34 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



ways by which the disease may certainly be 

 spread which should be familiar to every 

 bee-keeper. They all depend upon the prin- 

 ciple that the incorporation of the bacteria 

 with the food to be yiven the larval beos will 

 start the disease afresh. 



Some of the more common ways in which 

 this is done are the following : 



1st. The " swarmine'out " of bees from a 

 diseased hive and coalescing with a healthy 

 colony. 



•2nd. The arliticial uniting of a mass of 

 bees from a diseased colony with a healthy 

 colony. 



P>rd. The giving of a comb from a dis- 

 eased colony or even a very small piece of 

 such diseased comb to a healthy colony. 



4th. The robbing of a diseased colony by 

 bees from a healthy colony. 



5th. The feeding of honey taken from 

 diseased colonies to healthy bees. 



When it is known that the disease is caused 

 by bacteria it would be readily granted that 

 it would be contracted from comb contain- 

 ing diseased larv;e, but it may be questioned, 

 as it has been, whether it could be conti acted 

 from honey taken from the combs of a dis- 

 eased colony ; but when it is considered that 

 the bees are continually traveling back and 

 forth over open cells containing the putrid 

 remains of the diseased larvae to the open 

 cells of the honey and that they endeavor to 

 remove from the cells the glue like mass 

 with their tongues and then insert their 

 tongues into the cells of honey to obtain 

 their food it must be admitted that it would 

 be very strange if the honey were not thor- 

 oughly contaminated ; and that it is so, and 

 that the life of the germs is preserved in the 

 honey, seems abundantly shown by an ex- 

 periment I made with thirty colonies to 

 which I fed honey not to exceed one per 

 cent, of which was taken from diseased col- 

 onies. The result was that within two weeks 

 twenty-nine of the thirty colonies were badly 

 diseased. 



Honey may be safely considered the great 

 source of danger because under all possible 

 circumstances it is greedily taken by the bees 

 and conveyed to (heir hives and their own 

 stores thereby contaminated. It is to the 

 last degree important, therefore, that when- 

 ever the disease is known to exist, or its ex- 

 istence suspected, extreme care be taken 

 that the bees have no opportunity to get a 

 taste of contaminated or suspected honey. 



Now as to the signs by which the presence 

 of the 'disease maybe certainly known. 



So far as I have been able to discover there 

 is one symptom and one only by which the 

 average bee-keeper may determine without 

 danger of error whether the disease is pres- 

 ent, and that is found in the character of the 

 remains of the larv* before, in the course of 

 time, they become dried up. Brood dies 

 from several causes — perhaps from other dis- 

 eases — but there is always a plain distinction 

 to be observed between the appearaace of 

 the larva? dead from foul brood and of that 

 dead from other causes. The substance of 

 the former (foul brood) is homogeneous 

 throughout, that is, all parts of the mass in a 

 given cell are of the same consistency, that of 

 the latter generally varies in consistency one 

 part being watery another more or less solid ; 

 the former is of a solid color, brownish like 

 coffee prepared for drinking by the addition 

 of milk, the latter is usually of dififerent col- 

 ors, often partly white and partly black but 

 if in the grub stage it is nearly white ; the 

 former is without form like a drop of glue, 

 or becomes so on being touched, the latter 

 in all cases retains its shape with more or 

 less persistency ; and lastly the former is al- 

 ways viscid, the latter never. This charac- 

 teristic alone, I believe, always furnishes a 

 sure test. Take a sliver, match, or straw 

 and inserting one end into the dead matter 

 in a cell withdraw it, if the matter proves to 

 be sticky or ropy as shown by following out 

 the straw in a string you have foul brood, 

 otherwise not. So far as is now known if 

 the above rules are carefully applied there 

 never need be any doubt as to whether the 

 disease exists or not. 



However, unless one's attention is es- 

 pecially directed to the matter, one is not 

 likely to discover the presence of the disease 

 until it has practically destroyed the colony 

 and perhaps also been conveyed to other col- 

 onies, hence it is important as an assistance 

 in the discovery of the disease to bear in 

 mind the following facts : 



The life of the larva may be destroyed 

 either before its cell is capped or after, and 

 in the former case it is not capped at all. 



As soon as the larva is dead, perhaps be- 

 fore, it loses its natural glistening pearly 

 whiteness. 



The cappings of cells containing the dead 

 larvae have an unnatural appearance, — they 

 are generally more or less sunken sometime-^ 



