T'T" 



90 



NINTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



or if I do not make any point clear, I 

 Willi be g-lad to 'be interrupted by ques- 

 tions. 



The orthodox rule is, shake upon 

 foundation; shake first, put upon start- 

 ers, and then leave that four days, and 

 then shake upon foundation again. 



Dr. Phillips wrote to me that for 

 European foul ibrood he didn't consider 

 it necessary to have more than the 

 ■one shake, so I commenced shaking, as 

 I told you; I shook one. (When I say 

 "shake," I mean brush.) 



I commenced upon the foundation, 

 and a number of •colonies were put 

 upon foundation, and that worked all 

 right — the cure was coimplete. There 

 didn't come any more foul brood there, 

 but there were some of them that de- 

 serted their hives, and I think there 

 have been other bee-keepers who com- 

 plain of that same thing. I didn't want 

 that. 



I may say that at this time there 

 ■was a dearth; we had, two years to- 

 gether, a dead failure of the honey 

 crop, and European foul brood. I don't 

 know whether you think that is a good 

 combination or not! So we thought 

 we would give them something to eat, 

 to help to keep them from deserting 

 their hives. We fed some, and still 

 there were some deserters. Then we 

 tried another way. 



We tried leaving one frame of brood 

 in the hive, and not taking all away; 

 taking what appeared to be the clean- 

 est we could find in the hive. We put 

 the one frame of 'brood at the side of 

 the hive. I w^ant to tell you what 

 things we did; you may find some- 

 thing in it that will be of use to you. 



We put the one frame of brood at 

 the side of the hive. Next to that we 

 put two empty frames; when I say 

 empty frames, T mean just what il say, 

 empty frames; not even the slightest 

 starter of foundation in them. 



In the course of perhaps two or 

 three days, we would find on one of 

 those empty frames (and seldom was 

 there more than one of them used), 

 a little comb built, and some eggs 

 there. When we found that, then we 

 took away the foul brood frame at 

 first that (then we filled up that foun- 

 dation). At first we took away that 

 frame that had a little starter in it, 

 as quick as they made a start in the 

 foundation, but afterward we didn't 

 even do that, so that nearly all of 



them simply had the one frame taken 

 away after they made this little start 

 I told you about; then filled up that 

 foundation, and they were left in that 

 way. Not one that was started in that 

 way showed a return of the disease. 



We didn't disinfect the hives in any 

 way, or do anyything towards disin- 

 fecting the hives; we used them 

 straight along. If a super was on the 

 hive where the colony was treated, we 

 left that super on with whatever little 

 honey might be in it. 



As I told you before, it was a time 

 of dearth; therefore, there was not 

 much honey there, and any feeding 

 that we did (I told you that we fed 

 them), we did that, in most cases, by 

 putting a section or two of honey 

 down in the hive, and generally that 

 was a section of honey that had been 

 taken from a diseased colony. 



Now, I don't know that it is any 

 proof at all. I believe that the dis- 

 ease is carried in the honey, but if 

 that proved anything, it proved that, 

 at least in some cases, they don't 

 carry the disease. 



The time of day is the next thing 

 that comes. 



The rule is — the orthodox rule — 

 "Shake in the evening after the bees 

 have stopped flying." 



With 70 or 80 diseased colonies in 

 the apiary, that would be trouble- 

 some, as you will readily see. More- 

 over, if we did the work just at the 

 evening (as this was a time of dearth) 

 there would be robbing going on even 

 quite late in the evening. We pre- 

 ferred the time of day when the bees 

 would be at work. You know that 

 even in what we call a time of dearth 

 there will be a little part of the day 

 when the bees will do a little gather- 

 ing. We worked at them when we 

 thought there would be the best chance 

 against robbers, and if at any time 

 the robbers put in an appearance, we 

 stopped it, so you see we were not 

 orthodox in the matter of time of day, 

 but took rather the time of day when 

 we thought the robber-bees would 

 give the least trouble. 



That is about all I know about the 

 method of treatment, unless there is 

 something I have forgotten or omit- 

 ted. 



Mr. Lathrop — ^Why do you think Eu- 

 ropean foul brood is worse than Amer- 

 ican foul brood, when you could cure 

 it so easily? I don't think you could 



