52 



than does American foul-brood {Bacillus larvw), and a comparatively 

 small percentage of the diseased brood is ever capped ; the diseased larvsB 

 which are capped over have sunken and perforated cappings. The larvae 

 when first attacked show a small yellow spot on the body near the head, 

 and move uneasily in the cell ; when death occurs they turn yellow, then 

 brown, and finally almost black. Decaying larvae which have died of this 

 disease do not usually stretch out in a long thread when a small stick is 

 inserted and slowly removed ; but occasionally there is a very slight 

 " ropiness," but this is never very marked. The thoroughly dried larvaj 

 form irregular scales which are not strongly adherent to the lower side wall 

 of the cell. There is very little odour from decaying larvae which have died 

 from this disease, and when an odour is noticeable it is not the " glue-pot " 

 odour of American foul-brood, but more nearly resembles that of soured 

 dead brood. This disease attacks drone and queen larvae very soon after 

 the colony is infected. It is, as a rule, much more infectious than American 

 foul-brood and spreads more rapidly. On the other hand, it sometimes 

 occurs that the disease will disappear of its own accord, a thing which the 

 author never knew to occur in a genuine case of American foul - brood. 

 European foul-brood is most destructive during the spring and early summer, 

 often almost disappearing in late summer and autumn. 



Caution to those importing Bees and Queens. 



It is now generally understood that disease (" foul-brood " and " black- 

 brood ") may readily be conveyed from one country to another through 

 the food supplied to the queens and bees, be it honey in combs or the usual 

 " candy," with which the queen-cages are furnished. The latter is made 

 with sugar and some honey, and as it is through germ-infected honey that 

 disease is generally conveyed, it is absolutely necessary that every precau- 

 tion should be taken against risk, lest we inadvertently import the dreaded 

 " black-brood." 



The measures to be taken to avoid risk are simple. With queens every- 

 thing except the queens themselves, including the bees accompanying them, 

 should be burned after the queen has been put into a clean introducing- 

 cage. In the case of colonies, the comb and frames should be burned, and 

 the bees be treated at once on the McEvoy plan as follows :^ 



Treatment op Foul- brood. 



Time and experience have so convincingly proved that treatment by 

 drugs (so prominent at one time) utterly failed to make any inroads on the 

 disease that it would be waste of time to discuss the matter here. We have 

 in the McEvoy treatment, when properly carried out, an effective cure, 

 which has already been tried and proved in probably thousands of cases in 

 New Zealand, and that is the one I advocate. 



Where the disease is so far advanced as to have left few bees in the colony, 

 then it will be safest to destroy everything that has been in contact with 

 it by fire. " Tinkering " with such a colony would be both useless and 

 dangerous. 



