218 



THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURIST. 



a new trouble. She is just as 

 liable to transmit the disease 

 as are our fingers or the knife 

 we use for loosening the frames. 

 The brown larva on the lower side 

 of the cell dries up finally', into a 

 solid mumm}^, wlien it will never be 

 discovered unless by an experi- 

 enced eye, and then not without an 

 effort. 



Salicylic acid destroys all spores 

 of foul brood it comes in contact 

 with, but does not penetrate the 

 mujnmy which resembles ground 

 coffee when scraped out of the cell. 

 This mummy may rest harmlessly 

 for years when honey or pollen is 

 packed on top of it. But, when an 

 egg is laid in that cell again, the 

 larva softens up the mummy, dies, 

 and foul brood takes a new start. 

 That colony would have been cured 

 if that mummj' had not been over- 

 looked. 



Here is where the danger lies and 

 wherefrom the many disappoint- 

 ments and failures emanate. It 

 shows the danger of using again 

 brood combs from diseased colo- 

 nies, even if they have been disin- 

 fected. 



There is a milder type of foul 

 brood which, in appearance, is very 

 much like the malignant type. It 

 is contagious, also, but not so stub- 

 born to overcome and caused by 

 surrounding circumstances. 



In the spring of '83, I had pur- 

 chased a lot of bees from the south. 

 On their arrival here, I found the 

 hives full of dead brood in capped 

 and uncapped cells. The tops of 

 the hives were closed with wire- 

 gauze. They had been strong col- 



onies, but too many old bees had 

 been left with them for the long 

 journey, contrary to my advice to 

 the shipper, to let all the old bees 

 fly off before closing the hive. 



It is always the old bees that cre- 

 ate trouble in the transit. Finding 

 themselves closed up, they become 

 alarmed and create such an amount 

 of heat that the brood, in all stages, 

 may smother in spite of all venti- 

 lation. This had happened with 

 the shipment of bees referred to. 

 I cleaned out all combs and hives 

 but three, which seemed to be in a 

 less damaged condition. These 

 three colonies became strong and 

 filled quite a number of combs with 

 honey, all of which I extracted and 

 rendered the combs into wax be- 

 cause the dead brood in the hives 

 was slowly but surely increasing. 

 Uncapping some sheets, I found 

 most of the brood dead ; but instead 

 of finding a brown dry matter 

 under thecappings, a blackish dirty 

 liquid ran out and very few cells 

 had perforations. It was plain 

 that I was dealing with a different 

 kind of foul brood from what I had 

 been used to. I put one colony 

 after another into a clean hive and 

 gave them new combs, rendered all 

 the old combs into wax, disinfected 

 the old hive and my three colonies 

 are still prosperous. This, very 

 likely, was that same kind of foul 

 brood which ni}' good friend D. A. 

 Jones can cure so readily by the 

 starving process. 



It is not now my object to go 

 •again over that old ground describ- 

 ing all the particulars of the malig- 

 nant type of foul brood, nor the 



