122 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



colonies are light with honey the disease seems 

 to show more. This year I noticed a contin- 

 ual reappearance of bad brood from fruit- 

 bloom to bass wood-bloom, which yielded very 

 little honey— only three or four days ; and 

 during this flow the bees pretty well cleared 

 their combs of the bad brood. They were 

 greatly encouraged, and reared some good 

 brood with this new honey as a stimulus ; but 

 as this flow was soon over, there was an in- 

 crease of bad brood, with no honey in the 

 field. When buckwheat came into bloom, the 

 bees again cleared their combs, so that in 

 strong colonies it was difficult to find much of 

 this bad brood. The combs were soon filled 

 with honey and some good brood, the diseased 

 brood having been removed either by the bees, 

 or dried up in the cells, and covered with hon- 

 ey. 



" I find that, if swarms that are aflfected are 

 made strong with bees of all ages, they will 

 largely do their own house-cleaning. I be- 

 lieve, too, that a supply of food should be giv- 

 en at a time of scarcity of honey in the field. 

 I believe, also, that a season with a good con- 

 tinuous honey-flow will in part wipe out the 

 disease. 



" While many apiaries have been wholly 

 ruined, yet those who have fought it have sav- 

 ed more or less bees. I have caused the 

 bee-keepers to drive the bees out into new 

 hives — McEvoy's method. Then in a great 

 many swarms it starts up again, but they gen- 

 erally rear some good brood first. Where 

 bees have passed a certain limit they should 

 be placed on frames of comb foundation — 

 McEvoy's method — and given bees enough by 

 uniting to make them strong ; and if no hon- 

 ey is in the field they should be fed. 



" Mr. Julius Hoffman, after treating his bees 

 in this way, noticed that the disease recurred. 

 He sprayed them with a mixture of salicylic 

 acid and syrup, in the proportion of one-fourth 

 ounce of the acid in alcohol sufficient to dis- 

 solve it, four pounds of sugar, and one gallon 

 of water. This was used twice, and when 

 there was a dearth of honey in the field he 

 fed this medicated syrup with ten pounds of 

 sugar to the gallon. He boiled his hives in 



strong lye, and pronounced his bees free from 

 disease. They were in the best condition of 

 any in that neighborhood. He also used car- 

 bolic acid, making a weak solution, and satu- 

 rated burlap, which he cut into pieces the size 

 of the frames, and placed one on either side 

 of the brood-nest between the division-board 

 and the hive-body. 



" Sometimes I find it in six or eight colonies, 

 side by side, and sometimes it is confined to 

 one end of the apiary. I account for this by 

 bees entering the wrong hive." 



Mr. P. H. Elwood, in a letter of Nov. 13, 

 1899, mentions the same fact. He says : 



" It appears to be worse in spots in an api- 

 ary. We thought that this might be account- 

 ed for by bees getting into the wrong hives. 

 It also seems to spread through the air." Mr. 

 Elwood continues : 



" It appeared here the spring before your 

 article in the Amencan Bee Journal [Sept. 

 10, 1896], diagnosing between foul brood and 

 pickled brood. UntiLyour article appeared I 

 did not know what to call it, as it did not de- 

 velop the characteristic odor, ropiness, etc , of 

 foul brood. I called it, thereafter, pickled 

 brood ; and as it appeared in a more deadly 

 form I called it malignant pickled brood. 

 The specimen sent you is from a hive in which 

 was as bad a case throughout the season as I 

 have seen. It developed a sour penetrating 

 smell that I could detect outside of the hive. 

 As there is no young brood in the specimen it 

 may require a more careful examination to 

 discover it in its dormant form. I hardly be- 

 lieve that I am mistaken as to the disease hav- 

 ing both a mild and a malignant form. What 

 I call the malignant form may be altogether 

 another disease. This is the opinion of some 

 who hold that pickled brood is a forerunner 

 of the other, but I think not. 



" It seems to me that the adult bees are af- 

 fected with this disease. In no other way can 

 I explain the rapid weakening of the colony 

 or the inability of the bees to gather honey." 



In a subsequent letter (Dec. 12), in answer 

 to some questions, he writes : 



" In response to your questions I have been 

 expecting to get some information from those 



EXPI^ANATION OF PIRATE ; MAGNIFIED 600 DIAMETERS — REDUCED. 



Fig. 1. — Bacillus inilii. a, spore formation, 

 sh )wing morphological changes, in agar-agar- 

 plate culture ; b, peculiar arrangement oft- 

 en noticed in cultures ; r, isolated bacilli, float- 

 ing in the liquids of the bee or in cultures ; d, 

 Zooglea, showing the most common arrange- 

 meat of the spores at the center, and the sep- 

 aration of the bacilli from the mass. 



Fig. 2. — Bacillus thoracis, a showing rods 

 arranged end to end as occurs in cultures ; 

 b, peculiar arrangement seen in agar-agar drop 

 cultures, showing spores by fission ; r, Zooglea, 

 sh >wing common arrangement of the mass. 



Fig. 3. — Mucor, a showing the spore-bear- 

 ing heads ; b showing these heads discharging 

 the spores. Common on decaying matter. 



Fig. 4. — Aspergillus pollinis, the fungus 

 causing " Pickled Brood." 



Fig. 5, Fungi. — a, Hendersonia polycystis. 



Fungus found on dead twigs, grasses, etc. ; 

 very common ; b, Dactyliuui roscuin, appears 

 as pinkish roseate spots on decaying vegeta- 

 tion ; very common ; c, Massaria, var. d and 

 <?, fungi not common — not placed ; unimpor- 

 tant. 



Figs. 6 and 7, spore-bearing organs of fun- 

 gi- 

 Fig. 6, a, transparent spore-receptacle in- 

 tact ; b, same, showing membrane ruptured 

 and spores escaping. 



Fig. 7. — Contains similar spores in size and 

 shape, which escape through the membranous 

 pouches triangularly arranged at the dentate 

 periphery. Found in pollen. No culture 

 made. 



Fig. 8. — Penicilliuni glaucuin , common fun- 

 gus, found on moldy bread and elsewhere ; 

 very common. 



