ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



99 



would never treat a colony, if I could 

 avoid it, that was in a discouraged con- 

 dition; I would either destroy that col- 

 ony utterly as a colony, or I would 

 pile at least two supers of 'brood on 

 top of them, and get them strong 

 first. Don't shake a weak colony; they 

 will never do anything if j-ou do. In 

 using the modified McEvoy treatment, 

 that is, in putting the brood above, 

 and starting them 'below — in using the 

 shaking treatment, we use that brood 

 over the weak colonies that are dis- 

 ieased, and, in so doing, we get that 

 colony very strong, so that they will 

 stand shaking in their turn. 



Dr. Miller — Mr. Cavanagh said that 

 the colony should be, very strong; 

 now, I said that before he did. 

 I am glad he said it. .1 want to say it 

 again, and emphasize it — the colony 

 should first be made strong! If there 

 is any one thing I believe is important, 

 it is making the colony strong. I sup- 

 pose you take a weak colony and pile 

 up three or four stories of brood upon 

 that, the bees will be comparatively 

 weak in taking care of them, and you 

 think you are making it worse when 

 you pile it up that way, but you are 

 not. There was one colony that I had, 

 that was not bad; it happened to be 

 No. 100; I piled up four stories on 

 that, and those four stories that were 

 put on, at the end of three weeks' 

 time seemed to be all right; and more 

 than that, the colony below the ex- 

 cluder was all right and clean. Some- 

 how the idea of having a lot of bees 

 encourages them. Just a word about 

 the character of the queen: I don't 

 know ; Mr. Cavanagh may be right 

 about that. Mr. Alexander says to 

 give them vigorous young Italian 

 queens. I had the hj^rids. I think it 

 is correct that those vigorous young 

 Italian queens are the right ones to 

 use, because they are the best kind of 

 queens. If it is vigor you want, if you 

 have the golden Italian queens, they 

 are more vigorous than anything else, 

 and are the ones to use; if you have 

 black bees more vigorous, then use the 

 ^black bees. Still, I am inclined to 

 think, as a rule, that the Italians are 

 very much better for cleaning out foul 

 brood, and I guess there is something 

 in it. I am not sure but that there is ■ 

 something about European foul brood 

 that affects the queen herself. Did you " 

 ever notice anything of that kind, Mr. 

 Cavanagh ? 



Mr. Cavanagh — No, I never did. 



JDr. Miller — ^It seemed to us that the 

 queen appeared to be logy, and in 

 some of those that were thrown upon 

 foundation, the queen disappeared en- 

 tirely. 



Mr. Cavanagh — ^Yes, I had quite a 

 little experience in that, in weak col- 

 onies especially, the queen disappear- 

 ing. 



Dr. Miller — -It seems to affect the 

 queens themselves. If you ever find 

 anything like disease in your hives, 

 the first, thing you do, send a sample 

 to Dr. Phillips, at "Washington; he is 

 one of the nicest men in the world, 

 and he will treat you kindly. He will 

 make you think you have done him a 

 favor by sending him a sample. If you 

 ever are in trouble with European foul 

 brood, see that you make all colonies 

 strong. 



Mr. Baxter — I have had no experi- 

 ence with foul broodj I don't know 

 anything about it. I am here to learn. 

 I have studied the question for a long 

 time, and have gathered all the infor- 

 mation I could. I have talked person- 

 ally with men like Mr.McBvoy and 

 other foul brood inspectors, and I find 

 that there is a great difference in 

 opinion. I know that my bees never 

 had foul brood, unless they had it year 

 before last. I had one colony then 

 that showed the symptoms. It was a 

 hybrid colony, half black, half Italian. 

 I called up my brother-in-law, Mr. C. 

 P. Dadant, and asked him if he would 

 come up and examine it. He was very 

 busy at the time. The colony was 

 very weak; it was going down, weak- 

 ening all the time, and it showed all 

 signs of foul brood. I did not give it 

 a golden Italian queen; I gave it a 

 leather-colored one. Inside of two 

 weeks that colony had no more signs 

 of foul brood. Mr. Dadant did not 

 come up, and that is the last of it I 

 have seen in my apiary. 



The question with me is as to what 

 is the best method to pursue in the 

 treatment of foul brood. One says dig 

 a hole and put your hives in and burn 

 them; another says, leave the honey 

 in; another, that the germ is found in 

 the honey — and all kinds of things. The 

 more I study this, the more puzzled I 

 get. Since I have been sitting here 

 this afternoon, I know less about loui 

 brood — as to how I should treat it — 

 than I did when I first came heic. 



Mr. Holtermann — I would like to ask 



