S56 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 10, 



ready to sting. A little smoke at the rigM time takes the 

 "fight "all out of them. 



I do not think it is good policy for one who handles bees 

 very much to get stung a great many times, and one should be 

 careful to avoid every sting as much as possible. In the sum- 

 mer, when the bees are working in the fields, one or two stings 

 perhaps in the whole month would be all that I should get, 

 provuUiuj there were nothing but Italians from imported stock, 

 or of that persuasion ; and how I avoid the stings is simply by 

 following the plan laid down by Mr. A. 



In this connection it might be well to state that one who 

 makes a business of keeping bees is liable in years to come to 

 experience some bad effects from too much of the apis-mellifica 

 poison being injected into his system. The Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth, James Heddon, and others in later years exper- 

 ienced some inconvenience from what they ascribed to the 

 presence of too much bee-sting poison in the system. 



In regard to dispensing with a veil — yes, this can be done, 

 but it dosen't pay. I have seen some of these same chaps 

 boast of how they did not need any face protection ; yet I have 

 seen them waste valuable time in stopping to put the hands 

 up to the face, or plunge the head in a clump of bushes in ig- 

 noble retreat. — E. R. Root, in Gleanings. 



Real Cause of Foul Brood Among Bees. 



BY WM. M'EVOY. 



Official Foul Brood Inspector for Ontario, Canada. 



I have discovered the real cause of foul brood, and from 

 experimental testliiQ cjf my own I A\sco\eTe:A the simplest and 

 most practical way, with the least work, of curing that di- 

 sease ; and I have had more experience with foul brood than 

 any other man on earth. 



I will now give you evidence that would count in any court 

 of law, and that any judge on the bench would accept, and 

 charge a jury to believe, as they are solid facts. 



One fine day in April, 1875, when my bees were flying 

 freely, the bees of one colony all came out, and about two- 

 thirds of them got into another before I got the hive closed. I 

 then took the remaining third of the bees and the queen, and 

 returned them to their own hive. 



Then about sundown, when the bees had settled for the 

 day, 1 examined the colony that swarmed out and lost two- 

 thirds of its bees, I found plenty of honey, a nice lot of brood 

 in all stages, but too small a cluster of bees to cover or care for 

 the amount of brood. That colony having lost the most of its 

 bees, the uncared-for brood died and rotted in the cells. Then 

 by the middle of June that colony had developt into a genu- 

 ine case of pure foul brood, which gave me many a day's very 

 bitter experience before I got rid of it. 



In the summer of 1882, Mr. C. J. Robinson, of Richfield, 

 N. Y., originated foul brood in his own apiary, by forcing 

 brood to consume their food mixt with rotten larvje. Mr. Rob- 

 inson had some combs with brood in that were taken out of 

 the hives at extracting time, and were not returned to the 

 hives, through mistake. The weather being warm at the time, 

 and the c(jmbs of brood being piled on top of each other in a 

 building, the brood heated and soon became very rotten. Mr. 

 Robinson then went to a colony of bees, took out a comb of 

 brood, brusht the bees off, and then put the matter from the 

 rotten combs into the cells that had brood in, and to force the 

 brood to consume it he put a screen on each side of the comb, 

 and then put it back into the hive of bees again. The comb 

 of brood was kept warm by the heat of the colony, and the 

 screen kept the bees from feeding the brood. Then the larvw 

 was forced to consume the rotten matter, and then it became 

 foul brood. 



In 1888, the Rev. Mr. Gruetzner, of New Dundee, Ont., 

 had foul brood originate in his apiary. In a letter I received 

 from him, Mr. Gruetzner says : 



•' In the spring I placed entirely healthy combs of brood 

 from other colonies into a weak but healthy colony ; very soon 

 the young died. Intense heat set in, and the whole colony be- 

 came full of foul brood. In (Germany the opinion seems to be 

 universal that diseased brood is the cause of foul brood." 



In June, 1889, Mr. Wm. Burkholder, of Otterville, Ont., 

 had foul brood originate in his apiary, from starved brood. 

 Mr. Burkholder had a very strong colony of well-bred Italians, 

 which consumed all their honey just a little before the honey 

 season opened, and which he found In a dying state one morn- 

 ing. He fed them at once, and the majority of the bees came 

 out all right again. All the brood In the colony had died at 

 that time from starvation, and rotted in the combs. Then 

 warm weather set in, and the whole colony became full of pure 

 foul brood. 



In June, 1890, Mr. Charles Urlocker, of Thorold, Ont., 

 had 30 colonies of bees turned into foul brood from drowned 

 brood. In June, 1890, Mr. Urlocker had 40 good colonies 

 with a top story on each hive, and a queen-excluder on every 

 brood-chamber. Just then a sudden storm started up, and a 

 big cloud bursted over Thorold, and for a time caused a terri- 

 ble flood. Mr. Uriocker's apiary was in low land, the water 

 rose very rapidly, and soon 10 brood-chambers were under 

 water, and as the queens could not get up through the queen- 

 excluders, they were drowned, as well as the brood. The 

 water did not get quite up to the tops of the brood-chambers 

 of the other 30 colonies, so the queens did not drown in them. 

 The bees in nearly all went up into the top stories at the time. 

 These colonies were very strong, and some had swarmed be- 

 fore that, and were full of brood when the flood overflowed the 

 apiary. The water soon went down, extreme heat set in, and 

 the brood-chambers full of drowned brood went into a great 

 mass of corruption, and turned Mr. Uriocker's apiary into foul 

 brood with a vengeance. In the Foul Brood Bulletin, page 

 14, Mr. D. A. Jones, of Beeton, Ont., says : 



"A man once had a hundred colonies in an isolated local- 

 ity, with no other apiary within miles of it, and no bees in the 

 woods, as far as known ; there were no signs of foul brood in 

 his apiary all summer, tho the colonies were carefully exam- 

 ined once or twice each week. In August or September, a 

 flood came and drowned a large portion of the brood in some 

 of the hives ; 10 or 15 of them were so much injured by the 

 flood that the bees did not remove the dead brood, and in most 

 of these colonies nearly all the combs were full of brood. The 

 weather, after the flood, was very warm and muggy, the 

 atmosphere very oppressive for days, with frequent showers. 

 All the colonies from which the dead brood were removed came 

 out all right, while the 10 or 15 from which it was not re- 

 moved became very badly diseased ; they attempted to rear 

 brood, but some of it was affected, so much so that the odor 

 arising from the brood dying was very unpleasant. When all 

 the dead brood was removed, the disease continued, and it ap- 

 peared that the spores of the disease were in the honey, as 

 many of the larvaa were found dead. Each time brood was 

 reared the disease continued to increase, in spite of salicylic 

 acid and other treatments then in vogue. Honey from the 

 combs when given to a healthy colony produced the disease. 

 It appeared in every respect like foul brood, and I feel satis- 

 fled that it was. Now, if it did not emanate from the decay- 

 ing brood, which was a mass of corruption, where did it come 

 from ?" 



Mr. John F. Gates, of Ovid, Erie Co., Pa., U. S., had foul 

 brood originate in his apiary from his bees dwindling so badly 

 one very backward spring that the bees could not cover or 

 care for and keep warm the brood they had started during the 

 early warm spell. When weather came In earnest, Mr. Gates 

 examined his colonies and discovered that the rotting of the 

 uncared-for brood had developt into foul brood. 



Foul brood is a disease that is caused by the rotting of un- 

 cared-for brood. It usually originates in spring in weak colo- 

 nies that have spring-dwindled so badly that they have not 

 bees enough left to cover or care for all the brood, and if the 

 spring keeps raw and backward the bees will crowd together 

 to keep each other warm, leaving the uncared-for brood to die 

 and rot in the cells. The brood covered by the bees in time 

 hatches, which so increases the force of the colony that a 

 wider circle of comb is covered by the bees taking in the space 

 occupied by the decaying brood. Then the brood that is fed 

 in these colls where brood lately rotted down, will have to con- 

 sume their food raixt with the remains of decayed brood, and 

 that is the whole, sole, real and only caxisc of foul brood. 



In the bee-yards of beginners, over-workt farmers, and 

 business men (whose time was fully occupied in other things) 

 is where I found many a foul brood nursery. When brood has 

 rotted and advanced to the brown-rotton-matter stage it is 

 then a very dangerous thing, and if a large quantity of that Is 

 put in a weak colony H JciW start /oun)roo<i at once. The so- 

 called scientists have done a terrible lot of damage by saying 

 that the rotting or uncared-for brood could not cause foul 

 brood ; that sort of teaching has caused beekeepers to be very 

 careless, and when foul brood has broken out in their apiaries, 

 it makes rapid headway because the owners did not take 

 proper care of their colonies, but depended too much upon the 

 so-called scientists who are not practical bee-keepers. 



In the summer of 1890, Mr. John F. Gates wrote up the 

 cause of foul brood, and had It publisht in the Canadian Bee 

 Journal. When I read it I was greatly pleased to see that Mr. 

 Gates had discovered in his own apiary that foul brood was 

 caused by tho rotting uf uncared-for brood. I wrote Mr. Gates 

 a letter at tho time, thanking him very much for his valuable 

 article on the cause of foul brood. He Is just right on both 

 the cause and cure of foul brood, and it will be a good thing 



