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823 



days before emerging, then they 

 appear to be old and strong enough to 

 resist the disease, or, in otlier words, 

 if they hud been fed any of the dis- 

 eased food, or food containing fungi 

 or spores of foul-brood, thej' would 

 have died and aSsumed the foul-broody 

 appearance before the}' had become so 

 fully developed. 



Now, in this chilled brood will be 

 found fully developed bees almost 

 ready to leave their cells, and the skin 

 of the larva; seems to retain more per- 

 fectly its shape and appearance, and 

 when pricked with a sharp instrument, 

 the larva; will usuallj' be found to con- 

 tain a watery substance quite unlike 

 foul-brood. Another proof whereby 

 chilled brood may be detected is, that 

 bees almost fully developed are found 

 dead in the cells, retaining their shape 

 and appearance, never sink back into 

 that brown, ropy matter which so 

 plainly marks pure foul-brood. 



Neglected Brood. — Neglected, deserted 

 or starved brood resembles chilled 

 brood ver}' much in many respects, 

 especially as it is found in all stages, 

 from the egg to the perfect bee, but it 

 diflers from chilled brood in one re- 

 spect very markedly ; the bees after 

 consuming all the hone}' in the cells, 

 often remove all the food from the 

 larvEe, giving it a very dry appearance, 

 and sometimes they even bite or gnaw 

 upon the larvas, not being satisfied 

 with taking their food from their cells, 

 thus making holes in the bodies, and 

 giving many of the larger larvas a dry, 

 shrivelled appearance. This may all 

 occur before the bees desert the hive 

 or die ; and I have found all the brood 

 dead except that just ready to leave 

 the cells. 



Over-healed Brood. — This is called by 

 some scaled brood, by others sufl'ocated 

 or smothered brood, and is also known 

 by various other names. It is usually 

 caused by the hive being closed too 

 tightly in hot weather, not allowing 

 the bees suflicient ventilation ; or in 

 shipping, by not giving the bees suffi- 

 cient ventilation, the bees become ex- 

 cited, and in trying to secure all the 

 fresh air possible crowd each other to 

 such an extent about the entrance or 

 air passages that it becomes choked. 

 I have known colonies to smother in a 

 very short time. After the bees were 

 smothered, the great heat which they 

 produced seemed to have over-heated 

 some of the brood, and in spite of 

 every etFort to save it by placing it in 

 other colonies, some of it would die. 



This dead brood, on examination. 

 will be found to resemble chilled bi'ood 

 somewhat, and if allowed to remain in 

 the cells, it becomes putrid, and smells 

 very much like pure foul-brood. It 

 differs from chilled brood in this re- 

 spect ; that while in cliilled brood bees 



just ready to emerge are found dead 

 in the cells, while the heating or 

 smothering does not seem to affect the 

 older larvx' to the same extent. I 

 have found bees emerging one or two 

 days after that seemed to have sur- 

 vived. When bees are smothered as 

 above, from their over-healed condi- 

 tion, the moisture arising from their 

 efforts, becoming condensed on tlie 

 combs, make them very damp. This 

 moisture seems to extend to the larva' 

 and brood, accounting in a measure 

 for the rapid decomposition of the 

 larvae, and the greater disagreeableness 

 of smell, being nearly as offensive an 

 odor as that arising from foul-brood. 



Drowned Brood. — This usually occurs 

 where colonies are placed on low 

 ground, and when a sudden rise in the 

 water overflows the bank of the stream 

 and the apiary is submerged. The 

 water also rises up into the hives 

 among the combs, and a large quantity 

 of the brood is submerged and 

 drowned. This drownetl brood seems 

 to differ some from the ordinary chilled 

 brood, but resembles smothered or 

 over-heated brood more, being damp 

 and soft in appearance, caused by the 

 ground, hives and conihs being so 

 moist. If this dead brood is not re- 

 moved, it produces a much more loath- 

 some smell than chilled brood, becom- 

 ing more putrid, and taking much 

 longer time to dry up in the cells. 

 Should the weather be very warm, 

 dam|> and muggy, the drowned brood 

 sometimes turns into a mild type of 

 foul-brood, or into what looks and acts 

 so much like it that it must be at least 

 a first cousin to it. 



I will relate a circumstance which is 

 one of the number that leads me to 

 believe that foul-brood mai/ be some- 

 times p^'orfttcctZ in the apiary, and not 

 always imported, as some of our 

 friends honestly imagine. A man once 

 had 100 colonies in an isolated locality, 

 with no other apiary within miles of it, 

 and no bees in the woods, as far as 

 known ; there were no signs of foul- 

 brood in his apiary all Summer, tiiough 

 the colonies were carefully examined 

 once or twice eaeli week. 



In August or September a flood 

 came and drowned a large portion of 

 the brood in some of the hives, 10 or 

 15 of them were so much injured by 

 the flood, that the bees did not remove 

 the dead brood, and in most of the col- 

 onies nearly all the combs were full of 

 brood. The weather, after the flood, 

 was very warm and muggy, the atmos- 

 phere very oppressive for days, with 

 frequent showers. All the colonies 

 from which the dead brood was re- 

 moved came out all right, while the 10 

 or 15, from which it was not removed, 

 became very badly diseased ; they 

 attempted to rear brood, but some of 



it was afft;(:ted, so much so that the 

 odor arising from the brood dying 

 was very unpleasant. When all the 

 dead brood was removed, the disease 

 continued, and it appeared that the 

 spores of the disease were in the 

 honey, as many of the larva; were 

 found dead. Each time brood was 

 reared the disease continued to in- 

 crease, in spite of salicylic acid and 

 other treatments then in vogue. Honey 

 from the combs, when given to a 

 healthy colony, produced tiie disease. 



It appeared in every respect like 

 foul-brood, and I feel satisfied that it 

 was. Now, if it did not emanate from 

 the decaying brood, which was a mass 

 of corruption, where did it come from? 

 The stench and spores arising from it, 

 seem to have diseased the honey, and 

 when the honey was fed to the larvse, 

 it affected them. We believe that 

 some diseases arise de novo, or sponta- 

 neously, while others arise from germs 

 or spores which find in decaying m.at- 

 ter a favorable opportunity for multi- 

 plication. In this case, everything 

 was favorable for their development. 

 If I recollect aright, cholera always 

 starts in the valley of the Ganges, be- 

 cause it is a most favorable spot for 

 its propagation. 



Dead Brood — What Some Call a Mild 

 Type of Foul-Brood. — This resembles 

 foul-brood more closely than any of 

 the others, because there appears to 

 be no appai"ent cause for the death. 

 Larva; are found to die in almost all 

 stages, from the half-grown larva up 

 to the imago, or fully developed bee. 

 Now, in appearance, this seems to 

 resemble chilled brood, so far as its 

 dryness is concerned ; it also more 

 closely retains its shape. The lan-a 

 does not flatten out and recede to the 

 back of the cell ; the skin of the larva 

 shows much less inclination to wrinkle, 

 and it retains its size and shape more 

 perfectly. If the larva is pierced with 

 the point of a very sharp instrument, 

 it will be found to contain a dark, 

 inky-like, watery substance. The bees 

 usually remove this sooner or later. 

 Sometimes, however, they allow it to 

 dry up considerably before doing so ; 

 the older larva that is almost ready to 

 emerge, may be found by a slight 

 sinking of the capping ; but the cap- 

 ping does not sink as much as the cap- 

 ping of a foul-broody cell, and if. with 

 the point of a sharp knife, you attempt 

 to remove it, you will find it much 

 stronger than that of a genuine foul- 

 broody cell. 



There are several suppositions as to 

 the cause of this, one of which is, that 

 the larva lives longer, and spins the 

 cocoon more perfectly under the cap- 

 ping before it dies, while the one dis- 

 eased with genuine foul-brood seldom, 

 if ever, does to any extent ; thus the 



