DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF BEES. i8l 



is not required if the frame be quite filled. The board 

 can then be tilted up until perpendicular, carrying the 

 comb and frame with it, which latter is to be at once 

 lifted out and placed where required. I have several 

 times used this appliance, and have found it very handy. 



DISEASES AND ENEMIES OF BEES. 



Bees have not many diseases to trouble them, but the 

 few they have are ofttimes very fatal ; indeed one, which 

 is known under the name of foul-brood, has been justly 

 termed the Bee Plague ; this fatal complaint is far more 

 common than is generally supposed, and to it many a 

 Bee-keeper who has found his Apiary unproductive for 

 years, with stocks dwindling in spite of all care, may with 

 truth attribute his ill-success. Much has been written 

 and said on foul-brood, but up to the present time it is 

 not thoroughly understood, nor effective means known 

 either for its prevention or cure. It is not of modern 

 origin, for Aristotle described it more than two thousand 

 years ago. I may briefly say that foul-brood is the 

 name given to a disease which causes the larvae of the 

 Bees to die and putrefy in their cells, where they turn to 

 a disgusting foul-smelling, semi-liquid mass, impossible 

 for the Workers to remove, in which condition the air of 

 the hive becomes necessarily impure, poisoning the 

 unfortunate inhabitants. 



The cause of foul-brood has been much debated, many 

 observers being of opinion that the disease is simply the 

 rotting of brood which had become chilled ; but the 

 opinion seems to be gaining ground that, like typhus 

 and scarlet fever in our human hive, it is solely produced 



