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FOUL BROOD OR BEE BEST. 



[Sept. 1896. 



FOUL BROOD OR BEE PEST. 



Foul brood or Bee pest is the most terrible scourge of 

 apiculture. It spreads so rapidly by contagion in a single 

 season, that, unless precautions are taken, a whole neighbourhood 

 may become affected, and the chances of successful bee-keeping 

 therein will be seriously imperilled, if not utterly destroyed. 



Foul brood is caused by a rod-shaped micro-organism, called 

 Bacillus alvei, which increases by splitting, and has, under 

 certain conditions, the power of forming spores. It is important 

 to note that bacilli are present in the earliest stages of the 

 disease, but in the latest, when the brood has become rotten and 

 coffee-coloured, or has dried up to a scale, they turn to spores. 

 These represent the seeds of the evil, and retain the power 

 of germiuating into bacilli when in contact with a suitable 

 nourishing medium at a proper temperature, even after the 

 lapse of long periods. 



These spores are endowed with wonderful vitality. Freezing 

 and boiling, carbolic acid, phenol, thymol, salicylic acid, naph- 

 thol beta, perchloride of mercury, as well as creolin, lysol, 

 eucalyptus and naphthaline, which evaporate at the ordinary 

 temperature of the hive, prevent the growth of bacilli, but have 

 no effect on the spores. From this it will be seen how great 

 is the difficulty in curing foul brood, unless the disease is 

 attacked in its earliest conditions. 



When stocks are found weak, working languidly, very 

 slightly profitable, and swarming little, foul brood may be 

 suspected. If it is present, an examination of the combs will 

 show some cells (many or few) with dying or dead larvae in them, 

 and others with their covers sunken or perforated: but 

 the cells of healthy brood are usually compact, and the grubs 

 are plump and of a pearly whiteness. When healthy, the young 

 larvae are curled up in crescent shape at the base of the cells. 

 On the other hand, if diseased, they will be found extended 

 horizontally in the cell, presenting a flabby appearance, and 

 of a pale straw colour. As they begin to decompose, the colour 

 changes to brown. They then dry up till all that remains of 

 them is a brown scale adhering to the side of the cell. Should 

 the larvae survive until capping takes place,, a few of the cell- 

 €Overs will be found here and there slightly indented and 

 darker in colour than those of healthy brood. The capped 

 cells will be observed in irregular patches and mostly per- 

 forated. On removing the capping, the contents will be seen to 

 consist of a putrid, sticky, elastic, coffee-coloured mass, formed 

 of the rotting larvae. The bees do not seem to have the power 

 to clean out the foul cells, and so they remain, spreading 

 infection within the hive, until the stock becomes too weak to 



