1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



591 



earliest times of bee-keeping, but not much has been known 

 in regard to it until of late years. Various circumstances 

 have led to its wide prevalence in recent times. The use of 

 the honey-extractor, the breeding of queen-bees and the traCBc 

 in bees and their transmission by mail, express and otherwise, 

 have been among the means of diffusing this fell disease. The 

 vicinity of Guelph has been badly infested with foul brood, 

 owing mainly to the establishment of an apiary of 40 colonies 

 near Victoria Bridge. This apiary was sold to the party who 

 started it by Mr. D. A. Jones, of Beeton, probably without his 

 being aware that the bees were affected with the disease. At 

 that time Mr. Jones and other dealers in bees were but little 

 aware of the nature and prevalence of the disease. That 

 apiary of 40 colonies became dwindled and scattered ; dis- 

 eased swarms went oflE to the woods, and the whole region 

 around Guelph became inoculated with the disease. Even 

 now, comparatively few understand the disease properly to 

 diagnose it. 



NATURE AND SIGNS OF THE DISEASE. 



People often mistake chilled or dead brood for foul brood. 

 When a cold change in the weather comes in early spring, and 

 the breeding of young bees is pretty far advanced, it often 

 happens that the nurse-bees are not able to sufBciently foster 

 the young brood with warmth. The result is similar to that 

 when a hen does not sufficiently cover her clutch of eggs- 

 Some of them get chilled and become addled. In the same 

 way patches of bee-brood become chilled and lost in a bee- 

 hive. But this is not foul brood, which is a microbe disease, 

 and must have either the bacillus or the germ in the hive to 

 start it. Its culture is similar to that of such microbe dis- 

 eases as diptheria. The signs of its presence are as follows : 

 Discoloration of the larvae indicating disease, which pro- 

 gresses until it ends in death, when the larvaj changes into a 

 putrid mass, which is of a dark chocolate or coffee color. It 

 is viscid and has a certain toughness, so that when a pin or 

 a sliver is pushed into it it will draw out like taffy. When 

 the disease is considerably advanced it gives forth a most 

 offensive odor, somewhat resembling the stink of a glue-pot, 

 only the smell is more pronounced. Like all microbe diseases, 

 there is a tendency in these diseased germs to increase very 

 rapidly unless checked. 



REMEDIES FOR FOUL BROOD. 



Various remedies have been devised for the cure of this 

 disease. Mr. D. A. Jones discovered a fasting process. He 

 found that when all their honey was consumed the bees made 

 a fresh start, free of the disease, but there were difficulties in 

 the way of this remedy which prevented it being widely 

 adopted. A cure known as the McEvoy cure has been in 

 most e.^ctensive use. Mr. McEvoy is Foul Brood Inspector for 

 the Province of Ontario, and has power to enforce his remedy 

 bylaw. It is no doubt an effectual cure when properly ap- 

 plied, but the objection to it is its costliness and the trouble 

 involved in it. 



Various drug remedies have been resorted to, and one of 

 these, known as the Cheshire cure, has been successfully 

 adopted by some careful experimenters. Mr. Cheshire, though 

 not the discoverer of the cure, was the first who achieved dis- 

 tinguished success with it. Unfortunately he died before he 

 was able fully to develop his process. In Volume II of his 

 great work entitled " Bees and Bee-Iveeping," he gave a full 

 account of the bacillus and its germ or spore, and briefly de- 

 tailed his method of treatment. To prove the efficacy of his 

 cure he challenged the British Bee-Keepers' Association to 

 produce the worst case of foul brood that could be found, and 

 pledged himself to cure it, which he did to the satisfaction of 

 the Association. The recipe was then published to the world. 

 It was tried by many bee-keepers in Britain, on the Continent, 

 in the United States, and by a few in Canada, all of whom 

 failed to make it a success. Mr. Clarke has been experiment- 



ing with this remedy for the past three years, and believes he 

 has hit upon the essential conditions to success. They are 

 few and simple, and may be briefly explained as follows : 



The drug is known to chemists by the name of "phenol," 

 which is a refined preparation of carbolic acid. To succeed 

 with this remedy it is necessary that the bees should consume 

 a portion of it. They are tempted to do this by its being 

 mixed with sugar syrup in certain prescribed proportions. To 

 induce the bees to partake of it, it must be greatly attenuated 

 and fed to them when there is no honey to be gathered. Fed 

 in a time of scarcity of nectar, they will take it, if given one 

 tive-hundedth to one seven hundred and fiftieth, that is to 

 say, 500 to 750 parts of sugar syrup to one part of phenol. 

 Taken by the bees anywhere in these proportions the drug 

 will kill both the microbe and the spore. This fact, which 

 Mr. Clarke believes has been demonstrated, is of the greatest 

 importance to bee-keepers. 



The present is the most favorable time for trying the rem- 

 edy. The bees are hungry for food, and, like a starving man 

 who is not particular for luxuries, like quail on toast, the 

 bees are glad to get a plain article of food. The remedy is 

 cheap and of easy application. Mr. Clarke is anxious that 

 bee-keepers should put this remedy to the test. It is of no 

 use merely to place the phenolated syrup in the hive — the bees 

 must consume it in a curative quantity. They will do this if 

 they have no honey to gather from outside. Let it be dis- 

 tinctly understood that two conditions are absolutely essential 

 to success in the use of this remedy : First, that the bees 

 have no other resources, and second, that phenol be diluted so 

 that the bees will accept it. This will be somewhere between 

 the 500th and the 750th. Mr. Clarke gives this wide margin 

 because he is not sure whether phenol is always of the same 

 strength. Phenol may be obtained of any good druggist. 



Syrup, medicated with phenol as described, is a preven- 

 tive as well as a cure. Owing to this having been an excep- 

 tionally bad honey season, a great many colonies of bees will 

 require feeding before winter, and Mr. Clarke earnestly ad- 

 vises all who have any feeding to do to do it with phenolated 

 syrup. About five cents' worth of phenol is sufficient tor 10 

 or 12 pounds of sugar syrup. It is a cheap and easy experi- 

 ment for bee-keepers' to try. Bees that do not require feed- 

 ing, but are suspected to be tainted with foul brood, should 

 have a small quantity of the phenolated syrup daubed over 

 the brood-combs and run into the cells adjacent to the brood. 

 If this be done the bees will assimilate a curative quantity of 

 the drug. 



This is a thoroughly scientific mode of treatment. It is 

 well known that carbolic acid is one of the most potent of 

 antiseptics, and, as already stated, if the bees can be induced 

 to take it, it will kill both bacillus and the spore. 



It has been stated that any drug that will kill the bacillus 

 will also kill the bee. This he has proved, over and over, to 

 be a mistake. Phenol, given as he has directed, will kill the 

 bacillus and spore of foul brood without hurting the bees or 

 larva;.— Guelph, Ont., Mercury. 



"In Shipping Comb Honey," says Prof. Cook 

 in the Rural Californian, " the shipping-crate should not hold 

 more than 12 pounds ; should have glass sides, so as to show 

 that the contents are fragile, and should be so placed that the 

 combs will run endwise of the car. This prevents the comb 

 from breaking out." 



<-»*^ 



Honey as Food ami Meclicinc— A new and revised 

 edition of this 32-page pamphlet is now issued. It has 5 blank 

 pages on which to write or paste recipes taken from other sources. 

 It is just what Its name indicates, and should be liberally dis- 

 tributed among the people everywhere to create a demand for 

 honey. It contains a number of recipes on the use ot honey as 

 food and as medicine, besides much other interesting and valuable 

 information. Prices, postpaid, are: Single copy, 5 cts. ; 10 copies 

 35 cts. ; 50 for $1.25 ; 100 for .?3.00. Better give them a trial, bend 

 all orders to the Bee Journal office. 



