ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



19 



I asked if any there had had experi- 

 ence with foul brood. There was a 

 goodly number of raised hands. Then 

 I asked, "Do any of you think you got 

 the disease by buying queen-bees?" 

 Again several hands were raised. 

 Even bee-keepers there had traced the 

 disease in their apiaries to the buying 

 of queens, and all from the same 

 breeder. If you get queens from 

 abroad, I hope you will do with them as 

 I have described above. Better be on 

 the safe side. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



1. A prominent Wisconsin bee- 

 keeper some years ago had foul brood 

 among his pees so bad that he lost 

 200 colonies before the disease was 

 checked. Having a honey- extractor 

 and comb -foundation machine, he first 

 boiled the hives in a large sorghum 

 pan, then in a kettle all combs were 

 melted after the honey was extracted, 

 the honey was boiled and also the ex- 

 tractor and implements used. The 

 bees were returned to their hives on 

 comb-foundation he made from the 

 wax made ^rom the melted combs, then 

 fed the boiled honey. Several years 

 have passed and there has been no 

 signs of disease in his apiary since. 



2. Foul -brood germs are not always 

 killed when exposed to a temperature 

 of 212 deg. F. (boiling point) for 45 

 minutes. But in every case where the 

 combs are boiled in boiling water, 

 and same were well stirred while boil- 

 ing, no germs were alive. 



3. Foul brood in brood-combs is not 

 destroyed when exposed to the temper- 

 ature of "Wisconsin winters of 20 deg. 

 below zero, and in one case I devel- 

 oped foul brood from combs that had 

 been exposed to 28 deg. below zero. 



- 4. Honey, if stored in diseased 

 combs, acts as a preserving medium, 

 and in such cases the germs of dis- 

 ease will remain so long as the comb 

 is undisturbed. Four years at least. 



5. Honey or beeswax, or the refuse 

 from a solar or sunheat extractor, is 

 not heated enough to kill foul-brood 

 germs. Several cases of contagion 

 where robber-bees worked on solar ex- 

 tractor refuse or honey. 



6. Comb-foundation made by supply 

 manufacturers is free from live germs 

 of disease and perfectly safe to use. 

 To prove this experiment beyond a 

 doubt I took a quantit5'- of badly- dis- 

 eased brood-combs from several api- 

 aries, and rendered each batch of combs 



into wax myself on the farm where 

 found. Then on my own foundation 

 mill I made some brood-foundation. I 

 also took quite a quantity more of 

 said wax, went to two wholesale comb- 

 foundation manufacturers, and both 

 parties willingly made my experimental 

 wax into comb-foundation juSt the 

 same as they do every batch of wax. 

 I then divided the various makes of 

 foundation and selected 20 of the best 

 bee-yards in Wisconsin, w^here no dis- 

 ease had ever been known, had the 

 same placed in 62 of their best col- 

 onies, and in every case no signs 

 of disease have appeared. Those same 

 colonies continue to be the best in the 

 various apiaries. 



SYMPTOMS OF FOUL BROOD. 



1. The infected colony is not liable 

 to be as industrious. Hive entrance 

 with few guard bees to protect their 

 home. Sometimes fine dirt or little 

 bits of old comb and dead bees in 

 and around the hive- entrance, and 

 often robber-bees seeking entrance. 



2. Upon opening the hive, the brood 

 in the combs is irregular, badly scat- 

 tered, with many empty cells which 

 need inspection. 



3. The cappings over healthy brood 

 are oval, smooth and of a healthy col- 

 or peculiar to honey-bee brood, but 

 if diseased the cappings are sunken, 

 a little darker in color, and have 

 ragged pin-'holes. The dead larval bee 

 is of a light color, and, as it is termed, 

 ropy, so that if a toothpick is inserted 

 and slowly withdrawn, this dead larva 

 will draw out much like spittle or 

 glue. 



5. In this ropy stage there is more 

 or less odof peculiar to the disease; 

 it smells something like an old, sitale 

 gluepot. A colony may be quite badly 

 affected and not emit much odor, only 

 upon opening of the hive or close ex- 

 amination of the brood. I have treat- 

 ed a few cases where the foul brood 

 odor was plainly noticed several rods 

 from the apiary. 



6. Dried Scales — If the disease has 

 reached the advanced stages, all the 

 above-described conditions will be 

 easily seen and the dried scales as 

 well. This foul matter is so tenacious 

 that the bees cannot remove it so it 

 dries down on the lower side-wall of 

 the cell, midway from the bottom to 

 front end of the cell, seldom on the 

 bottom of the cell. According to its 

 'stage of development there will be 



