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THE AIMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Foul Brood, its Propagation and Care. 



Mr. Frank Cheshire, than whom there is not a more 

 progressive and scientific apiarist in England, has spent 

 much time in studying the cause and cure of that terribly- 

 fatal disease called '■ foul brood," and is very confident 

 that lie has discovered a satisfactory cure for it. At the 

 request of the British Bee-Keepers' Association, he has 

 prepared the following very exhaustive article, \yhich we 

 copy from the British Bee Journal. 



We feel sure that the apiarists of America will extend 

 to him a hearty vote of thanks for his patient study and 

 careful investigations, as well as for the following trea- 

 tise in which he has given to the world a new remedy— or 

 at least a newly-applied remedy — for that most-to-be- 

 dreaded disease— Foul Brood. The article is rather 

 lengthy, but it will repay a careful perusal : 



About two months since I was invited by the eommittee of 

 the British Bee-Keepers' Association to address tlie present 

 Congress, tlien to be convened in connection witli the Interna- 

 tional Healtli Exhibition, on tlie absorbing but ajjparently well- 

 worn topic (if Foul Brooil. My consent to that ins'itation was 

 mainly given on two grounds: first, a contiilence that I had a 

 method of curing this terrible malady far in advance of any that 

 had previously been brouslit before the bee-keeping community 

 eitiier by others or myself; and, secondly, that tlie writing of 

 the paper would furnish me with an excuse and reason for that 

 large devotion of time which I foresaw a new and independent 

 investigation of the subject from its scientific side would re- 

 quire— an investigation which I had long intended to undertake, 

 in order to test facts which I had noted during previous years, 

 and which it seemed impossible to reconcile with commonly 

 received opinions. To these facts and to the results of my 

 recent inquiry, so far as I have as yet been able to complete it, 

 I now. therefore, ask your kind and indulgent attention, in 

 order that we may all apprehend together the grounds upon 

 which I venture to diverge somewhat widely from theories 

 wliich have been admitted during the last seven years at least as 

 things undisputed, bfcause indisputable. 



Apiculture is attracting more attention in this country than it 

 has ever previously received. Bee-keepers are multiplying on 

 every hand. From the throne to the humblest cottage the 

 charms or the profits of apiculture are getting a recognition. 

 The bee-keeping of to day is no more like that of the first half 

 of this century than the'goods train is like tlie carrier's cart 

 We have our combs built in days instead of weeks. Bees rear 

 drones or workers as we give tliem order. Supers have gone 

 and sections are finished as thous;h bees had recently learned 

 the use of the rule and the plumb line. Honey is demanded by 

 the ton in the manufacture of biscuits. The po'ir cottager may 

 add to his comforts and his culture by attendingto his hives; 

 and yet, amidst all this pleasant prospect, seeming to promise 

 greater things for the future, a dark cloud— causing most to 

 fear, and eve'ii breeding despondency in the breasts of not a tew 

 apiarists— is hovering amongst us. Foul brood, des|jite all the 

 information given, is now not only present, but rapidly increas- 

 ing; and were it just to the owners, I could point not to diseased 

 colonies merely, but to apiaries of 60 or SO, where, perhaps, not 

 one has escaped contamination. Letters daily, and lately 

 almost every post, arrive with some sad tale of disaster. If the 

 unqueeniuK and comb-excising, or burning or starving plans 

 must be adopted, ruin is meant, profit anticipated becomes loss 

 realized, and hope yields to despair. Nor is the reason of this 

 far to seek. In toriiier days, when bees were kept in the same 

 garden, descending from father to son, increasina their number 

 in the spring by swarming, to be reduced to the old limits in the 

 autumn by the sulphur pit— when none left their native spot, 

 except an occasional swarm, perhaps, as a gift to a near 

 neighbor, and when none were ever imported from afar, foul 

 brood might have lurked here and there, but the facilities for its 

 propagation were wanting. Now, how ditferenti Bees are ever 

 traveling by our railways through the length and breadth of our 

 land, these, reared often in company with many colonies where 

 are to be found queens hailing from the Sunny South, where the 

 disease has been often rampant, and coming, as these swarms 

 sometimes may, from colonies nut above suspicion, are, it is to 

 be feared, but too often the instruments for communicating the 

 germs of destruction in localities previously free. I delight, 

 however, to recognize that this sad state of things need not, and 

 I believe will not, continue, for, from reasons which will be 

 presently apparent, instead of now regarding a visitation of 

 foul brood in my apiary as a terrible disaster, I should esteem 

 it as a trirting and temporary inconvenience very far less grave 

 than the loss of a queen. I will now consider the subject under 

 three heads: 1. The nature of foul brood as a germ disease; 2. 

 The means of its propagation; and, .3. The methods of its cure. 



THE XATlltE OF FOrX BROOD AS A GEKM DISEASE. 



The appearance of foul brood is, undoubtedly, familiar to 

 nearly all bee-keepers. A larva, if attacked early, begins to 

 move unnaturally, and instead of lying curled round on the 

 base of the cell, frequently turns in such a way as to present 

 its dorsal (back) surface to the eye of the observer. A little 

 attention will then show that the color of the larva is inclined 

 to yellow instead of being pearly white. Such grubs are only 

 rarely sealed over. Those more advanced before the disease 

 strikes them, are in due course sealed, but death overtakes 

 them, their bodies become brown and fa-tid, and as the sealing 

 sinks it becomes pierced by an irregular hole. From this may 

 be gathered the general indications of the disease, which is 

 usually accompanied by very energetic fanning at the hive 

 entrance, from which, in advanced cases, an indescribable and 

 nauseating odor is emitted. The larvie and chrysalids which 

 are dead of the disease, dry to a coffee-colored, tenacious mass 

 lying at the bottom of the cell: so tenacious, indeed, that it may 

 be drawn out into long threads like lialf-<lry glue. The drying- 

 process being completed, a blackish scale is all that remains. 

 This was formerly supposed to be the only condition in which 

 the foul-broody matter, so-called, was a centre of infection; but 

 we shall presently discover that this notion has no foundation 

 in fact. 



The disease is terribly contagions, and once started, soon 

 spreads from cell to cell, and not infreciuently from colony to 

 colony. The knowledge of bee-keejiers extended little beyond 

 this, iu December 1ST4, when a translation from the German by 

 Mr. J. S. Wood, of Nyborg, gave an account of some experi- 

 ments by Ur. Sehonfeld, which may be thus summarized: Some 

 foul-broody matter was placed oii a plate pierced by a hole, 

 below which, and passing into it, was a glass tube 2 feet long; a 

 bell-glass covered the plate, and it bore another tube inserti d 

 into a hole in its crown. The lower tube was perfectly open, 

 but the upper one was plugged loosely with cotton wadding. 

 The sun shining on the glass, warmed the contained air, and a 

 current was produced. Dr. Sehonfeld describes the foul-broody 

 matter as being full of micrococcus, and, examining the cotton 

 wadding, he tells us that he discovered innumerable micrococci. 

 Some of this wadding was placed over larvie in a hive, and the 

 larvfe were removed three times, but upon the fourth experi- 

 ment seven larv« died, their bodies being found full of 

 micrococci. He also informs us that blowfly-larvEe, by the cotton 

 wool being placed upon them, contracted the disease, and the 

 bodies, upon examination, revealed innumerable micrococci. 

 These experiments were accepted as so satisfactory and con- 

 clusive that the matter here rested; and again and again 1 

 examined microscopically, specimens of foul-broody matter 

 sent to me without tor a moment suspecting the very serious 

 error underlviug these observations, upon which I do not wish 

 to cast any discredit, although two very accomplished niicro- 

 scopists whom 1 have consulted, agree with me that any 

 supposed observation of micrococci on cotton wool could only 

 be accepted with extreme caution. 



But the fact of being able at once to spot foul brood by a 

 microscopic examination of the cottee-colored matter was an 

 advantage. In October 18T9, a well-known bee-keeper sent off 

 two small brown masses found in a super, one to the "British 

 Bee Journal " and the other to the " Journal of Horticulture.'' 

 The latter came to myself, and I pronounced it foul brood 

 instantly. I saw it under a power of 500 diameters. The 

 "British Bee Journal " affirmed it to be simply dried pollen— a 

 pardonable mistake. But the bitter scolding I received in the 

 aforesaid "Journal." for in y follv in pronouncing this to be 

 foul brood, induced me to visit the apiary from which it came, 

 and in which every colony turned out to be a prey to the dread 

 malady. The microscope here was the means of starting 

 remedial measures ere too late. 



In spite of all that has been written or said since that time, we 

 appear, so far as the nature of tlie disease is concerned, to have 

 made no advance. The expressions "bacteria," "fungus," 

 "micrococcus," have been used with'>ut any very definite ideas 

 lying behind them, and there the matter apparently has rested. 

 Before attempting to explain what I venture to believe the 

 disease actually to be, it will be uecessary to give a few defini- 

 tions and explanations. 



Science has recently shown that all putrefactive changes, 

 fermentations, and very many diseases, are brought about 

 entirely by minute organisms, which are. in fact, rudimentary 

 vegetables. To them the general name of Schizomycetes has 

 been applied, because their method of increase is by splitting 

 or fissuration. 



These micro-organisms are divided into four genera- 

 micrococcus, bacterium, bacillus and spirillum. We shall 

 presently see that two only of these, micrococcus and bacillus, 

 are essential to our present purpose, and .so the others will be 

 left out of view. There are many species of each, and they may 

 be classed as— septic, those causing putrefaction; zymogenic, 

 causing definite chemical changes, such as butyric fermentation, 

 chromogenic. or color-forming, and pathogenic, or disease- 

 producing. Confining our inquiry within the narrowest possible 

 limits we have to do with pathogenic micrococci and bacilli. 

 The former may be roughly described as minute globular 

 bodies, which, at intervals, become sliglitly elongated, and then 



