18 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



in the air, for, if they were, why would not every brood-comb cell of an infected hive be- 

 come diseased? I believe that this disease spreads only as the adult bees come in con- 

 tact with it, which is often through robber-bees. Brood-combs should not be removed 

 from any colony on cold or windy days, nor should they be left for a moment in the direct 

 rays of sunshine on hot days. 



2. The foul brood may be caused by the need of proper food and temperature. 

 Generally this disease does not appear to be serious during a honeyfiow, but at the- close 

 of the honey season, or at time of scarcity, it is quite serious, and as the bees at such 

 times will rob anywhere they can find stores, whether from healthy or diseased combs, 

 it is the duty of every bee-keeper to keep everything carefully protected. Hive-entrances 

 contracted, no old combs or any article with a drop of honey in where the bees can get 

 to it. While honey is coming in from the various flowers, quite a portion is used direct 

 as food for the larval bee, and with such no disease would be fed to the bees. Such 

 fed bees, even in a diseased hive, will hatch, as is often the case. I never knew a case 

 where a bee hatched from a brood cell that had.eVer had foul brood in. If the germs of 

 disease are there in the dried scale attached to the lower side walls, bees will store honey , 

 therein; the queen will deposit eggs, or the cell may be filled with pollen, or beebread, as 

 some call it. Said honey, or pollen, when it comes in contact with those germs of disease, 

 of the food given to the young bee, if in the proper temperature, said germs of disease 

 will grow and develop rapidily. 



CAUSES OF CONTAGION. 



I fully believe that if the historj' of foul brood in Wisconsin were known, nearly 

 every case could be traced to contagion from diseased combs, honey, or from home dis- 

 eased queen-breeders' cages. There are some instances where I have traced the historj' 

 of contagion in Wisconsin : 



1. Diseased apiaries, also single colonies, sold either at auction or private sale. Sev- 

 eral law suits have resulted in the settlement of some of the cases. 



2. Brood-combs and vaious implements from diseased hives, used by other bee- 

 keepers, and borrowed articles. 



3. All the bees in an apiary dead from fould brood, and the hives having an abim- 

 dance of honey in the brood-combs, said combs placed out by the side of hives-, .so that 

 neighbor's bees might get the honey. From those combs I lined robber bees to seven 

 other apiaries, and each time became diseased a^ were treated. 



4. Robber bees working on empty honey ^fkages in the back yards of grocery 

 stores and baking factories. Said honey cam£^Sfem diseased apiaries, some located in 

 far distant states, even Cuba. V 



5. Loaning of hives, combs, extractors, and even empty honey-packages. 



6. Buying honey from strangers, or not knowing where it was produced, and feed- 

 ing it to bees without boiling the honey. 



7. Too common a practice of using old brood-combs from some apiary where the 

 owner's bees have died from "bad luck," as he calls it. 



8. Queen-bee — by buying queen bees from strangers and introducing them in the 

 cages they came in. I have traced several new outbreaks of the disease to the hives 

 where such queens were introduced, and the queens came from distant states. To 

 be safe, on arrival of queen, put her carefully alone in a new and clean cage with good 

 food in it. Keep her in there, warm and comfortable, for a few hours before introducing. 

 The shipping cage and every bee that came with the queen should be put in the stove 

 and burned. I do not think there is any danger from the queen so treated, even from 

 diseased hives, but I do know of many cases where disease soon appear in the hives, 

 where the shipping cage and bees were put in with the colony. The great danger is in 

 the food in said cage being made from diseased honey. I was called to attend a state 

 bee-keepers' meeting in another state, and I asked if any there had had experience with 

 foul brood. There was a goodly number of raised hands. Then I asked: Do any 

 of you think you got the disease by buying queen-bees?" Again several hands weie 

 raised. Even bee-keepers there had traced the disease in their apairies to the buying 

 of queens, and all from the same breeder. If you get queens from abroad, I hope you 

 will do with them as I have described above. Better be on the safe side. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



1. A prominent Wisconsin bee-keeper some years ago had foul brood among his 

 bees so bad that he lost 200 colonies before the disease was checked. Having a honey- 



