3G 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



February, 1918 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



some offer, as an additional cause, lack of 

 sufficient ventilation or air currents. 



Accepting the theory that, if we can find 

 the cause, a remedy will suggest itself, I 

 offer the following, with the reasons for the 

 said offering: 



There must be a cause, and as wet and 

 unsettled weather invariably prevails when 

 the trouble appears, is it not fair to assume 

 that ijart or all of the trouble can be charg- 

 ed to unfavorable weather conditions and not 

 to individual colonies? It is true that some 

 colonies are apparently immune, but of mine 

 the best and most active were the first to 

 be affected, the hardest hit and the most 

 rapidly destroyed. Some were already work- 

 ing in two supers and were in a very popu- 

 lous condition, while but a few days after 

 being stricken they were down to a hatful. 

 The season was normal as to the time of 

 orchard blossoming and as the first appear- 

 ance of the trouble was just before the apple 

 trees had reached the period of full blossom- 

 ing I at first attributed it to arsenical 

 poisoning by some who had sprayed too 

 early. I found this incorrect, however, as 

 none had sprayed at that time. 



The weather prior to the attacks had been 

 favorable and the bees were in excellent 

 condition, really a little earlier than usual. 

 Next I thought it might be a case of paraly- 

 sis, but when, the next day, others were in 

 the same condition, I began to take notice, 

 and found it was not paralysis. By this 

 time the epidemic had become fairly general 

 in our vicinity and many appeals were made 

 to me for assistance and help. This was a 

 case of ' ' physician, heal thyself, " as I 

 was in the same condition and could offer 

 no cure but hope. Hope was deferred, and 

 so was the good weather. Meantime the 

 ground was covered with bees in all stages 

 of the disease, but upon examination I 

 could not find a single cell of hatching 

 brood that was not apparently healthy, and 

 healthy bees were hatching by the thou- 

 sands. The temperature outside was about 

 normal and bees that were able were work- 

 ing between showers, but there was an ex- 

 cess of moisture that soaked and saturated 

 every opening blossom. Drones also were as 

 bad off as workers. 



By close watching I thought I found the 

 older bees or the flying squad repelling the 

 disease better than the rapidly hatching 

 youngsters. This was noticable especially 

 in colonies re-queened where the difference 

 in color made this more apparent. And right 

 here was where I got in bad, for the unin- 

 itiated immediately claimed that the black 

 or native bees were immune, and only the 

 newer Italians took it and succumbed. I 

 shall have to admit that it did look suspi- 

 cious until I noticed that the blacks and na- 

 tives were not flying as much as the more 

 active Italians. So noticeable was this 



difference in activity that it suggested that 

 the trouble might be due to the moisture- 

 soaked nectar that the active bees were 

 bringing in. Is it not fair to assume that 

 the watered nectar deposited in the cells 

 might ferment or sour sufficiently to cause 

 trouble when used as food by the young, by 

 newly hatched bees and drones? Note that 

 nothing apparently wrong was perceptible 

 until after the young bees had fed them- 

 selves. 



You may ask why the bees and not the 

 queen should suffer from eating this food. 

 I have to reply " I don't know," but I do 

 know the queens were not affected and laid 

 right along; also that queens removed from 

 sick colonies produced normal, healthy bees 

 in other colonies. But by the time these 

 young bees had hatched, the weather had 

 become settled and warm, which suggests 

 that weather conditions alone were responsi- 

 ble. Moreover, queens in very weakened 

 colonies, left to work out their own salva- 

 tion, also showed no ill effects and finallj' 

 built up respectable colonies. 



You may say: " Why should the disease 

 continue so long even if the food is the 

 cause?" Well, it may be that the flying 

 bees continued to bring in sufiicient food for 

 actual consumption, that is, enough to keep 

 the disease going, for weather conditions 

 were such that there was more or less flying 

 about every day. Take into consideration 

 that in Oregon moist weather prevails espe- 

 cially in apple-blossom time, and rarely do 

 we have really good weather then. Not- 

 withstanding this, our bees seem to adapt 

 themselves to the climate, flying well dur- 

 ing light rains. 



Again you might ask why, if these con- 

 ditions are normal, was the spring of 1916 

 different in this respect. I reply that we 

 had long-continued rains and no let-up for 

 some ¥/eeks, and this condition may have 

 been responsible. 



Again, some may say weather conditions 

 with them were not excessively moist, but 

 it is possible that there were conditions 

 present to bring about a watery or diluted 

 flow that soured or fermented. I could dis- 

 cover nothing wrong with it. 



Regardless of the stagnant-air theory, I 

 find that while the bees in my own yard 

 were apparently the first stricken, this may 

 be explained by the fact that I may have 

 noticed it before my neighbors did. My own 

 yard is well protected and not at all expos- 

 ed but another apiary less than half a mile 

 from mine is located on a knoll and is virtual- 

 ly windswept and here the trouble was fully 

 as severe as in my own yard. This apiary 

 is owned by my associate, a careful, pains- 

 taking, enthusiastic beekeeper, and since 

 the early diagnosis was given as paralysis, 

 he tried the sulphur cure. Needless to say 

 it didn 't work. Queens were changed from 



