SOME RESULTS 



OF 



Or Co-operative Experiments on Races of Bees 



5-3S 



TO DETERMINE THEIR POWER TO .RESIST 



European Foul Brob(i. 



MOELEY PeTTIT, PROVINCIAL APIAEIST, GUELPH. 



PS\ 



In combating the disease of bees Imown as European Foul Brood, the resist-^ 

 ing power of the bees is an important factor. This power has been found to 

 vary in different colonies and is generally considered to be a question of the; 

 race of bees, and probably the "strain" within the race. Common black bees* 

 are usually poor resisters, Italian bees are generally accepted as the best, and 

 Carniolans are favored by some. 



Since the year 1910, the writer has,- under the auspices of the Ontario| 

 Agricultural and Experimental Union, been directing co-operative experiments,if 

 and has also corresponded and conversed with independent experimenters with 

 a view to securing answers to the following questions: — 



1. Are Carnolian bees as good resisters of European Foul Brood as Italians? 



2. What strains of Italians, if any, are better resisters than others? 



3. After this disease has been in a neighborhood a few years, is it mor^ 

 easily controlled ? 



4. Does it become less virulent or is a strain of better resisters developed? 

 The co-operative experimenters are beekeepers located in the European Fou 1 



Brood districts of Ontario. As the Ontario Agricultural College is not includecl 

 in that district, experiments could not be conducted at the College apiary. Th(; 

 'New York State Apiary Inspectors have also very kindly contributed results of 

 their investigations dating back to 1897. The queens sent to experimenters fron^t 

 year to year are untested queens secured from well-known breeders whose bee! 

 are reported to be good resisters. The experimenter is left largely to his o 

 devices as to the methods of test, being merely told to "introduce the queen t 

 a good average colony that is affected with European Foul Brood. Sometimels 

 there are colonies that seem to be .immune to European Foul Brood for a whilfi. 

 Do not use these for experiment. If you have treated your bees by the shakin.g 

 method introduce the queen to a good colony that was diseased before treating.? 



There is probably no better way of presenting the results of this investigation* 

 than to quote from letters received, then draw conclusions. As queens from 

 only a few of the well-known breeders in America have been under observation 

 the names of breeders are not published, but are designated by' letters of the 

 alphabet. 



Perhaps the first important letter came from Chas. Stewart, Johnstown, N.Yf; 

 a State Apiary Inspector. He wrote Jan. 16, 1910 : "Of all the races of bees 

 the Italian resists disease the best, but we do not regard them as immune, although 

 some strains are more nearly so than others. I would not say a man with Italian, 

 bees in a diseased locality would have no trouble, but that he would have lees than 

 others. "When the disease breaks out in a new locality it is much harder i;o 

 cure than after it has run for a time, when it yields to treatment more readilvi> 



