192 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



TIT. — On Bees : the origin, treatment, and cure of Foul Brood. 



By Mr R. J. Bennett. 



About three years ago I was made acquainted with this dire 

 calamity in the manner that it most affects a beekeej^er, viz., an 

 attack upon my own apiary, and in the space of three months I 

 lost four strong hives. Fearing the death of my whole stock, I 

 immediately began a correspondence on the subject with my fellow- 

 beekeepers. A former member of this Society, now a Doctor 

 of Medicine in England, wrote : — " Have not made its acquaint- 

 ance, and don't want to " j and a Stirlingshire beekeeper said, 

 " Give them a glass of whisky, mixed with 2 lbs. of sugar 

 and 1 pint of water, and take my word for it, you will stimulate 

 your bees to double work, and have stronger colonies than ever." 

 That advice I thought at the time to be a good practical joke, and 

 did not follow it ; but in the " Journal of Horticulture " of the 

 15th March, I find an English apiarian recommending for spring 

 stimulating feeding a continual administration of syrup with a 

 dash of brandy in it. 



The origin of foul brood may be said to be threefold : — 



First : From fermented honey or food. 



Second : From exposure of the hive to cold. 



Third : From infection. 



First : From fermented honey or food. — As nothing will more 

 readily induce foul brood in a hive having unsealed honey than 

 overheating, combs in this state should never be kept over the 

 winter, as moisture or vapour is deposited on the comb and mixes 

 with the unsealed honey, which thereby ferments. Fungi are 

 then propagated, and are spread when this honey is used by the 

 nurses for feeding the larvae, in which stage of the life of a bee 

 the infection and destruction begins. After the cell is sealed or 

 capped over, the bees have no means of knowing that decay and 

 rottenness are going on within. If we take a piece of comb thus 

 infected and withdraw the dead pupae, tliere appears in the 

 bottom of the cells a small white fungoid substance, which is the 

 germ of the disease, and in course of time turns the larvae first 

 into a milky-like substance, and later into a dark brown glutinous 

 jelly, which emits a very offensive smell. If you stir it with a 

 pin at this stage, it can be drawn out in long elastic threads, 

 almost like India-rubber. 



Second : From exposure. — Frequent examination of the hive 



