226 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



July 



decade and a half this germ was quite 

 generally supposed to be the cause 

 of the disease. On account of the 

 work by these Europeans, the name 

 European foulbrood has been used as 

 one of the names for the disease. In 

 America, the name "black brood" was 

 used for a while for this disease, but 



Fig. 2. Bacillus plitton 



it was soon found, from a study of 

 the condition, to be the same dis- 

 ease that had been studied by the 

 English workers and considered by 

 them to be "foulbrood." There was 

 no further need, therefore, for the 

 name "blackbrood," and it was 

 dropped. 



The name "stinking foulbrood" has 

 been used in some countries for the 

 disorder in which Bacillus alvei oc- 

 curs in large numbers, and "sour 

 brood" for ithe one in which Strepto- 

 coccus apis is present in considerable 

 numbers. The writer wishes to sug- 

 gest that these are two names for one 

 disease and that the disease is the 

 same as the one for which the name 

 European foulbrood is being used in 

 this country.* 



The term "foulbrood" has been used 

 and is still being employed somewhat 

 in a general sense meaning simply a 

 brood disease. For at least 40 years 

 beekeepers have recognized two kinds 

 of foulbrood — one in which most of 

 the larvae die in uncapped cells and 

 the other in which most of them die 

 in capped ones. It is now positively 

 known that these, instead of being 

 two forms of one disease, are, in fact, 

 two very different diseases. In this 

 country they are being called Euro- 



• The name "stinking foulbrood" for Euro- 

 pean foulbrood must seem to the beekeeper of 

 America to be somewhat misleading, since it 

 is American foulbrood that is the foul smelling 

 disease. The origin of the name is briefly this: 

 From the work in England, Bacillus alvci was 

 thought to be the cause of a brood disease 

 having a foul odor. When, therefore. Bacillus 

 alvei was encountered in a urood disease by 

 investigators on the continent of Europe the 

 disease was naturally supposed by them to be 

 one with a foul odor and was referred to by 

 the name "stinking foulbrood." This name 

 was used for the disease, to distinguish it from 

 another one which did not contain Bacillus 

 alvei, and the samples of which were without 

 any marked odor. For this disease the name 

 "non-stinking foulbrood" was used. This lat- 

 ter one was American foulbrood. CIt is not 

 unusual for samples of American foulbrood to 

 lose the foulbrood odor quite soon after be- 

 ing taken from the hive). It must be remem- 

 bered, therefore, in using the term "stinking 

 foulbrood" that it does not refer to the dis- 

 ease which has the foulbrood odor, but to Eu- 

 ropean foulbrood. 



pean foulbrood and American foul- 

 brood. 



As both have the word "foulbrood" 

 in them, one could easily be misled 

 and interpret them wrongly to mean 

 that they refer to two forms of one 

 disease; as both diseases are found 

 in Europe as well as in America, the 

 names do not refer to itheir geograph- 

 ical distribution ; and as it is not 

 known in what country the diseases 

 were first encountered, the names do 

 not refer to the place from which the 

 diseases spread. Since, therefore, these 

 names are somewhat misleading and 

 somewhat long, it must be admitted 

 that they are more or less open to 

 criticism. They need not cause con- 

 fusion, however, if the above facts 

 in regard to the diseases are borne 

 well in mind. 

 Symptoms of European Foulbrood 



The dead brood is mostly in un- 

 capped cells; no dead pupse are 

 found, and the dead bees appear to 

 be like those of healthy colonies. 

 Since much of the afifected brood is 

 removed by the bees, capped cells are 

 scattered among uncapped ones, giv- 

 ing to the brood-nest the pepper-box 



Fig. 3. Bacillus alvei 



appearance (Fig. 1). The caps on cells 

 which contain dead larva; may (fig. 5, 

 P) or may not be punctured; the 

 brood-combs are practically without 

 odor; and the colony may be weak if 

 much disease is present. 



The larvae, l)efore death, (Fig. 5, A, 

 E) lose somewhat the pearly white- 

 ness and turgidity of living healthy 

 ones (Fig. S, D. F. I) and soon after- 

 wards assume a yellowish tint. Later 

 they take on a brownish tone, and 

 still la'ter this deepens often to a dark 

 shade. The dead larval remains not 

 infrequently occupy unnatural posi- 

 tions within the cell. Those dying 

 while voung usually lie on the bottom 

 of the" cell (Fig. 5, A, B, C, E) while 

 those that are somewhat older occupy 

 irregular positions on the floor (Fig. S. 

 G, H, J, L, M).* The remains of larva; 

 dying during the first itwo days after 

 capping occupy irregular positions on 

 the floor of the cell (Fig. 5, N, O), but 

 those of larv<-c dying later occupy a 

 unifortn endwise position (Fig. 5, R, S, 

 T). There is a tendency on the part 

 of adult bees to remove the diseased 

 larvae. This is usually done piecemeal 



•These abnormal positions of larvae as seen 

 in samples of diseased brood arc due, to a 

 considerable extent, to the shaking used in re- 

 moving the adult Dees from the frames and 

 to rough handling afterward. 



and in the infected colony, therefore 

 partially removed ones are frequently 

 found (Fig. 5, B, Q). 



The decaying larval remains are not 

 ropy, as a rule, only a small number 

 of them possessing a viscidity that 

 will permit the mass to be drawn out 

 to the extent of an inch or so. This 

 ropiness is more marked in the case 

 of the older larvae. When the dead 

 larvae are not removed they dry and 

 become the scales (Fig. S, C, R, T). 

 As a rule these scales are rather 

 easily removed. Those resulting from 

 viscid remains adhere more closely 

 to the cell wall than the others. 

 Experimental Studies on European 

 Foulbrood 



Much concerning tlie cause of Eu- 

 ropean foulbrood, its spread, its diag- 

 nosis and the chances for recovery of 

 the colony, has been learned from ex- 

 perimental studies on the disease. At 

 the time the writer began his investi- 

 gations of the bee diseases very little 

 experimental work had been done on 

 them and it was necessary, therefore, 

 to devise methods for doing it. Those 

 finally worked out were found to be 

 very satisfactory. A brief description 

 of them is given here, since by being 

 acquainted with them the beekeepers 

 will be aided in interpreting the re- 

 sults obtained. 



A nucleus containing from 3 to 6 

 frames of bees, with brood in the un- 

 capped stage and a queen doing well, 

 was found to be a good colony for 

 experimental purposes. The brood- 

 frames are moved to one side of the 

 hive-body and on the bottom- 

 board on the other side are placed 

 shallow glass dishes as feeders. The 

 entrance of the hive is closed except 

 for a space of about 1 inch on the 

 side occupied by the frames. Any 

 race of bees may be used, but nat- 

 urally a gentle one is preferred. The 

 queen should be clipped. The site 

 for the experimental apiary should 

 be broken up by small trees. The 

 entrances of the hives in adjoin- 

 ing rows are pointed in opposite di- 

 rections. Hives placed in pairs alter- 

 nate with a single one. When in pairs 

 the space left for the bees is on the 

 side of the entrance furthest from 

 the other hive. The inoculation feed- 

 ings may be made at any time of the 

 day, if there is a good or fair flow of 

 nectar, but during a dearth it is ad- 

 visable at times to inoculate in the 

 evening just before darkness. By 

 these various means, it will be ob- 



Fig. i Streptococcus apis 



