lo Dec. 19TO.] Foul Brand of Bees. 809 



FOUL BROOD OF BEES. 



R. Beiilnie. President, Yieforian Apiarists^ Association. 



In view of the heavv losses resulting from Foul Brood, when once 

 it has obtained a good stc'.rt in an apiary, and the great amount of labour 

 involved in its eradication, it is desirable that every owner of bees should 

 be able to recognise this disease when it appears in one or more of his 

 hives. He will then be able to de;d with it before it has made any great 

 headway. 



Unfortunately, there are still some bee-keepers who do not discover 

 the presence of this disease amongst their bees till the small number 

 of bees in several of the hives indicates that there is something 

 wrong. When hi\-es have been affected sufficiently long to show marked 

 decline in the number of bees, the disease is likely to spread rapidly ; the 

 remaining bees are usuallv inactive and do not defend their hives against 

 robber be'^s from strong healthy colonies, which in turn fall victims to 

 foul brood. It is therefore important that vigilance should be exercised 

 whenever combs are hnndled. so that the disease may be discovered and 

 treated when still in its first stage. 



The cause of foul broofl is a micro-organism growing in the tissue 

 of the larvae of the bee and sometimes also in the adult insect. It was 

 named Bacillus alvei bv Cheshire and W. Cheyne in 1885. Since then 

 American investigators have discovered that there are two types of foul 

 brood, European Foul Brood caused bv Bacillus alvei and American Foul 

 Brood caused by a micro-organism differing from the former and named 

 Baccilus larva by Dr. G. F. White of United States Department of Agri- 

 culture in 1907. The general appearance of the diseased brood is, how- 

 ever, the same in both and the sanie treatment is necessarv to effect a cure. 

 Whether foul brood in Australia is caused by B. alvei or B. larvce has 

 up to the present not been scientifically tested ; probably both are present. 



To describe diseased brood to any one not well acouainted with thf^ 

 '-ubject it is l:>est to contrast its appearance to the eye with that of brooil 

 in a healthv state. Normal healthv brood shows in compact masses in 

 the comb, that is to sav. considerable numbers of adjoining cells contain 

 larvae of the same age (Fig. i). In a diseased comb the brood appears 

 irreeular and scattered. Healthy larvae are of pearly whiteness, plumn, 

 nnd lie curled up on the cell bottom almost in the .shape of the letter C. 

 Di.seased larvae are pale vellow. and. further on, turn brown; the grubs 

 nppear fiabbv and are not so much curled up as healthy larvae of the same 

 size. 



When the larva? do not die till after the cells have been capped over, 

 cells will be found here and there darker in colour than healthy ones along- 

 side ; the cappings usually will be indented instead of convex and will 

 frequently show irregular' holes (Fig. 2). If these cells are opened a 

 brown mass is visible which, when touched with a match or straw, draws 

 out stringv or ropy. The ropiness is the surest practical way of identi- 

 fying the disease and the test should be applied to any suspicious-looking 

 cells which mav appear amongst the brood. I would here point out that 

 although the cappings of hrood, particularly those of black bees, have 

 when healthv the appearance shown in Fig. i, there are some bees of the 

 vellow races which cap the cells quite flat; also, that the scattering of 



