1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



237 



5. Under "bee paralysis" you say, "Destroy the 

 queen of an affected colony." Now, does the germ of 

 paralysis affect the blood or vital bacteria of the brood 

 or not? If not, why destroy the queen? By what 

 germ is the paralytic contagion spread (in what man- 

 ner)? If the queen is destroyed, would you advise 

 requeening from a new strain? 



6. Please give a little more detail in general, and 

 state the symptoms of chilled brood, overheated brood, 

 poisoned brood, starved brood. In any of these three 

 cases, will the bees remove the carcass of the larva 

 or does this have to be done by the apiarist? In how 

 many of the above cases does the brood die? 



7. Does spraying poison ever kill adult bees? 



8. Will the dead mass of American ropy foul brood 

 invariably rope? 



9. Will the color sometimes vary outside of the cof- 

 fee-brown tints described? 



10. Do the cells containing dead lan'ae invariably 

 sink as soon as life departs from the grub, or how 

 long after? Does the capping fall first and then the 

 grub die? 



11. About how long after the disease affects the first 

 portion of comb does the odor make itself noticed? 



12. Is the ropy test a base symptom, or, so to speak, 

 a dead-sure sign of American foul brood, or does this 

 symptom have to go hand in hand v,'ith the others in or- 

 der to prove the case? 



13. How can you manage bees at night? I tried it 

 once, and they stuck to every thing and could not be 

 made to go in at the entrance after the hive was closed, 

 clustering in front all night Could not a tent be 

 placed over the hive at night, and the manipulation 

 carried through next morning? 



14 By the McEvoy method are the bees left to go and 

 come after they have been brushed for the first time 

 on a starter? If so, why would not the robbers take 

 the disease-tainted honey just stored from the sacks of 

 the brushed colony and thus spread the contagion? 



15. Page 138 of the last edition of the A B C and X Y Z 

 of Bee Culture, what can you use honey for that has 

 been extracted from foul-brood combs? 



16. Page 138, why do you say, "As soon as brood 

 hatches out of healthy combs extract the honey and 

 melt combs " if the brood hatches? If the brood hatch- 

 es out healthy, why melt the combs? 



17. Page 138, has this ever been proven by experi- 

 ence? How can a colony be cured when the bees have 

 intercourse with the diseased colony and the honey 

 therein? 



18. Page 140, is all the brood in the hives taken away 

 and bees shaken on foundation after being dequeened, 

 or do you mean, in other words, no egg-laying is al- 

 lowed? Are the queens destroyed or put back again 

 after the lapse of time? 



Whitestone, L. I. Adolph Loehr. 



[1. " Spring dwindling " is the term used to describe 

 a number of evils. It may be caused by the bees fly- 

 ing out too early, as you say; by dysentery; by too 

 great a mortality, due to too large a number of old 

 bees in the hive in the spring, etc. 



2 Sorghum syrup is a syrup which is glucose in its 

 nature, made from the sorghum, otherwise known as 

 Chinese cane. 



3. Mr. Poppleton sprinkles on the dry sulphur in- 

 stead of mixing it with water and pouring it on. 



4. It is not often that a queen has the cramps; but 

 sometimes, if one is picked up that is in the height of 

 laying, and heavy with eggs, and is handled somewhat 

 carelessly, as by an amateur when clipping, for in- 

 stance, she may turn over, stretch out, and appear to 

 be dead. After a few minutes, however, 'he usually 

 begins to move a little, and finally is able to walk 

 again. 



5. Unfortunately, far too little is known in regard to 

 the disease known as paralysis. This disease is not 

 well named, however, for there are no symptoms like 

 paralysis in the human family. A number of the bees 

 will exhibit a peculiar shaking or tremulous motion as 

 they stagger from the hives. It seems to be a disease 

 of the mature bees rather than of the brood, and it is 

 well known that certain strains of bees are less likely 

 to be diseased in this way than others, and that is why 

 it is a good plan to requeen whenever a colony shows 

 these symptoms. It is not known just what is the way 

 in which the disease spreads — that is, whether it is of 

 germ origin. 



6. The symptoms of chilled, overheated, poisoned, or 

 starved brood are almost identical, and even experts 

 are often puzzled by simply examining the brood 

 alone. If the history of the colony can be taken into 

 consideration it is generally possible to decide which 

 is to blame— whether chilling, overheating, poisoning, 

 etc. In the spring, if the combs contain no honey and 



there is dead brood, it is quite reasonable to suppose 

 that the brood starved, although, of course, if very 

 cold weather occurs during the early spring, and the 

 bees have more brood than they can cover, it is likely 

 that the trouble was due to chilling. Overheating is 

 not very common, but does sometimes occur during 

 the very hottest weather when there is no ventilation 

 through a proper-sized entrance, and when the sun 

 shines directly on the hive. Poisoned brood would 

 not be likely to be found in one colony and not in oth- 

 ers unless it were known that this one colony worked 

 on blofisoms that had been sprayed, while others did 

 not. With the advice that is going out now from all 

 the experiment stations, practically, there is less and 

 less blossom-spraying beingdone; consequently, there 

 are fewer reports every year of poisoned brood. 



A strong colony will almost always remove larvae 

 that have died from any cause except those that have 

 died from American foul brood, and, of course, this is 

 such a sticky mass that they find it impossible unless 

 the colony is very strong with a large force of young 

 Italian bees. Brood is likely to die from any of the 

 above causes. 



7. The spraying-liquids of poisonous nature often 

 kill adult bees. Cases are on record where almost 

 whole apiaries have been destroyed. For instance, 

 Metcalfe & Parks, of Mesilla Park, New Mexico, have 

 lost very heavily in this way. 



8. The roping is the characteristic symptom of Amer- 

 ican foul brood, and we do not believe that there are 

 any cases of this disease where the dead larvag do not 

 rope at all— at least we never heard of such. 



9. The color of the dead brood is not a distinctive 

 symptom, for dead brood of any kind is likely to turn 

 various shades of yellow, brown, black, etc. There is 

 really not very much difference in the color of dead 

 brood, no matter what may be the cause of the trouble. 

 In the case of a ropy type of foul brood the color turns 

 darker as the disease progresses. 



10. The cappings sink after the larvae die. The cap- 

 pings of larvae that have just died are perfectly normal 

 in appearance. 



11. The odor from American foul brood varies ac- 

 cording to the case. In some instances it is hardly 

 perceptible, while in others it is so strong as to be no- 

 ticeable when one enters the apiary. It usually de- 

 pends upon the length of time the disease has been 

 running; but we think it may be quite noticeable in 

 some cases where the disease has just started; while, 

 in other cases, where it is more advanced it might not 

 be as strong. 



12 It may be pretty safely stated that if the ropiness 

 of the dead brood is very pronounced the disease is 

 almost sure to be American foul brood. However, 

 there is likely to be a slight roping with the European 

 foul brood, although usually not nearly to as great an 

 extent. 



13. Handling bees at night is not difficult if the light 

 be placed a little above and back of the hive — that is, 

 the side opposite from the one in front of the operator. 

 There would be no advantage in using the tent the 

 next morning. 



14. There is not likely to be much honey stored that 

 is diseased; for the amount in the honey-sacs of the 

 bees, that might be diseased, is used in comb-building; 

 therefore the bees may be allowed to come and go. 

 Robbers would not be likely to rob from brushed or 

 shaken bees. We have never known them to do so. 



15. Honey that has been extracted from foul broody 

 combs may be used on the table. It is not injurious to 

 man. Probably the majority who have honey from 

 foul-broody combs boil it thoroughly and then use it 

 for feeding back. There are some, like Mr. France, 

 who feel that boiled honey is dangerous. Disease has 

 sometimes returned when boiled foul-broody honey 

 was given back to bees. 



16. There may be some disease in the combs de- 

 scribed, even though much of the brood would be 

 healthy; and since it is impossible to clean up a comb 

 diseased with American foul brood, there is nothing 

 to do but melt it up. It is better to err on the safe side. 



17. In this case the bees should be brushed again on 

 foundation, after the brood above has hatched and the 

 upper diseased combs removed. You will notice that 

 the directions given here are to treat as before de- 

 scribed; that is, go through with the process again of 

 shaking on to new foundation. 



18. The brood does not need to be removed in the 

 Alexander treatment, for that which is in the hive al- 

 ready is allowed to develop. You will probably prefer 

 to read the Alexander treatment as it was originally 

 given by Mr. Alexander, and so we refer you to Nov. 

 1st Gleanings, 1905. The queens in this case are usu- 

 ally destroyed; at least, different queens should be in- 

 troduced and the best Italian stock used.— Ed.] 



