216 DISEASED BROOD. 



MAKNEK OF SPREADING. 



Suppose one stock has caught the infection, and but a 

 small portion of the brood is dead. In the heat of the hive, 

 it soon becomes putrid ; adjoining cells containing larvae 

 of the right age, are soon in the same condition. AU the 

 breeding combs in the hive become one putrid mass, with 

 an exception, perhaps of one cell in ten, twenty, or a hun- 

 dred that may perfect a bee. Thus the increase of bees is 

 not enough to replace the old ones that are continually dy- 

 ing off. It is plain, therefore, that this stock must soon 

 dwindle to a very small family. Let a scarcity of honey 

 now occur in the fields, this poOr stock cannot be properly 

 guarded, and is easily plundered of aU its contents. Honey 

 is taken that is in close proximity to dead bodies, corrupt- 

 ing by thousands, creating a pestilential vapor, of which it 

 has probably absorbed a portion. The seeds of destruction 

 are by this means carried into healthy stocks. In a short 

 time, these in turn fall victims to the scourge, and soon 

 dwindle away, when some other strong stock is able to 

 carry off their stores, and this destruction will only cease, 

 perhaps, with the last colony of the apiary. The moth is 

 ever ready with her burden of eggs, which she now depos- 

 its without hindrance, directly on the combs. In a short 

 time the worms finish the business, and are pronounced 

 guilty of all the charges, merely because they are found 

 carrying out effects that speedily follow such causes. 



In the summer of 1856 there was an extraordinary yield 

 of honey. The old stocks were examined at the usual time 

 after the issue of the first swai-ms, and the ordinary amount 

 of the disease was found. On the next examination, in 

 September, more than one half the old stocks had become 

 affected, while all the new swarms in the same yard were 

 entirely free. Had these caught the contagion by robbing, 

 the swarms would have participated, and would have been 

 equally affected. A new cause was evidently to be sought for. 



