22 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



down on the clustered bees from the top, as 

 sometimes happens in narrow standard hives 

 during very cold weather. 



Feeding stocks late in the fall with greatly 

 diluted honey or very limpid substitutes for 

 honey — such as malt or potato syrup, pear or 

 carrot juice, boiled and somewhat inspissated, 

 and other similar liquid sweets, is hazardous, 

 and frequently causes dysentery. Such food is 

 not usually immediately consumed, but stored 

 up in the cells for future use, and, remaining 

 unsealed, becomes acid and unwholesome. 



Dysentery commonly attacks only a few in- 

 dividual bees at first; then spreads and victim- 

 izes a greater number — thus rapidly extending 

 till nearly the whole population sufl'ers from its 

 ravages. If the cold is not so severe as to pre- 

 vent the bees from leaving the cluster when first 

 attacked, they Avill come out and discharge their 

 faeces on the lighting board. But even then 

 many will be lost and the population rapidly 

 diminish. On turning up the hive a highly un- 

 pleasant smell issues, and many dead bees are 

 seen on the bottom board, on the sides, and be- 

 tween the combs. The interior of the liive, es- 

 pecially the bottom board directly below the 

 cluster, is befouled, aud even the cluster itself 

 has not escaped defilement where the disease is 

 aggravated and has long afflicted the colony. 



The disease is more apt to make its appear- 

 ance and become destructive in ill-constructed 

 box hives, especially in such as are made of thin 

 boards, than in straw hives, as the latter readily 

 absorb moisture, and perspiration is not so apt 

 to become condensed in them. 



If care be taken to guard against whatever 

 conduces to the production of the disease it will 

 rarely occur, except in weak colonies confined 

 for protracted periods by stress of weather; and 

 nothing can save such colonies, when remain- 

 ing on their summer stands, except a timely 

 change of weather. The prescriptions and rem- 

 edies so frequently recommended in bee books 

 . — such as sprinkling the bees with a mixture of 

 .spiced wine and honey, arc not only useless, 

 but positively injurious, like the mass of quack 

 medicines, because the disease is not, as in hu- 

 man subjects, attended by an affection of the 

 mucous membrane of the bowels, and requires 

 no after treatment when relief comes from a 

 change of weather, permitting the bees to de- 

 posit in the open air. But as such weakened 

 and reduced colonies arc apt to neglect the op- 

 portunity to come forth when it does occur, it 

 is well to rouse them from their stupor by tap- 

 ping their hives if they remain quiet on a fine 

 day when the bees of other hives are briskly 

 flying. 



FOULBROOD. 



Of this dangerous and fatal disease few bee- 

 keepers fortunately have any knowledge, from 

 their own experience. It seems to be confined 

 to certain localities, rarely spreading beyond 

 them, and seldom establishing itself perma- 

 nently in such new cjuarters, unless local causes 

 favor it. The origin and true nature of this 

 disease are still involved in mystery; but as it 

 has of late attracted the attention of medical 

 men, we may possibly be furnished with effi- 



cient means for its prevention or cure, though 

 its source remain undiscovered. In a hive af- 

 flicted Avith this disease, the brood perishes in 

 the cells, generally when already sealed over, 

 soon putrefies and fills the interior with a noi- 

 some stench. In some instances only a few 

 scattered cells are affected, and the dead brood 

 is at once removed by the workers. But when 

 the disease assumes a more virulent type, the 

 numbers perished or ])erishing is too great to 

 admit of removal, and entire sheets of comb ex- 

 hibit one vast mass of putrefying matter. When 

 this is the case, the only judicious course is to 

 set the hive over a brimstone pit, stupefying the 

 inmates, and then burning up the whole. Some 

 have advised driving out the bees previously 

 and securing the queen, that she might be used 

 in supplying a queenless stock, or in forming an 

 artificial colony. This advice was given under 

 the impression that the qv^een wouid not com- 

 municate the disease to the stock in which she 

 might be introduced. It is now known, how- 

 ever, that the infection can be thus communi- 

 cated, and it is hence safest not to preserve her 

 for subsequent use. "Where bees are kept in 

 common hives, in which the combs are a "fix- 

 ture," it is utterly useless to attempt the preser- 

 vation or cure of a colony suffering from foul- 

 brood; and even its temporary retention for the 

 purpose of investigating the disease and acquir- 

 ing an insight into its nature, is highly injudi- 

 cious. It is infinitely more likely that by such 

 retention the disease will be spread to other 

 stocks in the apiary, or in the neighborhood, 

 than that any valuable discovery will be made. 

 With movable comb hives the case Avould be 

 very diilerent if we knew of some efficient cure, 

 which could be quickly applied. 



Several years ago Dr. Asmuss, of Berlin, 

 Prussia, announced that he had discovered the 

 living larvo3 of a parasitic insect — the Phora in- 

 crassata — in the dead larva; of a hive suffering 

 from foulbrood, and he attributes the disease to 

 the ravages of this parasite. This may be one 

 cause of the disease, if Dr. Asmuss's obser- 

 vation is correct, but even then it remains to be 

 ascertained whether it is the sole cause. 



German bee-keepers distinguish between hu- 

 mid and dry foulbrood, and also between con- 

 tagious and non-contagious. This is perhaps a 

 distinction between the different stages of the 

 disease, rather than between different types. 



When the disease is discovered early, or be- 

 fore it has made much progress, it may be ar- 

 rested and subdued by removing the queen 

 immediately, and keeping the colony queenless 

 till some time after all the eggs it contained are 

 hatched and the brood matured. Meantime the 

 the colony should be regularly fed with pure 

 honey. A recent writer strongly recommends 

 the addition of a large proportion of the white 

 of eggs to the honey fed to such stock, and al- 

 leges that tills mixture is itself a certain cure. 

 We are not aware that it has yet been tried by 

 others; though we have ourselves used it for 

 other purposes with good results. 



Bees are likewise liable to be infested by a 

 species of intestinal fungus, which has been 

 called 3Iucor meUltophorus ov Oidmm Leuckarii. 



