30 



THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



and I asked if any there had had experience with foul brood. 

 There was a goodly number of raised hands. Then I asked, 

 "Do anyone of you think you got the disease by buying queen- 

 bees?" Again several hands were raised. Even bee-keepers 

 there had traced the disease in their apiaries to the buying of 

 queens, and all from the same breeder. If you get queens 

 from abroad, I hope you will do with her as I have above 

 described. Better be on the safe side. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



1. A prominent Wisconsin bee-keeper some years ago 

 had foul brood among his bees so bad ^ that he lost 200 

 colonies before the disease was checked. T Having a honey 



■ extractor and comb-foundation machine, he first boiled" the 

 hives in a large sorghum pan, then in a kettle all combs \vere 

 melted after the honey was extracted, thfe honey was boiled 

 and also the extractor and implements used. The bees were 

 returned to their hives on comb foundation he made from 

 the wax made from the melted combs, then fed the boiled 

 honey. Several years have passed and there has been no 

 signs of disease in his apiary since. 



2. Foul-brood germs are not always killed when exposed 

 to a temperature of 212 deg. F. (boiling point) for 45 min- 

 utes. But in every case where the combs are boiled in boiling 

 water, and same were well stirred while boiling, no germs 

 were alive. 



3. Foul brood in brood-combs is not destroyed or killed 

 when exposed to the temperature of Wisconsin winters of 



r 20 deg. below zero, and in one case I developed foul brood 

 from combs that had been exposed to 28 deg. below zero. 



- . 4. Honey, if stored in diseased combs, acts as a pre- 

 serving medium, and in such cases the germs of disease will 

 remain so long as the comb is undisturbed. Four years at 

 least. 



5. Honey or beeswax, or the refuse from a solar or sun- 

 heat extractor, is not heated enough to kill foul-brood germs. 

 Several cases of contagion where robber-bees worked on solar 

 extractor refuse or honey. 



6. Comb foundation made by supply manufacturers is 

 free from live germs of disease and perfectly safe to use. 

 To prove this experiment beyond doubt, I took a quantity 

 of badly-diseased brood-combs from several apiaries, and ren- 

 dered each batch of combs into wax myself on the farm where 

 found. 1 Then on my own foundation mill I made some brood 

 foundation. I also took quite a quantity more of said wax, 

 went tcl two wholesale comb foundation manufacturers, and 

 both pasties willingly made my experimental wax into comb 

 foundation just the same as they do every batch of wax. 

 I then divided the various makes of foundation and selected 20 

 of the best bee-yards in Wisconsin, where no disease had 

 ever been known, had the same placed in 62 of their best 



; colonies, and in every case no signs of disease have appeared. 

 i- Those same colonies continue to be the best in the various 

 apiaries. 



