758 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 26, 1903. 



[ Convention Proceedin$s ] 



THE LOS ANGELES CONVENTION. 



Report of the Proceedings of the 34th Annual 



Meeting of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, Held at Los Ang-eles, 



Calif., Aug. 18, 19 and 20, 



1903. 



(Continued from pa^e 744.1 

 FOUL BROOD, BLACK BROOD, PICKLED BROOD. 



Question— What is the difference in the symptoms of 

 foul brood and black brood in the appearance and develop- 

 ment of the diseases? Are they two distinct diseases, or 

 but one? 



Mr. France— A comparison of foul brood and black 

 brood shows that foul brood always has that brown color, a 

 little darker than in healthy brood, the dead larvje of a 

 lig-ht color, and, as it is termed, ropy. At this stage, if you 

 run a match or toothpick into it, this dead larva; will draw 

 out with an elasticity like glue. And, by the way, it smells 

 like a furniture glue-pot. It has that old, disagreeable foul- 

 brood odor. If it were black brood it would be very much 

 darker, and the odor would be like a rotten, sour apple in an 

 old cider-mill. It is somewhat more of that nature. It at- 

 tacks the larvs earlier in the life of the bee, and those 

 affected turn a very dark brown, almost black, and die. 

 Now, I never knew foul brood to have that peculiar charac- 

 teristic, but when you go into it in the finer details, under 

 the magnifying glass, the germs of the diseases have a very 

 strong resemblance. They are each of them rod-like, and 

 each of them throws out spores, and thus propagates. In 

 that particular feature they seem to be alike. Il seems to 

 be a little harder in treatment. I believe I was the first to 

 go beyond Mr. McEvoy in the treatment of foul brood, cag- 

 ing the queen while making the treatment. I did have a 

 few cases where the colony was so dissatisfied that they 

 deserted their home and went into neighboring hives, 

 queens and all. They were fed liberally, and they stayed 

 away. I avoided that trouble by caging the queens. New 

 York bee-keepers have followed in the same line, treating 

 black brood as foul brood, and caging the queen, and havQ 

 even gone further and caged the queen for two days longer. 

 All that is necessary is to get the diseased honey out of the 

 hive into clean quarters. 



_ Question— What is the cause of pickled or black brood ? 

 Is it contagious ? 



Mr. France— I feel that this subject of pickled brood is 

 one of vital importance, because it has created in my own 

 State a great deal of anxiety, and it has been quite serious. 

 As to the cause of pickled brood, I have fully convinced my- 

 self what it is, and what causes it. In a little leaflet that 

 I issued for Wisconsin bee-keepers, I described black brood 

 and pickled brood. I do not know but I might as well read 

 this as to try to give it in any other form. Your season 

 here is earlier, so these dates would not correspond with 

 conditions here : 



"The larval bees (in Wisconsin the last of May and 

 through June) show light-brown spots; a little later the 

 cappings have small holes, they are not sunken or dark- 

 colored as in foul brood. The dead bee will be at first swol- 

 len, with a black head, dried to a hard bunch, and often 

 turned up Chinaman-shoe like. The skin of the dead bee is 

 quite tough, and, if punctured, the thin, watery fluid of the 

 body will flow as freely as water, often a little yellow or 

 brownish colored from the dissolved pollen from the abdo- 

 men of the bee. It has very little or no smell, does not at 

 any time stick to the walls of the comb, is easily pulled out 

 of the cell, is never ropy or sticky, and, if the colony is 

 properly cared for, the bees will take care of themselves. 

 Plenty of liquid unsealed honey and pollen near the brood, 

 and hives so protected as to keep bees and brood comfort- 

 able on cold days and nights." 



So much for pickled brood. Now, what causes it 7 Cold, 

 backward spring weather, when the bees can not get out 

 and fly, causing a shortage of food, is the cause of nine- 

 tenths of it in the State of Wisconsin. For instance, in 



this State, last spring, you probably had some cold, back- 

 ward weather. Then came on beautiful weather, and 

 brood-rearing commenced, the honey-flow came on about 

 the time of the honey-flow, and pickled brood would appear. 

 That pickled brood may have started before you saw it. It 

 is lack of nourishment and care of the larval bees. Just 

 as we people first look out for our own stomachs, then those 

 of our neighbors', so these bees, if they can not get out to 

 work, will subsist upon the honey in the hive. There may 

 be lots of solid honey in the hive, but the brood may be 

 starved or chilled, and these conditions may produce a case 

 of foul brood, or, under these circumstances, pickled brood. 

 I do not believe a case of pickled brood ever produced a case 

 of foul brood, any more than diphtheria produces small-pox. 



What shall we do to get rid of it ? Strengthen the bees 

 so that they will have an abundance of honey. That is all 

 there is to it. In one apiary where there were 80 colonies, 

 and they had foul brood in a colony, I took every other hive, 

 and simply gave those colonies an abundance of feed, and 

 let the others go as they were. In ten days time, the colo- 

 nies that were given the extra honey had carried out the 

 dead, but the others were dwindling down, and there was 

 more and more pickled brood. Then, in the same yard, I 

 cautioned the owner, just during the time between fruit- 

 bloom and clover, about ten days there that the bees do not 

 get any honey ; I said, " Don't you let them know anything 

 about that famine time. You feed them those ten days, so 

 that from the time there is no fruit-bloom there is some- 

 thing for them until the clover comes on." What was the 

 result in that apiary ? There is not a case of pickled brood 

 there. 



I don't believe foul brood and pickled brood are alike. 

 Nor do I. believe that black brood and pickled brood are one 

 and the same. But there is another condition of affars tha 

 seems to corroborate it. I have had several samples, and 

 there is one here in this box. There is a condition that is 

 rather serious, and it has a similar appearance to foul brood 

 at some stage, but, owing to climatic conditions, or some- 

 thing, I have been unable to have an analysis that is to my 

 satisfaction, to know what you would call it. We must take 

 these conditions locally, and I would want to understand 

 your conditions here before I could do it satisfactorily, but 

 I believe you Western people will go after it and correct it. 



How does it differ? Not so much brown, but more 

 nearly black. It bears down loosely, and you can touch the 

 comb up with a little pair of tweezers without any trouble. 



Do the bees carry it out ? In some localities they do. 

 They say in Washington and Oregon the bees seem to carry 

 out a good deal of it. 



A Member — We have a modification of foul brood here ; 

 the color is darker, but the substance is not very elastic, but 

 I have been thoroughly convinced that it is simply a modi- 

 fication. It is quite common here the last few years. 



Prof. Cook — I have been very much interested in what 

 has been said here in regard to pickled brood. We had a 

 great deal of brood dying here in this way. I did not call it 

 pickled brood ; we called it a new bee-disease. We did not 

 have much of it. You have diagnosed it exactly, Mr. 

 France. I believe it was a case of starvation, or, any way, 

 malnutrition. 



Question — I would like to ask, where Mr. France says 

 " contagious," if he means that it can be carried like chol- 

 era or yellow fever, or does he mean infectious, like carry- 

 ing some of the spores from an infected hive ? I would hive 

 them, and they would set along in a row near my barn ; as 

 I had no particular use of that I would allow them to re- 

 main them. I had a colony nearly perish with foul brood 

 before I discovered its presence, but had hives within 6 

 inches of it where foul brood never appeared ; but as I ar- 

 rested the progress of the disease by removing and burning 

 up the others, I concluded "contagious" did not apply, but 

 that it is infectious. I want to know whether he does mean 

 infectious. 



Mr. France — His question was, " Do I think the germs 

 of foul brood float in the air, and in that way would infect 

 another colony ?" No, I do not. In that case, why would 

 not every cell in that comb be infected? I very seldom find 

 a comb where all the cells in the comb are infected, even 

 though some will have it in the last stages of the disease. 

 I have taken the stand where a good many have called me 

 down, but I am just as willing to be called down when I can 

 be proven to be in the wrong. 



How fast, and what will spread the disease ? I contend 

 that the comb having the disease in certain cells, when 

 honey, larva:, pollen, or anything the bees deposit is put 

 into those cells, that material becomes infected. The next 

 cell may never have had foul brood in. It is contagious 



