and its Economic Management. 115 



of bees, and one mass of foul brood which by all 

 appearances died immediately after the combs were passed 

 through the extractor. As every comb in the respective 

 brood chambers had been operated upon, the bees had 

 become disheartened and could not remove so much dead 

 matter, and after starting another smaller brood nest their 

 efforts appeared to have been gradually restricted, until 

 the conditions culminating in a state parallel with those set 

 forth in my proposition, the combs were in the worst stage 

 in which the disease of foul brood is known. 



But how do I know this wholesale death-rate was the 

 foundation of the complaint ? In the first instance the 

 disease was found only in those hives operated upon during 

 that early morning process. It was first brought to my 

 notice by another stock robbing one of the above, and 

 henceforth foul brood was revealed to me. The robbing 

 stock was the next to show signs of the disease. This 

 was in early Spring ; and then in one hive after the other 

 specks of the disease began to show themselves. This, I 

 have since found, was because I was not in the first place 

 sufificiently cautious to cleanse my hands and implements 

 after each manipulation, while in other cases the chapter 

 of accidents was continued by using the same frames and 

 hives again, though subjected to scalding. 



Some of the hives within a few feet of those badly 

 diseased, and whose brood combs were not disturbed at 

 any time, remained perfectly healthy. The rest of the 

 apiary was finally renovated by starting the bees on new 

 combs in new frames, after the so-called " starvation " 

 treatment. 



I do not stand alone in my conviction that foul brood 

 may originate in a district where hitherto it has not been 

 known, and without being imported from an infected 

 source. Mr. McEvoy, in particular, has offered much con- 



