ILLIXOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATIOX. 143 



hundreds of colonies, bee-keepers gave it scant attention, and seemed 

 to think that it was probably caused by bad weather, and that on the 

 appearance of warm, sunshiny daj^s that the trouble would, according 

 to its name, disappear. 



But such was not the case, and the disease continued to cause a 

 great deal of havoc in different apiaries, and took a large toll, not only 

 of the bees, but also cut down the honey crops materially, and I haven't 

 any doubt that there are people right here in this room that have had 

 their honej^ crops cut down and had no idea of the real cause back of 

 it, for oftentimes you would never recognize it as a disease at all, that 

 is, the first symptoms, and yet it is taking away a great many bees, 

 enough to weaken the colonies so that they are not good honey pro- 

 ducers. And I si^eak from others' experience as well as my own when 

 I say that I think that the disease is serious enough to challenge our 

 attention. I think that we ought to post ourselves concerning its 

 symptoms, and be ready at its first approach to recognize it and learn 

 all we possibly can concerning it, for it is a disease that varies in differ- 

 ent localities and under different conditions. It resembles the Isle of 

 Wight, and may possibly be identical with it, but we certainly need 

 more data before we can be positive about the disease. 



The symptoms of the disease are quite varied. Sometimes it 

 starts gradually, one hardly notices it, but other times it starts sud- 

 denly. The first the bee-keeper notices is a great number of dead bees 

 out in front of the hives. And some of the bees sometimes appear 

 very sluggish, torpid, and other times real lively, in fact just frantic, 

 running about this way and that way, climbing up on top of blades of 

 grass and just as they are at the top falling helplessly. If they are 

 examined it will be noted oftentimes that their legs seem to be — at 

 least part of them will seem to be parah'zed, and sort of drag along as 

 they walk. Other times you won't notice that. Sometimes the wings 

 seem abnormal, and the bees, when them attempt to fly have the 

 appearance of loafing, just a few inches at a time. Other times they 

 will actually take flight and perhaps fly two or three feet, and then 

 fall quite suddenly, and I suppose great numbers of them doubtless 

 are strong enough at the start to fly awaj' from the yard and then 

 never return, because the number of bees that are dead in front of the 

 hives would not account for all of them. 



Sometimes i:)lack, shiny bees, looking something like robl^ers, may 

 be noted, and doubtless that shiny appearance is caused by the bees 

 rubbing their bodies, because when they become really frantic they 

 act as though they vvere in pain and take their legs and rub their bodies 

 ver}"- vigorously, and also their heads. 



Sometimes I have noticed in front of a hive over a dozen bees 

 that were diseased being pulled out at the entrance by the other well 

 bees. They would tug and pull at them, sometimes two or three at 

 one bee, and as soon as they got them out of the entrance they paid no 

 further attention to them. But these bees that are affected will group 

 together in httle bunches and apparently seem to want the societj' of 

 the others probably for warmth. 



If you "will watch them sometimes you will see most unusal antics. 

 Often times they will rise up high on their legs, and taking their front 



