90 



THE BOOK OF BEE-KEEPING. 



Foul Brood, with Row of Healthy 

 Lance on Top. 



ancient writers speak of the loss of their bees by disease, even 

 as far back as Virgil, and Dryden in more recent times. A 

 district in our own county, Berks, was celebrated some half 

 century ago for the number of its bee-keepers, but through disease 

 has ceased to be so, it now being quite the exception to find a bee- 

 keeper in the district. Foul brood is the bee-keeper's bane. No 

 good will accrue from inquiring into its source ; it is here ! Let 



it be stamped out ! The ap- 

 pearance presented by this 

 disease is only to be observed 

 in the combs. As its name 

 implies, it is a disease of the 

 lirvas or pupae, although it can 

 be microscopically traced in the 

 imago stage. Remove a frame 

 from a hive affected with this 

 disease ; the first object that 

 meets the eye is that some 

 patches of cappings are very much 

 darker than the surrounding 

 ones, and these, instead of being 

 convex, as healthy ones are, 

 are irregularly concave. In some 

 of these cappings there are 

 punctures, as though the bees had commenced to remove them, 

 taut had been driven away by the unpleasant contents. Remove 

 the cappings from one of these cells, and insert the end of a 

 lucifer match ; withdraw it, and a dark brown, semi-liquid material 

 will be brought forth, adhering to the end, which can be drawn out 

 into a thin line, as can be done with treacle or partially dry 

 varnish ; the smell of this is most offensive, reminding one of 

 putrid fish. In many of the uncapped cells the larvae are in 

 abnormal positions ; in others, all that remains of them are masses 

 of dark grey or dirty yellow substances. These have the 

 same nauseous smell as before described. In a healthy comb — 

 as top row of cells in illustration — the larvae are always curled 

 round in the cell ; this position is rarely seen with diseased 

 larvae after the disease has commenced to attack them. AH the 

 larvae of a healthy colony are pearly white, but the diseased are 

 yellowish grey. Owing to the destruction of the larvae, the colony 

 gradually dwindles, and ultimately becomes a mass of rotting 

 brood ; at this time the disease can be detected by the smell 

 which emanates from the entrance, at some distance away from 

 the hive. A colony slightly affected has the same smell, but this 

 is only noticeable on removal of quilts from top of frames, and 

 can rarely be smelt at the entrance. Another form of " foul 

 brood " is frequently met with, in which all the various symptoms 

 of the former virulent kind are seen, but with little or no smell. 



