s 



disease returned in every apiary and destroyed some of them completely. I found 

 the disease spreading very rapidly. It has more than doubled since last year. 

 I think if the Department could encourage the beekeepers to Italianize ahead of 

 the disease it would prevent a great deal of loss, as the disease does not affect 

 the Italians nearly so badly as the blacks." 



In the Canadian Horticulturist and Beekeeper, for June, 1914, Mr. Scott 

 writes: "Tf the disease returns in an. Italian colony to such an extent that the 

 half of the brood is dead, I. have found that removing the queen for live days 

 before introducing a new one works well, as.it gives the "bees a chance to clean 

 up the combs before the new queen has a chance to lay. If more than^ half the 

 brood is dead I would treat the colony hy the shaking method. The best advice I 

 can give to all beekeepers is to Italianize. You will be able to save considerable 

 lofes by doing so if you use Italian queens raised from vigorous stock. I have 

 used the Golden bee with good results, but I cannot say that the three-banded 

 or leather^olored Italians will not do as well under the same conditions provided 

 they are of a vigorous strain. Vigor seems to count more than color. The 

 successful honey producer of the future must keep his queens young. That is, he 

 must not keep the queen longer than two seasons for the best results, and I am 

 not sure but it would be well to requeen every year. It is very important when 

 comhating the disease to see that all queens are young. The remedy for the 

 disease is exactly in line with the system of beekeeping that must be followed 

 in order to obtain the highest success even if Foul Brood never existed. Keep 

 your -bees up to a high standard of vitality and it will make but little difference 

 whether your neighbors are careless or not." 



In March, 1915, 0. L. Hershiser, of Kenmore, N.Y., told the writer that 

 when European Foul Brood reached his apiary he found that some of his colonies 

 resisted the disease, and he requeened the rest of the apiary from them, thus 

 developing a resisting strain by selection. He did not know the origin of the 

 stock and is not selling queens. 



W. A. Sniith, Wooler, had his first outbreak of European Foul Brood in 

 1907, the same time as his neighbor, Mr. Scott. 



In Jan. 1913, Mr. Smith wrote: "I received a queen from D about July 1st, 

 1911. I introduced her into a colony I had treated for E. F. B., and the disease 

 did not. appear again that season,- but in the spring of 1912 her colony showed 

 -the disease in all stages. I let them go and they cleaned house and threw off 

 a good swarm in clover flow and another in buckwheat. I 'would consider one 

 strain of Italians as good as another as far as fighting disease is concerned, but 

 I am certain the three-banded Italians are by far the best honey gatherers. Most 

 of my bees are of H stock." 



In Jan. 1914, Mr. Smith wrote again: "I have had experience with several 

 different strains of Italians, namely: B, D, G, H, and we need not expect any 

 of them to fight off the disease in every case the first year that they contract it. 

 I inoculated a colony of pure bred H stock with E. P. B. in 1912, and it stayed 

 with them the season through. In 1913, they were completely rid of it, so I 

 would not advise turning any strain of Italians down if they do not fight off the 

 disease the first season. 



" Proba'bly it would not be out of place if I would give you the results of an 

 experiment which I carried out~in 1912 and '13.. I had several colonies with 

 disease in. 1912 which I treated. I selected the weakesit one to stack the hrood 

 on. I placed three brood nests on this one with the diseased com'bs which were 

 taken from the other three. I left them there for two ^eeks, then took the 



