THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



143: 



the colonies there were totally destroyecl, and 

 bee culture ruiucil for a time. 



§4. 

 Means of Puevention. 



First. Be cautious in pnrciiasiag honey for 

 feeding, and use none for that purpose unless 

 you are certain tiiat it was procured from healthy 

 colonies. Never feed your bees with West India 

 or Cuba honey, as it is a well ascertained fact 

 tiiat foulbrood has been caused by the use of such 

 lioney. 



Secondlii. Be equally cautious in purchasing 

 bees. Introduce none in your apiary that are 

 not free from this disease. The existence of 

 foulbrood in a colony can easily be ascertained 

 by the fetid odor diffused in the hive. 



This is about all that the bee keeper can do in 

 the way of prevention. He cannot prevent his 

 bees from carrying in impure or infectious ho- 

 ney, for they will gather it from any source to 

 which they have access. Mr. Stoehr's bees re- 

 sorted to a neighboring eonicctionery for honey 

 which was exposed there in an open cask. Short- 

 ly thereafter foulbrood made its appearance in 

 his apiary, and finallv ruined all his colonies. 

 "§5. 



I have had no opportunity to see this form o^ 

 foulbrood. 



§8. 

 Manner ok Infection. 



The disease may be communicated — 



Firsts by feeding bees with honey taken from 

 fou'.broody hives. 



Hero ml I If, by inserting combs taken from such 

 liiv.;s, esijecially those containing honey and 

 pollen. 



Thifdli/, probably also by the miasma of the 

 surrounding atmosphere. 



FmrtJdij, by bees from luialthy stocks robbing 

 or attempting to rob the foulbroody hive of its 

 stores. This is particularly apt to be the case if 

 the robbing bees iiave brood to nurse at home. 



Fif/Mi/, by the b(>e keeper himself if after open- 

 ing and examining a diseased stock, he proceeds 

 to open and ojierate on a healthy one witiiout 

 previou.sly washing his hands. 



SLvthli/, by uniting the bees of a diseased stock 

 with those of a healtliy one, when there is young 

 brood in tlie hive of the latter, though the union 

 can be safely effected where there is no brood. 

 Even honey from foulbroody stocks fed to colo- 

 nies which have no brood seldom does harm, 

 tliougliit would otherwise certainly introduce 

 the disease. It is usually thought that a queen 

 from a foulbroody stock, introduced alone in a 

 healthy colony, will not communicate the dis- 

 ease. Spitzner, however, says that he infected 

 a healthy colony by introducing in it such a 

 queen. The same occurred to Dr. Asmusz in 

 two cases; to Mr. Arnold in one; and in my own 

 apiary in 18(57, a colony certainly healthy at the 

 time, became diseased shortly after I introduced 

 in it an unattended queen taken from a foul- 

 broody stock. There does not seem to be any good 

 reason conceivable why a queen should not thus 

 communicate the disease, when it is well ascer- 

 tained that it is frequently so communicated by 

 workers. 



SeverUhli/, by hiving a swarm in or transferring 

 a colony to a hive previously occupied by foul- 

 broody stock. Scalding, scouring, and other 



modes of purification, do not always effectually j. miasma, by administering a few drugs? 

 disinfect such a hive, in which the disease may 

 break out again even after the lapse of years. 



Eif}7i(hly, by locating a colony on the place or 

 stand Avhich was before occupied by a diseased 

 stock. Instances are known where foulbrood 

 occurred under such circumstances, though the 

 stand had been left unoccupied more than a year. 

 Finallj', Dzierzon informed me verbally that 

 the disease may be communicated and dissemi- 

 nated even by the flowers and blossoms fre- 

 quented by the bees from foulbroody stocks, as 

 those from healthy colonies, visiting the same 

 flowers, may carry the infection home. He stated 

 that he knew of instances where foulbrood was 

 communicated to distant apiaries without a trans- 

 fer thither of bees or colonies. Weltzer says he 

 has made similar observations. So likewise Hoff- 

 man-Brand. Very probable, for at the Apiarian 

 Convention at Dresden, a member of a bee keep- 

 ers' club related one evening that some thirty 

 years ago foulbrood became so thoroughly and 

 rapidly distributed from place to place through- 

 out Saxony, that in a few years nine-tenths of 



Treatment op Foulbroody Stocks. 

 1. As at present we do not yet know how 

 foulbrood originates — that is, we are ignorant of 

 the cause or causes which produce it, but merely 

 know the fact that it kills the larva?, we can only 

 hope to arrest and cure it by removing the queen 

 and 2}'>'^i}<^ntinff the production of brood — thus 

 literally starving out the disease by withholding 

 the stuff it feeds on. One who knows something 

 of the nature of the malady, can only smile when 

 he finds various prescriptions and medicaments 

 to be administered to the bees, recommended as 

 infallible cures. Healthy bees introduced into 

 an infected hive soon become diseased; and can 

 we ex])ect that bees already suffering from foul- 

 brood can be restored to health while remaining 

 in a hive imbued with the virus and immersed 

 in an atmosphere surcharged with the infectious 



If such 

 remedies ever seemed to be of service, it must 

 have been in cases where the disease would have 

 spontaneously disappeared, thus causing to be 

 ascribed to some quack concoction, what was 

 really due to the vivific energies of nature. A 

 colony sufi'eriug from foulbrood of the first or 

 malignant grade is absolutely incurable. All 

 that can be done is to remove and melt up the 

 combs and use the bees for starting an artificial 

 colony, or to strengthen a weak one, after hav- 

 ing kept them confined in a well ventilated hive 

 on a low diet for forty-eight hours. For though 

 the queen be removed from such a colony, and 

 the bees cleanse the cells of all the cffensive mat- 

 ter, the disease Avill certainly reappear, and 

 usually Avith aggravated virulence, whenever 

 tiie queen is reintroduced and brooding resumed. 

 The honey, the pollen, the combs, nay the hive 

 itself, retain the infectious matter. Nothing 

 short of entire renovation will avail aught. 



I must, therefore, treat with disfavor all at- 

 tempts to cure a colony afflicted with foulbrood 

 of the first grade; at least by no process what- 



