502 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Aug-. 6, 1903. 



past two or three years these largest of consumers will not 

 have anything to do with honey that has any symptom of 

 buckwheat about it ; and as its use for other purposes is 

 very limited we have great diflficulty in disposing of it ; and 

 when we do it is at a low price. 



I am firmly of the opinion that, had it not been for the 

 greed of these bee-keepers, buckwheat honey today would 

 be in as great demand as it was ten and twenty years ago ; 

 for at that time it was considered one of the best kinds of 

 honey for baking purposes. 



Some mention has been made of late concerning Cuban 

 honey, or the honey of the West Indies, which honey has 

 also been largely used for baking. If these tactics of mar- 

 keting the unripe product are followed they will soon bring 

 the product of that section into such disrepute that honey 

 from the islands will be shunned just as buckwheat is in 

 the United States at present writing. Cook Co., 111. 



[Mr. Burnett is entirely right, and we (A. I. R. and my- 

 self) wish to endorse his protest from beginning to end. 

 Mr. Root senior only meant to refer to what had been done 

 by one bee-keeper in Michigan ; but it is apparent the prac- 

 tice should be condemned just as vigorously as actual adul- 

 terating, for the one leads almost to as serious consequences 

 as the other. It is well known to the writer that some bee- 

 keepers in York State have been careless about putting out 

 unripe buckwheat honey ; they supposed that so long as it 

 was used for manufacturing purposes no harm would result ; 

 but if they could see some of the protests I have seen, they 

 would let the honey fully ripen in the combs before extract- 

 ing. It is true that the market for York State buckwheat 

 extracted has been injured almost beyond repair. In say- 

 ing this I do not mean to imply that all buckwheat from 

 that section has been unripe. — Ed.] — Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture. 



Foul Brood— How to Detect It. Hold It in 



Check, and Finally Get Rid of It 



With Slight Loss. 



By R. L. TAYLOR. 



" TF you had an apiary of 20U colonies with cases of foul 

 I brood scattered through it, how would you manage 

 throughout the entire season to get rid of the disease, or 

 to keep it in check ?" the editor asks me. 



In the first place I would avoid, as far as possible, getting 

 into a panic. Foul brood is bad enough, to be sure, and its 

 cure entails considerable labor and loss, but it is, fortunately, 

 not without a remedy. I should try to preserve my equa- 

 nimity, and thoroughly mature plans for effecting a cure ; for 

 there must be no halting while taking any step in the 

 operation. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DISEASE. 



The first point that claims serious attention is the distin- 

 guishing of the diseased colonies from the healthy ones. This 

 is a matter that is attended with more or less difiSculty, at 

 any season of the year, but with more at some seasons than 

 others, except in cases where the disease has made consider- 

 able progress. In these cases, even one with no experience, 

 need have no hesitancy in coming to a correct decision. All 

 the ear-marks of the malady are but too evident : the weak- 

 ness of the colony, listlessness of the bees, the repellent odor, 

 the ragged cappings of the brood, the shapeless dead brood, 

 and the general unprosperous appearance of the combs and 

 the honey, make the diagnosis easy. 



But if the colony be yet strong, and but slightly affected 

 with the malady, the case is quite different. If it be in the 

 fall, after breeding has ceased, or in the spring before it has 

 begun, the bees, owing to the strength of the colony, have 

 almost, if not entirely, removed the cappings from the dis- 

 eased cells, the odor is faint, if not practically absent, and 

 the colony appears prosperous, so that even the adept, on a 

 hasty examination, is liable to be deceived ; and one without 

 experience is sure to be. The diagnosis of those of this sort 

 is the most difficult of all, and the difficulty increases with the 

 slightness of the affection. How, then, may the disease be 

 discovered in such cases? Let us goto one of the colonies 

 badly diseased, and take from the center of the brood-nest a 

 comb — the newer it is the better — in which there has been 

 brood during the past breeding season. Now, we will hold it 

 in a good light, so that the light falls upon the comb not quite 

 perpendicularly, but at an angle of 70 or 80 degress from the 

 top of the comb ; now wo look down at an angle of about 40 

 degrees from the top of the comb into the cells, and what do 



we see? In many of the uncapped cells on their lower sides — 

 not bottoms — we see brownish, not grayish black, scales nearly 

 as wide as the cells, and reaching nearly to the opening of 

 the cells. These scales are the remains of brood destroyed 

 by foul brood. 



We will spend a little time in looking at them to fix in our 

 minds the image of their forms; will examine the other side 

 of the comb, and even take out one or two more to look at. 

 If the colony is weak, many of the affected cells retain a frac- 

 tion, or the whole, of their cappings, but, in any case, there 

 are many with no capping. If the colony has been afflicted 

 with bowel trouble, one, on a careless examination, might 

 take the scales to be dried excrement, once half liquid, but we 

 look carefully and see that they are always in the same posi- 

 tion, and of the same size and sliape, which would not be the 

 case if they were excrement. 



We will now return to the colony but little affected, and 

 take out and examine, one after another, the combs in which 

 brood has been reared during the past season. Now we see 

 the scales at a glance. There maybe but half a dozen in some 

 of the combs, and in some none at all. It is safe (or us to 

 pronounce the colony diseased, and to treat it accordingly, 

 but this test is not quite so certain as one we shall be able to 

 apply when brood-rearing has been underway for some time, 

 and settled warm weather has come. I say it is not quite as 

 certain, for the sole reason that in one or two cases I have 

 known the scales of brood dead from other causes than foul 

 brood, though, in those cases, I think the scales were all 

 finally removed by the bees. 



We will now go forward to apple-bloom, or to the opening 

 of white clover. If the colonies we visited earlier have been 

 left undisturbed, we will examine them again in the same 

 order as before. Providing ourselves with some toothpicks, 

 or bits of straw, we go to the sicker colony of the two for its 

 thorough examination, and proceed with the greatest delib- 

 eration, for we are trying to learn to distinguish foul brood 

 with absolute certainty. Having an eye out continually for 

 the appearance of robbers, which must be taken as a signal 

 for closing the hive, and postponing further examination, we 

 raise the cover. If we are on the leeward side of the hive we 

 may catch a faint whiff of the ill odor that proceeds from the 

 diseased brood, as the cover is raised, but we make sure of it 

 by bending over the hive with face near the top of the combs, 

 but we do not unnecessarily prolong this part of tlie examina- 

 tion, for the scent is by no means pleasant — nor worse than 

 that of colonies badly affected with diarrhea, perhaps ; not 

 so bad, but quite different — something like that of a poor 

 quality of glue as it is warming for use, or like that of a dead 

 animal after it has lain and decayed and dried for weeks in 

 the open air. With a little practice we shall not be liable to 

 mistake the odor, and we shall find it of considerable assist- 

 ance in discovering the disease to the extent that of ten the 

 necessity of lifting combs will be precluded. 



Now, we will take out two or three combs from the center 

 of the brood-nest, and look for the peculiarities in their ap- 

 pearance or contents. At the first glance, one who takes 

 delight in seeing his bees prospering would have a feelitrK ot 

 depression come over him without realizing the reason for it. 

 But we easily discover the reason. There is plainly a genera 

 appearance of shiftlessness, slovenliness and squalor. The 

 combs are too dark, and without the natural, clean look. The 

 bees do not cling well to the brood, but slink away ; the cap- 

 pings of the brood do not have the pretty, clean, slightly con- 

 vex appearance, but some are flat, or even concave ; many are 

 perforated, some slightly, others in a greater degree, and are 

 more or less ragged. 



Now we will look into the cells. Some, not capped, con- 

 tain larvK of a clear, pearly luster, others have nicely rounded 

 cappings — all these are as yet healthy. In the cells with 

 sunken, perforated and ragged cappings, and in many of 

 those not capped at all, we see larviP of a brownish color of 

 various shades from slightly yellow sometimes to the prevail- 

 ing hue of a dark, dirty brown. These are all dead. Did 

 they die of foul brood? We can surely tell by trying them 

 with our toothpicks. We open some of the sunken and the 

 perforated cells and insert the sharp end of the toothpick 

 into the remains of the larvie the different cells contain. The 

 skin of each one goes to pieces with u slight touch, and a 

 slight turn converts it into a homogeneo\is, glue-like mass of 

 the color of coffee when prepared with milk for drinking ; 

 and on withdrawing the toothpick the matter is drawn out in 

 a string a half inch, more or less. It is foul brood, and the 

 toothpick is the supreme test. There is no foul brood without 

 viscidity, and no viscidity without foul brood. 



NECESSITV FOR CAUTION WHEN EXAMINI.VjG INFECTED COLONIES. 



The toothpick, as used, we must dispose of with care to 

 prevent the contamination of healthy bees. We may burn 



