 had known enough to experiment in 

 this way; even if I don't make a per- 

 fect cure in each case, I could weed 

 the thing out enough so they would 

 keep on and succeed in getting rid of 

 it. It is a question whether for years 

 I will be entirely clear of it, because 

 it is all round me. 



Mr. Taylor — This is a very puzzling 

 question; a very puzzling subject. I 

 don't know much about European foul 

 brood: I don't know that I ever saw 

 but one case of it. 



Dr. Miller — I would be glad to swap 

 with you, what I know about Euro- 

 pean foul brood for what you know 

 about American. 



A member — ^I think you know about 

 as much as anybody; I don't know 

 that anybody actually knows about 

 European foul brood. 



Mr. Taylor — My friend Hall had a 

 case of European foul brood (near St. 

 Joseph, Mich.), as I was Inspector, he 

 called me over there to see it. 



I went there and looked through the 

 hives and gave him my opinion as to 

 v.-hat he had better try, and came 

 away. 



I was talking with him just now; he 

 says: "I didn't have to do anything 

 with those bees; when they saw you 

 they quit having foul brood." 



Mr. Cavanagh — I cannot agree that 

 there is no one that does know much 

 about European foul brood; I think 

 we are learning more about it every 

 year. I have seen the writings of 

 some men who know some thing about 

 it. I am going to add a few opinions 

 gathered from my limited experience 

 and observation, and with that of 

 others put them before this conven- 

 tion for discussion. 



The opinions of some have been that 

 the disease does not exist in the honey, 

 but I, myself, differ. I think it does. I 

 think we will all admit that a vigor- 

 ous colony under proper conditions will 

 not take the disease. 



This can be proved in various ways. 

 ^Ve can put the diseased brood above 

 a healthy colony, and this healthy 

 colony twill not take the disease. 



I think we will have to admit there 

 are conditions under which colonies 

 are not susceptible to fihe diseased 

 terms of European foul brood. 



Admitting this, we have an explana- 

 tion of the conditions the gentleman 

 found who previously spoke; he spoke 

 of his bees being free from disease up 

 until the time that we had some 3 

 weeks of bad weather in the spring. 

 During these three weeks of bad 

 weather in the spring these bees ar- 

 rived at that condition when they were 

 susceptible to the germs of European 

 foul brood; that disease was in the 

 honey all the time, but previous to 

 this time that colony, in its vigorous 

 condition, did not take the disease. 

 They were proof against it. And that 

 is the reason that the disease de- 

 veloped during this bad weather. Had 

 the gentleman fed those bees over this 

 3 weeks' period, he would have had no 

 European foul brood. Allowing his 

 colonies, during that time, to become 

 in that condition, which a colony has 

 to be in to develop European foul 

 brood, they take it from the honey. 





