BEES IN COLONIES AFFECTED BY EUROPEAN FOULBROOD 6 



the diseased larvae are cleaned out as this is taking place. The union 

 with a healthy colony and the strength gained by the emergence of 

 so many young bees gives the colony the stimulus to eliminate the 

 disease. He notes, as have many other beekeepers since, that in 

 August, when the buckwheat honey flow begins, the stronger of the 

 diseased colonies are stimulated to clean up. 



Alexander (1) published a method of treatment for European foul- 

 brood, the principle of which, after many varying failures and suc- 

 cesses, is now the basis for the present method of treatment most 

 used; that is, requeening with Italian stock. Alexander mentions 

 the need of three factors: First, the necessity of requeening with 

 young yellow Italians, as hybrids of Italian and black bees are prone 

 to contract the disease in the first place and also are more likely to 

 succumb to it; second, particularly emphasized, a period (at least 27 

 days, according to Alexander) of queenlessness in which to allow the 

 bees properly to clean up the cells and polish them, preparatory for 

 eggs of a new queen ; third, a factor which is mentioned only casually 

 but which is equally important with the other two, the direction to 

 unite and strengthen diseased colonies before treating. So little em- 

 phasis was placed on this that the majority of beekeepers overlooked 

 it in using Alexander's treatment and therefore condemned the treat- 

 ment as unsuccevssf ul except in rare cases. 



In an editorial (8) in the same issue of the journal m which Mr. 

 Alexander was writing, the question was raised as to why the period 

 of broodlessness caused by winter, which is much longer than 27 

 days, does not always prevent a recurrence of the disease. Mr. Alex- 

 ander answered this question by explaining that when the queen 

 stops laying in the fall, the bees do not polish up the cells as they 

 do earlier in the season, and that some of the dried-down material 

 may remain until the next spring. The opinion also is given in 

 this editorial that Italians are more able to resist the disease than 

 hj^brids because they do more thorough work in house cleaning and 

 are less inclined to rob. 



Phillips (6) makes the statement that "European foulbrood 

 is more destructive during the spring and early summer than 

 at other times, often entirely disappearing during the late summer 

 and early autumn, or during a heavy honey flow," but gives no indi- 

 cation as to how this takes place. The same year Miller (2) pub- 

 lished his theory of the relation of the nurse bees to the spread of 

 European foulbrood. He believes that the nurse bees suck up the 

 juices of a freshly diseased larva which has not become offensive, and 

 then transmit the disease when feeding the healthy larvae. On this 

 supposition he believes that if Qgg laying ceases for 5 or 6 days (" the 

 period the larvae remain unsealed in their cells ") there will no 

 longer be larvae in the proper condition for nurse bees to feed upon, 



