120 



THE AMERICAN APJCULTUHIST. 



A CURIOUS EXPERIENCE. 



The queen you sent me was intro- 

 duced successfully and commenced to 

 lay finely ; was well pleased with the 

 queen and would not have taken $io 

 for her. But now I come to a matter 

 that I am trying to solve. The colony 

 in which the new queen that had been 

 placed cast a fine healthy swarm. In 

 about fourteen days after the new queen 

 had been removed from said colony, 

 I was working with them and detected .a 

 very offensive odor arising from the 

 combs and flies around the entrance of 

 the hive. I examined them and found 

 all their capped brood dead and rotten. 

 I then examined the small colony with 

 the new queen I purchased of you and 

 found her colony in the same condition ; 

 the brood that I gave her hatched all 

 right, but the young larva of her own 

 that was capped was all dead ; that 

 which was not capped was alive, but all 

 seem to dieabout the time it is capped. 

 Now it is about a week since I first dis- 

 covered it ; I find upon examination of 

 my otlier colonies (26 in all) that they 

 are taking the same disease, the capped 

 brood turns brown ; the caps fall in, and 

 the larva dies, turns yellow and rots. 



Now the question is, is it foul brood? 

 If so, how came it here? The books 

 teach that it is caused by living organ- 

 isms. If so can it come spontaneously? 

 I never saw a case of foul brood ; there 

 is none in this county nor never has 

 been and I doubt if in the state of 

 West Virginia. Is it possible it could 

 have been introduced by the queen I 

 purchased of you? Could she have 

 been in contact with diseased bees un- 

 known to you? My apiary was healthy 

 before and doing finely up to the time 

 mentioned. I would not have the dis- 

 ease among my bees (if it is foul brood) 

 for one hundred dollars. Now please 

 give me your opinion in regard to the 

 origin of the disease among my bees 

 and the best thing for me to do. If 

 you can help me out of my difficulty I 

 shall be under many obligations to you . 

 I am not posted upon such things and 

 will look to you for advice. If you think 



there is any remedy I can a]iply, send 

 it to me with directions for its applica- 

 tion and I will pay all costs or charges 

 for the same. 



\V. F. SlEEL. 



bees are badly affect- 

 No, the (piccn yoii 



Glen-Lyn, la. 



Should say your 

 ed by foul ])ruod. 

 received fro n us did not infect \'our 

 apiary. If the queen h:id been taken 

 from a foul brood colony, it would have 

 been a long time before the disease 

 would have developed in) our apiary. 

 I do not believe you really know as to 

 whether there is foul brood in your 

 county. In my opinion your bees found 

 some last year, probably a hive from 

 which the bees had died out. \o\\\ 

 bees probably all liad a hand in the 

 robbery and this, it seems to me, is the 

 only solution of the way your colonies 

 were all diseased at the same time. We 

 have no foul brood in our apiary, if there 

 was we could not rear queens. — Eu.] 



IF IT IS 



NEW POINTS 



YOU ARE AFTER, 



see that youi name is on the subscrip- 

 tion list to the Ai*r, ^wA send for 

 Pratt's circular. 



We liave a book givuifi our new system 

 of Nuclei Management, which we send by 

 mail for 10 cents. 



We also have two little Ijooks : one on 

 Queen-Rearing, the other on Honey Fro- 

 fluciiiLj, at 5 cents eacli, by mail. 



E. L. PRATT. 

 PiiAxr BicK Farm, Beverly, 3Iass. 



