THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



529 



of July, August and September, not 

 infrequently prolonged into October and 

 November by the blue curl, spike or 

 alkali weed, and the so-called jackass 

 clover. Extracting begins some time in 

 July and any where from one hundred 

 to two hundred pounds surplus per 

 colony may be consistently expected. 



THE BEE DISEASE SITUATION ACUTE. 



Just how long black brood has been in 

 California is somewhat a matter of 

 speculation. We are of the opinion that 



A story without words! California black 

 brood campaign. 



it has been here for a good many years. 

 Indeed, there is some evidence to the 

 effect that it was here ten or twelve 

 years ago. However this may be, certain 

 it is here now, and was last year, and 

 has been definitely seen in the San 

 Joaquin valley for the past three or four 

 years, although not definitely established 

 to be black brood similar to that 

 recently prevalent and so destructive in 

 New York, until the epidemic of last 

 year. 



The disease first appeared extensively 

 last season in Fresno county in a strip of 

 territory about ten miles long; and has 

 since been moving steadily southward 



into Tulare and Kings counties. It is 

 significant that the disease is moving 

 with the prevailing winds, and that in 

 its progress it makes almost a clean 

 sweep of every apiary large and small. 

 The smaller comb honey apiaries of a 

 half dozen colonies or so owned by 

 farmers and non-professional apiarists 

 are found to be infected, but not to so 

 great percentage as the larger apiaries. 

 This is probably due in the first instance 

 to the fact that colonies in these small 

 apiaries are left much to themselves, and 

 furthermore are operated more as in- 

 dividual units rather than collectively as 

 an apiary. In the larger apiaries the 

 percentage of infection runs as high as 

 ninety per cent, and rarely below fifty 

 per cent., except in exceptional cases to 

 be mentioned later, or except in those 

 apiaries which have undergone some 

 system of radical treatment. 



The individual colonies affected lose 

 activity; and the bees crawl listlessly 

 about dispersed over their combs. In a 

 typical infection, half or more of the 

 brood is infected and the queen makes 

 no headway; the death rate of the 

 colony slowly but surely depleting its 

 numbers. Little of the infected brood 

 becomes capped, and that which does 

 seem to escape and mature yields not 

 infrequently dwarfed and imperfectly 

 developed bees. There is in the more 

 severe cases a distinct acid and 

 sickening odor to be noticed on opening 

 the hives. The odor can nearly always 

 be obtained by holding the infected 

 frames close to one's face in the direction 

 from which the wind is blowing. Early 

 infection may be detected by the 

 presence in isolated larva of a yellow 

 spot within the curve of the larva as it 

 lies in the cell. This yellow spot en- 

 larges, the larva turns over in the cell, 

 dies, and dropping to the lower side 

 gradually assumes a darker appearance, 

 forming finally the characteristic dark 

 brown or black scale of black brood. 

 Repeatedly in the course of field investi- 

 gations I have found the presence of both 



