October 25, 186*. ] 



JOURNAL OP HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



343 



once or twice, and if I had or could obtain a great name 

 and high sanction, perhaps I might make a venture which 

 would raise my humble blush to a par with Thorley or De 

 Jongh. By-the-by, I wonder what became of the propolitan 

 mausoleum in which Dr. Cumming's snail was interred, 

 what kind of snail it was, and what it did during the some- 

 what slow process of living sepulture ? Truly it must have 

 been a snail of wonderful patience, and the bees must have 

 worked even with more than apian alacrity. — Ruby Blush. 



FOUL BROOD. 



In again taking notice of foul brood, let it be distinctly 

 understood that it is not for the purpose of resuming a dis- 

 cussion on it, but simply to state what I have observed 

 since my last communication. Let others do the same, and 

 then we may hope to find out its cause and cure. I trust 

 that what I have to say, though it partly relates to what I 

 have seen in my neighbour's apiary, will not be deemed the 

 less interesting on that account. 



1st. When the bees arrived from the heather last autumn 

 and it was found that all his hives contained foul brood more 

 or less, he drove the bees out of three hives (uniting them 

 at the same time), cut out all the combs, except in the three 

 hives, and carefully selecting all those which had no foul 

 brood, put them in a clean straw top or super. He sup- 

 ported them with sticks, and placed the super on the top 

 of an eke of empty combs, but containing a good swarm 

 of bees which I had given him, and which had been always 

 free from foul brood. In the spring of this year when we 

 examined it there was a considerable quantity of foul brood 

 both in the super and eke. "We also observed a few drone 

 cells diseased. This was the first occasion on which we had 

 ever observed drone brood affected. We then drove all the 

 bees into a clean empty hive, which was taken to the heather 

 with the others. 



2nd. The three united swarms alluded to he kept for ten 

 days in an empty hive, and then put them into a hive of 

 empty combs which I gave him, but quite free from disease. 

 The two when examined in the spring after the bees had 

 swarmed and all the young brood was out, were found to 

 contain a quantity of foul brood. The bees were driven 

 into a clean empty hive, as in the former case, and sent to 

 the hills. Since they came from the heather they have been 

 examined as well as his other hives, nine in all, and I am 

 glad to state that not a single foul-brood cell has been seen 

 in any of them. This is the more remarkable, as his hives 

 had it more or less every year for ten or fourteen years. 

 Those bees were fed with honey from diseased combs. 



I have now to report what has occurred among my own 

 hives. It will be remembered- that last year foul brood 

 made its appearance for the first time in one of my hives, a 

 Neighbour's, and when seen it was at once destroyed, bees 

 and everything. The disease again made its appearance in 

 three of my hives this spring, but in none of the others, and, 

 strange to say, it was in those bars I had taken out of the 

 hive which contained the queen I had received from Mr. 

 Woodbury last summer. The bars were taken out and put 

 into hives containing black bees for the purpose of raising 

 Ligurian queens. One of the bars had fifteen cells on each 

 side diseased, the others not so many. I removed the bars 

 at once, but allowed the bees to take the honey they con- 

 tained on the outside of the hive. I have examined every 

 bar I possess since they reformed from the heather, but could 

 not find a single diseased cell in the whole stock. 



Could it be the queen I had from Mr. Woodbury that had 

 brought foul brood all the way from Exeter, and so polluted 

 my apiary ? or is it some weakness or defect in the stocks 

 wherein it appeared ? But why speculate ? I confess its 

 cause is still as mysterious to me as ever. 



In my neighbour's two cases one had clean bees put among 

 combs taken from where the disease was, though those combs 

 were free of foul brood, and it was even carried down to the 

 eke of clean combs. In the other case the bees though taken 

 from among foul combs had been kept in a clean empty hive 

 for ten days, then put among clean combs, and were still 

 diseased. In my own case could a single queen bee be 

 the means of conveying this disease ? Who can say ? To 

 ascertain what effect a sudden reduction of temperature 



would have on a hive full of young brood, from a common 

 cottage-hive containing a good swarm, and the bees lying 

 out as if about to swarm, I drove out all the bees, caught 

 the queen, put her back among the combs along with a few 

 bees, certainly not more than five hundred, placed them 

 about 40 yards from their old stance, and put in a bar of eggs 

 from a Ligurian queen among the driven bees, placing it on 

 the old stance that they might rear another queen. I had 

 left so few bees along with the queen and young brood that 

 for ten days seldom a bee was to be seen issuing from the 

 hive, and though I gave them food they did not take it for 

 ten days or more. While the hive was in this state I had 

 a delicate thermometer made with a long bulb, and the tube 

 6 inches in length beneath the scale, and inserted the tube 

 between two combs in the centre of the hive, 6 inches down. 

 It happened at the time that the weather was extremely 

 cold for the season, the external temperature being as low 

 as 48* at night, while the thermometer inside the hive 

 indicated 63 Q , seldom rising above 75° for fourteen days, 

 I certainly expected nothing else but a mass of corruption, 

 but after two weeks the bees began to go out and in, and 

 had wonderfully recovered before they were sent to the hills ; 

 so much so that I put on a super, but previous to doing so 

 I turned the hive up, and found that all the brood had been 

 hatched. I could see no foul brood. When the hive came 

 from the hills I took off the super containing 15 lbs. of 

 honeycomb, having made 19 lbs. in all while at the heather. 

 The hive is still free from foul brood. 



In February of this year, I had thermometers, the same 

 as the one above, placed in three Woodbury-hives, just 

 when breeding commenced. The bulbs were inserted be- 

 tween the bars where the brood was, and the temperature 

 was frequently as low as 48°. On the 15th of February one 

 thermometer indicated 45°. The temperature gradually 

 rose during the summer, though not rising and falling quite 

 so much as out of doors. The thermometers remained long 

 at 95°, and when they rose to 97°, the bees lay out. I never 

 observed the temperature above 97°, unless the bees were 

 disturbed, when it would rise to 120° or more. 



I was asked by an old bee-keeper who had kept bees for 

 more than fifty years in the old straw hives, to look at one 

 of his which was not thriving. On turning it up I found it 

 a mass of disease. I observed what I never did before, the 

 young grubs unsealed-up, some of them nearly black, others 

 streaked with black lines as if with pen and ink. There 

 were also numerous drone grubs in the same state, and but 

 few bees, which seemed not to be able to seal-up the brood, 

 as it was seen in all stages diseased. It was the worst case 

 I ever saw. The queen appeared to be active and healthy. 

 The whole was destroyed. 



I may also state that foul brood has made its appearance 

 this year in the hive of a neighbour, who has been always 

 free of it hitherto. It was only a few cells. I know of only 

 one person in all this neighbourhood whose hives have not 

 suffered more or less, and great numbers have entirely lost 

 then- stocks ; but I hope a better day is coming for all. Thi3 

 season has been so good that the spirits of bee-keepers are 

 again reviving, and should we have such another season 

 next year, I doubt not but many who have managed to bring 

 their stocks through the crisis, will be rewarded for all 

 their perseverance and discouragements by a demand for 

 stocks. To show the great decrease in the number of hives in 

 this locality, in one place on the hills where I have counted 

 450 hives in former years, this year there were only 37. 



I had fourteen hives at the heather this year, and they 

 gathered 353 lbs. of honey, being on an average 25 lbs. each. 

 The highest made 37 lbs., and the least 15 lbs. The fourteen 

 hives contained 689 lbs. of honey, bees, and comb. The 

 heaviest hive weighed 104 lbs. The like result has not 

 been obtained in this quarter for a number of years. — Alex. 

 Sheaeee, Tester Gardens. 



Those among the readers of The Journal oe Horti- 

 culture who have perused my communications on "Foul 

 Brood, and Those who have Written about It," will be 

 aware that the illustrious Schirach considered that this 

 disease might arise from the queen depositing her eggs in 

 a reversed position, so that the young bees, unable to extri- 

 cate themselves from their prison, die and putrify. In this 

 opinion he was followed by the Abbe della Rocca, Huisb, 



