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FOUL-BROOD. 



Cause of Disease — managcincnl 

 and Cure. 



BY D. A. JONES. 



This disease has baffled tlie skill of 

 the bee-keepevs for a great main- 

 years ; it has destroyed thousand upon 

 thousands of colonies, both in Europe 

 and America ; whole apiaries have 

 been swept away, and the fond hopes 

 of many bee-keepers have been blasted 

 by its ravages. This disease is known 

 to have existed in America for more 

 than half a century. The late Mr. 

 Quinby and many others knew of its 

 existence to their sorrow. 



Over fifty years ago many important 

 facts in connection with the disease 

 were learned and made known by Mr. 

 Quinby. through his untiring efforts to 

 cure the disease ; in fact, he had about 

 become its master, by the starvation 

 plan, we believe, before any great 

 efforts were taken on the part of 

 others to stay its ravages. Burning 

 and burying have been resorted to. and 

 to those who have no better means at 

 hand by which a cure can be effected, 

 they had better take either of these, as 

 the great danger of its spreading to 

 other apiaries, or to bees in the woods, 

 which might keep the disease lingering 

 about in a locality for years, is too 

 great to run any risk. 



Much has been written and said on 

 the matter. Our esteemed friend, Mr, 

 C. F. Mnth, of Cincinnati, the great 

 honey-king of the Southwest, has writ- 

 ten a little book on the disease, and 

 its cure by the use of salicylic acid. 

 Mr. Frank Cheshire, of London. Eng- 

 land, believes he has made some im- 

 ])ortant discoveries of late by the use 

 of the microscope. Great credit is due 

 Mr. Cheshire for the untiring efforts 

 he has manifested in that direction, 

 and should he accomplish what he an- 

 ticipates, the bee-keepers of the world 

 will owe hiui a debt of gratitude which 

 they can never fully repay. 



1 feel confident that the efforts that 

 are being put forth by so many at the 

 jjresent time will, sooner or later, find 

 a cure that will be more easily per- 

 formed than any yet known. I should 

 like to see our great American author- 

 ity. Prof. A. J. Cook, of Lansing, 

 Mich., give the matter some attention; 

 we all feel proud of his discoveries, 

 being fully .assured that he is less 

 liable to err in his experiments than 

 many others. 



The disease seems to be pretty well 

 scattered through Europe and America, 



and the loss sustained every year hj 

 its ravages will warrant our scientists 

 in giving the matter all the attention 

 that is possible. There have been 

 various opinions expressed as to its 

 origin, some believing that it was im- 

 ported into this country, and that 

 cases always originate from the im- 

 ported disease ; others believe that it 

 can and does originate in this country; 

 but this mater will doubtless be cleared 

 up in time. Each party appears to be 

 able to prove pretty conclusively that 

 they are right — ))robably they both 

 are. That it existed here many years 

 before any importation of Italian bees 

 was made, is beyond doubt. In some 

 places there have been laws enacted 

 to prevent its spread similar in charac- 

 ter to the Act we now have, and com- 

 missioners or inspectors appointed to 

 search out the disease, and see that it 

 is either cured, or the bees and combs, 

 etc., destroyed. 



There has been a great deal of ad- 

 vice given about the cure and manage- 

 ment of the disease, and many of those 

 who have taken the trouble to give 

 such advice, deserve much credit for 

 the interest they have manifested in 

 studying up the disease, and assisting 

 their less fortunate brother bee-keep- 

 ers. There are varied opinions regard 

 ing the spread of the disease ; some 

 think it is a disease of the honey, or 

 rather that is the way in which the 

 disease is usually spread ; others be- 

 lieving that it is carried on the bodies 

 and feet of the bees ; some even go so 

 far as to say that it may be carried on 

 the body, feet, proboscis and other 

 parts of the bees, and thus conveyed 

 to the flowers of the fields, so that 

 other bees visiting these flowers carry 

 the disease home to their own hives. 



That diseased colonies can carry the 

 disease to the flowers seems scarcelj- 

 probable to me. Once I knew of over 

 100 colonies of bees badly affected with 

 foul-brood, with another apiary not a 

 mile away, and although the bees from 

 the diseased apiary gathered honey 

 from the flowers in the same Helds, no 

 disease ever appeared in the other 

 apiarj-. If bees carry the disease on 

 their bodies, it seems very strange 

 that, in all my experiments, I have 

 never been able to detect any case 

 that originated from the disease having 

 been carried in that way. 



Some recommend starving or fasting 

 as a cure, and say '-24 hours or 48 

 hours, or sometimes two or three days 

 is suflieient." Those who attempt its 

 cure in this manner are sure to meet 

 with failure, as the time required for 

 fasting does not depend so much on 

 tlie number of hours or days as it does 

 upon the fact that all the honey in 

 their abdomens is consumed ; if that 

 could be accomplished in two hours by 



any means it would be sufficient, but, 

 on the contrary, it may be six or eight 

 days, and I have sometimes had them 

 fasting even a longer time. I wonder 

 if some genius cannot get out a patent 

 right on some kind of a small press to 

 make them discharge all their honey 

 from their honey-sacs. 



The fasting system has proved to be 

 a most successful one with me, as also 

 with many others. There is one beauty 

 about it, viz. : it requires no medicine- 

 or drugs of any kind, and is within the 

 reach of every person. Another ad- 

 vant.age is, that if there is no brood in 

 the hives, or if you do not wish to save 

 the brood, the cure can be effected 

 with but one hour or two hours' labor 

 to each colony. 



If the directions contained in this- 

 communication are followed carefully, 

 no person need ever be troubled much 

 with the disease, as the different ap- 

 pearances of dead brood, dying from 

 various causes, are carefully and ex- 

 plicitly explained. I do not believe that 

 the fasting system is the only one by 

 which foul-brood can be cured, think- 

 ing that it may also be cured by other 

 means, but thus far this appears to be 

 the most simple and the surest way for 

 the novice. 



Chilled Brood. — Chilled brood is fre- 

 quently caused by the bees moving off 

 the brood, and not keeping it sufH- 

 ciently warm. On cold nights, if the 

 entrances of the hives are left open so 

 that the atmosphere inside gets too 

 cold, the bees contract their cluster, 

 thus leaving a portion of the brood un- 

 covered, which, not being protected, 

 becomes chilled and dies. Sometimes- 

 bees swarm out in the spring, and 

 leave the brood to die ; this is veiy 

 often caused by the bees having too- 

 much space, and not being able to 

 keep up the necessary amount of heat to- 

 carry on breeding, become discouraged, 

 and leave with the expectation of bet- 

 tering their condition. I have known 

 it to occur as the result of spring 

 dwindling, and the bees being unable 

 to cover their brood, swarm out. It 

 may also arise from the bees having 

 consumed all their stores, and seeing 

 starvation staring tbem in the face, 

 they leave with llie object of improv- 

 ing their condition. 



There are many other causes bj- 

 which brood becomes chilled and dies. 

 The appearance of this chilled brood, 

 however, differs materially from tha t 

 of foul-brood ; tlie larva is frequently 

 found dead in all stages, from the egg 

 to the perfectly formed bee just ready 

 to gnaw out, while foul-brood usually 

 operates on the larva when it is almost 

 fully grown, and should it have lived 

 sufficiently long to have had the wing& 

 formed, and assumed the general ap- 

 pearance of the bee. say two or three- 



