148 EIGHTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OP THE 



into very carefully. I think that in the spring of the year we are apt 

 to have a disease that resembles it, and I have riiade up my mind 

 that it comes from poisoning, and I found the only remedy was to 

 move the swarm to another apiary, move them entirely away, a few 

 miles away, and the trouble would disappear at once. And there is 

 another point in regard to the cause. In one apiary I have, that is 

 enclosed with a high fence and trees over it, very shady, the bees would 

 take that disease almost entirely some years, and they are brought in 

 maybe from five or six apiaries. I make up the one apiary in the fall 

 from five or six, and in that one apiary they will all show it, they will 

 drawl out from the damp, dark places into the sunlight, swarm out 

 of there, while in the other apiaries they will not show any signs of it, 

 the apiaries that they came from. Now that is either due to the food, 

 or else it is due to the damp condition that the hives are in. It is a 

 question worth thinking about, because I find that that is almost sure 

 to be the case. It is only once in a great while that I have any of that 

 trouble, maybe once in five or six years. But the bees will go toward 

 the sun, out from under the trees, and swarm out on the gravel in 

 front of the hives, and those seem to come from all the apiaries, from 

 all the swarms, and those hives have been picked out from five or 

 six apiaries out in the country. Now, whether they get the honey 

 from some source that causes a sourness in the hive, or whether it 

 is the shade, something of the kind is the cause of it, I made up my 

 mind to that. I may be mistaken, but it is worth considering. 



Mr. Blaker. — Mr. President, we have got to speak of principles 

 in a condition of this kind, and in order to get at that, we have got to 

 find out whether — if it is the source from which the bees get the nectar, 

 than all the bees in the apiary would be affected. But I know it is not 

 true that that is the case, because in Minnesota we can have one or 

 two colonies that have this condition and the rest be perfectly free from 

 it, shows in my estimation that it is a bacterial disease, and that if there 

 is no transmission from one to the other it only affects those that are 

 originally affected. Now what it comes from in the first place O don't 

 know, but fundamentally I think we should look to this as a bacterial 

 condition or disease, and not poison from the nectar that we get. 



There was one particular case in Minnesota that I know of, that 

 the University found there, where a colony was affected, and it was 

 removed. The hive faced east when it was with the rest of the bees, 

 and it was set over in front of a. building facing south, where it got the 

 sunshinaall day long, and yet that colony had this condition continually 

 all summer long, while fifty colonies setting on the old stands were not 

 affected at ^11. "^ ' 



A MEitoER. — What time of the year did you first notice it? 



Mr. Blaker. — It was not my affair a(nd I could not give you the 

 exact figures, perhaps Professor Jager could tell you more about it 

 than I could, but I doubt if he could, because Mr. Frantz was looking 

 after that. But I myself know from having seen it there that it was 

 early in the season and it lasted all summer long, but the dates I can't 

 tell you. 



A Member. — From our friend's talk I gather that he thinks all of 

 the hundred colonies get their honey from the same source, the hundred 



