No. 4.] ESSENTIALS OF BEEKEEPING. 167 



Hygiene of the Apiary. 

 Brood Diseases of Bees. 



American foul brood and European foul brood are the names of 

 two distinct brood diseases of bees which until recently have had 

 little consideration in Massachusetts, yet their prevalence is proved 

 to be general, and to have caused inestimable losses to the beekeepers 

 and horticulturists. No one problem in apiculture is more vitally 

 important, and yet, when understood, the most gratifying results 

 can be obtained by treatment. It is not a crime, as some have 

 thought, to find colonies diseased. As conditions have been in Massa- 

 chusetts, the presence of disease was expected almost anywhere. It 

 should be considered more disgraceful to allow disease to remain 

 unsuppressed, so great are the infection and damages. Moreover, 

 it is being demonstrated for the first time in the Commonwealth that 

 brood diseases can be checked, that the treatment is not so radical 

 and burdensome as has often been feared, and that whole beekeeping 

 communities are benefiting more than they had anticipated. The 

 earnest co-operation of every beekeeper is solicited in the interest 

 of premotmg Massachusetts apiculture. 



An adequate description of the diseases, how to tell them and how 

 to treat them, could not be undertaken in this limited space. It may 

 be said, however, that every beekeeper should examine his brood 

 from lime to time, especially in the early summer. Healthy brood 

 in unsealed cells is of a pearly white color, and the larva, a grub or 

 develoj^ing bee, is curled in the cell and plump. If you do not find 

 this appearance, but there is a yellowish, grayish, brownish or black- 

 ish and more or less shapeless mass, decayed in the cells, or if the 

 brood is irregular, the cappings discolored, sunken and perforated, 

 there is reason to be suspicious. A colony which fails to build up, 

 to hold its own, which does not respond to manipulation as it should, 

 or one which dwindles early in the summer, affords reasons for being 

 watched. The presence of the disease is not always apparent, unless 

 a cell by cell examination is made. 



The owner of bees should consider that it is his indi\adual duty to 

 watch and inspect his own colonies. While the State inspectors are 

 endeavoring to visit the beekeeper, the progress of the work can be 

 greatly furthered by the individual's efforts. Do not delay reporting 

 to the State Inspector of Apiaries, Amherst, Mass., any case which 

 is suspicious. A systematic effort will then be made, not only to 

 assist the person so reporting and his neighbors, but to check and 

 suppress the infection throughout the locality. In this way it has 

 been possible already to clean up whole towns and even parts of 

 counties. 



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