122 



JOUENAT, OF HOETICULTtJRE AND COTTAGE GAKDENEE. 



[ August IS, 18fl& 



tinne the rape seed, and snpply the hen with good canary seed, 

 chopped egg (shell to be cnt np with it), bread crumbs, and a 

 liberal supply of green food. Bape is by some fanciers con- 

 sidered too heating and liable to cause inflammation. — L. B. 



THE BARON VON BEELEPSCH ON FOUL BROOD. 



(Continued from page 105.) 



HOW DOES FOUL EROOD 0KIGIN.4TE ? 



This question is stiU involved in the greatest obscurity, and 

 the opinions of bee-keepers differ extremely. My own con- 

 viction is, that it arises from causes as various as the phe- 

 nomena it presents, and the character it assumes. I can hence 

 do little more now than restate briefly the views entertained of 

 it by the most prominent writers on apiculture. 



First View. — It is believed by some that a minute black fly, 

 the Phora incrassata, enters the hive and deposits its eggs in 

 the brood, selecting as the nidus the unsealed but most ad- 

 vanced larva>, and depositing in each only a single egg. The 

 Phora larva hatched from this egg parasitically consumes the 

 viscera of the bee larva which it inhabits, just as the larva of 

 the ichneumon fly lives in or on the common cabbage cater- 

 pillar. Maturing in the course of five days, it then leaves the 

 carcase of the bee larva by an opening visible to the naked 

 eye, and perfornting the cap of the cell, falls to the bottom of 

 the hive, and either spins its cocoon among the refuse found 

 there or passes out to undergo its further metamorphoses in 

 the earth. So long as the Phora larva inhabits the bee larva, 

 the latter, according to Dr. Dorhoff, remains alive, but finally 

 perishes in consequence of the abstraction of its internal fatty 

 substance by its parasitic foe. Decompositien is thus already 

 virtually begun whilst the larva is yet living, although running 

 into putrescence only after death. 



Dr. Asmuss states that he has found many Phora larvie in 

 the larvaj of bees, and says that in order to see them it is only 

 necessary to decapitate a bee larva in which the first symp- 

 toms of foul brood are exhibited, and carefully press out the 

 juices of the body. By repeating this process several times 

 the operator can scarcely fail to detect one or more Phora 

 larv*. Or if the body of a bee larva be held before the light 

 of a candle in a darkened chamber the motions of the con- 

 tained parasitic larva will be plainly perceptible. But, accord- 

 ing to Dr. Asmuss, Phora larva; are net found in all bee larvae , 

 but only in comparatively the smaller number. Yet by the 

 miasma diffused in the hive by the putrid larva*, others not 

 thus parasitically affected also become infected, die, and 

 putrefy. Thus while a portion only of the brood perishes, 

 and another portion developes in health, the case is analogous 

 only to what occurs in other pestilential diseases, such as 

 peripneumonia, rinderpest, &e., whereof of animals similarly 

 exposed some are infected while others escape, owing, perhaps, 

 to a peculiar habit of body at the time. The like is often 

 observed when contagious diseases such as plagne, cholera, 

 typhus, scarlatina, &c., to which the human system is subject, 

 prevail. Numbers are stricken down while others remain uu- 

 attacked even in the most infected districts. This is the view 

 of Dr. Asmuss, as presented in his treatise on the parasites of 

 the honey bee ; and it must be admitted that the Phora as 

 figured in his plates has a decidedly Mephistophelian appear- 

 ance and expression. 



Against this view it may be urged — 



1. That the Phora incrassata abounds everywhere and is bred 

 in every hive containing dead bees. Yet there are numerous 

 districts totally exempt from foul brood. This, as Mr. Kleine 

 remarks, could not be the case if such were its origin — for the 

 same cause should in like circumstances produce the same 

 effect, if Nature designed that the Phora should lay its eggs in 

 the larvfe of the honey bee. 



2. The Phora incrassata does not lay its eggs in livitig, but 

 only in dead organisms. 



3. If, as Dr. Asmuss seems to have found in microscopic 

 examinations, the Phora incrassata does, in exceptional cases, 

 lay its eggs in bee larvae, it would be in the highest degree 

 singular that the result should be the putrid decomposition of 

 such larva; — a result never produced in other analogous cases. 

 Why do only larvje thus destroyed by the Phora diffuse a 

 putrid miasma, such as is not diffused by decomposing larvas 

 which have died from some other cause ? 



4. If Dr. Asmuss's views were correct, the pupa? of Phora 

 incrassata would be as numerous in foul-breedang as in other 



hives containing dead bees in which the Phora had laid its 

 eggs. This, however, is not so. 



5. Parasites do, indeed, prove destructive to insects designed 

 by Nature to be their prey, but must never be assumed to 

 become the cause of the destruction of the entire race, which 

 would in effect be warring against their own kith and kin. 



6. I have examined neariy a hundred bee larvfp " by holding 

 them before the light of a candle in a darkened chamber," but 

 could never detect the motions of a single Phora larva. 



7. Professor Leuckart examined microscopically a great 

 number of foul-broody bee larva; in the summer of 1860. Some 

 were dead and some still living. He found neither Phora 

 larva; nor any other animal parasite in any of them. Notwith- 

 standing all this, it is my impression that foul brood of the 

 first and second grade or form is, at least occasionally, and 

 probably more frequently than we suppose, caused by some 

 parasitic insect, even though it be not the Phora incrassata. 



In the first place Dr. Asmuss has ascertained the presence 

 of animal parasites in still living bee larvje from foul-breeding 

 hives ; and as against clearly ascertained facts, I hold mere 

 scientific inferential and negative proof as of small account. 



Secondly. The minute holes observed in the caps of foul- 

 broody cells indicate that some living creature either there 

 entered or came out of those cells ; but of the fact that it 

 comes out thence, I think I have conclusive evidence. In the 

 summer of ISfil, Mr. Henry Keil, a bee-keeper in Dottelstadt, 

 near Gotha, brought to me a foul-broody comb from one of his 

 hives. I examined it minutely, and observed small holes in 

 the caps of seven of the cells. I then placed the comb under 

 a glass cover, and on examining it again nine days after found 

 that the number of holes had increased to twenty-four. The 

 additional seventeen, it is apparent, could only have been per- 

 forated from within and ontivardi. Nor could they have been 

 produced, as Scholtiz supposed, by the bees "in order to ascer- 

 tain the contents of the cells after having in vain awaited the 

 development of the larvie." 



Thirdly. This view of the matter accounts plainly for the 

 spontaneous occurrence of foul brood in places where no ob- 

 vious cause is known to exist. It is probable that the insect 

 makes its appearance only temporarily and in limited areas, 

 though occurring in greater or less numbers at different periods. 

 This, too, would account for the fact that at times one or two 

 hives are attacked in an apiary where no vitiated or noxiouE 

 honey has been given — a circumstance otherwise inexplicable. 



Second Vieic. — Foul brood may be caused by feeding the 

 colonies with fermented or acidified honey. Fermentive 

 matter, even though not derived wholly or in part from foul- 

 breeding stocks, would cause fermentation in the brood fed 

 therewith, and thus produce foul brood. President Busch, 

 however, states that he has often given such honey to^ his 

 stocks without injury. I have myself in former years given 

 tons of Cuban honey to my bees — honey having a nauseous 

 disagreeable taste and smell, with no bad effect whatever. But 

 this is inconclusive. That which was in ten cases harmless 

 may prove destructive in the eleventh. I think the positive 

 evidence here shows that fermented or acidified honey can pro- 

 duce foul brood. 



Mr. Kalteich states that " honeycombs of the previous year 

 emitted a fatid odour, their surface was damp, and the pollen 

 mouldy. I gave these combs to three populous stocks, all of 

 which became foul-breeding and perished, as did likewise a 

 fourth, the bees of which had appropriated some of this honey, 

 and several others also into which I had introduced such combs 

 before I knew they were contaminated." 



Mr. Hermann says, " In two instances foul brood was pro- 

 duced by feeding bees with honey kept in a vessel in which 

 verdigris had been formed." 



Mr. P. J. JIahan, a highly intelligent bee-keeper from Phila- 

 delphia, told me when here that he had formerly spent some 

 time on the island of Cuba, and had observed that it was a 

 common practice in the apiaries there, after suffocating the 

 bees, to press out the liquid from the commingled mass of 

 honey, pollen, brood, and dead bees, and run it into casks as 

 the product of the bee. This nauseous mixture speedily under- 

 goes fermentation, especially if the combs were not previously 

 heated and contained much young brood, the rich juices of 

 which readily ferment. Foul brood is sure to be produced 

 when bees have access to such food ; and he knew of many 

 instances in the United States where the disease originated 

 from this cause, tkonah it jras almost unknmen in Cuba. The 

 bee-keepers there are well aware of the noxious quality of such 

 honey, and are careful that their bees shall not have access tc 



