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98 



NINTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



down in ibetween those combs, and 

 brush the surface next, beginning on 

 the side of the hive next to us. Then 

 we brush both sides of the next comb, 

 and so on, continuing through the 

 whole eight or ten combs; it doesn't 

 take long. 



I>r. Bohrer — Do you regard European 

 foul brood as being as hard to deal 

 with as American? 



Mr. Cavanagh — Indeed I do. If 

 American foul brood is properly 

 treated, it is easier to get rid of. 

 European is a flighty kind of a dis- 

 ease — aibout the time you think you 

 have hold of it, you have not. I de- 

 stroy all combs that have brood in it. 



Dr. Bohrer — How do you disinfect 

 them? 



Mr. Cavanagh — I should not consider 

 it necessary to disinfect them, where 

 they have no brood in them, in Ameri- 

 can foul brood; simply to have the 

 honey clean. 



Mr. Kannenberg — How do you detect 

 the European foul brood ? 



Mr. Cavanagh — The European foul 

 brood can only ibe detected in the 

 early part of the season; when it 

 sihows at this time of the year, it 

 woTild be impossible to detect the 

 European foul brood, unless some 

 bacteriologist got it. In the early part 

 of the year, European foul brood is 

 detected by dead larvae; usually 

 there will be some that will be black- 

 ened in the ibottom of the cells; some 

 times they will lengthen out almost 

 ready to cap, and the bees will hesi- 

 tate to cap them, and they die and 

 crawl up in the bottom in a black 

 scale; a little later in the season they 

 usually just settle down in a shapeless 

 mass; some times in the upper part of 

 the cell, and some times in the lower, 

 and are often light in color. As the 

 honey-flow advances, the bees begin to 

 clean them out in the early stages; 

 finally, if there is a real heavy 

 honey-flow, it will disappear en- 

 tirely; of course, as the flow ad- 

 vances, the ibees will crowd down 

 the line of ibrood and cover up 

 the cells that have formerly been dis- 

 eased, and the brood that is left will 

 show perfectly healthy; but it will be 

 there next year, from the fact that 

 the honey is there. 



Here is the advantage of the McEvoy 

 treatment at this time of the year: 

 The disease has disappeared, but the 

 Jioney is before that brood, and if we 



can take those bees now and shake 

 them onto healthy honey, we are rid 

 of the disease, because there is no dis- 

 ease possible; it is all kept up in the 

 hives that have the European foul 

 brood — that is, late in the season. 



The scale in European foul brood is 

 not at all like the American foul 

 brood. In European foul brood, instead 

 of going down to a little tiny black 

 scale, it is usually larger, and lies 

 there in plain sight. 



Mr. Kannenberg — Is there any bad 

 odor attached to it, as in the American 

 foul ibrood? 



Mr. Cavanagh — If there is any, it is 

 only when the bees are so badly dis- 

 couraged that they leave that brood 

 scattered all through the cells; leave 

 it until has become decayed in there. 

 Of course, any brood that is left long- 

 enough will take on a bad odor; but 

 nothing like the American foul brood 

 at all. I have treated several cases 

 where the bees were completely dis- 

 couraged. 



Mr. Kannenberg — You cannot detect 

 it iby smelling in front of the hives? 



Mr. Cavanagh — You can in advanced 

 stages. Another point is to Italianize 

 everything with golden Italians; better 

 than leather- colored. I And the golden 

 Italian three-band are very much im- 

 mune to the disease. Mr. DeMuth, 

 our inspector in Indiana, told me a 

 great deal about his experience; he 

 has been fighting it for several years, 

 and has not got it cured, because it 

 has been all around us. He tells me 

 that he has had combs w^here the 

 brood has hatched out, and has not 

 even made them queenless; and has 

 used the combs again after they have 

 been cleaned out, without a recurrence 

 of the disease. He tells me, also, that 

 he has used unfinished sections from 

 colonies that were diseased, in feeding 

 for the winter, and that that colony 

 took the disease, which shows that at 

 times we have the disease carried into 

 the super. 



Mr. Thompson — Can you describe 

 the odor? 



Mr. Cavanagh — I don't know as I 

 can think of any comparison. 



Mr. Thompson — Any comparison to 

 a colony that has died in the winter? 



Mr. Cavanagh — ^No. In the modified 

 McEvoy treatment is the problem as 

 to what to do with that orood, which 

 is very valuable in getting other col- 

 onies in shape. In the first place, I 



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