55 



SYMPTOMS OF FOUL BROOD. 



In deposing her eggs the queen lays them with remarkab'.e uniformity, 

 in small patches early in the year, but in ever increasing areas as the hive 

 becomes stronger and the weather conditions more favorable. Hatching- 

 out in a healthy hive is just as regular. When however a larva dies the 

 symmetry is broken, so here and there we find cells that are not, so to 

 speak, keeping time with the others on the same frame. When these are 

 quite numerous it is high time for the beekeeper to take special note of 



FIG. 17. American Foul Brood: a, b, f, normal sealed sells; c, j, sunken 

 cappings, showing- perforations; g, sunken capping not perforated; h, 1, 

 m, n, q, r, larvae affected by disease; e, i, p, s, scales formed from dried- 

 down larvae: d, o, pupae affected by disease. Three times natural size. 

 (U. S. Dept. Ag. Far. Bui. 442.) 



their appearance. In ordinary conditions the dead larvae are removed by 

 the workers, and the queen deposits another egg in the cell. But the odor 

 given off by larvae that have died of Foul Brood appears to overpower even 

 the mcst enthusiastic workers, so the dead magots are permitted to remain 

 in the cells. In American Foul Brood death seems to occur after the cells 

 have been capped over, so when the workers find cells that refuse to hatch 

 thy puncture the cappings, in order to remove the dead matter, but are 

 driven from the task by the offensive smell. The first suspicious sign there- 

 fore is a number of scattered cells whose cappings have been perforated by 

 the workers and left in that condition. 



The cappings of healthy cells is rounded upwards, that is a little dome is 

 over each cell, but those affected by Foul Brood are sunken. A combina- 

 tion of scattered, sunken and perforated cells is therefore very suspicious, 

 one that demands further investigation. This is done by means of a tooth- 



