I8a5 



GLEAKI^NTGS IX BEE CULTURE. 



8.57 



tory reports from its use. I shall be very 

 glad indeed to know that destroying colo- 

 nies, by fire or otherwise, when aft'ected by 

 foul brood, is foolish and wasteful. 



In this little pamphlet the author, who is well 

 known as one of the largest and most advanced bee- 

 keepers in Canada, g-ives his experience of the 

 treatment of foul brood by the starvation method. 

 In his introductory remarks Mr. Jones says, that 

 " much has been written and said on the matter." 

 This is quite true, and perhaps more has been writ- 

 ten and said on this very method of treating foul 

 brood than on any other. As far back as 1767 we 

 find J. G. Seydel, and in 177.5 J. C. Voiorht, recom- 

 mending a similar ti-eatment. Then still later, in 

 1789, we find Bonnpr, and in 1790 Della-Kocca. both 

 practicing it, and Quinby, in 186.i, in his " Mysteries 

 of Bee-keeping Explained," gives it as the only ef- 

 fectual cure. Since that time to the present, the 

 same remedy, with very little variation, has been 

 recommended over and over again. Although we 

 have very little that is new to learn in the method, 

 the pamphlet contains several interesting para- 

 graphs which describe the appearance of brood dead 

 from different causes. They are headed. Chilled 

 Brood, Neglected Brood, Overheated Brood, Drown- 

 ed Brood, Dead Larviu or Brood, and lastly. Foul 

 Brood. The descriptions are so clear that "even a 

 novice can distinguish between any forms of dead 

 brood iiiid true foul brood. Of chilled brood he 

 says, "The appearance of this chilled brood, how- 

 ever, differs materially from that of foul brood: 

 the larvtE are frecjuently found dead in all stages, 

 from the egg to tlie perfectly formed bee .iust ready 

 to gnaw out; " also, " that bees, almost fully devel- 

 oped, are found dead in the cells, niuiiiing their 

 shape and appearance, never sink bMck into that 

 brown ropy matter which so plainly iiiarUs ir.nr find 

 brood." Of drowned brood, he says that it occurs 

 when colonies are placed on low ground, and when 

 a sudden rise in the water overflows the bank of the 

 stream, and the apiary is subtnerged. This brood 

 differs from chilled brood, and, if not removed, be- 

 comes much more loathesome, and sometimes 

 turns, he says, to foul brood, or to " what looks and 

 acts so much like it that it must be at least a first 

 cousin to it." He relates an instance of a man hav- 

 ing 100 perfectly healthy colonies siil)inerg« d iliiring 

 the months of August and Septemlicr. and a liirgc 

 <iuantity of brood was drowned. The weuther after 

 this Hood was warm and muggy, and all the colonies 

 from which the dead brood was not removed be- 

 came badly diseased. Salicylic acid and other rem- 

 edies failed to cure, and Mr. .Jones concludes that 

 spores of the disease were in the honey, and states 

 that "honey from the combs, when given to a 

 healthy colony, produced the disease." He believes 

 that " some diseases are started dc novo spontane- 

 ous " i't), a belief that we do not share, as experi- 

 ments by Tyndall and others have shown conclu- 

 sively that there is no such thing as spontaneous 

 generation, and that disease-germs must exist be- 

 fore they can be propagated. In describing foul 

 brood, the author says that it " is a disease //( Die 

 honey, or, rather, that is where it appears to lurk." 

 We confess, that, even under a powerful micro- 

 scone, with a one-twelfth oil immersion objective. 

 we nave never been able to detect the spores of foul 

 brood in honey, nor has Mr. Cheshire: and although 

 honey has usually been supposed to be the medium 

 through whicn i„.'.l brood has been propagated, we 

 are not prepared to indorse the opitiion that it is the 

 only waj'. Mr. Jones says, that " combs containing 

 foul brood can not be used; at least, I have never 

 been able to use them ; no amount of doctoring that 

 I could do would disinfect them." He says, ireez- 

 ing even at as low a temperature as 35° below zero 

 did not kill the spores, and combs and honey after 

 this freezing, when given to a hive, produced the 

 disease, and warns bee-keepers never to attempt a 

 cure by that method. Boiling the honey, however, 

 for a few minutes, he says, failed to transmit the 

 disease, and concluded by saying that, " after many 

 trials. 1 proved beyond doubt that heat will kill the 

 germs by which the disease is generated." 



To understand the error of this reasoning, it is 

 necessary to know something of the nature of the 

 disease. In 1874, Dr. Cohn, than whom there is no 

 greater authority, and whose classification of bac- 

 teria has generally been adopted, first pointed out 

 that foul brood is caused by a hacUlus, and subse- 

 quently Professor Schonfeld and others, as well as 

 ttje recent expejinjents of Mr. Cheshire, have con- 



clusively corroborated Dr. Cohn's statement. Now, 

 we know that freezing destroys most bacteria, ex- 

 cept the spores of bacilli, which, according to Dr. 

 Kleiti, survi%'e exposure to as low a temperature as 

 -1.5° C, but that no spores survive a temperature of 

 120° C, so that we can quite believe that, at an ordi- 

 nary Canadian winter temperature, the spores still 

 survive. On the same authority we also know that 

 most bacteria arp killed if they are exposed for sev- 

 eral hours to a temperature below 50" to 60° C. But 

 here, again, the exceptions are the spores of bacilli, 

 which require, according to Dr. Cohn, an exposure 

 to the heat of boiling water for as much as half an 

 hour before they are destroyed. Therefore ordina- 

 ry boiling for a few minutes, as recommended by 

 Mr. Jones, does not destroy the spores. We have 

 no doubt that, in the hands "of such an experienced 

 bee-keeper as the author, this method has proved 

 sufficiently satisfactory: and it is certainly an im- 

 provement on cremation, or total destruction of 

 bees, hives, and combs, which Mr. Jones, having 

 paid dearly for the experience, so severely con- 

 demns, having, if our memory does not deceive us, 

 when foul brood first appeared in his apiary, sacri- 

 ficed two or three hundred stocks in this way. But 

 we would go a step further, and save not only the 

 bees, but also combs and hives. Knowing as we do 

 that the disease is caused by bacilli, we have simply 

 to destroy these or prevent their development. 

 Cold and heat will not do it; but salicylic acid, thy- 

 mol, phenol, etc., prevent, even in great dilution, 

 the growth of the micro-organisms; and practical 

 experience has proved that, by using them, we can 

 save whole colonies. We have known large apia- 

 ries, where foul brood was raging fearfully, cured 

 entirely by means of salicylic-acid fumigation ac- 

 cording to Hubert's plan in one season, with much 

 less trouble than any process of starvation could 

 have done. Phenol, likewise, first recommended by 

 Professor ButlerolT in 1874, and subsequently by 

 Gravenhorst, and latterly by Mr. Frank Cheshire, 

 has also been proved to cure the disease. In the 

 face of these facts we can not counsel our readers 

 even to destroy their combs. In the last paragraph 

 Mr. Jones recommends fasting, and describes his 

 modus operandi. 



His method is to shake the bees from the combs 

 of the infected hive into an empty box, and to 

 place a wire screen over the top, to close the en- 

 trance, and then carry them to some dark reposito- 

 ry (a cellar it possilile), turning the box on one side 

 so as to have the screen at the side to allow the air 

 to pass through. Darkness and a cool temperature 

 are inu>oitarit. as also that all the bees should be 

 equally filled with honey. They are to remain in 

 the dark repository until they show signs of hun- 

 ger. This they will do in from four to six days, and 

 they must be carefullly watched three times a day 

 after the third day, or they are liable to die very 

 quickly. When sufficiently starved, which is known 

 by some of them dropping down and crawling about 

 in a slow, quiet manner, they are shaken in front of 

 a hive prepiued with some combs, and are allowed 

 to run in just the same as a swarm. If there is no 

 food in th(^ combs the bees should be fed. The 

 combs of iiilt'cted hives should be melted intoVax, 

 and hives and frames boiled for a few minutes. 

 The honey should also bo extracted and boiled for a 

 few seconds, and can then be given to the bees. 

 The author further says he has never known the 

 disease to be contracted by either queen or drones. 

 Mr. Cheshire, however, has found both, as well as 

 the workers, to contain bacilli; and Hilbert, in 1876, 

 at the meeting of the German National Bee-keep- 

 ers' Association held at Strasburg, in describing 

 his method of treatment, stated that bees and 

 queens exposed to the vapors of foul brood con- 

 tracted the disease, and that the fungus (i.e.. ba- 

 cillus) of foul brood could generate in the body of 

 the bee. Even the ovaries of the queen have be- 

 come infected. In twenty-five hives treated by Hil- 

 bert he found three such queens. We have our- 

 selves found the juices of workers, when examined 

 under a high power of the microscope, teeming 

 with bacilli. We. however, recommend the pam- 

 phlet to ou r readers. It is written in a pleasantistyle 

 by one of the most able bee-keepers in Canada; and 

 they will find in it much to instruct, more especiall.v 

 the paragraphs describing the different appear- 

 ances of brood dead from various causes. We 

 thoroughly sympathize with his concluding re- 

 marks, that " Destroying colonies afflicted with foul 

 brood by fire, or otherwise, we consider a wanton 

 destruction of property." 



