16 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Foul Brood and Other Diseases of Bees. 



Foul brood — ibacillus alvei — is a fatal 

 and contagious disease among bees, 

 dreaded most of all by bee-keepers. 

 The germs of disease are either given 

 to the young: larval bee in its food 

 when it hatches from the egg of the 

 queen-bee, or it may be contagion 

 from a diseased colony, or if the queen 

 deposits eggs, or the workier-bees store 

 honey or pollen in such combs. If in 

 any one of the above cases, the dis- 

 ease will soon appear, and the germs 

 increase with great rapidity, going 

 from one little cell to another, colony 

 to colony of bees, and then to all the 

 neighboring apiaries, thus soon leav- 

 ing whole apiaries with only diseased 

 combs to inoculate others. The Island 

 of Syria in three years lost all of its 

 great apiaries from foul brood. Dzier- 

 zon, in 1868, lost his entire apiary of 

 500 colonies. Cowan, the editor of the 

 British Bee Journal, recently wrote: 

 "The only visible hindrance to the rap- 

 id expansion of the bee industry is the 

 prevalence of foul brood, which is so 

 rapidly spreading over the country as 

 to make bee-keeping a hazardous occu- 

 pation." 



Canada's foul brood inspector, in 

 1890 to 1892, reported 2,395 cases, and 

 in a later report for 1893 to 1898, that 

 40 per cent of the colonies inspected 

 were diseased. Cuba is one of the 

 greatest honey-producing countries, 

 •nd was lately reported to me by a 

 Wisconsin bee-keeper who has been 

 there, and will soon return to Wiscon- 

 sin: "So plentiful is foul brood in 

 Cuba that I have known whole apiaries 

 to dwindle out of existence from its 

 ravages, and hundreds more are on 

 the same road to sure and certain 

 death. I. myself, took, in 90 days in 

 Cuba, 24,000 pounds of fine honey from 

 100 colonies, but where is that apiary 

 and my other 150 -colony apiary? Dead 

 from foul brood." Cuba, in 1901, ex- 

 ported 4,795,600 pounds of honey, and 

 1,022,897 pounds of beeswax. 



Cuba at present has laws to sup- 



press foul brood, and her inspector is 

 doing all possible to stamp the same 

 from the island. 



Even in Wisconsin I know of several 

 quite large piles of empty hives, where 

 also many other apiaries where said 

 disease had gotten a strong foothold. 



By the kindness of the Wisconsin 

 bee-keepers, and, in most cases, by their 

 willing assistance, I have, during the 

 last five years, gotten several counties 

 free of the disease, and at the present 

 writing, March 12, 1902, have what 

 there is in Wisconsin under control 

 and quarantined. This dreadful dis- 

 ease is often imported into our State 

 from other States and countries, so we 

 may expect some new cases to develop 

 until all the States shall enact such 

 laws as will prevent further spread 

 of the same. Arizona, New York 

 (1899), California (1891), Nebraska 

 (1895), Utah (1892), Colorado (1897), 

 have county inspectors, and Wisconsin 

 (1897), and Michigan (1901), have 

 State inspectors. The present Wis- 

 consin law, after five years of testing 

 and rapid decrease of the disease. Is 

 considered the best, and many other 

 States are riow making efforts to se- 

 cure a like^law. 



There are several experimental api- 

 aries in Canada, under control of the 

 Ontario Agricultural College; also a 

 few in the United States, especially in 

 Colorado, that have done great work 

 .for the bee-keeping industry, and their 

 various published bulletins on the 

 same are very valuable. The Wiscon- 

 sin State Bee-Keepers' Association haa 

 asked that an experimental apiary 

 might be had on the Wisconsin Ex- 

 perimental Farm, but at present there 

 are so many departments asking for 

 aid that I fear it may be some time be- 

 fore bee-culture will be taken up. 

 Causes of Foul Brood. 



1. Many writers claim foul brood 

 originates from chilled or dead brood. 

 Dr. Howard, of Texas, one of the best 



