66 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 26, 190S. 



organized. The result was that this colony continued 

 about five or six years and it never showed any sign of 

 the disease. I have noticed those bees that had a dash of 

 Cyprian blood in them seemed to ward off the disease 

 much better. 



Mr. Cary — Do you mean in comparison with the 

 Italians? 



Mr. Stewart — I am comparing them with the ordi- 

 nary black bees throughout the country. You will find 

 that farmer bee-keepers and some of those called experts 

 have black bees and rather poor hives, and get started 

 with Italians and they drift back and they have rather a 

 poor class of hybrids, and that class of bees succumbs 

 readily to this disease; we have asked all of the bee-keep- 

 ers where any disease existed to replace them with either 

 Italians or CyDrians, or even Carniolans, in preference 

 to any of the black bees. 



Prof. Benton — How do Carniolans in this list com- 

 pare with others? 



Mr. Stewart — We find the Italians will stand disease 

 a little better than the Carniolans, although we have 

 never lost a whole apiary of Carniolans from this dis- 

 ease yet, that I know of. My personal observation would 

 indicate that some particular strains of Italian bees will 

 stand it a little .better. 



J. C. Stewart — I would like to cite you a case simi- 

 lar to one you have been describing, where you said 

 the larvae turned from a white to a yellow color. The 

 larva, we will say about two days before it should be 

 capped over, had begun to swell, and had formed a yel- 

 low spot on one side of the larva about midway from end 

 to end and in the center of the body, and that spot begins 

 to enlarge and enlarge until it develops in nearly the 

 whole body of the larva, and this body has swollen so that 

 as soon as you touch or puncture it it will burst and give 

 off a watery substance. Do you consider that black brood? 



Mr. Stewart — It is pretty hard to recognize the dis- 

 ease from so meagre a description, but I never found that 

 in black brood. I don't know that I ever came across that 

 particular feature. It would look more as if there were 

 some pickled brood about it. 



Mr. Whitcomb — You made some remark about your 

 ability to resist disease. Do you believe one colony has 

 any more ability to resist disease than another, or is it 

 on account of the robbing propensities? Some do not 

 go out and rob so much and the hybrid-black bees are 

 always robbing. 



Mr. Stewart — At one time we did lean to that idea, 

 but we soon got our minds disabused. Take the instance 

 I have just cited of the sixty colonies. My friend told 

 me they could see that one colony gathering right in 

 that yard and they showed no sign of the disease. 



Mr. Whitcomb — Take it from generation to genera- 

 tion, and you put the honey under the microscope, and 

 you will find that the disease is progressing. 



Mr. Stewart — If you talk to the bacteriologist you 

 will find that honey is not a medium for the propagation 

 and growth of bacillus alvei. 



Dr. Miller — When black brood was first known it 

 was considered a very terrible thing, and at this later 

 date when they have had a chance to fight it I would 

 like to know how they compare it with our foul brood. 

 You would dread the affliction of the ordinary brood, now 

 could you put it into percent as to your dread of your 

 black brood? 



Mr. Stewart— It is pretty hard to compare the two 

 because I have had so much more experience with the 

 black brood than with the foul brood. While we occasion- 

 ally find a little spot of it in New York State I have found 

 foul brood where it has been in a couple of yards to an 

 important extent for four or five years. If you had black 

 brood in a single apiary of New York State it would 

 largely depend on the weather or honey conditions how 

 fast it would spread. It is a disease that thrives best in 

 a starvation season, when no new honey is coming in pure 

 and fresh from the flowers; and the result is that I am 

 a little at a loss to know how to place a percentage on 

 it, but I should a great deal rather have the old-time foul 

 brood than the black brood. 



Dr. Miller — Another question. These two diseases, 

 the scientists tell us, come from the same cause, bacillus 

 alvei. One is puzzled to know why, and yet we know 

 that there are different types of the disease. But if thev 

 both come from the same cause, do they merge one into 

 the other? Will there be shades of it from one to an- 



other, or are they distinct things, neither one ever chang- 

 ing into the other? 



Mr. Stewart — We have never known it to change 

 from one to the other. It always preserves these pe- 

 culiar characteristics of its own. 



Pres. Harris — Is it not a fact that in the insect king- 

 dom as well as the animal kingdom, and you take it 

 among the human family, that the conditions surrounding 

 all diseases have a very great deal to do with it? You 

 find it sometimes in a light form, and other times in a 

 severe form, and it is the condition in which the bees 

 are and the surroundings. 



Mr. Stewart — Yes, I believe it is. 



Mr. Root — There is one fact that has not been 

 brought out. I would like to ask Mr. Stewart whether he 

 has diagnosed samples of black brood that have been sent 

 to him from other portions of the country as the same 

 as the black brood he has in New York State? 



Mr. Stewart — I had a sample brought from Michigan 

 that I was at a little loss to know just what it was, while 

 the sample was a little old, something over a week. It 

 is pretty hard to take a little sample of it home and 

 decide just what it is, especially after it has been out of 

 the hive for a week or more, but I didn't hesitate in pro- 

 nouncing this similar to our black brood in New York 

 State. Your general manager has handed me a paper that 

 was sent in by another inspector from New York State, 

 and perhaps it would be well to read that. The writer is 

 W. D. Wright. 



BLACK BROOD (SO CALLED) IN NEW YORK, 

 VS. FOUL BROOD. 



Contrary to the result obtained from former inves- 

 tigations and the general belief that the New York bee- 

 malady was an entirely new and distinct disease, the 

 recent extensive investigations by New York State, ex- 

 hibits are expected to prove that the disease prevail- 

 ing here, is nearly, if not quite, identical with that de- 

 scribed by European authorities as foul brood — bacillus 

 alvei. 



There is apparently a variation in the exterior charac- 

 teristics of the former from the latter, such as a greater 

 proportion of the unsealed larvK dying, consequently 

 fewer sealed cases containing discarded matter, some- 

 times a black or yellow spot on the larva when first at- 

 tacked, and only occasionally ropiness. In the advanced 

 stages, either is extremely foul, and emits a nauseating 

 stench. Also, either yields readily to the same treat- 

 ment. 



European bee-masters claim that there are two forms 

 of foul brood, viz.: the dry or mild, and the moist or 

 malignant. From their description, I believe the mild 

 form tallies with what we call pickled brood, and the 

 malignant probabl}' the same as our foul brood or black 

 foul brood. 



I have observed for several years past, that the pure, 

 three-banded or leather-colored Italians were much less 

 subject to the disease than other races, so that I univer- 

 sally recommended Italianizing with such strains. If this 

 is done in diseased apiaries of black or hybrid bees, be- 

 fore or soon after treatment, the apiarist will stand a 

 much better chance of banishing, or at least keeping the 

 foul brood in subjection. 



I was surprised recently, in referring to Quinby's bee- 

 keeping, edition of 1865, to find this statement in regard 

 to Italian bees being less affected with foul brood. "Since 

 their introductin into my apiaries, the number affected 

 with this disease has diminished five-sixths." Mr. 

 Quinby also states in his description of the disease, that 

 the dead larvje were black. However, a larger propor- 

 tion of them was sealed over than in our black foul brood. 



I will also quote from Dzierzon's mode of treating 

 foul brood, published in the Bienenzeitung. He says: 



"To prevent the disease from spreading in a colony, there 

 is no more reliable and ctKcient process than to stop the pro- 

 duction of brood, for where no brood exists, none can perish 

 and putrefy. The disease is thus deprived both of its ailment 

 and its subjects. The healthy brood will mature and 

 emerge in due time, and the putrid matter remaining in 

 a few cells will dry up and be removed by the workers. 

 All this will certainly result from a well-timed removal 

 of the queen from such colonies." 



This is recommended by the author when but few 

 colonies are diseased, and those discovered early, but it 

 is good practice even at the present day, and in the 



