1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



593 



ter-closets, but I presume that a salt-water 

 feeder, kept constantly in order, would leave 

 no necessity for such " low-lived work " on 

 the part of our little friends. 



FOUL. BROOD. 



SOME VALUABLE ITEMS FROM FRIEND JIDTH. 



fNCLOSED please find a letter of H. W. Anderson, 

 wbo some time ago Informed me that about 50 

 or more of his colonies were infected with foul 

 brood. I gave him my advice. His letter shows the 

 difference in opinion among bee-keepers in regard 

 to " foul brood." 



FRIEND ANDERSON'S LETTER. 



Your8 was received, for which please accept my 

 thanks. 1 have been reading and talking toothers 

 8inc»^, and I am in doubt as to whether this is the 

 genuine foul brood, and whether I need to be so 

 much alarmed. I And the bees will clean a comb of 

 the fDulest brood, and fill it with honey, if 1 feed 

 them, and the bad smell has all disappeared. Combs 

 that have been cleaned with water, and ihe second 

 batch of brood put in, 1 find have about the same 

 proportion of rotten cells as the first. I also subject- 

 ed some hives and frames to brimstone fumes, and 

 they seem to be about the best of any. However, I 

 should like to ask your indulgence a little further, 

 and then I will know what it is and what to do. 1 

 have had your recipe tilled, and am going through 

 my affected colonifs, but should be pleased to hear 

 from >ou again. If there are any chnrges inconuet;- 

 tionwith your advice, I am perfectly willing, and 

 Shall be pleased to meet them, for 1 don't want your 

 time nor advice for nothing. H. W. Anderson. 



Gibson's, Ind., Oct. 21, 1883. 



Copy of friend Muth's letter to friend 

 Anderson. 



I examined yesterday your comb sent me for in- 

 spection, and I should call it " foul brood " most as- 

 suredly. Your bees had a good honey-flow, and fill- 

 ed their cells, containing remnants of diseased larviB, 

 retaining thereby (and incasing) all bad odors. By 

 next spring, however, the honey will be consumed, 

 and every one of those stands will show signs of the 

 disease. If left ak)ne, every one of these stands will 

 die, one after another, and be robbed by the neigh- 

 boring bees transplanting the disease to their own 

 hives in every instance. 1 should, in spring, follow 

 the advice Igave you in my former letter; i. e., keep 

 a close watch over every colony, and commence the 

 treatment described with those discovered first, and 

 keep it up to the last. In order to shorten matters 

 1 should unite 3 or 4 colonies in every instance when 

 meetin? with indifferent queens. A principal factor 

 of success is, that yuu be sure to keep out of the reach 

 of bees — all combs taken from diseased colonies, 

 and that you disinfect at once every hive before you 

 leave it. Our best authority on foul brood is Dr. 

 Schoenfeld, who has proved, by miscroscopic dis- 

 coveries, that it is spread by spores which bees, 

 alighting on any thing having been connected with 

 the disease, may take home with them. So, be care- 

 ful. Hoping you will be successful in eradicating 

 the troublesome disease, I am yours, C. F. Muth. 



Cincinnati. O., Nov. 2, 1882. 



A few days ago somebody sent us a piece 

 of comb, to know it' it contained foul brood, 

 the clerk who opens the mail untied it to see 

 where it should go, and placed it over my 

 type - writer as usual, to await my orders. 

 The type -writer stands before a window 

 that is often open in pleasent weather. Well, 

 suppose this had coine on a pleasent day, 

 and some of our bees had been peering 

 around, as they often are when we have so 



many queen-cages about. Do you not see 

 how easily foul brood might get into our 

 hundreds of colonies? It almost makes me 

 shudder when I think of it. Now I will see 

 that no comb is ever placed in that way 

 aiiain ; and I would also ask of the friends, 

 that they never more send me any specimens 

 of foul brood. I have had no experience 

 with it, and know nothing about it. It will 

 save you trouble by sending your specimens 

 direct to friend Muth, for I always forward 

 them to him. Would it not be better to send 

 no foul brood to any one, vuiless the party 

 first consent to having it done V Here is 

 what friend Muth wrote about that piece of 

 brood I have been telling you of :— 



Friend Root ;— The piece of comb you sent me con- 

 tains foul brood. The brood in that piece of comb 

 was affected, and died just about the time when the 

 eggs had developed into larvte. A few larvae were, 

 perhaps, 3 or 4 days old when they were affected and 

 died. You could see the soft larvie matter settled 

 down, mummy like, and of a dark-brown color, into 

 the lower corner of ttie cells. Where the larvas were 

 a few days old, the head part was discernible yet. 

 Under those capped cells the larviE were affected, 

 and died on the same day they were about to de%'el- 

 op into nymphs, and when th.y were capped over, 

 before the bees were aware of their afHiction. The 

 brownish mass in those cells had not yet dried 

 up to the same extent as those younger larvae. They 

 were yet of that ropish substance spoken of before 

 this. The hive this piece of comb is taken from is 

 affected with the real malignant foul brood, to which 

 I had reference in my articles, which Mr. Bingham 

 never saw in his life, I fear, and which brother Jones 

 would never cure by the starving process, in my 

 opinion. I was careful that neither a piece of the 

 comb, nor paper the comb was wrapped up in. uor 

 the box in which it came, dropped on my floor, in 

 order to prevent a distribution of the spores to visit- 

 ing bees. The warm weatl'er, and the scent of hon- 

 ey from my store, has always an attraction for bees, 

 and an infusion of the disease would be more than 

 likely without these precautions. To examine a 

 hive of bees with your bands unwashed after you 

 have examined a piece of foul-brood comb, would be 

 fatal in almost every instance. Chas. F. MtJTH. 



Cincinnati, O., Nov. 9, 1882. 



Now won't you all be careful, friends? 



Ml M . ^. 



TWO QUEENS IN A HIVE. 



IS IT so VERY UNCOMMON? 



JUDGING from my experience in superseding 

 queens this fall, two queens may be found in 

 ~ a hive much oftener than I had supposed. In 

 order to get a supply of queen-cells I removed a 

 queen from each of 19 hives; and in looking over 

 the combs to "graft" tho cells, Ave days later, I 

 found cells started in only U hives. Of tho remain- 

 ing five, two had young queens, but no eggs, and 

 tbo other three had plenty of eggs. I do not know 

 whether these two young queens had hatched dur- 

 ing the five d>)y8 or not, as I looked for queens and 

 not cells at first. Tho other three, however, must 

 have had two queens each before I killed any. In 

 one of these 1 found (at first) an old queen that was 

 but little larger than a worker, and I mistrusted 

 then that she was not the " reigning monarch." In 

 another I found and killed a young queen, and after 

 [ got a supply of cells 1 looked the swarm over 

 agrtin and found tho old queen — hard at work. 

 Here, then, we have three and possibly five swarms, 

 out of a total of 19, with two queens each. These 

 old queens were all tw(j and three years of age. 

 Scipioville, N. Y., Oct. 7, 1883. F. B. Chapman. 



