DISEASED BROOD. 
269 
fail when thoroughly tested,” &c. Mr. Weeks, in 
answer, said, “ that cold weather in spring chilling 
the brood was the cause.” (This was several years 
prior to his article in the N. E. Farmer.) Another 
gentleman said, “ dead bees and filth that accumulated 
during winter, when suffered to remain in the spring, 
was the cause.” A few years after, another corres- 
pondent appeared in the Cultivator, giving particulars 
of his experience, proving very conclusively to him- 
self and many others, that cold was the cause. Hav- 
ing mislaid the paper containing his article, I will 
endeavor to quote correctly from memory. He had 
“ three swarms issue in one day ; the weather during 
the day changed from very hot to the other extreme, 
producing frost in many places the next morning. 
These swarms had left but few bees in the old stocks, 
and the cold forced them up among the combs for 
mutual warmth ; the brood near the bottom, thus left 
without bees to protect it with animal heat, became 
chilled, and the consequence was diseased larvae.” 
He then reasoned thus : “ If the eggs of a fowl, at 
any time near the end of incubation, become chilled 
from any cause, it stops all further development. 
Bees are developed by continued heat, on the same 
principle, and a chill produces the same effect, &c. ; 
afterwards, other swarms issued under precisely simi- 
lar circumstances ; but these old stocks were covered 
with a blanket through the night, which enabled the 
bees to keep at the bottom of the hive. In a few 
days, enough were hatched to render this trouble un- 
necessary. These last remained healthy.” He fur- 
