FOUL BROOD IN BEES,

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LVII, 18 August 1910, Page 5

FOUL BROOD IN BEES,

There are; now- a considerable number of enthusiastic bee-keepers in and around- Hawera, and every day more and more interest is being, taken in the pursuitr— air interest which is nurtured and scientifically directed to a large extent by tie very successful classes held in the (technical School, It is therefore not amiss to draw attention to an article in. the journal of the Dopartmant of Agriculture by Mr W- B. Bray, Bee Imtructor, on "Foul-Brood in Bees,, and its Treatment," foul-brood being, as Mr Bray states, "without doubt the disease which most hinders the profitable keeping, of bees in New Zealand." Foul-brood is a contagiousgerm disease which attacks and kills th* larvae in, the cells.. The bees allow the resulfcin ' rotten matter to remain there, ana in proportion as. the number of infected cells increases,, so does the numbei of hatching, bees decrease- Eventually the colony dies right' out. What honey is left is carried away by bees from otheir colonies, which; also- become infected and eventually die. Formerly, with the box hive system such happenings were generally attributed to "bad luck" or ""bad seasons," and bee-keep-ing wa3 a very precarious business indeed. In the past few years the Department has, aimed at remedying this state of affairs through experts visiting bee-keepers and giving them' practical instructions. Foul-brood is usually introduced into the hive in honey obtained from a previously infected colony. The spore or seed gets into the alimentary canal of the larvae along with the food or bee-milk, and at once begins to increase at an enormous rate until all the available food is used up. Mr Bray fully describes all the symptoms of the disease, and goes on to deal with the treatment required to, stamp it out. The first requisite, it is explained, is that there must be sufficient bees to form an average sized swarm. Otherwise it is better tb destroy bees and all, as the bees, being old, would die off too rapidly and so weaken the colony before the new brood hatched. All treatment should be carried out late in the afternoon when the bees are quiet for the 'day. A set of frames has to be prepared with a half-inch strip of foundationwax called a "starter," in each. A fresh hive may be used, but is not necessary. An empty hive-body is required, with a cover, to put the combs in as they are taken away. If the same hive is to be used, the bottom board must first be scraped clean. The comb* are then to be removed one by one, every bee is to be brushed off into the* hive, and the combs put into the spare hive-body. After three or four combs are' out, the frames containing the starters pan be> put in one by one as the remaining combe are removed. The bees run across the bottom and up on to these frames without any trouble. All burr combs oh the side of the hive must be scraped off to remove any honey, and after filling up with the remaining starters, a new mat is placed over the frames, and the roof put od. The bees clean up any honey that remains inside the hive, and then the. only honey they have is contained in their honey-sacs. They have to use this to make wax for the comb-building, and in this way they lose the disease. In four days' time these frames are removed in the same way, and frames contakiing full sheets of foundationwax put in their place. The bees this time must be brushed off the combs quickly and quietly (without using too much smoke) so that they, get very little honey, in case any of the infected honey has been stored in the new comb. By this method the bees are compelled to build new comb entirely, twice in succession, and the second time they have no honey with them likely to contain the germs of the disease. The colony will then remain clean unless it becomes infected' from outside sources. This has been called the "starvation treatment," but the bee? do not starve, as they are able to gather new honey the whole time. With regard to disinfection, Mr Bray points out that the spores of foulbrood can survive 5 per cent, carbolic solution and 1-1000 corrosive sublimate for two months, and they resist the boiling-temperature of water for fifteen minutes. The best authorities, however, cannot say that disinfection by itself will effect a cure, or that it will prevent the return of disease. Ono New Zealand apiarist moved all his infected colonies into one apiary, and treated one hundred at once in their own hives, and without using disinfectants. Only one colony had a recurrence of disease. It is argued that tho experience of bee-keepers . in New Zealand and elsewhere in curing thousands of cases without disinfectants goes to show that re-combing is the most simple method that the bee-keeper can adopt. In addition to the points touched upon, there are many notes in Mr Bray's conftribution that will repay perusal by bee-keepers.