Foul Brood 139 



colony, after the breeding season is over, the cappings are all cleared 

 away, and the dead brood is entirely dried up^mere scales almost the 

 color of old comb itself, lying fast to the lower sides of the cells, and 

 drawn back more or less from the mouths of the cells. There is probably 

 no symptom of foul brood that is more difficult for the novice to detect 

 than these dried-down scales, and, as just explained, except in the breed- 

 ing season, they are the only evidence that can be found of the disease. 

 Here are the instructions given by Mr. N. E. France, Inspector for Wis- 

 consin, for finding these scales : "Bring a brood-comb up from the hive 

 to the level of your chin ; then tip the top of the comb toward you, so your 

 view strikes the lower side walls (not the bottom) of the brood-cells 

 about one-third distant from the front end of the cells. Then turn so 

 that the rays of bright light will come over your shoulder, and shine where 

 your eye is looking. Gas or electric light will not take the place of good 

 daylight. On the lower side wall, a little back from the front end of 

 the infected cell, will be seen the dead larva bee, nearly black, with a sharp- 

 pointed head, often turned up a little, the back portion of the bee flattened 

 to a mere lining of the cell, often no thicker than the wax in the wall of 

 the comb. The base, or bottom of the cell, likely looks clean ; also all of 

 the other side walls of the cell." 



Honey is the means by which the disease is usually carried from one 

 hive to another. Mr. Frank Cheshire says that the mature bees, the 

 queen, and even the eggs, are infected in a diseased colony, but our best 

 authorities now believe that this is a mistake. Be this as it may, where 

 the bees of an infected colony swarm, or are shaken from their combs 

 into a new or clean hive, and given no combs in which they can store the 

 infected honey that they have brought with them, the brood hatched after- 

 ward in this newly formed colony remains free from disease. Foul brood 

 is often brought into an apiary by the bees robbing some diseased colony 

 in a neighboring apiary, and bringing home the honey. The buying of 

 second-hand honey-cans often brings foul brood into an apiary. If the 

 bees gain access to them they soon lick up any honey that may have 

 dripped upon the outside of the cans ; or the bee-keeper may rinse out 

 the cans and throw out the water upon the ground where the bees will 

 come and suck it up. I have known a bee-keeper to clean out a lot of 

 second-hand cans and feed the honey directly to the bees, with the result 

 that foul brood developed in every colony that was fed. In rare instances 

 the buying of queens from a distance has introduced foul brood into an 

 apiary. The queens themselves had nothing to do with disseminating 

 the disease, but the bees and honey that accompanied them brought with 

 them the germs of the disease. It is a safe plan to put the new queen into 

 a clean cage and destroy the accompanying bees and cage. After foul 



