ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



203 



fouiMi a yard of black bees, and three- 

 quarters of th-em had these yellow 

 Italiajis, and they were all diseased 

 slightly. Now, the only way that 

 this apiary oould have acquired this 

 disease apparently, or contracted the 

 disease, was hy these bees flying over 

 them and dropping in them. I ques- 

 tion ifirom a badly diseased colony if 

 a bee ever goes to the field so desti- 

 tute of honey in its honey- sac that 

 there are not some germs of EJuropean 

 foul brood in its honey-sac, and these 

 bees being driven down by the stress 

 of the weather, attracted by the hnm 

 of that apiary, or possibly if the young 

 bees dropped into these colonies and 

 regurgitate of this honey, the disease 

 is thereby started in those brood colo- 

 nies. That siheds light on the way it 

 might be spread by intermingling. The 

 blacks will tolerate a lot of inter- 

 mingling, whereas the Italians are not 

 so fond of having strangers visit their 

 home. 



"Will the introduction of a good 

 Italian queen generally cure foul 

 brood?" 



Mr. Stewart — It doesn't say what 

 kind ol^ foul brood. If that was the 

 Americs^, I wouldn't say it would 

 euro. it. 



Mtr McEvoy — (No, it won't. 



Mr. Stewart — ^As an inspector, I 

 don't like to advocate the fact that 

 Italians introduced into outside colo- 

 nies, or colonies diseased with Euro- 

 pean foul brood is the remedy to be 

 relied on alone. If you have sickness 

 in your family you may call up the 

 doctor and tell him the symptoms, 

 and perhaps he could send something 

 to you, but it is quite essential that 

 the doctor should come there and 

 know all the conditions; and before I 

 said the introduction of an Italian 

 queen would cure that particular yard. 

 I would want to look the ground over 

 very carefully. 



Mr. McBvoy — If ft is black brood it 

 can be carefully managed, and the 

 combs saved, but if it is the real foul 

 brood, the ropy stuff, it cannot be 

 cleaned out of the combs; it never 

 can be. It is there as long as that 

 comb lasts, and the Italians won't do 

 that. 



"Which is the better for warding off 

 foul brood, the dark of yellow Ital- 

 ians?" 



Mr. Stewart — Personally all the evi- 

 dence I have had has been in favor of 



the dark or leather strain of Italians, 

 but I have had reports showing that 

 the light-colored Italians have been 

 more successful in the ihands of some 

 people. I think that is largely owing 

 to the vigor of the strain. I dont 

 think we should class them as very 

 light or leather-colored, and look for 

 some particular qualities in the clean- 

 ing up of the disease, take any strain 

 of Italians that are very energetic and 

 vigorous. 



Mr. Selser — I should like to put the 

 question In the negative, and say you 

 will introduce foul brood very often,' 

 by introducing an Italian or any other 

 kind of queen. I want to warn those 

 wiho have not seen foul brood, that 

 they be very careful in introducing 

 a queen. The best way of introduc- 

 ing a queen is, put nothing in contact 

 with her. You should put your queen 

 into the hive alone, without any thing 

 else. 



Mr. McEvoy — In introducing a 

 queen, he is right; there is lots of 

 disease introduced through Italians, 

 but it is not the queen, it is in the 

 candy. 



Mr. West — ^I think the subject has 

 been pretty well covered In regard to 

 Italians. W^e get quite a good deal 

 of proof that they are superior in 

 wiithstanding the disease, because we 

 go into a great many yards where we 

 find the disease has first struck that 

 locality, where it has almost ruined 

 the aipiaries, and yet we will find a 

 few Italians that will stand until the 

 blacks are nearly all destroyed and 

 gone, by the disease. Take some of 

 those colonies where they have been 

 entirely destroyed, or down to the 

 number of two, three and four, and 

 they win go into the fields, and they 

 will build up the apiaries very often, 

 and from that strain of bees we can 

 many times get queens that are more 

 immune to the disease than from some 

 other source. We find a great many 

 that go down, where there has not 

 been anything done, until the yards 

 are entirely ruined, until from a cer- 

 tain few colonies the yard has been 

 built up again by Italians. Many 

 Italians suffer because of the disease. 

 The point (has been taken in regard to 

 introducing an Italian queen, that that 

 is one of the best things we can do. 

 There is quite a difference in the Ital- 

 ian queens we introduce, and some- 



