ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



191 



enables him to save his property from 

 destruction; he may make such a 

 lucky find without any Knowledge as 

 to what has caused the disease. It 

 was in this way that Schirach, in the 

 eighteenth century, found the shaking 

 treatment for foul brood and since 

 then this same treatment has been 

 used extensively. The Schirach treat- 

 ment, or, as we now call it, the shak- 

 ing treatment, enables us to prevent 

 the brood diseases from destroying 

 our bees and it certainly is satisfac- 

 tory in the majority of cases. 



The other way of investigating 

 treatments is to find the cause of the 

 disorder, study its chajracteristics and 

 plan manipulation in the light of 

 knowledge gained in that way. This 

 method of procedure, while probably 

 the more logical way, is open to the 

 minority, but all can take the results 

 obtained and utilize them without any 

 great knowledge of bacteriological 

 technique. But such work is slow. I 

 fear that majiy bee-keepers wonder 

 why the Bixreau of Entomology is not 

 able in a short time to make positive 

 statements concerning the causes of 

 disease, particularly European foul 

 brood, Te tell why would t)e a some- 

 what lengthy task; but let me sim- 

 ply point out that, in all disesises of 

 animals so far studied, accurate re- 

 sults have been obtained only by years 

 of work and no problem in bacteriol- 

 ogy is an easy one. It took years to 

 establish the cause of American foul 

 brood and there is still much to learn. 

 The bee-keeping public has been vic- 

 timized by too many hasty workers 

 who jump at results on insufficient 

 data and we do not cajre to be in that 

 class. 



To illustrate the great desirability 

 of first getting the cause, let me cite 

 simie recommended manipulations. Be- 

 cause carbolic acid is used quite gen- 

 erally as a disinfectant it has been 

 repeatedly recommended that a 2 per 

 cent to 5 per cent carbolic acid solu- 

 tion be used to disinfect hives in 

 which infected colonies had lived. 

 This was done without a knowledge 

 of the cause of either disease and in 

 the case of American foul brood of 

 which we now know the cause it is 

 certain that a 5 per cent carbolic acid 

 solution will not destroy the spores of 

 (Bacillus larvae) in the short time tak- 

 en to wash out a hive. In the case 

 of European foul brood, of which we 

 do not yet know the cause, we are 



unable to sa^ whether the carbolic 

 acid acts as a disinfectant or not. 



In a similar manner w^ithout know- 

 ing the cause of either disease, var- 

 ious authors have recommended the 

 feeding of carbolic acid, napthole beta, 

 salicylic acid and similar drugs in sug- 

 ar syrup to diseased colonies. While, 

 as suggested previously, it is possible 

 to stumble on a method of treatment 

 by promiscuous experimentation, we 

 should not take these recommenda- 

 tions too seriouslj' until more is known 

 about the diseases. Such recommen- 

 dations are largely conflned to Euro- 

 pean authors for American bee-keep- 

 ers, from sad experience, have learn- 

 ed to put littlle faith in these treat- 

 ments. 



It has also been recommended that 

 various antiseptics be placed in the 

 hive to ward ofC disease. One Euro- 

 pean writer, posing as the omniscient 

 guide of the bee-keeping world, writes 

 in a recent edition of one of his books 

 as follows: 



"There are certain antiseptics such 

 as carbolic acid, phenyle or oreolin, 

 izal, eucalytus, camphor, napthaline, 

 etc., which evaporate at the ordinary 

 temperature, of the hive, and whose 

 vapours, while not actually killing the 

 bacilli, arrest their increase or 

 growth." 



"WTien it is remembered that this 

 is apparently recommended without 

 any knowledge as to the cause of any 

 brood disease, it will not be taken 

 seriousl5^ Surely no American bee- 

 keeper would entertain any hope from 

 such a treatment. 



It is wise at times to cast up ac- 

 counts to see where we stand. Let 

 us look over the field of bee disease 

 treatment to see what we know and do 

 not know. 



We know from the experience of 

 hundreds of bee-keepers for years 

 past, that the shaking treatment w^ill 

 enable the bee-keeper to keep either 

 disease under control so .that he can 

 remain in the business and make 

 money out of it, if the seasons permit. 

 This treatment consists of removing 

 all combs, honey, pollen and brood 

 from the colony and putting the bees 

 on foundation, compelling them to re- 

 place their comb, rear new brood and 

 gather new stores. By this means the 

 diseased nm.terial is removed and the 

 contaminated honey and pollen which 

 we consider as the carrying agents are 



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