12 



GLEAJ^^INGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



observed and worked with the disease from early 

 spring to winter, during times of scarcit}' and 

 abundance. I have tried all the remedies that 

 seemed to me to be based on reason. I believe I 

 am through with it now, and the hope that my ex- 

 perience may prove of value to others is wliat leads 

 me to write this. 



It seems to me that many of those who have 

 written on the subject in our magazines have had 

 erroneous ideas as to the nature of the disease. 

 These ideas may be correct, as applied to their lim- 

 ited experience, but the method of cure adapted to 

 one time and set of circumstances may utterly fail 

 among other environments. I know that I have 

 been led astray by methods that seemed plausible, 

 and I am afraid that some of the theories lately 

 propounded have not a very solid foundation on 

 fact. 



There are some points which need to be cleared 

 up to the popular mind, if the disease is to be suc- 

 cessfully combated. The usual descriptions of the 

 appearance of the diseased brood are, for the most 

 part, correct, but I will recapitulate. 



In most cases the larva is attacked when nearly 

 ready to seal up. It turns slightly yellow, or gray- 

 ish spots appear on it. It then seems to soften, 

 settles down in the bottom of the cell, in a shape- 

 less mass, at tlrst white, yellow, or grayish in color, 

 soon changing to brown. At this stage it becomes 

 glutinous and ropy; then, after a varying length of 

 time, owing to the weather, it dries up into a dark 

 coffee-colored mass. Usually the bees make no 

 attempt to clean out infected cells, and they will 

 sometimes till them with honey, covering up this 

 dried foul -brood matter at the bottom. 



Sometimes the larva^ do not die until sealed over. 

 We have been told that such may be easily detects 

 ed by a sunken capping perforated by a " pinhole." 

 This is by no means invariably the case. Such 

 larvse will often dry up entirely, without the cap 

 becoming perforated or perceptibly sunken, al- 

 though it usually becomes darker in color than 

 those covering healthy larva". 



The most fatal misapprehension has been in re- 

 gard to the smell of the disease. In its first stages 

 there is no perceptible smell, and it is not until the 

 disease has made considerable progress that any 

 unusual smell would be noticed by most persons. 

 In the last stages, when sometimes half or more of 

 the cells in a hive are filled with rotten brood, the 

 odor becomes sufficiently pronounced, but the 

 nose is not to be relied on to decide whether a col- 

 ony has foul brood or not. Long before it can be 

 detected by the sense of smell, the colony is in a 

 condition to communicate the disease to others. 



The eye alone can be depended on, and it must 

 be a sharp and trained eye too, if any headway is 

 to be made in curing the disease. 



MY EXPERIENCE WITH FOUL BROOD. 



When I first discovered the pi-esence of foul 

 brood in my apiary I knew of only two eases. 1 

 immediately introduced new queens to them, as 

 I had had some experience with a form of diseased 

 brood which was readily cured by the introduction 

 of a new queen. This disease is not at all conta- 

 gious, and I believe will generally if not always 

 cure itself if let alone. 1 have no doubt that many 

 of the so-called cures for foul brood have arisen 

 from experience with this disease, or with brood 

 which has been starved, chilled, or smothered. 



Finding that this did not cure them, 1 resolved to 



destroy them. All surplus combs and part of the 

 hives were burned. The hives were then tightly 

 closed, and at night a pan of burning brimstone 

 was i)laced over the frames. In the morning I 

 found that this had gone out without accomplish- 

 ing its purpose. While waiting for nightfall to try 

 it again I made a thorough examination of the 

 apiary, and found eight or nine others with the 

 disease. Some of these 1 had extracted honey 

 from only a few days before, and there seemed no 

 doubt that the disease would sprea(^as it did. 



I now determined to try to cure them. Salicylic 

 acid was most recommended then, and the Ber- 

 trand method of fumigation seemed to me the best 

 way of applying it. All affected colonies were 

 therefore arranged so they could be fumigated 

 without handling combs or opening the hivea. 

 This seemed to arrest the progress of the disease 

 somewhat; but after faithfully carrying it out for 

 nearly two months I despaired of effecting a com- 

 plete cure. 



now determined to be thorough in my treat- 

 ment, so ] Combined the Jones, or starvation plan, 

 with Muth's plan of feeding salicylic acid; and aft- 

 er starving the bees until all their honey was ex- 

 hausted 1 put them in a clean hive on full sheets 

 of foundation, or on empty combs, and then fed 

 them salicylated syrup. This method was entirely 

 successful; but winter was now at hand, and I still 

 had several diseased colonies. After waiting until 

 rather late in the season— all brood had been gone 

 for some time— I extracted their honey and fed a 

 part of them on salicylated syrup, and a part on 

 syrup with 1-7 'i' of carbolic acid. All of these died 

 during the winter except one, and that had foul 

 brood in the spring. This spring a weak colony 

 was robbed. An examination showed that it had 

 foul brood, and the disease was thus scattered 

 broadcast again. 



I now tried the Cheshire plan of feeding carbol- 

 ated syru)). Some were cured by it, ai:d I now 

 thought I had found a practical and' simple cure; 

 but before all were cured, the honey-flow began 

 and the bees refused to take the feed. 



I now returned to the starvation method without 

 feed. I found that, when the bees were hived on 

 foundation, they were cured; but when hived on 

 empty combs they often developed the disease 

 again. When hived on full sheets of foundation 

 without starving, the disease generally returned, 

 although a neighboring apiarist reported success 

 by this plan with the addition of caging the queen 

 for forty-eight hours. 



A few colonies in which the disease was just 

 starting, and only a few diseased cells were to be 

 found, were cured by scooping out the dead larvae, 

 washing out the cells thoroughly with an atomizer, 

 and spraying the surrounding comb with a two-per- 

 cent solution of carbolic acid. 



Several colonies, in which foul brood was un- 

 mistakably present, conquered the disease without 

 assistance. 



This was during a heavy honey-flow. I shall 

 have something more to say in regard to the bear- 

 ing this has on the case. 



I now discovered that the colonies that had un- 

 dergone the starvation process were far behind 

 those similarly situated, except that they had not 

 been starved. I then tried feeding them during 

 their confinement, with phenolated syrup, and 

 found it a great improvement over starvation. 



