20 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



mained still a stumbling-block. There 

 still remained one queen, which, alas! for 

 my theory, was a beautiful young Italian, 

 without any apparent blemish. The 

 thought of foul brood was of all the most 

 distant; it being of such a distinctive na- 

 ture that I could not believe 1 could be so 

 unfortunate as to get it; so I experiment- 

 ed anew. I removed the deformed 

 •queens, but not having young queens on 

 hand it took some time before brood from 

 the new queens was hatched. The other 

 stand I again assisted from others, and af- 

 terward thought I saw a decided improve- 

 ment in their condition. But with these 

 experiments, time passed rapidly. We 

 were now fully in the swarming season, 

 and my bees swarmed and increased bet- 

 ter than ever, except the three mentioned. 



During swarming time I was so busy 

 that I did not pay much attention to those. 

 It was now after linden bloom, Aug. 24, 

 when a neighbor, who had purchased six 

 stands of me the fall previous and had 

 two of them affected likewise, had invited 

 two of the prominet bee-keepers in the 

 neighborhood, Messrs. Tenmark and Pot- 

 ter, to call on him, and this was the day 

 of their visit; I also enjoyed their com- 

 pany. Here the condition of our bees 

 was naturally discussed, which finally re- 

 sulted in an examination of the diseased 

 stands. Mr. Potter, who said he had one 

 similarly affected the season previous, pro- 

 nounced it " foul brood." This was the 

 first intimation I had of the nature of the 

 disease. I went home, gradually waking 

 up to a vei'y unpleasant discovery. I ex- 

 amined my bees, and nearly all were af- 

 fected with the disease; all except tlie new 

 swarms, of which I had a few, having 

 mostly divided, and a Tew others. 



The linden flow was so abundant that 

 nearly all brood*-raising ceased, in spite 

 of extracting. At the examination 

 spoken of, the first lo't of brood since lin- 

 den bloom was hatching; hence it was 

 the first time possible for me to make the 

 unpleasant discovery, as previous to lin- 

 den bloom no signs of the disease could 

 be seen, except in the three stacds^jJbken 

 of. Now, what was to be done /or a rem- 

 edy ? The season was now neVIy over ; 

 added to this, it rained almost constantly. 

 ■On the 28d of August we had a frost, 

 which destroyed some of the buckwheat. 

 I immediately ransacked my file of Bee 

 Journals for a cure. I wrote to D. Bur- 

 bank and others; but the onl}' thing I 

 found recommen»'.ed %s an expedient and 

 sure cure, is that ^escribed by M. Quinby 

 — that is, to put the bees in a clean, 

 -empty hive, and let them build up anew. 

 But as the season was too late, I could not 

 •adopt this cure, not being able to buy 

 sugar to feed liiem, even if time permit- 

 ted. Mr. Dadaut sent me a recipe, which 

 has been used in France the past season 

 with great success ; it is simply Saliciue, 



in dry or liquid form ; if dry, it is dis- 

 solved in water, and with a feather 

 brushed over the comb, removing the 

 worst parts with a knife. I tried it, but 

 discovered no good effects. The only 

 thing left me was to winter my bees, and 

 trust to a cure the coming season, or to 

 sulphur them. 



The bees gradually dwindling away 

 from lack of sufiicient young bees, and the 

 fall season being a total failure, it left 

 many weak and light in stores. Were I 

 to unite them it would have been necessa- 

 ry to reduce them two-thirds. There were 

 other obstacles in the way which made 

 this plan impracticable; so with a poor 

 grace I concluded to smother them, which 

 I accordingly did. 



I sold three stocks to a party, about the 

 middle of May ; they were some of the 

 best I had ; these were removed over two 

 miles from my yard. On examining them 

 in the fall, the old stocks and a divided 

 one were found badly affected with the 

 disease, while three swarms were free 

 from it. 



During linden bloom I extracted all the 

 stocks, including the first affected ; the 

 scraps I placed outside for the bees to 

 clean out. Now, it may be said that this 

 was the means of spreading the disease 

 among my stands ; but how did the bees, 

 over two miles distant, get at the scraps? 

 Of course they might have reached them, 

 but it is not probable, as there was an 

 abundance of honey in the field ; and why 

 were not the swarms similarly affected? 

 Then they had plenty of storage room. 



We have now reached a stage in bee 

 knowledge where it seems that a cure, as 

 regards foul brood, is more easily affected 

 than to prevent the disease, as the cause of 

 it, at least to me, is an unsolved mystery. 



I might describe the disease in detail, 

 but I know it has often been done, and as 

 this article is already much longer than I 

 could wish, I will refrain giving a detailed 

 account, unless requested to do so at some 

 future time. 



From close observation, I have come to 

 the conclusion that the disease is directly 

 caused by spores, — vegetable growth, — 

 which causes putrid fermentation. This 

 theory is confirmed by an illustration in 

 Mr. Dadant's French chromos. I find 

 much of tlie putrid matter in the cells lies 

 near the toj), and by cutting off" the caps 

 with my capping-knife, the knife turned 

 black from the acid, which seems to point 

 conclusively in the direction I have indi- 

 cated. 



Wliatwe need to know now is — where 

 do the spores come froni ? I liope the 

 subject will l)e thoroughly discussed the 

 present winter; perhaps much benefit 

 may be derived from it. 



Parties wishing to write me will please 

 notice the change of address. 



Hamilton, 111. J. D. Khuschke. 



