134 
WISCONSIN HORTICULTURE 
June, 1919 
AMONG WISCONSIN BEEKEEPERS 
The Wisconsin BeeKeepers Page 
Prof. H. F. Wilson Editor 
Buying Bees 
By S. B. Fracker, Acting State 
Entomologist 
When David Ilarum and his 
horse-trading friends of the old 
days found a perfectly good speci- 
men of horse-flesh going lame, he 
proceeded to dispose of the animal 
as soon as he could. A favorite 
outdoor sport of that time tvas 
horse trading in which the winner 
was the man receiving the highest 
price for the poorest animal. The 
methods used for concealing 
heaves, lameness, and disease were 
the stock in trade of horse-owners 
and were considered perfectly 
honest — unless practiced on Sun- 
day ! 
While the art of horse-trading 
has now given place to the busi- 
ness of automobile selling in which 
the same conditions are intensi- 
fied, the desire to dispose of live- 
stock on the farm when something 
begins to go wrong with it is still 
strong. Is beekeeping an excep- 
tion to the rule? After gathering 
honey from on apiary for five, ten, 
oi* twenty years, do a few unprof- 
itable seasons and a succession of 
winter losses, followed by “spring 
dwindling,” cause many beekeep- 
ers to try to sell out at a good 
price? When something “seems 
to be wrong” do they want to 
‘ ‘ get out from under ? ’ ’ 
Foulbrood Distributed by Sales of 
Bees 
One of the results of this trait 
of human nature is that American 
foul brood, the most serious 
trouble with which beekeepers 
have to contend, has become scat- 
tered thruout the state. Disease 
centers are now known in almost 
every county in the state except 
near Lake Superior. Weather 
conditions and other causes are 
often blamed for losses really due 
to disease and whole townships 
have been found in which beekeep- 
ing had been practically wiped 
out without a single beekeeper sus- 
pecting the cause of the trouble. 
From the first appearance of 
disease in Jefferson county over 
forty years ago it has been trans- 
ported in all directions, sometimes 
for long distances. More trouble 
is experienced in the southern and 
eastern counties than in others but 
with foulbrood so widely scattered 
no beekeeper can consider himself 
immune. 
With one infected apiary in a 
township the spread is rapid. Mr. 
Smith, finding beekeeping pays 
well, buys up a few more colonies 
from the next county and brings 
them home. The next year his bees 
are not doing so well and the fol- 
lowing winter many colonies fail 
to survive. After trying one more 
season, usually not suspecting the 
cause of the trouble, he advertises 
an apiary for sale and distributes 
infected supplies and hives to six 
neighbors. They in turn find honey 
production unprofitable and pass 
their troubles on to others. In 
two townships in Richland county, 
in which these conditions were 
studied, practically every case of 
foul brood had arisen thru the 
purchase of bees or used bee sup- 
plies. 
New Inspection Law 
A law prohibiting the sale of 
bees or used bee supplies without 
a permit or inspection certificate 
from the apiary inspector of the 
state department of agriculture 
has just been enacted at this 
session of the legislature. Foul- 
brood is now so prevalent that no 
beekeeper can afford to purchase 
any bees or supplies except from 
apiaries known to be healthy. Nor 
should honey purchased on the 
open market ever be fed to bees. 
American foulbrood can be thor- 
oly cleaned up in an apiary and 
that has been accomplished hun- 
dreds of times in all parts of the 
United States. Only the brood in 
the comb is diseased and the adult 
bees do not carry the infection to 
a new clean hive if they are com- 
pelled to use all the honey in their 
honey-sacs at the time of transfer 
in the manufacture of comb. The 
cure results, however, in the loss 
of the comb and frames and neces- 
sitates burning out or boiling the 
old hives. Can any apiary owner 
afford to run the risk of purchas- 
ing old combs and hives Avhen the 
most likely result will be either 
the loss of the bees thru disease or 
the somewhate expensive and la- 
borious treatment? 
Wisconsin Holds Records 
Wisconsin holds two beekeeping 
records, of one of which she can 
well be proud. For many years 
the census shows a honey produc- 
tion per colony higher than that 
of any other state east of the 
Rocky mountains and sixty per- 
cent higher than the average for 
the country as a whole. In 1900 
and 1910 she was the seventh state 
