118 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTpRE. 



Mar. 



w 



FOIL BROOD. 



HOW DISTINGUISHED ; HOW CURED. 



ffj^E are requestPd by severnl to g-ive an article 

 on foul brood. Well, what are we going to 

 do? We have several articles blocked out 

 in answer to as many questions, but we can't get 

 time to write them. We are booked as a corres- 

 pondent to six different papers, and have a corres- 

 pondence of from 10 to 30 dally, besides the work re- 

 quired at all seasons of the year to make a success 

 in managing 100 stocks of bees. Well, we are going 

 to request all of our correspondents to put their 

 questions on a separate sheet of paper from their 

 letter, and leave room under each question for the 

 answer, thus saving us the trouble of writing both 

 question and answer, thus hoping to gain time to 

 write more articles, or at least fill our present en- 

 gagements. All questions thus arranged will be 

 cheerfully answered. If of general interest, we 

 shall reserve the right to answer through the bee 

 journals- 



FOUL BROOD. 



Father kept bees when we were about ten years 

 old, and it is one of the pleasint memories of the 

 past that frequently come up before us, of the nice 

 white box honey that was taken from ihe bees in 16 

 to 20 lb. boxes that went to buy the family the com- 

 forts of life. This was when the bees were prosper- 

 ous; but the time came when no swarms issued, and 

 the bees got to robbing each other in the fall, and, as 

 a last resort, all were brimstoned one cool morning 

 the fore part of October. We were anxious to see 

 the inside of a bee-hive, so were close at hand when 

 father announced that ho was about to take the 

 honey from the hives. The hives were turned over, 

 when our olfactory organs were greeted with a 

 stench never to be forgotten. An examination re- 

 vealed combs filled with dead brood which was one 

 putrid mass, with hei-e and there a vacant cell from 

 which some bee, more luckj- than his fellows, had 

 hatched. Thus hive after hive was split open with 

 but little variation, except in a few of the stronger 

 colonies, whose cells were probably quarter filled 

 with this dead brood. We have given this to show 

 you foul brood in its worst form as it used to scourge 

 N. Y. State in 1855 to 1865, when box hives were used. 



HOW DISTINGUISHED. 



Foul brood as above is first discovered by finding 

 a few cells in a hive, containing brood with sunken 

 caps, and probably a small pin-hole near the center. 

 Upon opening the cell the larva is found stretched 

 out at full length, dead, of a dark brown color, dy- 

 ing from one to three days after being capped over, 

 we should judge. If the larva has recently died it is 

 in shape as perfect as the live larvas are; but those 

 alive are white, while those dead are of a light brown 

 color at first, but soon change to a dark brown, and 

 finally to nearly black. Upon touching a dead larva 

 it is found to be a salvy mass, and the whole hive, if 

 far advanced, emits a very disagreeable smell. The 

 disease progresses, as a rule, very rapidly; and irom 

 a few cells in the spring it so spreads that by fall 

 nine-tenths of the cells will be filled with dead lar- 

 vae, the smell of which is worse than carrion. Thus 

 what should have constituted an Increase died, and 

 as none are removed from the cells, the bees grow 

 less and less until all are gone, unless the apiarist 

 comes to the rescue. We have been thus particular 

 in describing the disease, so none can mistake it; 



and also because there is another disease similar, 

 called foul brood, which is not foul brood. With this 

 last-named, the caps to the cells have very much 

 the same appearance as in the genuine, but the dead 

 larva is of a grayish color, and instead of being 

 stretched out at full length in the cell, it is drawn up 

 in a more compact shape. After a time it so dries 

 up that the bees remove it, and no harm seems to 

 arise from it, only as there are a few larviB that die 

 here and there through the combs at dififerent peri- 

 ods; sometimes never to appear again, and some- 

 times appearing with the next season; hence we 

 hear persons saying, "My bees had a few cells of 

 foul brood which I cut out, and all was prosperous 

 again." All cutting out of cells with the genuiae is 

 of no avail, as the germs of the disease are in the 

 honey. Also the dead lar^'a never dries up so as to 

 be removed entirely, although some strong stocks of 

 Italians come very near doing so at the approach of 

 cold weather in the fall, when but few cslls are in 

 the hive at that season of the year. 



HOW CURED. 



We have never experimented with acid, and from 

 all accounts we should say it would be better, in this 

 day of comb fdn., to use the old way,— melt the 

 combs into wax, and give the bees fdn. The old way 

 is this— the same we used to eradicate it from our 

 apiary: when a swarm is believed to have the gen- 

 uine foul brood, mark the hive, and if there are bees 

 enough to ward off robbers, let it entirely alone for 

 a month, when it should again be examined, and (if 

 in the breeding season) the genuine will have pro- 

 gressed so you will be sure that it is foul brood, 

 while the other may be all gone, or remain about 

 the same. The genuine means progress every time, 

 although in some cases a colony may hold out over 

 two seasons. As soon as it is determined that the 

 disease is foul brood, shake or drive the bees into a 

 clean empty hive, and render the combs into wax, 

 and boil the honey at once before you forget it. 

 Don't set it away thinking you will do it some other 

 time, for if you do you may repent at a great loss 

 some future day when, through some mistake, it 

 gets inside the hive* again. Boiling such honey de- 

 stroys the germs of foul brood, and makes it as good 

 as ever for bees. If in time of plenty of honey, so 

 there is no danger of robbing, drive or shake off 

 three-fourths of the bees, and leave the remainder 

 to care for the brood. In 21 days treat as at first 

 given, and your disease is gone as far as that hive is 

 concerned. After the bees have been in the clean 

 hive long enough to have the larvaj hatch from the 

 eggs laid in the new comb the bees have built, j-ou 

 can then give fdn., empty comb, or frames of brood, 

 the same as with any healthy stock. Burn the 

 frames, or throw them into a kettle of boiling water 

 after the foul-brood combs have been removed, and 

 scald thoroughly any thing that has the foul honey 

 upon it, and set the hives away for one year, when 

 they are as good as any, as far as our experience 

 goes. Right here we wish to say the disease is. in 

 the honey; and if you let a robber get a load of this 

 honey, or carry it on your fingers, knife, or any 

 thing else, to a healthy hive, that hive is doomed. 

 We have now told you how to cure one hive, so of 

 course you know how to cure a hundred; and if we 

 had a hundred hives we should go to work in just 

 the way given, knowing we would succeed; but if 

 we were satisfied we had only two or three hives in 

 a yard of from 50 to 100, we should adopt the resolu- 



