January '38, 13i50. 1 



JOUBNAL OF aOBriaULTDUB AND COTTAGE GAUDENER. 



75 



tbelr space, ia examining some of the opinions advanced since 

 18(>.t, and in endeavouring to ascertain what progress has been 

 made towards a solution of this great foul-brood mystery. 



With the exception of the Scottish author Bonner, very 

 little reference seems to be made to foul brood by any British 

 writer. As a practical beekeeper of great sagacity and ex- 

 perience Bonner stands deservedly high in general estimation. 

 His observant eye failed not to take notice of the evil effects of 

 decayed brood, which somelioies found a place in thinly in- 

 hibited hives, and vphioh he was inclined to ascribe to " cold 

 or some other accident." Any personal acquaintance which 

 Dr. Dunbar had c)f foul brood must, I think, have been of a 

 triding nature ; and I cannot see, notwithstanding the contrary 

 opinion expressed, tlut any reference whatever is made to it in 

 his remarks on dysentery in the " Naturalist's Library " in 

 1S.")2 ; for he distinctly says, " After long experience and atten- 

 tive observation, we are satisfied that this insect is subject only 

 to one malady — namely, dysentery." Of Dr. Bevan and Huish 

 I believe their knowledge of it was almost entirely derived from 

 continental authors ; and the probability is that each of these 

 apiarian writers treated foul brood as lightly as did the late 

 Colonel H. W. Newman, of Cheltenham, when in these pages 

 he adopted the words of our immortal bard — 



" He laughs at scars vfUo nevftr foU a wound." 



Of foreign authors referred to by Mr. Woodbury, how different 

 their experience ! and yet it is a circumstance worthy of being 

 noticed, that with the exception of Schiracb, little reference is 

 made to foul brood by old authors. In other countries as well 

 as in this, virulent foul brood seems, comparatively speaking, a 

 malady of recent years. On any other supposition it seems to me 

 perfectly unaccountable that all our best apiarian writers should 

 have made little or no allusion to such devastating ravages as 

 are now experienced. 



Of American authors, it ii strange that while Mr. Quinby 

 says that he lost a hundred colonies in one year from foul brood, 

 the Eev. L. L. Lingstroth states that the malady never made 

 its appearance in his apiaries. Though Mr. Quinby could offer 

 no solution of its origin, he believes it is contagions, and that 

 the viriif is contained in the honey. 



The distinguished Lusatian observer, Scliiracb, considered 

 that foul brood may arise either from " the bees giving the 

 brood unsuitable food, or from the queen depositing her eggs 

 in a reversed position, so that the young bees, being unable to 

 extricate themselves from their prison, die and putrefy. Some- 

 times also cold killa the young brood, and occasions putre- 

 faction, but it is then, properly speaking, an accident and not a 

 disease." 



In Germany foul brood has been more severely disastrous 

 than in any othercountry. Thecelebrated Dzierzou lost in 1848 

 no less than five hundred colonies from its ravages. He says, 

 " This disease is of two kinds, one mild and curable, the other 

 pestilential and incurable; both are infectious. The curable 

 type manifests itself in this manner, most die in the unsealed 

 stage. In the virulent the larv.i" generally survive until they are 

 sealed and have begun to change into nymphs. The curable 

 type may in time degenerate into the incurable." I am not 

 aware that Dzierson has attempted any solution as to its 

 origin, though he states it is readily introduced by infected 

 honey from diseased stocks, and that it is contagious and in- 

 fectious. 



The Baron von Berlepsch, another most distinguished Ger- 

 man apiarian, says of fonl brood — " This disease varies con- 

 siderably in its character, assuming either a contagious or a non- 

 contagious form. Sometimes it is of so manageable a character 

 as to be easily removed ; and not unfrequently it spontaneously 

 disappears." Ha states it may be communicated in a great 

 variety of ways — such as by the bees, honey, comb, and pollen 

 of foul-broody stocks, by the miasma of the surrounding atmo- 

 sphere, itc. Berlepsch, however, does not know how it origi- 

 nates. " The question," he says, "is still involved in the greatest 

 obscurity, and the opinions of bee-keepers differ extremely. I 

 believe that foul brood, as it presents various phenomena and 

 assumes various forms or grades, so it may arise from various 

 causes." In adverting briefly to the views entertained of it by 

 the most prominent writers on apiculture, he says, " It is 

 believed by some that if brood which has died from any cause, 

 is not removed by the bees it will become putrid, and produce 

 a contagious disease — that is, non-contagious foul brood may 

 under certain circumstances become contagious; tli^ I con- 

 ceive is only too likely." The Biron then gives a ease where 

 the bees of a Live had been suffocated while tracsported home, 



and about eight days after, when the larvie mast have been as 

 thoroughly chilled as could be, "a swarm was put in it, and 

 thereupon the non-contagious foul brood immediately assumed 

 the contagious form." 



Now let us briefly restate the views of some of the writers 

 in this Journal with regard to the origin of foul brood. 



Mr. S. Bevan Fox, for whom as a thorough practical and ex- 

 perienced apiarian I entertain a high opinion, yet emphatically 

 pronounced that " foul brood can have no affinity with chilled 

 and abortive brood," and yet Mr. Fox, by what process of ratio- 

 cination is not discoverable, does nevertheless hint that very 

 possibly foul brood may " under certain peculiar mysterious cir- 

 cumstances originate in chilled brood." I am sure, therefore, 

 Mr. Fox will agree with me in this, that with the bare possibility 

 of such a result occurring, the practice to which he alludes of 

 sometimes introducing chilled and dead brood into hives, is 

 one which cannot be too strongly condemned. Mr. Fox, however, 

 in an article (March 2l9t, 18iJ7j, says positively that foul brood 

 " was originated (in one of his hives) from excessive internal 

 heat, and undue excitement consequent on the confinement 

 and removal of the bees duriug a period of great heat and of 

 great activity in working." This view is alluded to also by 

 "A Renfrewshire Bee-keeper," who reported previously a 

 similar case, and to which I shall advert afterwards. 



During the long discussion on foul brood it was my principal 

 object and aim to ascertain its origin, indeed my whole efforts 

 were to establish this point. On the other side no solution 

 was then attempted. It was pronounced as an epidemic, a 

 pestilence of whose origin all was mystery. 



" B. Sc W.," the highly accomplished author of " The 

 English Bee-keeper," thought it might originate by the con- 

 tinued use of deleterious artificial food (a view which is enter- 

 tained by several apiarians of note, as in the case of feeding 

 with fermenting honey) inducing weakness in the bees, or 

 occasioning an injurious smell tending to the same result. 



"A LAXARK.sniBK Bee-keepbk " in IBGIi attributed abortive 

 brood in his apiary to the use of straw hives, which being warmer 

 in winter than wooden ones, he condemns, inducing the queen at 

 times to oviposit unseasmably and to " spread her brood more 

 than the bees are able to attend to it the weather turns colder." 

 This I take to be, that under such circumstances the super- 

 flaouB brood becomes chilled and dies, and the result is foul 

 brood. In a subsequent communication in January, 1867, he 

 says, " My experience with foul brood leads me to believe that 

 instead of cold havioj, anything to do with it, it is quite the 

 reverse, and that it is warm weather which propagates it." 

 And, lastly, in his communication in December, 18G8, in advert- 

 ing to Dr. Preuss's fungoid theory, to be afterwards noticed, he 

 says, " I entirely concur with the views expressed by Dr. Prenss 

 on foul brood." — J. Lowe. 



(To be continued.) 



WEIGHT OF BEES TO SIZE OF HIVES. 



We publish the foUowiog queries beat by a correspondent, 

 with Mr. Pettigrew'8 replies. 



1st, What number of bees does it lake to make a pound '' 



[I once weif^lied 1 lb. of dead bees, and counted them. If I remem- 

 ber aright they numbered 5700 ; but the nambors will vary considerably, 

 ftccording to the quantity of honey in their bags at the time of weigh- 

 ing.] 



2nd, What size of skep will hold 100,000 bees, and how much honey 

 will keep them till swarming time? 



[100,000 bees will fill a very large hive in hot weather, and will 

 creep into rather small compass in cold weather. In moderately fine 

 weather at the swarming season, I should think that a hive 21 inches 

 wide, and 12 im^hes deep, will hold 100,000 boos. A swarm weighing 

 K Ihs. of bees alone — say about 50,t)(X> bees, is a large one. When 

 describing the grandeur of 100,000 bees gushing from the hive in the 

 act of swarming, the mistake of HK),000 instead of r>0,0(K) was made, 

 and I am glad to have this opportunity of correcting it. 



Yonr correspondent must be excused for asking " how much honey 

 will keep the bees till swarming time?" If he can find out by a Ions 

 and laborious series of searchinj^ investigations the exact amount of 

 commissariat stores necessary to keep a large healtliy hive in a state 

 of prosperity in summer, he will be able to tell a story of the industry 

 of honey bees quite astonishing. Ouly thiuk of the necessary waste 

 by wear and tear of 50,000 creatures full of activity during th? day ! 

 Who can measure or weigh it ? Again, ouly thiuk of the quantity 

 of material necessary to rear the great sheets of brood thiit are formed 

 in a hive during the sprinp; months. I may help your correspondent a 

 little by telling him that 1 lb. weight of moisture, or sweat, or vapour, 

 escapes from a strong, full hive every ni.t^ht after snnet iu worm 

 weather. In the quiet cold months of winter bees do no*: eat much. 



