THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



27 



as a series of concise, well-considered 

 and ably-presented essays? 



But lest I be accused of forgetting my 

 theme I will proceed at once to discuss 



Foul Brood. 



I think the matter of wintering gives 

 very little anxiety now to our best bee- 

 keepers, so we may say that the great 

 obstacle to success in our business at 

 present is the terrible disease foul 

 brood. This is becoming alarmingly 

 prevalent in some sections of our coun- 

 try, and nowhere more so than in my 

 own state of Michigan. 



In this condition one of two courses 

 is open for our adoption : we can either 

 keep still, and allow it to spread, to 

 our own ruin and the damage of every 

 apiarist in our neighborhood, or we 

 can agitate the matter and take such 

 steps as will bring relief. Our horti- 

 cultural friends in case of a similar dis- 

 ease of the peach, the yellows, tried in 

 some sections, the former method, at 

 an enormous loss to themselves and 

 others. I need not say to those here 

 present, that an opposite course is 

 urged upon us by both morality and 

 self-interest. 



A beekeeper of the North carried 

 bees from Illinois last season, to the 

 state of Louisiana. He finds that he 

 has foul brood, and asks me to say 

 nothing about it. He rather should 

 wish it to be known and should at once 

 try every means to stamp it out, and 

 thus conserve his own interest, and 

 should be even more active to insure 

 his neighbors against the evil. To in- 

 noculate the bees in a community, es- 

 pecially if there are wild l)ees in the 

 place, is to let loose a terrible, and most 

 likely a lasting plague. The germs of 

 this dread malady will live for years in 

 a deserted hive or bee-tree, and so long 

 as there is honey present to lure the 

 bees so long a threatening evil is in 

 the place. Our friend Mutli has proved 

 the dangers of this overhanging dan- 

 ger; as he has destroyed the fungoid 

 growths several times only to liave 

 thom return, as the germs" would be 

 again thrust upon him from some nest 

 of the disease in the vicinity. So wesee 

 that the interest of others even more 

 than our own, should make us alive to 

 this subject audits importance. 



NATURE OF FOUL BROOD. 



Foul brood, like all kinds of rot or 

 putrefaction, as first shown by Dr. 

 Preuss and Pastor Schoufield, is the re- 

 sult of the growth of certain micro- 

 scopic plants, which multiply with as- 



tonishing rapidity. When magnified 

 1200 or 1500 times these bacilli in their 

 nutritive stage look like the links of a 

 chain. These links often touch at tlie 

 end, when the bacilli look still more 

 chain-like, as shown in flg. 1. As the 

 result of the development of these mi- 

 nute fungi, the tender brood on which 

 they depend for their nourishment is 



r. 



\ 







Fig. 2. Fig. 3. 



decomposed and of course destroyed. 

 As in all cases of putrefaction, thegases 

 which are given off tjy this process are 

 possessed of a disagreeable and even 

 nauseating odor. These fungi repro- 

 duce through the aid of minute germs, 

 which are termed spores, and are the 

 seeds of these minute organisms. The 

 spores (flg. 2) are rounded objects, 

 very minute, and during the reproduc- 

 tive stage can be seen by aid of a high 

 power microscope within the bacilli 

 (fig. 3). A strange and very unwel- 

 come peculiarity of these germs is 

 that the most severe cold does not des- 

 troy them but only holds them in abey- 

 ance, ready to spring fortji at the first 

 return of warmth, providing that they 

 have any substance on wliich to grow. 

 Heat on the other hand, if great enough, 

 will destroy both the fungoid growths 

 and the germs. Usually a boiling tem- 

 perature, 212°, will accomplish this re- 

 sult; though with some species it 

 requires boiling for some time, and 

 rarely a higher temperature than 212.° 

 Prof. Forbes has found that he can in- 

 noculate common beef broth by adding 

 the spores, and thus reproduce the ba- 

 cilli. 



FOUL BROOD DESCRIBED. 



When the brood (the adult bees are 

 not attacked by this fungus) becomes 

 diseased, the first indication the bee- 

 keeper has is the nauseating fumes 

 which are plainly detected if he puts 

 his nose at the entrance of the hive. 

 This odor is the same in kind that arises 

 from any putrescent matter, though I 

 fancy it has a character of its own. As 

 I have received this diseased brood by 

 mail, I have frequently detected the 

 odor before I would open the package 

 and have often remarked to members 

 of my family that I had another sample 

 of foul i)rood. The next indication is 

 the weakening of the colony, as we 

 know that in the breeding season, if 

 there are no bees reared, there will be 



