146 Advanced Bee Culture. 



not a single diseased cell had been found in them, even with diseased colonies 

 all about them. This exception came from the giving of a comb from a sup- 

 posed healthy colony that afterwards proved to be diseased. As a test, this 

 "Colony was left undisturbed, and it cleaned up during the season, and has 

 remained healthy since. I have witnessed several instances where a single 

 ■colony of Italians has survived without care or treatment, in some farmer's 

 .small apiary; not even shown a trace of the disease, when the rest of the 

 apiary of blacks or hybrids died with black brood. 



WHY THE ALEXANDER PLAN HAS FAILED. 



There has been much discredit given the Alexander plan of treating 

 Wack brood, but I believe the failures have arisen not so much in the treatment 

 as in the race of bees. Let me give an illustration: Mr. Howard Mills, of 

 Syracuse, had an apiary of 100 colonies of blacks. When the disease appeared 

 in his apiary, he called in the inspector, who instructed him to shake off the 

 bees, destroy the combs, etc., which was done at considerable expense, yet, the 

 same season, the colonies became so badly diseased, again, that Mr. Mills 

 destroyed all of them in the fall, and went out of the business. 



Again: Mr. Irving Kinyon, of Pairmount, bought an apiary of black bees 

 that were badly diseased. In the fall he dequeened and doubled up about 

 25 colonies, expecting to introduce Italian queens, but the dealer of whom the 

 queens were ordered failed to furnish them, as the season became so far 

 advanced that it was not safe to ship them. As a result, these colonies went 

 through the winter queenless. In the spring the Italian queens were intro- 

 duced, and those colonies freed themselves of the disease. A few colonies 

 showed traces of the disease in the second hatching of bees, but the Italian 

 bees soon cleaned out the dead larva^e, and the disease disappeared entirely. 

 I could mention many similar cases showing that there is more in the strain 

 of bees (Italian) in combating the disease, than in any method of treatment. 



There is one more point: Don't be alarmed if a few diseased larvae 

 show in the second filling of the combs after introducing an Italian queen. 

 Give the Italians time, and they will clean these out. 



METHODS OP TREATMENT VARY AYITH THE SEASON. 



As to the most desirable treatment, much depends upon the time of the 

 year. Those that show the disease in the spring, I would dequeen at once, on 

 the Alexander plan. If the disease does not show until just prior to the honey 

 harvest, then I would shake the colony. 



I have shaken colonies during the honey flow, tiered up the brood, de- 

 stroyed the queen cells at the tenth day, given a ripe cell from healthy, Italian 

 stock, then, later, selected the section that the bees were occupying the 

 strongest, placing it, with the queen, at the bottom, with an excluder over it, 

 and the other chambers above. The bees would clean out the combs, and 

 later use of the combs, both as extracting combs and as brood combs, failed 

 to resurrect the disease. 



FORESTALLING THE DISEASE. 



My bees have now passed through one season free from European (black) 

 foul brood, and experience leads me to say to bee-keepers, thoroughly Italianize 

 your stock before the disease appears in your territory; you then have very 

 little to fear from the disease. As one of the inspectors puts it: "Black brood 

 is a blessing in disguise. It does away with the careless bee-keeper and the 

 .old box hive." 



Camillus, N. Y., March 7, 1910. 



