American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



Vol. III. 



FEBRXJAR-Y, 1868. 



No. 8 



[Eroo the Bieaeuzeitung.] 



Foulbrood. 



In anticipation of a second edition of his book 

 on "Bees and Bee Culture," the Baron of 

 Berlepsch has published the following article 

 on Foulbrood, with the request that those 

 who have been troubled with this disease iu 

 their own apiaries, would communicate to 

 him the result of their observations. It is 

 certainly desirable, that, for the elucidation 

 of a topic of such importance as this mysteri- 

 ous malady — of the cause, source, or cure of 

 which we almost literally know nothing — 

 those under whose observation it has come 

 should contribute any facts, hints, or sugges- 

 tions which may have occurred to them. 



Foulbrood is the dying, putrefying and final 

 drying up in the cells of the uncapped brood, 

 but more generally of the already capped brood. 

 This brood disease varies considerably in its 

 manifestations, but usually assumes a contagi- 

 ous or a non-contagious form. 



§1- 

 1. NoN- Contagious Foulbrood. 



This may proceed from various causes. Thus 

 some of the brood perishes when from driving 

 out a swarm or by transposition of its hive, a 

 colony has been so weakened that all the brood 

 can no longer be properly nourished or covered. 

 It may also occur in the spring if, after eggs 

 laid by the queen in the lower parts of the 

 combs have been hatched, a sudden change of 

 weather constrains the bees to withdraw, and 

 the larvffi there become chilled. Destruction 

 of brood from this cause was observed as early 

 as in the days of Columella. 



The food on which the larvae are fed may 

 likewise at times, be of a deleterious quality 

 and cause death. Thus Spitzner relates: "In 

 the spring of 1781, I had placed thirty colonies 

 in a forest where whortleberry bushes were in 

 profuse bloom. When these colonies were 

 brought home, I observed that about six inches 

 of the lower portions of the combs were perfectly 

 black and all the larva3 in the cells dead. The 

 bees, however, speedil}' removed the perished 



larvae, and eight days afterwards I found the 

 black cells replenished with brood which regu- 

 larly matured." 



HoflFman-Brand says: "In the year 1851, the 

 fir trees here were greatly devastated by a 

 species of caterpillar in vast numbers. After 

 these had died, forester Wunsche,atTiefenfurth, 

 observed that those fir trees were frequented by 

 the bees, and soon after foulbrood made its ap- 

 pearance iu his hives. The cells of one comb 

 containing foulbrood were altogether black. 

 Similar facts were communicated to me by Mr. 

 Sommer, of Neuhammer. But in either case 

 no further evils ensued." 



Sometimes the bees will remove the deceased 

 brood from the cells before it becomes putrid; 

 on other occasions they let it remain till it is 

 perfectly dried up. 



This non-contagious foulbrood is usually of 

 no consequence, being restricted to the brood 

 it originally afffects. Whether under peculiar 

 circumstances it may not%ometimes assume the 

 contagious character, or whether contagious 

 foulbrood may not occasionally be developed 

 from it, will be considered in another section. 



§3. ■ 

 3. Contagious Foulbrood. 



In some districts of country this form of foul- 

 brood does not appear ever to occur. Spitzner 

 in Upper Lusatia, Busch of Arnstadt, Kaden 

 at Mayence, and Kleine in Hanover, state that 

 they have never seen this disease in their apia- 

 ries, or in their respective neighborhoods. In 

 Thuringia it was entirely unknown till 1858, 

 and my old instructor in bee culture, Jacob 

 Shulze, had not met with it in his own colonies 

 or in any other, during an extensive practice of 

 more than fifty years. 



This, the most dangerous of all the diseases 

 to which bees are subject, presents itself in va- 

 rious aspects, being Fometimes more and some- 

 times less destructive, at times running its 

 course rapidly, at others lingering through a 

 protracted term. At times it is of so manage- 

 able a character, as to be easily removed; and 

 not uufrequently it spontaneously disappears. 

 It is impossible to specify these various grades 

 minutely, though thi:ee of them ipay readily bo 

 distinguished. 



