AMKKh \N FOIL BROOD ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 57 



Doctor Phillips. When the notices were firs! sent out concerning 

 this meeting I wrote to Mr. Fred A. Parker, of Lompoc, Cal., under 

 the impression that he was Inspector of Santa Barbara County. Ii 

 seems that be has resigned and Santa Barbara County now has no 

 inspector. He has, however, sent a paper, which will now be read: 



AMERICAN FOUL BROOD ON THE PACIFIC COAST. 



By Fred A. 1 ' auk i r, 

 Former Inspector (or Santa Barbara County, Cal, 



During my term as inspector of apiaries for Santa Barbara County, 



Cal., in the year L905, l.<>7-*> colonics of bees were inspected. I dis 

 covered 17 cases of American foul brood and Pound 17') colonic- not 

 on movable frames. These were ordered transferred, and in some 

 instances I did the work myself. Every case of foul brood was 

 either burned or treated by the shaking method. Five were burned, 

 being too weak in numbers to treat. Preparatory to burning, I would 

 dig a hole about 2 feet deep and build a lire in it. then throw in the 

 frames containing the diseased brood. After the lire did it< work 

 the hole was filled with dirt to prevent bees from getting diseased 

 honey, if any might have been left unconsumed. If any comb was 

 attached to the hives the latter were placed on the lire in the hole 

 and when the interior was a mass of (lames they were removed with a 

 shovel, hoc. or other long-handled tool and water thrown on to ex- 

 tinguish the flames if the wood had caught fire. The bee- were 

 shaken into an empty hive and allowed to build ^>ml> on the lid foi 

 three days, when they were shaken onto frames with starters and 

 allowed to proceed. The comb was scraped from the lid and the lid 

 scorched. This treatment, if carefully performed, is successful in 

 about nine-tenths of the cases treated. Bee keeper- are generally 

 too careless in handling the diseased combs, thus giving other bees 

 an opportunity to steal a load of infected honey. 



I have read many statements to the effect that queens do not carry 

 the infection, but my experience has convinced me otherwise. I had 

 shaken six diseased colonies in my own apiary in L902 and four 

 were completely cured. "While I was equally careful in handling 

 these cases the disease reappeared in two of them. 1 -hook them 

 again, and again in due time the disease appeared. This caused me 

 to suspect that the queens were defective, and to test it I exchanged 

 them with the queens of two perfectly healthy colonic-, shaking the 

 diseased stock again. In both cases the cure was complete, while the 

 disease appeared in the brood of the formerly healthy colonies. This 

 appeal's to me to demonstrate beyond doubt that the ovaries of queens 

 are occasionally infected, that their eggs t ransmit the germs of Ameri- 

 can foul brood, and that the disease will develop in any colony to 



