Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/219

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ENEMIES AND DISEASES OF BEES
177

and they die in the cells. It always attacks, to a lesser extent, the adult bee; but these leave the hive to die and are not such a dangerous source of infection as are the decaying larvæ. Infected honey is the medium by which the disease is ordinarily spread from hive to hive. Undoubtedly robbing is to a great extent responsible for its prevalence.

HOW TO DETECT FOUL BROOD

The brood appears in irregular patches and it does not all hatch; the caps to the brood cells may be sunken and broken at the centre, the holes being irregular, instead of the neat circular perforations which may be found above the healthy larvae. The sure test of the presence of the disease is found in the dead body of the larva, which is dark and discoloured; and if a toothpick or pin be thrust into it and then drawn back, the body contents will adhere to it in a stringy mass, to the extent of a half or even an entire inch, as if it were mucous or glue; later the bodies of the larvae dry and appear as black scales in the cell bottoms. Another evidence of the presence of the disease is a peculiarly disagreeable odour which permeates the hive, which Mr. Root likens to that of a glue pot.

Remedies.—These have been worked out by many bee-keepers, notably by Mr. William McEvoy, inspector of bees in Ontario, Canada. His remedy is as follows: When there is a good honey flow so the bees will not suffer, all the comb is taken from the infected colony and frames with foundation-