File:American bee journal (1915) (18114142772).jpg

Title: American bee journal
Identifier: americanbeejourn551915hami (find matches)
Year: 1861 (1860s)
Authors:
Subjects: Bee culture; Bees
Publisher: (Hamilton, Ill. , etc. , Dadant & Sons)
Contributing Library: UMass Amherst Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: UMass Amherst Libraries

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November, 1915. 385 American Hee Journal
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VIEW OF MT. CHEAM AND FRASER RIVER. FROM THE APIARY OF SAM SMITH. DEWDNEY. B. C. This is a typical specimen of British Columbia. We have thousands more just as good.—(Photographed by F. Dundas Todd..) cause disease by entering colonies that were healthy before. The transfer of combs from diseased to healthy hives is often a fruitful source or cause of the spread of this disease. It is quite rare to tind a farmer beekeeper, or one who does not make a special business of it, who will recognize disease of any kind among his bees. The rearing of queens in diseased colonies is doubtless another cause of the spread of this disease. A friend of mine who has had a large experience with European foulbrood, says it is im- possible to rear healthy or disease- resisting queens in such colonies, as they will ijroduce only queens whose progeny cannot resist this disease. But how does this disease spread from yard to yard ? Surely not by drifting, you say. But are we sure? I certainly am not. Why should not a young nursing bee with its stomach full of pollen, water, and honey, with many bacteria, as it takes its first flight, lose its way and wander as it hears the hum of many bees, to some yard where disease was before unknown, and enter a hive and be well received for the load it brings of food now digested and ready to feed the hungry larvx ? " Ira- possible !" you say, "they always know their way back. Their instinct or sense of direction teaches them that." Alas! their instincts are sometimes at fault. Instinct teaches the larvie as they reach maturity to enter the pupa state with their heads to the mouth of the cells, yet I have found them with their heads towards the base of the cell, and unable to get out without assistance. Again, we have found bees trying to rear two larvae in one cell and queens from drone-larvs. No, surely, their instincts are not perfect, and I can conceive of a bee wandering far from its home to some strange hive. Pre- sumably, however, this disease is more commonly carried from yard to yard by robber bees than otherwise, whether in the honey or on their bodies, who can tell ? I have sometimes thought it was neither, but by nurse bees that fol- lowed the robbers to their home and cast in their lot with them. Of one thing, however, I feel very sure, and that is if you have European foulbrood in your yard and wish to keep it from spreading you must get rid of what you have at the earliest moment, either by caging or removing the queen from such hives, or moving them at least 4 or 5 miles from home until cured or by destroying them with their combs and honey. The last is a very sure remedy. Perhaps I should mention another method of the distribution of European foulbrood, although it may combine all that have been mentioned. I believe, more often than we think, this disease is spread through or by the agency of wild bees. A few weeks ago I was called to ex- amine a yard some .50 miles from home. I found it nearly gone with this dis- ease, and the moths taking possession. Not one good colony remained. I went to all the yards in the vicinity expect- ing to find other cases, but not one did I find. In talking with the owner I found that he was an old bee hunter, finding and cutting trees long distances from home, bringing home his honey and sometimes the bees with him, which was undoubtedly the way the dis- ease came to appear in his yard. In- stances might be multiplied where it has seemed very certain the disease came from wild bees. Middlebury, Vt. Does the Queen Convey Euro- pean Foulbrood ?—Is Che- shire Good Authority on This Subject? BY OREL L. HERSHISER. THE leading editorial of the Septem- ber, 1915, issue of the American Bee Journal, by Dr. C. C. Miller and C. P. Dadant, has inspired the writer to a little investigation and the offering of a few remarks on the above important subject. That the disease of European foul- brood is spread by the nurse bees feed- ing the juices of dead larvs, before it becomes putrid, to healthy larvx, the writer believes to be quite probable, and this seems equally true whether such juices are used purposely for food for the larvae or whether the food of the nurse bees may become contami- nated during the process of removing the dead larva;. The stronger flavored honeys, such as that from buckwheat, seem to excite bees to robbing more than do the milder flavored sorts, such as clover. In like manner may not the peculiar sour odor of European foulbrood, be- fore it becomes putrid, or even after-

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