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noticed, which on the insertion of a splinter of wood will adhere to the point, and can be drawn rope-like for some little distance out of the cells. This is one of the most distinctive features of foul-brood, and where present is generally considered conclusive of the disease. Later on this glue-like substance dries up into the before-mentioned black scale-like body.
Other symptoms are pin-holes and ragged perforations in the cappings of the cells, clearly shown in Plates III and IV, and a very disagreeable smell resembling that of heated glue or tainted meat, which can be sometimes detected at some yards away from a badly infected hive, especially in close weather. The characteristic odour cannot easily be detected in the earliest stages, even when an infected comb is placed close to the nose, but some slight difference can be noticed between that and healthy comb at all times.
Treatment of Foul-brood.
Treatment by drugs, so prominent at one time, has all but universally been abandoned as useless. Mr. S. Simmins, a well-known English beekeeper and the author of A Modern Bee-farm, still swears by the Izal treatment, but after giving it a thorough trial at the Ruakura Apiary in the season of 1906–7, my assistants reported that it utterly failed to cure, but, like other well-known drugs, it seemed to check it a little. Except for disinfecting hives and appliances, I do not recommend the use of drugs in the apiary.
The Starvation Cure.
The so-called starvation method for treatment of foul-brood or brood-diseases is now recognised as the most effective, and has been universally adopted by leading beekeepers. 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.
Treatment may be successfully undertaken at any time when honey is being freely stored. When going through the hives in spring make a note of those showing signs of diseased combs (which are readily detected at that time), for treatment later on, and be very careful that robbing is not started. When the honey season has set in, keeping the bees busy, treatment should begin. All operations in this connection should be carried out in the evening, when the bees are quiet.
Prepare a clean hive and bottom board with narrow starters of combfoundation in the frames. Remove the infected hive and stand to one side, and put the prepared one in its place, prop up the front about an inch, lay a sack near the entrance, and shake and brush the bees as quietly as possible close to the entrance, and when finished remove every vestige of the infected hive away where bees cannot get at it. The combs, if not too badly infected, may be melted into wax, or, if insufficient in quantity for that purpose, they, with their frames, had better be burned right away and the ashes buried. The hive, bottom board, and cover,
