THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



205 



[For the Aiuericaa Bee Jourual.] 



Foul Brood. 



I do not " entirely concur with Mr. Alley in 

 advising the immediate and complete destruction 

 by lire of hives and combs, whenever a colony is 

 found infected with foul brood." Qcti Bee Jour- 

 7i(d, vol. 5, page 151. I claim to be posted in 

 this matter, and have been advising beginners in 

 bee-keeping for years. And when I speak from 

 my own experience, I think I know what I am 

 saying. Now, when those who confess to never 

 having had a case of it, but depend on descrip- 

 tion for all they know, and then recommend a 

 course directly opposite, I do not feel flattered. 

 It would seem that they had no confidence in 

 what I had said, or are ignorant of it. It is 

 evident that Mr. Alley never read the "remedies 

 attempted" on page 213 of "Mysteries of Bee- 

 keeping," or if he had, had no confidence. It 

 might have saved him the trouble of going over 

 the same ground, where I had been twenty years 

 before. Except in the fall, I see no economy in 

 destroying a good colony of bees. 



When Mr. Alley first " detected a peculiar 

 smell, such as had never come in contact with 

 my [his J ollactory nerves before, and at once 

 pronounced the two hives infected with the dis- 

 ease," although he might liave been correct in 

 his diagnosis, was it proper to jump at conclu- 

 sions in tills way ? It was his first case, and im- 

 portant. He presumes, on the evidence of one 

 sense alone, tliat he is right. This way of de- 

 ciding before the evidence is all in, is a dangerous 

 one. Again, he says— " I know of but one way 

 to cure this disease, and I strongly advise others 

 who are troubled with this malady, to adopt my 

 remeily." 



Probably he knows of but one "remedy," he 

 speaks of but one other. The presumption of 

 having ti'ied all, is objectionable. It was early 

 in the month of June, and tlie bees were let to 

 work, to see what would be done. The bees 

 lived till the next spring. Tlien he commenced 

 experiment by pruning, twice repeating what I 

 liad done, and failed just as effectually. Had he, 

 when he first, decided they were diseased (they 

 were then strong and lived another year), simply 

 transferred his bees to new clean hives, he would 

 just as eff'ectuallj^ have got rid of the disease, 

 and had two colonies worth more than those he 

 purchased, besides the chance of surplus. It 

 would have reached long ways towards the $200 

 lost in experiment. 



Of what avail to " study ihe disease," unless to 

 profit by it ? I have been through here, and 

 found a remedy without so great a sacrifice. A 

 colony badly diseased in the fall, is not in good 

 condition for winter. The dead larvfB occupy 

 the cells needed for the mature bees in severe 

 weather, to keep up warmth. Such colonies at 

 this season might as well be destroyed. To 

 winter them they would require stores and combs, 

 which are not often at hand. The outside combs, 

 and those in the corners, often contain good 

 honey for the table, but not for the bees. The 

 centre combs will have some honey cells mixed 

 with cells of dead brood. I see no way to sepa- 

 rate such, and of course it would have to be re- 



jected, and should be buried out of the reach of 

 the bees at once. If the hive was sufficiently 

 valuable to pay trouble, it might be cleansed 

 with scalding water, or exposed to the weather 

 six months of our winter, and be perfectly 

 healthy for the bees another year. I would not 

 advise putting bees from such a colony into 

 empty comb in any case, until they had used all 

 the honey taken with them. Neither Avould 1 

 unite a small diseased colony with a healthy one, 

 till they bad used the honey. I have known 

 apiaries properly treated, where the malady has 

 diminished to less than one per cent, of what it 

 was a few years since. 



As to Mr. Morgan's experience, reported on 

 page 147, he may have foul brood ; but it is so dif- 

 ferent from any experience of mine, that I tliink 

 he must be mistaken in the way it was first con- 

 tracted. Its progress was too fast. 



He says, some time in Septen)ber he scooped 

 out of the hollow of a tree, several buckets of 

 comb, dead bees, pollen — and I suppose some 

 honey also. At the end of several days it was 

 found fermenting, was thrown out, the bees 

 were found carrying some of it away. A hive 

 near the place several weeks afterwards gave a 

 horrible stench on opening it, unlike any thing 

 before. The hive was full of dead brood. Six 

 more were found in the same condition. 



It is not clearly proved that this disease ori- 

 ginated as he supposed. It was September — 

 perhaps the middle, when the tree was cut ; it 

 might have been the very last when the ferment- 

 ing mixture was thrown out. The larvae, just 

 ready to seal up, seem to be just the right age to 

 be affected by it. At the end of September, in 

 this latitude, all healthy stocks have usually 

 hatched their brood. They may be later there ; 

 but I think it hardly possible that enough larvae 

 just the right age to take the disease, to fill the 

 hive so quickly. Proceeding at that rate, they 

 could hardly last a year, as Mr. Alley's did. I 

 think the cause should be looked for months 

 previous to cutting the tree. As for remedies, I 

 approve of Langstroth's, so far as removing at 

 once the whole from the reach of the bees ; unless 

 the bees were Italian, it would hardly pay to try 

 to save them at that season. I would disapprove 

 of even trying to set them three miles from any 

 others Suppose the bees from a tree in the 

 woods take the honey from some of these hives, 

 and deposit half waj' to the home apiary, what 

 is to prevent a dozen more becoming affected 

 mysteriously as these ? If every hive was re- 

 moved at once when attacked, we should hear 

 less of the necessity of burning things. 



M. QUIKBY. 



St. JoJmsville, N. Y. 



If the bee-keeper would not have his bees so 

 demoralized that their value will be seriously di- 

 minished, he will be exceedingly aireful to pre- 

 vent them from robbing each other. — L. L. 

 Langstroih. 



The use of woollen gloves, when operating 

 among bees, is objectionable, as everything 

 rough or hairy has an extremely irritating in- 

 fluence on bees. 



