THE COUNTRY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 136, 9 June 1911, Page 9

THE COUNTRY.

AFIARY. 'disinfecting foul, broody HIVES. (By 1. HOPKINS. To those beekeepers at all familiar with tta strictness with whi.h disinfection is upon in all cases of germ La?" by bacteriologists and medical authorities, and how scrupulously it is carried out at all our hospitals, the query ,t the head of this paper will appear absurd. Vet, in spite of tho fact that '•foul brood" in bee.-, is a germ disease of a very infections nature, and that all ♦he highest authorities, including bacteriologists who have specially studied this and other bee disease, advise the disinfection of liivos wherein diseased bees have been domiciled, there are some beekeepers, comparatively few, however, without any special knowledge of bacteriology who'insist that disinfection is not necessary It might he asked, "Why take notice of tliem?" It is not at all likely they will influence experienced beekeepers in the least, but they made induce berdirflers, or others who are somewhat careless in such matters, to neglect tarrying out a very important part of the treatment of foul brood, aud thus endanger themselves and their neighbours.

Foul brood is caused by certain bacteria, which attack and destroy the brood. When once they get a footing tier increase and spread throughout the bive at an enormous rate, aud if not checked the disease rapidly spreads tiroudiout the apian - and district. It is well known that one of the chief jjencies in the distribution of foul brood germs is the bee itself, as in the case of robbing a colony weakened by disease. Ate passing through the active stage, tbat I;, when all the substances upon which the bacteria pxist has been consuntd, they develop into spores or seeds, and remain dormant until by accident or oiierwise they are transported to some suitable medium, such as the living bee\itfie when they again become active and tatty on their work of destruction. The iports exist in myriads in the dried tali ol each destroyed larva attached h the lowef wails of the cells, with tiich the adult bees are constantly in Ktact. The spores are so roicroscopicalk small that multitudes of them may te carried about by the bees; hence, one of the chief causes of the disease spreading so rapidly. Under these circumitances, it will be readily understood that the spores are as likely to be attached to the sides of the interior of the lives in which disease exists, as on the combs themselves.

The inconsistency of those who contend that the hives in question may be used ngain without being disinfected, and ■without risk of contamination, is shown by the fact that they quite agree that the combs and frames from a diseased colony should be destroyed. They recognise that both may and will carry disease, yet the hive, which is in close contact with them, and over which the tees are constantly travelling, they claim cm be used again without any cleansing. This contention, on the face of it, ap.pears preposterous and devoid of all common sense. A person signing himself "A New Zealand Reader" has lately written to the "Canadian Bee Journal" in a very selfconscious manner, as though he was commissioned to represent the whole of our new Zealand beekeepers on the subject, ridiculing the idea of disinfection and those who advocate it. and incorrectly stating that it is not practised in New Zealand, Had this writer confined himMii to an intelligent discussion of the •abject, and presented his view of it, jot the slightest objection could have wen taken, but when a person runs counter to, and pretends to know more Pbout the matter than the scientific **perts, it is proof of unsound reasonlag. Among those who advise disinfection »re Doctors White, Maasseno, Burn, Zander, Phillips, and Professor Imms— "" 'bacteriologists who have specially studied bee diseases—and the authors of «H the standard works on bee-culture. V "Krefore, strongly recommend all beeKeeper? who have to treat their bees to ™» no risks, but include as part of the treatment the disinfection of hives good ™"gh to keep, and destroy others by DISINFECTION. There can be no doubt that the spores « «»ul brood can stand, without being ""royed, great heat and cold, and also wnsiderable strength of the usual disntectants. For instance. Dr. G. F. White, • 0; expert in bacteriology. says (as L* stated in buJle tin No.' 18): "The Wes of this bacillus (bacillus larvae) ... v . er ? resistant to heat and other Namteetants. They resist the boiling"TCpeiature of water for fifteen minutes. BofW r cent or carboli( ' ap i<i they were «L f in two mont!ls ' time. " Like- "• it has been demonstrated that the frnm*,° f bacillus larvae, when taken ftsist ?u SCales of Am «rican foul-brood, (enrr • action of mercuric chloride Bolnt° SlTe subliraa -te), 1: 1000 aqueous facts w for two m <»ths. Having such juplt Q , elo r e us - w e can better judge the for treatment." mw' !°* S to sbow thafc whatever dis3mJ ma ? be Use<1 > the solution be T , stron ?- T. W. Cowan, author '*tOr "ft -!- keeperS " Guide Book " and *asb; , ntlsh Be e Journal," advises for ?hcnv?p g >' noor boa - rd *- e fc c- soluble » «,.' teaspoonfuls to one quart Ida „ ' 0r Calvert's No. 5 carbolic italT^ 11 ' water two P art s. This iffi d K° n the "«• For disinfecting arbn; and -"' eto - Calvert's Xo. 5 WnC f°! d and 102 to 12oz wat « is re- . Sin S ein ? th <- ; ™°es of plain- '''' '' str °nsly recommended tetnis ° paintor " s b 'owpipe is handy «ns"tV' n , lrr "" )S0 - B&f °re usine the sokiouMbo£cr;,Mai,d,h ''

PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE NOVICE POULTRY-KEEPER. Now that winter is approaching it behoves all poultry-keepers to look to their birds in order to be certain that size may continue, to develop satisfactorily. I find that the beginning of disease in the poultry yard, and subsequent failures, which in many eases end by the novice throwing up his hobby in disgust, may be easily traced to the indiscriminate mixing of the sexes when the. birds are young, instead of their being separated when about twelve weeks' old; and to overcrowding at night time. ALL GROUND on which chickens have been running this season should be thoroughly well limed, and the birds moved into fresh quarters, and given a complete rest till next season, since the more often, they are moved the better they grow and develop, VENTILATION in the Toosting quarters is a great thing to be considered, and should be well looked into; also cleanliness of the house, as nothing impairs the health of growing stock so much as close confinement and badly ventilated houses. It is quite easy to tell when opening tho doors first thing in the morning if the house is properly ventilated. If there is not enough ventilation, the house will smell very stuffy and appear hot; if, on the other hand, a proper current of air is continually passing through the house everything will appear fresh. When it is taken into consideration that during the long nights birds are subject from fourteen to sixteen hours' confinement in the roosting quarters, it will be easily understood that overcrowding is fatal to the best of poultry. CHANGE OF FOOD is very essential; it is far better in fact to change the diet every other day, avoiding all fattening foods as much as possible. Warm food should be given in the morning and grain well buried in litter at night, in order that the birds may keep themselves in continual exercise, as nothing makes bone and muscle quicker that when the birds are continually scratching for food. Always try to give the best of foods, and not the cheap sort we often find advertised, and recommended by local grocers,' .as cheap food is not only useless, but is very detrimental to the birds' health. Give a little and let them have good foods, and do not ruin the fowl's constitutions by giving them useless spices. Many people are under the impression that any kind of food will do, and this i 3 one of the greatest mistakes they make, since only the very best food can be expected to give satisfactory Tesulta. If

I is required, and it is the fanciers' chief aim, laying should be postponed until ''the pullets are fully developed, and this j can easily be avoided by continually moving the birds to fresh ground, and feeding them very sparingly on soft food, as early laying means undersized stock, small eggs, and weakly offspring. Birds that are intended for the BREEDING PENS ' next year should now be selected and [ carefully looked after, and it will pay I all who desire better results next year to bear this in mind, as it is only by | studying the best methods that success | can be expected, and poultry-keeping, whether as a business or a hobby, be I made to pay. The time has long passed I when haphazard methods can be employed, and if the poultry fanciers of to-day wish to fulfil the demands for | better poultry and eggs, and thereby keep the millions of pounds in their own poskets which are yearly being paid ! to the foreigner, they must use every effort to advance their stock by proper care and selection. [ R.HJD. LABYBIBDS AMD THE WOOLLY APHIS. j From several widely separated localities in 'the Dominion reports have been received from observant growers that woolly aphis on apple trees is being kept in check and in some cases considerably lessened by ladybirds. Whether [ the insects doing this good work are the : Californian variety, introduced some four years ago by Mr Boucher, of the Orchards' Division, or our native ladybird j ( the eleven spotted) or a half-bred of 'the two varieties has not been definitely I proved. I Mr G. H. Carter, of the Wade district, near Auckland, informs us tnat his orchard —he has four acres of twenty-year-I old trees of badly blighting varieties—is now virtually clear of aphis, which happy result i 3 due, he considers, to the efforts of the ladybirds. Mr Carter and his neighbour, Mr Green, who owns a large commercial orchard in the same district, noticed that the aphis commenced to disappear some six months after they received a consignment of the Californian variety from the Department and the good work has been continued ever since. In writing us on the subject Mr Carter says: — I ""herewith send you a few ladybirds. You will notice that some of them are a yellow colour and some red. The yellow ones are what I believe to be halfbreds (cross of the Californian and native ladybird) and, as you will see, they are slightly larger than the red ones. I have never found the New Zealand ladybird at work on the aphis, whereas both Mr tireen and myself have seen the yel 10-.v ones attacking the aphis. (In reference to what says as to the

crossing of the two varieties, it would be well to point out that this is almost unknown amongst insects of this family and is against the weight of evidence at present known to leading entomologists. —Ed. N.Z.F.) Mr Carter further adds: On the strength of the ladybirds coming to the rescue, I put in last year a hundred Dougherty apples, and so far they are perfectly clean, which shows that I am not afraid of the future. These ladybirds—which I consider to be half-breds— were with us this season in thousands.'' Mr A. R. Mayo, the secretary of the Feilding Fruitgrowers' Association and a [large commercial grower and nurseryman, in course of a conversation with a "Farmer" representative, stated that he had been much troubled with woolly aphis this season and had tried a number of different sprays, including water. Tho water was applied with a Bean spray pump at a pressure of from lOOlbs to 1201bs and considering the cost gave very good results, the trees heing nearly as clean as after a dressing with a wellknown proprietary spray. Mr Mayo, continuing, said: The water business was a "sticker. where we had used it the trees were clean and fresh looking. I suddenly, however, dropped to the fact that the trees which had been sprayed in this manner were covered with ladybirds, and on those where we had used proprietary mixtures there were very few. Previous to this I had not much time for the "natural enemy* business, but I am certain that the ladybirds have done a great deal of good work and that I would have been better off to have used water through the early autumn as we cleared the fruit off and saved the proprietary mixtures until the winter, when the ladybirds would not have run so much risk of injury. The insects seemed to mc to vary slightly in colour, but all that I examined had the eleven black spots. LIFE HISTORY. The Coccinelidae to whrch the ladybirds belong is a large order of insects comprisinc over 2000 species. Only a small percentage of these are looked upou as important predaceous insects, but they all live entirely on insects such as Aphides and scale insects. The life historr of all these insects is very similar, and it is in the larval stage that the greatest amount of good ts done. They remain in the larval state for about four weeks, and then the pupa stage is entered upon—a stage which generally takes two to three week 3 before the adult stage is reached. The ladybirds hybernate in the adult or beetle stage. During the winter the beetles hide themselves under pieces of bark and leaves, and even in some cases enter the soil. In the spring the beetles lay eggs and the larval stage is again produced. In favourable seasons a sueI cession of broods are produced. The main objection to the ladybirds as aphis controllers is the fact that there are I rarely sufficient numbers eariy in the summer to check the aphis from becoming well established.