THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



77 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTON, OCTOBER, 18C6. 



12^° The America^' Bee Jouknal is now pub- 

 lished monthly, in the City of Washington, (D. 

 C.,) and all communications should be addi'ess- 

 ed to the Editor, at that place. 



■ I M> ♦-^.— 



Foulbrood. 



We learn from various quarters that this nau- 

 seous and fatal malady is becoming more widely 

 diffused in the country, and that the medica- 

 ments and modes of treatment resorted to for 

 its eradication and cure have either proved in- 

 cflBcient, or partially unavailable. 



We never had more than one case of the gen- 

 uine disease in our apiary, and that occurred 

 about two years ago, under circumstances which 

 precluded any attempt to investigate its char- 

 acter or employ anj^ of the remedies recom- 

 mended or suggested. We were about leaving 

 home when its existence in one of our colonies 

 was discovered, and could only direct that the 

 bees should be immediately suffocated, the combs 

 burned, the hive scalded, closed, and placed 

 where bees could not have access to it. This 

 was done, and the disease was thus prevented 

 from spreading to other colonies in our own or 

 neighboring apiaries, as no symptoms of foul- 

 brood made their appearance there since: — 

 Where and while the disease is still confined to 

 a single colony, we would advise the prompt 

 adoption of the same process, as the least trou- 

 blesome and ultimately the cheapest mode of 

 arresting it. Only where it is already exten- 

 sively diiiused in an apiary or in a neighbor- 

 hood or district, would we be willing to resort 

 to any of the proposed remedies or experiments 

 for its extirpation. And for the benefit of bee- 

 keepers thus situated, we copy from the pro- 

 ceedings of the General Convention of German 

 Apiarians, held at Briinn, in Austria, in Sep- 

 tember, 1865, the following statements made by 

 the Rev. Mr. Schiebele, of Schonburg, in Mo- 

 ravia: 



"I regard foulbrood as originating in reality 

 from a diseased condition of the bees. Of this 

 any one can easily satisfy himself by the fact 

 that a foulbroody colony, if transferred to a 

 clean hive and constrained to build new combs, 

 is by no means cured, though it may have been 

 first made to suil'er hunger and then fed with 

 pure honey. In such case the malady will cer- 

 U'.iulj' re-appeav, unless it has been of very re- 

 tiu' origin and resulted from chilling the brood 

 --"us killing it — and this was removed be- 

 luic |Uir."raciiou reached an Uii'cctioas or con- 



tageous form. Foulb.rood, as it presented itself 

 in my hives, did not occur in only one or two 

 cells; but in all the combs the greater portion 

 of the brood, in the various stages of develope- 

 ment, alike in sealed and unsealed cells, Avas in 

 a putrid state. In some of thi; cells the brood 

 had only recently died; in others the putrid 

 matter becoming dried up had been cast out 

 by the bees, as was evident from the dark 

 brown fcetid powder found on the bottom 

 boards. The disease had therefore existed sev- 

 eral weeks already, perhaps several months, 

 when it was discovered. Nay, in one instance, 

 when the bees were in a common straw hive, 

 and their diseased condition was not ascer- 

 tainad till late in autumn, its treatment had to 

 be deferred till spring, so that a large portion 

 of the affected combs remained in it during the 

 whole winter. The disease extended from the 

 tip of the combs to near their base, though here 

 and there some few patches of healthy brood 

 were interspersed. Very few bees were hatched, 

 the population of the hive was constantly de- 

 creasing, and the offensive odor issuing from 

 the hive, proclaimed the existence of foulbrood 

 in its worst form. 



"The process which has, with me, been inva- 

 riably successful in effecting a cure, is as fol- 

 lows: Drive out the bees and cut out all the 

 combs so completely that not a cell shall be left, 

 and new combs will have to be built. The queen 

 having thus no immediate opportunity to de- 

 posit eggs, reti>rn the bees to the hive and let 

 them remain in quiet till the fallowing morn- 

 ing. They will at oace proceed to cleanse the 

 interior, preparatory to resuming regular work. 

 Now boil in water some thyme and balm leaves, 

 say a handful of each, taken in a green state if 

 procurable, adding a few leaves of Socatrine 

 aloes. Strain the liquor through a cloth, add 

 an equal quantity of pure honey, and boil down 

 to the consistence of syrup, skimming it care- 

 fully the while. Then scrape or pulverize a 

 piece of asal'cetida of the size of a hazelnut, 

 and another of camphor, of the size of a large 

 pea, adding half a teaspoonful of epsom salt. 

 Mix the whole well, and pour on it a pint of 

 the previously prepared decoction, adding two 

 or three drops of oil of turpentine, and stirring 

 the whole thoroughly. While yet lukewarm, 

 give this to the diseased bees in a common feed- 

 ing box. The odor of the honey will at once 

 attract them, and as they are now hungry, they 

 will greedily partake of it. In a short time, 

 however, most of them will retire in apparent 

 disgust, though hunger will induce a number 

 of them to continue eating, till a fourth or third 

 part of the first dose is carried up. The re- 

 mainder of this prepared food must then be 

 warmed, and offered to them. The smell of the 

 asaftetida and camphor having by this time 

 thoroughly pervaded the hive, and the bees 

 having become accustomed to it, the food will 

 now be carried up nearly as fast as cells are 

 built to receive it. They will appropriate more 

 and more of it at each successive feeding, and 

 in a short time readily take up all that is offered. 

 Whenever the feeding box needs replenishing, 

 the asi^fcetida, aujcl cumphor remaiuing depo3- 



