1911 



GLEAXINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



59 



If the disease begins in the early spring and is not 

 noticed, it is very likely the colony will go down at 

 a rapid rate, while the remnant will not be worth 

 troubling with, and should be cleared out by fire 

 after sulphuring the bees. This should be done in 

 the evening when all the other stocks are quiet, 

 taking care to foul as few things as possible. Burn 

 all you use that are not of much value, and the 

 rest disinfect thoroughly. 



European foul brood shows up strongest 

 in the spring or early summer. Observe, 

 also, that Simmins refers to the possibility 

 of curing by changing the queen and sub- 

 stituting a vigorous queen (a part of the 

 Alexander treatment for European foul 

 brood) . He also mentions the ability of the 

 bees to clear out the "foul stuff." We have 

 our doubts whether colonies, unless very 

 powerful, will clean ordinary American foul 

 brood out of the combs; but there is no 

 doubt now but that they can and do remove 

 the grubs dead of European foul brood. 



Again, we turn to a card sent out by the 

 British Bee-keepers' Association, showing a 

 photograph of what looks like the old-fash- 

 ioned American foul brood in an advanced 

 stage. On the reversed side of the card we 

 find the following: 



1. How to recognize Foul Brood in its earliest Stage. 

 —Healthy brood is recognized by being compact, 

 and the larvse of a pearly whiteness. When young 

 they are curled up at the bases of the cells in the 

 form of a C. If any of the larvte are attacked by the 

 disease, instead of being curled up and plump they 

 are extended horizontally in the cells, are flabby in 

 appearance, and are of a pale yellow color, chang- 

 ing to brown, and begin to decompose. They then 

 dry up, leaving only a dry brown scale on the side 

 of the cell. (For "chilled" brood the dead larvse 

 turn gray and not brown.) 



2. Later Stage. — When the larvis die after the 

 cells are capped over, here and there cells will be 

 found with cappings slightly indented, and darker 

 than those of heaithy brood. The cappings are also 

 frequently perforated with irregular holes. 



3. Adranced Stage.— This is weU illustrated in the 

 photograph of a comb badly affected. It will be 

 seen that the capped cells are in irregular patches, 

 indented, and most of them perforated. If the cap- 

 ping of a cell is removed, and a piece of stick intro- 

 duced, a putrid, ropy, sticky, cofTee-colored mass 

 will be found — all that remains of the larva — often 

 emitting a most disagreeable stench. 



The disease is extremely contagious, and prompt 

 measures should be taken to prevent its spreading 

 by medicating the food with naphthol beta and by 

 using naphthaline as a preventive. 



The first paragraph, referring to "early 

 stages," is an exact description, so far as it 

 goes, of European foul brood. The next 

 two paragraphs, referring to "later" and 

 "advanced stages," clearly describe Amer- 

 ican foul brood. 



In Cowan's "Hive and the Honey-bee" 

 we find practically the same description, 

 and very possibly the foul-brood card of the 

 British Bee-keepers' Association was writ- 

 ten by Mr. Cowan himself. 



Still again, we find quite a conflict of 

 opinion among se.veral of these European 

 writers. Some of them, including Cowan, 

 Cheshire, and Simmins, recommend drugs 

 of various sorts; others appear to believe 

 that they have no value. In this country, 

 at least, practically all of our authorities 

 have agreed that any form of medicine or 

 spray applied to the combs of American 

 foul brood is a waste of time and material; 

 but, so far as we know, these same authori- 

 ties, in this country, have never tried germ- 



icides of any sort on the European type 

 of the disease, and there is a possibility that 

 they may have some value. The fact that 

 some of our friends across the water persis- 

 tently recommend them for the disease 

 they have is significant. 



And, again, let us turn to the testimony 

 of the bacteriologists. Chene and Cheshire 

 (English) discovered a microbe that was 

 apparently always present in the foul brood 

 that they examined, and Cheshire later 

 called it Bacillus alvei. Dr. G. F. White, 

 of our Bureau of Entomology, Washington, , 

 D. C, always finds this microbe in the Eu- 

 ropean type of disease, but rarely in the 

 American, if we are correct. Burri and 

 Maassen, eminent European bacteriologists, 

 have described a disease which is certainly 

 our European foul brood, and no less an 

 authority than Erne recognizes our claims 

 with reference to the cause of American 

 foul brood; namely, that it is Bacillus lar- 

 vae (White) , and not Bacillus alvei. Mai- 

 den, another eminent British bacteriologist, 

 whose paper we recently reviewed in these 

 columns, page 542 of the Sept. 1st issue of 

 last year, confirms the work of our own Dr. 

 White, and, apparently accepting our terms 

 for the two types of disease, uses the names 

 European and American. 



A recent article by Mr. Samuel Simmins, 

 author of "A Modern Bee-farm," above 

 mentioned, who appears to have in mind 

 American foul brood, seems to be really de- 

 scribing the European type of the disease. 

 He tells of the value of requeening with vig- 

 orous Italian or Carniolan stock, and says 

 that it is not necessary to destroy the combs. 

 He also refers to the value of certain drugs, 

 particularly "izal," as one that will effect a 

 complete and permanent cure. 



Taking all the evidence together, we are 

 forced to the conclusion that at least some 

 of our European authorities, especially in 

 view of their conflict of testimony, have 

 been describing two different diseases; that 

 when they refer to the ability of the bees to 

 clean out the combs, removing the dead 

 grubs, they unwittingly refer to European 

 foul brood. In various references we find 

 they make mention of what they call chill- 

 ed brood. While we have chilled brood in 

 this country, from certain described symp- 

 toms it appears that our British cousins are 

 talking about European foul brood. 



Possibly our friends across the water may 

 take issue with us; but the exact work of 

 their own bacteriologists is very significant 

 as pointing to two types of disease — signi- 

 ficant, further, because these same scientists 

 seem to confirm Dr. White's work in many 

 very important respects. 



It remains to be seen yet whether Bacil- 

 lus alvei is really the microbe responsible 

 for European foul brood; but the fact that 

 European scientists have found it so often 

 in their specimens of affected brood indi- 

 cates that they must have and have had a 

 great deal of w'hat we have named (and cor- 

 rectly so (as we view it) European foul 

 brood. 



