126 Texas Department op Agricultuee. 



marked change, while it may disappear of itself, even within a short 

 time in most cases. 



The bees continue to remove the dead larvae, but, in severe cases, 

 they seem to be unable to keep this up, and in such instances the bee- 

 keeper should give his attention to the colony and treat it by brush- 

 ing the bees into a clean hive as practiced in treating colonies for 

 foul brood. This will hardly ever be necessary, however, except in 

 severe cases. In general the disease haS not done any considerable 

 amount of damage; but, from numerous reports received during the 

 spring of 1911, there was very much pickled brood present in some 

 parts of the State, and considerable damage was done before the dis- 

 ease was checked. 



There are other forms of dead brood, caused by chilling, overheat- 

 ing, starvation or poisoning, but these are local in character and due 

 to weather conditions, or faulty management. 



Chilled Broody This is frequently found in colonies in the spring 

 immediately after a cold spell of weather. The dead brood is found 

 mostly in the outer portions of the brood nest proper, caused by the 

 bees being unable to cover the young brood sufficiently. Too open 

 entrances, or cracks in the hives, are often a cause, whereas a colony 

 in a good, tight and warm hive can take care of its brood even during 

 an unexpected severe spell of cold weather. More often the bee- 

 keeper is at fault by deranging the brood combs during an examina- 

 tion and spreading the brood so the clustering bees can not cover the 

 young brood. The bees will clean out the dead brood as soon as warm 

 weather permits and will need no further attention unless the amount 

 of chilled brood is very large. 



Overheated Brood. During the summer overheated brood may be 

 discovered, and the chief cause may be the lack of ventilation and too 

 high a temperature on account of too small entrances to the hives or 

 the lack of shade. Especial care should be given colonies when mov- 

 ing them in hot weather, or suffocation of both brood and bees may 

 result in the destruction of the entire colony. 



Starved Brood. Starved brood is caused by larvae dying for lack of 

 sufficient and proper food, either by the colonies running short of 

 stores during the fall after the close of the honey season, or before 

 the opening of the honey season in the spring. It may occur, also, 

 during a sudden ceasing of the honey flow at any time of the year. 

 Properly feeding such colonies will restore them. This is easily done 

 by giving combs of honey from strong colonies in exchange for their 

 empty ones. There should be certainty that these combs contain no 

 disease germs. If there is any doubt, sugar syrup should be fed. 



Poisoned Brood. Poisoned brood is not often reported. It may be 

 caused by fruit growers, or others, applying poison sprays while the 

 fruit trees or other plants are in bloom, in which case the bees carry 

 home the poison with the nectar or pollen gathered. Since such 

 spraying is not done very largely in this State, there has been very 

 little trouble from this source. The question has often been asked, 

 whether the dusting of such poisons as Paris green and London pur- 

 ple upon cotton plants for the destruction of the "army leaf worm" 

 would result dangerously to bees located within the reach of the 

 fields. Since a good deal of such poisoning has been done on cotton 



