A Cause Suggested
Categories:
DISEASED BROOD.
Bee Keeping:
Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained
We are all familiar to some extent with the contagious diseases of the
human family, such as small-pox, whooping-cough, and measles, and their
rapid spread from a given point, &c. We must also admit that some cause
or causes, adequate to the effect, must have produced the first case.
To contagion, then, I would attribute the spread of this disease of our
bees, at least nineteen cases in twenty. I will admit, if you please,
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that one stock in twenty or fifty may be somewhat affected by a chill
to a small extent. It is only a portion of the brood that is in
danger--only such as have been sealed over, and before they have
progressed to the chrysalis state, are attacked. How many then can
there be in a hive at any one time, in just the right stage of
development to receive the fatal chill? Of course there will be some;
but they should be confined to the cells near the bottom, where the
bees had left them exposed. These should be all; and these few would
never seriously damage the stock. Why then does this disease, when
thoroughly started, spread so rapidly throughout all the combs in the
hive? Will it be said that the chill is repeated every few days through
the summer? Or will it be admitted that something else may continue it?
I think there must be other causes, besides the chill, even to start
it, in most cases. As our practice will be in accordance with the view
we take of this matter, and the result of our course will be somewhat
important, I will give some of the reasons that have led to this
conclusion.