Texas Beekeeping. 



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something similar, into the mass and then withdrawing the same 

 slowly. If the disease is foul brood the mass will adhere to the 

 toothpick and string out, or ' ' rope, ' ' for about one-half inch or longer. 

 These rotten masses are repulsive to the bees and, therefore, they do 

 not remove them. Often the disease is discovered by the brood combs 

 being irregularly capped after the disease has existed for some timCj 

 and many of the cappings are sunken and perforated. By this time 

 much of the dead brood has flattened down on the lower side of the 

 cells, often leaving the tongue of the pupae sticking upward and 

 sometimes attached to the upper cell walls. When these have dried 

 down to scales on the lower cell walls, which can not be removed by 

 the bees, they are often difficult to see. The proper way of detecting 

 them is to hold the comb so that the light, coming over the observer 's 

 shoulder, strikes the lower walls of the cells. 



Inspector France looking for dried-down foul brood scales. 



When the material in which the bacilli thrive becomes dry, they no 

 longer continue to multiply, but form spores. This is a resistant 

 stage in which they are able to withstand adverse conditions. When 

 the bees use the cells containing dried scales of foul brood, these 

 spores are present in large numbers, and any honey which may be 

 placed in these cells immediately becomes infected with them. If 

 brood is reared in such cells the spores come in contact with the larvae, 

 are able to assume the active state again and continue to develop. In 

 this way the disease appears and spreads anew. If contaminated 

 honey from cells containing spores be fed to young larvae, the disease 

 will thrive in all probability, appear in this brood and thus infect 

 perfectly healthy larvae in clean cells. In this way the disease con- 

 tinues spreading in the hive until the contamination is so great that 

 the colony succumbs, as it is impossible to rear any brood to maturity. 



