November 27, 188t. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTIGULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
493 
I would like to see dispelled. Of all insects I know none is more 
useful than the bee. Many serve a double, and in fact many pur¬ 
poses, some of which we can see the beginning and the end, but with 
the bee it is different, so manifold are the purposes it serves. We 
see it enter a flower for the ostensible purpose, of robbing it of its 
nectar, but while it is so doing it is perhaps unconsciouuable that it 
is at the sarne time fertilising and cross-fertilising fruit blossoms and 
flowers, which will in a time give pleasure and profit to many. I 
leave it to an abler pen than mine to fully describe the many uses 
of the bee arid its produce ; but I must try to impress the enemies of 
the drone with its usefulness. Everybody who keeps bees knows 
that but few drones accompany either first or second swarms, while 
the old stock has many. It has been thought by some that the lazy 
drone, as he is termed, is too great a glutton to leave a well-filled 
larder and migrate with the swarm to an empty house. I look upon 
this in quite a different light. My opinion is that, as is often the 
case when a swarm issues, there are not enough bees left to hatch 
the brood, which but for the presence of the drones would die. 
Ihese drones, though taking no part in the internal economy of the 
hive, increase the heat and moisture so essential to the brood in an 
immature state. 
Both books and people teach that drones are killed at a certain 
period, but this though partially true is misleading. If the weather 
becomes wet and cold after the young queens have been served, and 
sometimes before it, drones are often killed or put out the hive ; but 
it the weather continues fine and the bees are collecting much honey, 
such as they do in a season like this has been at the Heather, the 
drones are allowed to live. Their presence not only assists to hatch 
the brood through the heat generated, but materially assists in comb- 
formation, now more required than ever, as the hone}'^ is more plentiful 
and the nights colder than they were in July. Thus we see not only 
a double but a treble purpose and use in the drone, which is liable 
to be lost sight of by many.— Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
FOUL BROOD. 
ITS CURE BY FASTING WITHOUT THE USE OF DRUGS OR 
CHEMICALS. 
[A paper read by Mr. D. A. Jones before the North American Bee 
Keepers’ Association, in Convention at Rochester, New York, October 29th, 
1884.1 > . ) 
There has been so much said of late on this subject that it would 
seem to be pretty well worn out, but there are yet many apiaries 
suffering from the malady where a simple and effective treatment 
would be gladly tried if known. I have experimented considerably, 
and found that the disease can be cured without any difficulty, with¬ 
out any medicine, and without any danger of spreading the disease, 
when properly managed, without any possibility of its ever returning. 
_ Perhaps 1 may be allowed to describe the disease as I have found 
it in Canada. In speaking of foul brood I would first distinguish it 
from all other diseases, such as chilled brood, over-heated or scalded 
brood, neglected brood, starved brood, dead brood caused by shipping 
bees, and another kind of dead brood which resembles foul brood in 
some respects, and is doubtless what some call a mild type of foul 
brood. It would make this article too long to describe minutely the 
appearance of the various kinds of dead brood above referred to, and 
the various causes of its appearance. I also do not wish to inter¬ 
fere with any other person's system of curing foul brood, but simply 
to give my own, which has proved successful with myself and scores 
of others, in the hope that those who have tried various remedies un¬ 
successfully may be encouraged to try once more, and with no further 
expense, and with but little trouble, rid their apiaries of this foul 
disease. I do not believe, with some, that there is only one method 
of cure (and that their own). I know, by experience that it can be 
cured in various ways, and 1 intend to continue my experiments with 
the aim of still further simplifying, if possible, the method of cure. 
Some imagine that foul brood may be discovered by the foul 
smell arising from the diseased colonies. This is true as far as it 
goes, but if one waits until then there is a probability that very many 
if not all the colonies in his apiary have become diseased. Before 
such a condition had resulted the disease would have been running 
for a long time in some one or two colonies, from which, especially 
in spring or fall when robbing is carried on more or less, the sur¬ 
rounding hives would surely bo contaminated and become themselves 
centres of infec iin. A single drop of honey taken from a diseased 
hive, if given to the larvae of a healthy hive, is sufficient to start the 
work of wha% unarrested, is inevitable destruction. When the 
disease becomes very bad much of the brood dies before it is capped 
over, and never is capped after it once dies. I have frequently seen 
colonies that had become so diseased that a very large portion of the 
brood had died just before it was capped, and some of the larvae 
before it had got its full growth. 
In examining the larva just before and after it dies, I find that a dark 
spot first appears about its centre, and increases in size very rapidly. 
Shortly after its appearance short thread-like veins extend from 
this centre towards both extremities of the larva and appear to plant 
two new spots, from which more veins soon radiate. The veins and 
spots then gradually enlarge until the entire larva is uniformly 
affected. The skin of the larva also commences to wrinkle and 
shrivel up on the top side, the larva flattens down and gradually^ 
recedes to the back of the cell, and finally becomes the brown putrid 
mass which distinguishes foul brood so markedly from all the above- 
mentioned maladies. 
This brown ropy matter has a sticky and tenacious, almost elastic, 
consistency, and if a pin head be inserted in it and drawn slowly out 
it wilt stretch like indiarubber and jerk back into the cell again. 
The bees make efforts to remove it, but after a few trials give it up 
in disgust, and philosophically endure what even they find too in¬ 
corrigibly obdurate to cure. Allowed to remain this viscid substance 
in time dries up at the bottom of the cell and would not be noticed 
except by a close observer. 
Diseased larvae that are capped over are indicated by a sinking of 
the capping compared with the fuller appearance on the capping of 
healthy larvae. A small puncture is also made by the bees in the 
capping in size from a pinpoint to a pinhead. This seems to satisfy 
them that there is nothing to expect, and the cell is left to itself. If 
the apiarist opens such cells carefully and finds the contents as above, 
he may be sure he has foul brood, but if the larva retains its shape 
and size, and the skins seem perfect, even though somewhat shrivelled, 
that is not foul brood. These punctures are sometimes made in 
merely dead brood capping, their non-emergence at the proper time 
being doubtless noticed by the bees and thus investigated. Wherever 
foul brood exists in a colony during the brooding season the brown 
ropy matter in the cells may be found. 
I could describe several methods of cure, but the following I 
think will be ample, and as it is very simple and easily performed it 
comes within the reach of everybody. If the bees have any brood I 
do not destroy that brood. I remove all the bees that can be spared 
from the hive, leaving only sufficient to take care of the brood while 
it is hatching, taking the queen with the bees. I endeavour to have 
them all filled with honey before removing. They are then shaken 
in a box with a wire screen lid, and placed in a box in a dark and 
cool cellar. The box should be turned down on its side ; the bees 
will cluster on the other side which will then be uppermost, and the 
wire screen forming a side for the time being will allow of free 
ventilation. They should be left thus from three to six days accord¬ 
ing to the temperature and condition of the bees, which may be 
determined by watching, and when a few bees fall down and begin 
to crawl in a weak stupid manner, and those still clustering appear to 
have shrunk, they may then be removed, placed in a hive and sup¬ 
plied with comb or foundation the same as a swarm. A little honey 
or syrup should be given them, when they will soon be out foraging 
again for themselves. I have not been able to see any difference 
between swarms so fasted until the foul honey in the abdomen has 
been consumed, and an ordinary swarm of similar size. Both seem 
to go to work with the determination that characterises their race. 
Some still say this fasting plan is a failure, but where that has 
been said it cannot have been properly tried. As soon as the brood 
which was left in the foul-brood hive with some bees as directed, is 
hatched out, they should be treated like the others, the combs ren¬ 
dered into wax, and the hive and frames boiled for a few minutes in 
hot water. The wax in the form of foundation may be inserted in 
the same frames and be ready in the purified hive to receive with 
perfect safety the former inmates as soon as their purification is 
complete. The honey in the foul-brood combs if extracted and boiled 
for ten minutes, can be fed to bees without any fear of bad results. 
Boiling will only kill the germs of the disease. I have subjected foul- 
brood combs to a temperature of 35° below zero and allowed them to 
freeze all winter, then placed one of them in a healthy nucleus, and 
as soon as it was filled with brood and commenced to hatch I have 
found at first examination a very large number of larvae affected with 
foul brood. Frost will therefore not kill the disease. 
I search out every case of foul brood in this part of Canada, and 
have never failed to effect a cure at the first attempt. In fact, there 
are a great many in Canada now who no longer dread foul brood as 
they used to, knowing they can cure any colony with one or two hours’ 
labour. 
We have had some good and valuable hints on foul brood in tin 
journals, and some sheer nonsense. Fine-spun scientific theories 
are sometimes good, but solid facts from extensive practical experi¬ 
ence IS what suits me best. 
So soon as*I shall be able to find time it is ray intention to write 
up more fully a complete and exhaustive article treating on the 
disease, its origin, and its cure, and by illustrations I hope to make it 
perfectly plain and clear, so that the disease may not be looked upon 
as at present by many as an incurable one. 
