ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



97 



a good many years, but he said that he 

 had practiced the plan of Dr. Miller. 

 When the com'bs were pretty well 

 cleaned up, he dipped them into a 

 strong- solution of concentrated lye — 

 sprinkled it well into the combs. After 

 that stood there about twelve hours, 

 he took the combs and washed them 

 with a hose thoroughly, and shook the 

 water out and let them dry. Hfe said 

 he never had a case where the disease 

 came iback. It is worth your trying, 

 and won't cost you anything to try it, 

 and save your combs, possibly. I can 

 'bring his card here in the morning. 



.Dr. Miller — I would like to know- 

 how many here have had experience 

 with European foul brood? 



(A numiber raised their hands.) 



Mr. Moore — Allow me to tell some 

 of the rest of them that they might as 

 well get ready for it, for it is coming. 



A Mem'ber — As to the matter of 

 frames, we destroy no frames where 

 we cut the comhs out. We 'built a 

 fire out-of-doors, and took a big iron 

 kettle and filled it part full of water; 

 put in some concentrated lye, and put 

 the frames down in that. When the 

 frames were well rinsed with water, 

 we used them again all right. 



Mr. Wheeler — ^Will concentrated lye 

 eat up the wax? 



Mr. Oavanagh — It seems to me we 

 are going at this thing wrong end to. 

 Dr. Miller has not, 'but some of the 

 rest of us. About treating with the 

 McBvoy plan, we know that materially 

 weakens the force of our colonies. 

 With European foul hrood, we must 

 keep that colony up in A No. 1 shape 

 all the time. I had a little experience 

 the past summer, and the very poorest 

 results I had were on the McBvoy 

 plan of treatment. I tried some of the 

 Alexander methods, and am well 

 pleased with them. I 'have also treated 

 some with the modified Baldridge plan. 



The McEvoy shaking plan is all 

 wrong, because it weakens our col- 

 onies. My reason for thinking that, is 

 this: I shipped a lot of bees, last 

 spring, into a location that was ■dis- 

 eased; bees all around diseased. 

 Protoalbly there are few who have had 

 this experience. 



The lot of hees I shipped in were 

 healthy when I shipped them in. They 

 were mostly Italians — ^some Mack. 

 There were two yards combined in the 

 apiary I speak of. One yard had 

 honey- dew left from last fall, and if or 



that reason, weakened by poor winter- 

 ing; the other yard wintered well, and 

 the colonies were strong. 



I would say, from a conservative 

 estimate, that I lost at least three 

 times as many colonies of bees that 

 had been weakened — at least three 

 times as many showed disease as those 

 that were not weakened. All had the 

 same chance. 



The point I want to bring out Is 

 this: A colony that is weakened 

 through poor wintering, or lack of 

 pollen, through any cause whatever 

 weakened, will develop European foul 

 brood jTist about three times as ctuick- 

 ly as a good, strong, healthy colony. 



You have to keep your bees in good, 

 healthy condition; get a good, hardy 

 Italian, and rear a queen every year. 

 Then use your treatment. I don't ad- 

 vocate letting it run. It is very con- 

 tagious to colonies that are side iby 

 side. The hives close to each other in 

 a row fwill spread the disease more 

 than 'by robbing. We know that it is 

 communicated in several Vi'^ays besides 

 robbing. 



Dr. Bohrer — ^What kind of foul 

 brood ? 



Mr. Cavanagh — European entirely — 

 not American. Now, as to brush- 

 ing: There is a very important point. 

 The method of transferring the bees 

 from a diseased hive into the empty 

 one, and, of course, as well as keeping 

 the colonies up, we must treat them 

 along the best methods. 



The methods I would prefer would 

 be, in the clover flow, say, in June, to 

 use the 'modified Baldridge plan of 

 treatment; that is, use the bee-escape 

 ibetwen the empty hive and the hive 

 above, giving the queen a small starter 

 below, letting the bees go down 

 through the bee-escape. While I have 

 not tried that out fully, we have 

 neighbors near us that have, and re- 

 ported a complete success. This must 

 'be done, however, in a good honey- 

 flow. 



Another way is: Brushing them 

 out, which leaves the problem of dis- 

 posing of the 'brood. In brushing the 

 (bees, I would not ibrush them outside 

 of the hive. We work them any time 

 of day, ibut alnvays in a honey- flow. 

 We set the twdy containing the colony, 

 above the empty .hive, and if we have 

 ten frames and no division-board, we 

 remove the comto and put it under 

 cover, and then take a brush rigiht 



~i^ _ ..^._ j:' <".'!-/ 



