October 24, 1865. 



JOUBNAXi OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



353 



foot. I have one young one in which the toes are closely 

 united by a uftnow web, the centre too being bent aside, and 

 the nail "of the outer and middle toes united in cine. One of 

 these Rollers has the extraordinaiy number of eleven flight 

 feathers in each wing.— B. P. Bbent. 



BKWAIiE OF SWINDJ.l'mS. 

 I KNci.dSE you the foUo-jring letters that T received in answer 

 to an advertisement in your Journal, in the early part of last 

 month, for a few Brahma and Cochin chickens. Being rather 

 doubtful abovit the party, on receipt of the first letter I looked 

 over both the 'Tost-otlice Directory," and " Medical Register," 

 the writer signing himself a surgeon, for the name, but could 

 not find it ; bHt*^t the address he gave I find is a post oflice. 

 Knowing that I should be in London in the course of a few 

 days, and not wishing to be duped, I wrote the party that I 

 would call upon him on the following Wednesday. Ho wrote 

 by return that he had beeu called away in great haste, and 

 would not he at home for several days, but if I would "run 

 down " to some address at Croydon (this letter was written in 

 pentil), I could see the birds there ; the party was keeping 

 them for him till be found a customer. Well, I hajipened to 

 have a httle business at Croydon, went and took the letter with 

 me, showed it to several old residents, the postmaster, &c., 

 but no one could decipher the address, and that is the end of 

 the affair. It was a good attempt, but did not succeed. Had I 

 sent any post-office order I should have adopted the suggestion 

 made by you — ten days' order, and if the birds had not come in 

 the meaiitimo, 1 should have had time to have acted. I am 

 willing to co-operate with one or two gentlemen to bring this 

 party to justice, if they will favour me with their names through 

 you ; or you can fm'nish my addi'ess. — Caxtus. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH FOUL BROOD. 



It may well be said that 1865 has been one of the finest 

 seasons that many of us have ever experienced, and one which 

 will not readily be forgotten. It was enough to rouse the most 

 lethargic to a state of activity and admiration. The fields were 

 so thickly clad with flowers that their fragrance filled the air, 

 inviting, as it were, the whole insect creation to the feast. Not 

 less delightful was it at dusk to observe the gi-eat variety of 

 moths ; many of the most beautiful were quite new to us, and 

 we may, perhaps, never see the same si>ecies again. In the 

 morning was to be seen and heard that interesting one the hum- 

 ming-bird moth, so agile in flitting from flower to flower, 

 while its sound was no less pleasing. The only insect w^e have 

 lost sight of these five years is the leaf-cutter, not one having 

 been seen during the whole of that time. Our bees, then, have 

 had a most favourable season in the dales, but the heather proved 

 almost a failure, the highest I have heard of only reached 30 lbs., 

 whilst the lowest was but 17 lbs. 



I will now relate some of my observations and e.xperiments 

 during the season as nearly as my memory will allow. First, 

 then, in April I sent a piece of foul brood to the Editors for 

 an explanation, but not with any desire for information, hut 

 rather to confute them, as I knew too well what foul brood was, 

 although my notion as to the cause might be WTong, as I by sub- 

 sequent experiments found it to be, and now^ bid fair to renounce 

 my former opinions on the subject. The hive fi-oni which the 

 piece of brood was taken was one that the bees partially de- 

 serted in April, and in which it appeared evident that chill was 

 the cause of the mischief, as there was nothing wrong previously. 

 Although in this case I asked the Editors' advice, I did not in- 

 tend to take it, as I had already made a partial excision leaving 

 nothing but what appeared fresh, being two combs of brood and 

 two combs of sealed honey in the upper box, the imder one 

 being also full of new-made comb. Having fiUed the upper box 

 from the under one, keeping the brood in the centre, 1 added a 

 number of black bees, thinking this would set all right ; but 

 no, matters only became worse, and on the 1st of June I trans- 

 ferred them to a straw hive, fuU of comb and bees, that had a 

 drone-breeding queen whose brood was also foul. Things now 

 went well with this hive, for in six weeks afterwards I had two 

 swarms from it, and aU the three are now doing well. I almost 

 forgot to say that when I transferred the bees to the straw hive, 

 I took particular care of the combs that were free from brood. 

 For experiment, about the middle of June I put a swarm 

 amongst these combs, and in twenty days (about fourteen honey- 

 making days), the weight of the hive rose 60 lbs., the gross 



weight being SO lbs. ; since then I have seen young bees emerging 

 from these combs, and at present it is the best hive in my apiary. 

 The old itock from wliicb the swarm originated was divided 

 into three, but only one quucn hatched out, the rest appeared to 

 bo all abortive from foul brood ; but by giving them a pieco of 

 brood-comb from another hive they soon had queens batched 

 again. Out of these three, one remained healthy, but two became 

 quite offousivo witli foul brood. From one of these I cut out 

 all the brood, and the top box being well filled with honey, I 

 removed the tmder one, after tho brood was cut out, to a distance 

 of 300 yards, putting it in the place of a hive which was re- 

 moved to my garden. The queen being put into it, I allowed 

 the returning bees to enter in order to see whether or no foul 

 brooil would appear. At tho end of three weeks I examined it 

 and found twelve cells art'octed out of about two hundred, but I 

 fear this experiment will have to go for nothing, as it appears that 

 the hivo from which the queen was taken had also been affected. 



I must now return to the top bo.x from which I removed the 

 queen, she being a hybridised one, and substituted a royal cell, 

 placing it in a small cap on the top of the hive, and in tbis case 

 all appeared well. The other hive I allowed to stand undisturbed 

 for more than a month after I deteeted tho oft'ensivo smeU. 

 When I opened it there were five combs completely and com- 

 pactly filled with rotten brood, but it appeared that a change 

 had taken place, for there was a patch of about 3 inches square 

 perfectly free, the brood being in all stages, so that it appears 

 the disease had left it. One thing, however, I must not pass 

 over. The eggs in this hive were very irregular, there being 

 from one to thirty in a cell ; in fact, the cells appeared to be 

 quarter filled, and in many two worms were hatched to- 

 gether. I may here observe, that in all foul-breeding stocks 

 in which the queens are young and very prolific, and in-egular 

 in depositing their eggs, it will be well to notice if they continue 

 their fertility, and whetJicr they ai-e attacked a second time. It 

 appears that a strong inclination to lay comes on whenever they 

 are attacked. It also appears that foul brood arises from the 

 queen, as I have proved by experiment by inserting a piece of 

 healthy brood-comb in the heart of a foul-breedmg stock, and it 

 all hatched out;* but, parhapi, this experiment would be better 

 to be renewed before it could be relied on. 



I will now give a brief account of a few other things which 

 have come under my observation. 1st, then, it appears that 

 excision in the early stages does not efi'ect a cure, but after a time 

 it does. 2nd. That the bees in the first stages carry an unusual 

 amount of pollen, and that the queens begin to lay early and 

 are extra prolific, the eggs being deposited in a careless manner ; 

 there are also a smell of fermentixtion in the honey, with a mul- 

 titude of animalcula;, and a slight phosphoric appearance after 

 it has stood some days, hundreds of inverted pup:e, but by no 

 means all foul brood, although all abortive, as in many cases I 

 could pull them out quite whole. Twelve days after excising the 

 combs I examined what I had cut o>it, when 1 found some of the 

 worms had grown much and many others were still living, which 

 proves conclusively foul brood is not ehUled brood, although it 

 often occiu-s under circumstances which might lead us to believe 

 it to be so. 



A hive that had lost its queen commenced cutting away all 

 the raised parts of the ceDs, leaving nothing but the centre jjar- 

 tition ; but as I then gave it a queen I did not see whether it 

 would change them into drone cells. I also found in a hive that had 

 lost its young queen (supposcdbyregicidal attack), eggs of a fertUe 

 worker two days afterwiirds. I would also ask, if any one can 

 explain the reason why, when bees barricade their doors, they 

 leave a hole at each side ; is it for ventilation, or is it for their 

 better protection ? I may also state, that hives that had been 

 heated in transit fell victims to the disease. I hope, however, that 

 I shall not again have it in my power to experiment to such an 

 extent, but as I have watched and marked down every symptom, 

 I hope that others may derive some benefit from it. 



I have at present two hives with combs taken from foul-breed- 

 ing stocks, but which appear healthy ; four with comb excised, 

 and as yet no symptoms of the disease have re-appeared, and 

 these shall be kept for further experiment. One thing is, that 

 in Ligurian stocks the brood is kept more compactly together 

 than in black hives, which gives the malady a more deadly ap- 

 pearance. I was somewhat sanguine that the Ligurians would 

 have a great advantage over the blacks by being able to work 

 on the red clover, hut to my astonishment I found that the 

 blacks as well as the Ligurians -vvrought both on the first and 

 * This experiment scarcely seems to warrant tlio conclusion drawn 

 from It, wliich is, moreover, coutraaicted by tho fact that if the queen 

 only of a foul-lireeding cnlonv lie placed at the head of a healthy stock, 

 she does not can? the disease with her.— A DEToKsmnE Bee-keeper. 



