44 



ADVANCED BBE-CULTURE. 



Notice if the "pearly field" of unsealed 

 larvae is unbroken. If there are desolate 

 patches, examine more critically. If 

 some of the larvae are discolored, shape- 

 less, ropy, ill-smelling, some of the cap- 

 pings sunken, perhaps perforated, foul 

 brood is present. Perhaps the one sure 

 symptom of foul brood is the ropiness of 

 the larvae. If a splinter or tooth-pick be 

 thrust into a dead larvae, and then slowly 

 withdrawn, the matter will adhere to the 

 splinter and "string out" an inchormore 

 iu length, then break, and the two ends 

 fly back to the points of attachment. 

 Dr. A. B. Mason, who has had much ex- 

 perience with foul brood, says that he 

 has had many specimens of brood sent 

 him by men who feared their bees were 

 affected by foul brood, and when this 

 elastic, tenacious condition of the brood 

 was absent he had never hesitated to 

 place the suspected brood in a colony of 

 bees, and no harm had ever resulted. 



All of the above indications will be 

 seen only during the breeding season. 

 In a strong colony, after the breeding 

 season is over, the cappings are all clear- 

 ed away, and the dead brood is entirely 

 dried up — mere scales almost of the color 

 of the comb itself , lyingfast to the lower 

 side of the cells, and drawn back more or 

 less from the openings. To tell whether 

 combs have been infected, Mr. R. D. 

 Tayler suggests that these minute scales 

 be looked for. He says : ' ' Hold the comb 

 with the bottom bar from you, in dif- 

 ferent directions^ until the light strikes 

 well into the lower sides of the cells, 

 when, if infected, the scales are very 

 evident." 



Honey is the means by which the dis- 

 ease is usually carried from one hive to 

 another. Mr. Cheshire says that the ma- 

 ture bees, the queen and even the eggs 

 are infected in a diseased colony. Be 

 this as it may, where the bees of an in- 

 fected colony swarm, or are shaken from 

 their combs and put into a new or disin- 

 fected hive, and given no combs in which 

 they can store the infected honey that 

 they may have brought with them, the 



brood hatched afterwards in this newly 

 formed colony remains free from disease. 



When foul brood is discovered, what 

 shall be done? In the first place don't 

 "lose your head" as the saying is. Don't 

 be in such a haste to be rid of the pest, 

 that a crop of honey is lost, and the work 

 of eradication imperfectly performed. 

 What is to be specially guarded against is 

 allowing healthy colonies to have combs 

 or honey from those that are diseased. 

 Robbing is particularly to be guarded 

 against. It is for this reason that cura- 

 tive operations can be carried on success- 

 fully only during a honey flow, when bees 

 will not rob. If foul brood is discovered 

 after the honey season is over, treatment 

 must be postponed until the following 

 season. 



The spraying of the combs with acids, 

 and the feeding of the bees with medica- 

 ted honey, seems to be of little avail, so 

 far as eradicating the disease is concern- 

 ed. Such treatment checks the disease, 

 but cannot be depended upon to effect a 

 cure. The only plan of treatment that 

 can be depended upon to effect a radical 

 cure, is to shake off the bees, during a 

 honey flow, into a new or scalded fcive 

 having no combs in which the bees can 

 store (and thus save up) any of the infec- 

 ted honey which they may have brought 

 with them. If there is much healthy 

 brood left in the old hive, a few bees 

 may be left to protect it, and the hive 

 allowed to stand until the brood is all 

 hatched, when the bees from several hives 

 so treated may be united in a new hive 

 and given a queen. Where the hives 

 have loose bottom boards, several hives 

 from which the bees, or nearly all of 

 them, have been taken, may be placed 

 one above the other, when, iu three 

 weeks, all of the healthy brood will have 

 hatched and will be already united in one 

 colony, when the bees can be given a new 

 hive and a queen, leaving the combs free 

 from healthy brood. 



Mr. R. L. Taylor has had much ex- 

 perience with foul brood. He succeeded 

 in ridding a large apiary of the disease, 



