41 
venience, may be held ina cloth-bottomed tray. Itis quite important, 
as already mentioned, that air be allowed to circulate freely above the 
packing. The outside case must be quite rain-proof or else whelly 
protected from the rain by a roof. 
All other necessary conditions having been complied with shortly 
after the gathering season closed, the combs may be lifted from the 
summer hives and placed in these specially arranged winter cases 
before cold weather wholly stops the bees from flying out. Thus pre- 
pared for the winter the colonies will need but slight attention from 
October until March, or, in the North, t 
even later, and the losses will be lim- 
ited to the small percentage of cases 
due to failure of apparently good 
queens. 
THE RISK OF LOSS THROUGH 
DISEASE AND ENEMIES. 

Winter losses through disease su- 
perinduced by unfavorable surround- 
ings which it is within the power of 
the bee keeper to avoid have already 
been considered. But one other very 
serious disease has been widespread. 









FOUL BROOD OR BACILLUS OF 
THE HIVE. 












This is a highly contagious afiec- 
tion which, as it mainly affects the 
developing brood in the cells, is : 
commonly known as ‘foul brood.” Fie. 19.—Colony of bees with newspapers 
It is due to a microbe (Bacillus alvei) eee pect net ate nt of 
whose spores are easily transported 
from hive to hive by the bees themselves, by the operator, in honey, 
or in combs changed from one hive to another. Once established 
in an apiary, it usually spreads, unless speedily and energetically 
checked, until all of the colonies in the neighborhood are ruined and 
even exterminated. The most apparent symptoms are the turning 
black of larve in open cells, many sealed cells with sunken caps, fre- 
quently broken in and containing dead larvee or pup in a putrid con- 
dition, brown or coffee-colored, jelly-like or ropy in consistency, and 
giving off an offensive odor. The disease, though known to exist in 
nearly al’ countries, can hardly be said to be common. The writer, in 
an experience of over thirty years in bee keeping in several States of 
the Union, as well as in a number of foreign countries, has met the 
disease Lut rarely, and has had but one experience with it in his own 
59 





