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Subject:
From:
Peter Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 27 Nov 2009 11:59:32 -0500
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In 1917, A I Root describes explains using specific breeds to treat bee disease, that "a vigorous strain of bees would do a good cleanup job"

> Black and hybrid bees are much more subject to the ravages of European foul brood. If the disease is not too far advanced, the mere introduction of a vigorous strain of young Italian queens may cure the whole apiary. There are some localities in New York and Virginia where Italian apiaries are surrounded by apiaries of black and hybrid bees; and yet the remarkable fact is that these Italian yards are free from disease while the yards of common bees around them are affected with it in spite of treatment by shaking.

> In a series of articles which Mr. Alexander wrote defending his treatment -- for he encountered all sorts of opposition from those who failed -- he laid strong emphasis on the importance of making all colonies extra strong, using a vigorous resistant strain of Italians and keeping the colony queenless for at least 20 days, at the end of which time a ripe queen-cell or a virgin just hatched was to be given.

> Mr. S. D. House, of Camillus, N. Y., told the author that a vigorous strain of Italians would almost alone clean out European foul brood after the colony had been queenless for a period. He showed colony after colony that had been rotten with the disease, and which at the time of our visit were entirely free of it. He stated that European foul brood was rampant all around him in the black and hybrid colonies. In spite of the fact that it was within reach of his bees he had no fear of it. He wrote a series of articles for Gleanings in Bee Culture in 1911, and among them was one, on page 330, giving his method of treatment that is similar to Miller's. This attracted considerable attention at the time. The editor of Gleanings was severely criticised by some of the state inspectors for giving publicity to such heresy; but old Father Time has demonstrated that Alexander and Mr. House were nearly right.

> In later years European foul brood broke out in the apiary of Dr. C. C. Miller, of Marengo, 111., an authority referred to in many places in this work. The author advised him to follow the Alexander or the House treatment, which he did, with marked success. By accident he discovered that it was not necessary to have the colonies queenless more than ten days. That a vigorous strain of bees would do a good cleanup job in the period named. 

THE A B C and X Y Z OF BEE CULTURE 
To the throng of eager questioning brothers and sisters in the art of bee culture, in our own and other countries, this work is especially dedicated.

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