24.S 



(JLEANIXCiS IN BEK CI LTL KK 



Afk. 1") 



General Correspondence 



IS IT THAT NEW BEE DISEASE? 



Something that Attacks Adult Bees in a Pecul- 

 iar Way. 



15Y B. I. OILMAN. 



I am in ln)ul)le, and very imich in need 

 of your advice. I have about -io colonies of 

 bees in two apiaries. These bees went into 

 the winter in very tine condition. Every 

 colony was very strong in i/oxng bees, with 

 l)lenty of honey. A iight honey-How the 

 last of September enabled the bees to store 

 as many as three combs of honey to each 

 hive. They had quite a lot of i)oilen. also. 

 The Ijees "wintered splendidly. I looked 

 over the apiary in February, and all seemed 

 strong; but I iioticed that the honey gath- 

 ered in September had not been capped. I 

 could not see that they had used any of it. 

 It was all granulated. I did not examine 

 the sealed "stores any more than to notice 

 that they were usingthem u]); about March 

 1st I noticed tiies at the entrance of some 

 stands. I examined at once, and found the 

 bees dwindled to a handful. In some cases 

 the bees were gone, leaving frames of honey. 

 I examiiied every thing and found the hon- 

 ey granulated — no pollen. In colonies that 

 appeared not to be affected I found them 

 building up nicely — brood, but no i)ollen. 



After our experience of last year of a pol- 

 len famine and starved brood, which we 

 (juickly corrected after reading an article in 

 (Jleanings. entitled •'Pollen Famine." we 

 commenced to feed equal i)arts of Hrst-class 

 cotton-seed meal and dour, which the bees 

 took readilv for about ten days, when nat- 

 ural i)ollen began to come in. The bees, 

 however, continued to die, and in some 

 cases they left brood in all stages (eggs to 

 hatching brood). The bees have diarrhea 

 or dysentery — the alighting-board shows it. 



\N'e have been reading Or. Miller's article. 

 Nov. 1, J). ()t>4. "Diseases of Mature Bees;"' 

 also the article that follows, "Animal Par- 

 asites as a Cause of Bee Diseases." We are 

 fearful that this disease may be Xostma 

 apia in some form, although the voidings 

 are bright yellow, coarse, and very copious. 

 There does not seem to be any distension of 

 body or bowels in dead bees. The frames of 

 the alTected col(»nies are not "messed uj)" 

 at all. excei)ting where rol)bers have worked 

 on the granulated honey; and even there, 

 there is no sign of voidings. We lind no 

 dead bees around the hives nor in them, ex- 

 cepting in two or three hives where the bees 

 seem to have starved to death from want of 

 food — our neglect; and e\en in there, no 

 sign of evacuations on the alighting-boards 

 or inside tiie hive. Tlie disease seems to 

 have "let ui)" in one apiary wliere the loss 

 was about 10 colonies in l.')(i — a big loss for 



Southwest Texas. But at the home apiary 

 they are still dying, but not so bad, how- 

 ever: and many affectetl colonies are build- 

 ing u\) nicely. In no case have we found a 

 queeidess colony. 



The strongest colony in the home apiary, 

 and one of the very few that liave not been 

 affected with this dysentery, lias a golden 

 Italian queen. This looks as though the 

 golden (jueen were more immune than black 

 or hybrid. 



I will add that there are no ai)iaries with- 

 in six miles of us; that some ai)iaries near 

 I'valde and Batesville are having heavy 

 losses, probably from the same cause. 



Pearsall, Texas, March io. 



[We have comi)ared all the symptoms of 

 the disease mentioned by Dr. Miller and 

 Friedman (Jreiner. on i)ages (j<i4 and <>(i5 of 

 (li.EAXiNGS for last year. There are several 

 things that suggest that it might he Xosenifi 

 apis: although the voidings rei)orted by you 

 are yellow, you will notice in the articles re- 

 ferred to it si)eaks of the contents of the 

 middle bowel being white. We do not 

 know whether, in the downward passage, 

 the contents become yellow or not. As it 

 is, we are referring this to Dr. E. F. Phillips, 

 of the Bureau of Entomology, and suggest 

 that you send him at once bees that have 

 died from this ])eculiar disease, and also a 

 slat of wood or something showing the char- 

 acter and color of the voidings. 



We would suggest that the affected colo- 

 nies be i)ut into a quarantine yard where 

 there are no other bees, for we judge it would 

 be dangerous to leave these bees that are af- 

 fected in a yard where there are ])erfectly 

 normal bees. 



We can hardly think that the trouble can 

 be due to ])ollen famine. While the lack of 

 nitrogenous food affects the development of 

 brood, it does not in any wise have any ef- 

 fect, direct or indirect, on adult bees. The 

 fact that you notice that the bees are dying 

 off in such large numbers shows that it is a 

 form of dysentery; l)ut as we have had sucli 

 mild weather, if it is the old-fashioned kind 

 we would naturally exi)ect its ravages to let 

 up after the bees get to Hying. We sliould 

 be i)leased to know whether any of our sub- 

 scribers have seen any thinu like it. — Ei>.] 



SPRING FEEDING. 



Stimulation Usually Detrimental Because of Cold 

 Weather that is Likely to Follow. 



IJV LEON C. WHEELHK. 



The advent of spring brings ui> again the 

 mooted (juestion of si)ring feeding. A few 

 years ago. before I had tried it extensively. 

 I was an enthusiastic believer in stimidative 

 spring feeding; but as I l)egan to make use 

 of it in a general way I soon made uj) my 

 mind it is largely a question of locality 

 whether it would be a success or failure, and 

 that in my locality the latter was the case. 



