22 



FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



Black Brood. 

 Black) brood is another fatal and 

 contagious disease among . bees, af- 

 fecting the old bees as well as the 

 brood. In 1898, 1899 and 1900, it de- 

 stroyed severaJl apiaries in New York. 

 Last year I found one case of it in 

 Wisconsin, which was quickly disposed 

 of. Dr. Howard made more than a 

 thousand microscopic examinations, 

 and found it to be a distinct form of 

 bacteria. It is most active in sealed 

 brood. The bees affected continue to 

 grow until they reach the pupa stage, 

 then turn black and die. At this 

 stage there is a sour smell. No de- 

 composition from putrefactive germs 

 In pickled brood. In black brood the 

 dark and rotten mass in time breaks 

 down and settles to lower side-walls 

 of the cell; is of a watery, granulated, 

 syrupy fluid, jelly-like; is not ropy or 

 sticky, as in full brood, and has a pe- 

 culiar smell, resembling sour, rotten 

 apples. Not even a house fly will set 

 a foot upon it. 



Treatment. 



Best time is during a honey-flow, 

 and the modified McEvoy plan, much 

 as I have treated foul brood, by 

 caging the queen Ave days, remove the 

 foundation starters and giving full 

 sheets, keeping que n caged five days 

 longer. As great care should be taken 

 of diseased hives, combs, honey, etc., 

 as in foul brood. 



Dysentery. 



Dysentery among bees in Wisconsin 

 in the spring of the year is often quite, 

 serious. Many colonies die with it. 

 Dysentery is the excrements of the old 

 Jjeesi- it is of brownish color, quite 

 sticky, and very disagreeable smelling, 

 and is sometimes mistaken for foul 

 brood. 



Causes. 



1. Bees confined too long in the 

 hives, so that they can no longer with- 

 hold their excrements, and are com- 

 pelled to void the same on the other 

 bees and combs. 



2. Poor winter stores, gathered in 

 the fall from honey-dew, cider mills, 

 sorghum mills, rotten fruit; also some 

 kinds of fall flowers. 



3. Old and especially moldy pollen 

 or bee-bread. 



4. Hives too cold or damp. If mois- 

 ture from the breath of the bees Is 



not carried out of the hive by some 

 means, such as through a deep cushion 

 of some kind over the bees that will 

 absorb moisture and at the same time 

 retain the heat, or by some means of 

 ventilation, so that all is dry and com- 

 fortable. If mold forms on the combs 

 or cellar is so damp as to form mold, 

 there is great danger the bees will 

 have dysentery and die. 



Treatment. 



1. First of all, have an abundance 

 of combs of sealed clover or basswood 

 honey in brood-frames carefully saved, 

 and see that each colony is wintered 

 on such food. Three or four such 

 combs will winter a fair colony safely, 

 if confined on those combs late in the 

 fall, and the hive contracted to fit the 

 same. This is one of the most im- 

 portant conditions for success in win- 

 tering. 



2. If in the fall the bees have gath- 

 ered this unwholesome honey from the 

 above named sources, it should all be 

 extracted and either exchanged fov 

 those honey-combs, or feed the bees 

 good honey or sug^r ssonip until win- 

 ter stores are secured. This should 

 be done .before cold vveather in the 

 fall. 



3. Hives contracted and made com- 

 fortable, whether in cellar or out- 

 doors. 



4. If wintered in chaff hives out- 

 doors, with feed as above directed, and 

 there come one or two warm spells 

 during winter, so that the bees can 

 have a cleansing flight, they will not 

 have dysentery or dead brood, and will 

 be much stronger when clover opens. 



If wintered in the cellar, the bees 

 will not need so mucli honey, and if the 

 winters are generally long, with doubt- 

 ful warm spells, the cellar will be best. 

 But to keep the bees from dysentery, 

 so often fatal to cellar-wintered bees, 

 they should have such winter stores as 

 above spoken of, then the cellar kept 

 at a medium temperature, about 32 

 deg. F., ventilated so the air is fresh, 

 and no mold will form in the cellar. 

 Fresh air- slaked lime on the bottom 

 of the cellar may help, if it is damp 

 or has poor air. 



5. Dysentery will not appear if bees 

 are kept on sugar syrup, or best grade 

 white clover or basswood honey, and 

 are in a dry place, either sheltered by 

 cellar or chaff-hive. 



