Bob:
Well I was not keeping bees a 100 years ago so can not comment back then but 
I was involved in commercial beekeeping from the fifties on and until mites 
foulbrood was the only problem we ever had.

Dear Bob,
I could have gotten a similar assessment from the 1950s. I have the Hive and the Honey Bee, 1949 edition. And I have quoted in Bee-L from Bee Supply catalogs -- listing the wide range of chemicals available to treat bees and bee combs for all kinds of problems. 

There has never been trouble free beekeeping and the difficulty of keeping hives thriving goes back to the ancient Greeks. I would grant you, that in this globalized world, we have a lot more problems, but the past was not all blissful and bucolic. I'll leave it at that. 

plb

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