Foul Brood. 309 



Another way to secure such colonies against robbing is to 

 move them into the cellar for a few days. This is a further 

 advantage, as less food is eaten, and the strength of the indi- 

 vidual bees is conserved by the quiet, and as there is no nec- 

 tar in the fields no loss is sufiered. 



In all the work of the apiary at times of no honey gather- 

 ing, we cannot be too careful to keep all honey from the bees 

 unless placed in the hives. The hives, too, should not be 

 kept open long at a time. Neat, quick work should be the 

 watch-word. During times when robbers are essaying to 

 practice their nefarious designs, the bees are likely to be more 

 than usually irritable, and likely to resent intrusion ; hence 

 the importance of more than usual caution, if it is desired to 

 introduce a queen. Working under the bee-tent (Fig. 101) 

 prevents all danger of inciting the bees to rob. 



DISEASE. 



The common dysentery — indicated by the bees soiling their 

 hives, as they void their feces within instead of without^ 

 which so frequently works havoc in our apiaries, is, without 

 doubt, I think, consequent upon wrong management on the 

 part of the apiarist, as already suggested in Chapter XVIII. 

 As the methods to prevent this have already been sufiiciently 

 considered, we pass to the terrible 



FOUL BROOD. 



This disease, said to have been known to Aristotle — though 

 this is doubtful, as a stench attends common dysentery — 

 though it has occurred in our State as well as in States about 

 us, is not familiar to me, I having never seen but one case, 

 and that on Kelly's Island, in the summer of 1875, where I 

 found it had reduced the colonies on that Island to two. Of 

 late I receive samples of this afiected brood each season. It 

 is causing sad havoc in many regions of our country. No bee 

 malady can compare with this in malignancy. By it Dzierzon 

 once lost his whole apiary of 500 colonies. Mr. E. Rood, first 

 President of the Michigan Association, has lost his bees two 

 or three times by this terrible plague. 



The symptoms are as follows : Decline in the prosperity of 

 the colony, because of failure to rear brood. The brood seems 

 to putrefy, becomes "brown and salvy," and gives off a stench 



