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EIGHTH ANNUAL. REPORT OP THE 



and all that is necessary is to wash 

 it with some disinfectant, and that is 

 the reason wliy I believe it wise for 

 a person to advocate disinfecting hives. 

 It costs so very little to do it. 



Mr. Taylor — If you want to disinfect 

 hives at all, put a little straw and 

 kerosene in it on a pile of hives and 

 touch a match to it, and when it is 

 suflBciently scorched inside put on a 

 cover and that will put your fire out. 

 Fire will attend to the bacteria, you 

 needn't be afraid about that. 



Mr. Darby — Mr. Taylor just made 

 the point I was going to drive at. 

 There are cases when I think it is 

 necessary that the hive should be dis- 

 infected. Some of us have to deal 

 with bee-keepers, different classes of 

 them, some who will do work properly 

 and some who will not do it properly, 

 and it is with those that are careless 

 that we have got to deal and with 

 whom the most trouble comes. Some- 

 times I find combs built cros.swise and 

 sometimes run together and in treat- 

 ing them the parties will be so care- 

 less as to drop the honey in the hive 

 and on the bottom board and on the 

 side and on the cover. These are not 

 careful bee-keepers. You are talking 

 to intelligent people in this audience, 

 but remember there are people all 

 over the United States and I presume 

 in Canada, who are not careful and 

 who are not intelligent on this line, 

 although they may be on others. 

 "U'hat should we do with these hives? 

 Take them and put other bees into 

 them? As Mr. Taylor has just said, 

 in those cases I tell them to disinfect 

 the hive, but my method is to paint 

 the hives with gasoline and then apply 

 a match, and the work is done in a 

 few minutes. All the burr comb in 

 there, all the honey, all the glue will 

 catch it and these diseased germs will 

 instantly be burned up. I think we 

 should bear in mind that there are a 

 great number of people who will read 

 this report who are not as familiar 

 with handling hives as we are here, 

 and we should consider this matter 

 and let these reports go out so that it 

 is clear enough to all minds how this 

 subject should be treated. Do not 

 take chances. (Applause.) 



Mr. Cavanagh — I don't feel quite 

 satisfied in regard to this hive disin- 

 fection. There certainly is a possi- 

 bility of infection in those hives. We 

 will suppose a small portion of that 

 diseased brood were simply on the in- 

 side of that hive and that hive after- 



wards had some honey spilled on it 

 and the bees cleaned it up, why 

 wouldn't that condition be exactly the 

 same as if the bees cleaned the honey 

 out of the diseased cells that have 

 that scale dried in it? While it is 

 very easy eo disinfect those hiveis and 

 make them perfectly safe, that danger 

 might exist if they were not disin- 

 fected. 



Mr. Covyou — As to the possibility of 

 spreading the disease, I think the bot- 

 tom board is the only possible place 

 where these spores might fall and be 

 covered up. In a year or so if you 

 should disturb them in scraping your 

 bottom boards, it might possibly afCect 

 the bees. 



Mr. McEvoy — A gentleman over 

 here spoke of some honey being spilled 

 or dropped in the hives. What is the 

 difference whether the bees have it in 

 their sacks or clean it up there a short 

 time afterwards? 



Speaking of painting hives, I would 

 want to paint the feet of the bees; 

 one is as necessary as the other. 

 When it breaks out again, it is some- 

 thing like the old lady with her hens, 

 they were off the eggs and -on the 

 straw. 



Mr. France — I am sorry to spe we 

 are trying to save too much infection 

 for fear we will lose a little some- 

 thing. I don't consider an infected 

 colony of bees worth very much. All 

 they are worth is the w^ax. I do thank 

 Dr. Phillips for bringing out the point 

 that from a commercial point of view 

 we are foolish to stand in our own 

 light and try in some kind of way to 

 save an old infected comb. For nine 

 years I have carried with me as an 

 inspector, free of charge over our 

 State where the bee-keepers did not 

 have facilities to save the wax, a wax 

 extractor, and the old combs melted 

 into wax almost in actual value paid 

 for the foundation, and those new 

 combs, put on were worth much more 

 than the old ones. In that way the 

 bee-keeper got rid of the old combs, 

 the drone combs, and he had new 

 clean combs which gave more am- 

 bition and vigor to the bees. Then, 

 why are we. dabbling over these when 

 we could dispose of them and make a 

 clean sweep of them? 



Mrs. Robertson — ^How long in the 

 name of science do these foul brood 

 germs live? Forever? 



Dr. Phillips — Dr. Maassen in Ger- 

 many had foul brood twenty years old 



