ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



49 



At our National convention last Oc- 

 tober, at Detroit, it seemed as if Dr. 

 White was not so certain about these 

 two bacilli any more, and he stated 

 that no new remedies had been discov- 

 ered for any disease amongst bees and 

 that all diseases ought to be treated 

 same as American foul brood. 



This would leave us the only rem- 

 edy we have, the McEvoy treatment, 

 or the modification therefrom, the 

 Baldridge treatment. These treatments 

 are based on the theory that the bees 

 must either be compelled to empty 

 their honey-sacks before feeding any 

 larvae or storing any honey in the hive 

 into which they have been transferred, 

 or to be caused to leave the diseased 

 hive with an empty honey-sack and to 

 enter the hive to which they are being 

 transferred either empty or the honey- 

 sack containing only nectar gathered 

 after they left the diseased hive. 



The first condition is brought about 

 in the McEvoy treatment, while the 

 second conditions exist in the Baldridge 

 treatment. 



There has appeared in some locali- 

 ties in the western part of Missouri a 

 diseased condition in the apiaries which 

 our Inspector described as follows: 



The disease found suits the descrip- 

 tion of European foul brood almost per- 

 fectly, and if it is not black brood it 

 is a very close relation. The combs in 

 this disease have very much the gen- 

 eral appearance of the American type 

 but there is generally a much smaller 

 per cent of the dead larvae sealed over 

 and it lacks the ropy consistency of 

 the other. Sometimes there will be a 

 very slight tendency to ropiness, but 

 not very pronounced. 



The odor is very different from 

 American foul brood, being that of 

 soured dead brood. It seems to be 

 more contagious, and sometimes does 

 its work very quickly. 



In some cases the bees seem to suc- 

 ceed in cleaning it out, and all that 

 will be left in a few cases to show its 

 trail will be a few sealed queen-cells 

 with dead larvae in them. It seems to 

 affect the queen and drone larvae 

 much more than any other disease, the 

 dried down scales do not adhere so 

 tightly as in American foul brood. On 

 sample sent to Dr. Phillips, of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture, in charge of 

 apiculture, the following is the answer: 

 "It is certain the samples sent are not 

 American foul brood. There is a pos- 

 sibility that the trouble is European 



foul brood. That disease is extremely 

 difficult to diagnose at times, but cer- 

 tain things about your sample suggests 

 it. The matter will be investigated 

 next spring." 



Investigation must show whether 

 European foul brood has taken a jump 

 to this western country, or whether 

 the disease will disappear as it came, 

 suddenly and unexpectedly. I will now 

 give my personal experience with a 

 diseased condition found in my own 

 apiary and in other apiaries in the 

 vicinity of St. Louis and which our 

 Inspector has also found in other lo- 

 calities. 



Last spring and early part of sum- 

 mer I discovered in a number of hives 

 dead larvae, in some hives more, in 

 others less. The dead larvae were en- 

 tirely different from the way they ap- 

 pear in foul brood. 



They were generally white or gray- 

 ish and watery, not ropy, and had no 

 odor, neither were there any dry scales. 



I showed an infected colony to our 

 Apiary Inspector and we then went to- 

 gether through my home apiary of 

 about seventy-five colonies and I noted 

 the condition on each hive as we went 

 along. Later I accompanied our In- 

 spector on his visits at apiaries in the 

 surrounding country, and the same 

 conditions were found, here and there 

 a hive with dead larvae as described 

 before in otherwise healthy apiaries. 



I concluded to make some experi- 

 ments. One colony which I had no- 

 ticed the year before as not making 

 any headway and had marked "sus- 

 picious," but which last year showed 

 only a few dead larvae and no symp- 

 toms of foul brood, I treated on the 

 Baldridge plan. When, after three 

 weeks, I opened the old hive, I found 

 every brood cell empty. There was 

 nothing but capped honey and pollen 

 left in the hive and I will mention 

 here that I intend to put a swarm of 

 bees on these combs next spring to 

 verify the conclusion that there was 

 no contagious disease in this hive. 

 When I looked at the combs in the new 

 hive I found most the foundation build 

 out and all brood healthy. A few weeks 

 later, when I had a lot of young queens 

 ready, I went to this hive to remove 

 the old o.ueen and found in the hive 

 the old clipped queen and also a young 

 queen, showing that the bees were 

 superseding. 



Another colony which was about the 

 worst affected in the yard I made 



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