152 BEE-FARMING. 



Many causes have been assigned for this disease. Some 

 talented and thoughtful bee-keepers have supposed it was 

 caused at first by the brood being chilled ; thus dying, they 

 decay in the cells, and become a putrefying mass. This 

 theory has long since disappeared. Microscopical science 

 has revealed the true secret, which is a kind of mould 

 {fungus), the spores from which may float about in the 

 atmosphere, and when they find a suitable nidus they 

 speedily generate the foul-brood so called. 



Speaking from my limited experience of this fearful 

 malady as it appeared in North of England apiaries, I 

 cannot hold out any hopes of a successful remedy. Where 

 the bees are in straw skeps it is wise to destroy the stock, 

 of course saving both honey and wax, for these are in no 

 case injured for domestic consumption ; then either burn 

 the hive, or destroy it in some way, for to use it again 

 without disinfection is only to foster the disease. But 

 Tvhere wooden hives are employed in the apiary I should 

 advise the bee-keeper to boil them well in soda, then dis- 

 infect them thoroughly by means of either carbolic acid or 

 chloride of lime. Never allow any of your healthy stocks 

 to feed on honey taken from a diseased stock ; some of 

 my friends have thought they could do no harm by so 

 doing, until, when too late, they discovered their folly. 



The appearance of the foul-brood, or of a stock thus 

 -infected, is a thoroughly disheartening sight ; they seem 

 to have no energy or wish to labour — they fly about in a 

 lazy kind of manner, and linger much about the entrance. 

 Inside is worse still ; the cells, generally sealed over, may 

 be detected at once by having a dark colour, and with a 

 few holes in each : every cell-cover is sunken. I hope 

 none of my readers may have the sad experience of this 

 infectious disease that I have had. It is enough, especially 

 in the case of a young apiarian, to compel him to give up 

 the pursuit in disgust, after labouring hard to make the 



