THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



177 



upon the srouud, will call others in defense. 

 I am exceedintily careful iu this respect, 

 and avoid as much as possiMe the treading 

 upon or injuring a bee, although it may 

 have outlived its usefulness. As stated in a 

 previous article, I use no bee veil; neither 

 do I possess one, and I attribute the amiabil- 

 ity of bees very much to humane methods 

 iu their management. 



Although muQh prejudice exists against 

 propolis as a coating of the hive, making it 

 impervious to air and consequent damp- 

 ness, we ought not to lose sight of its impor- 

 tance. Certainly nature provided the proper 

 material to carpet the home of the bee. 

 Aside from its use as a cement or gum, it 

 serves as a foothold, and without its use I 

 believe comb honey would be somewhat 

 darker through compulsory travel upon it. 

 The bee can walk and cling to propolis or 

 wax more easily than upon board surfaces. 

 However, we measure its importance from 

 our standpoint, and although perfectly 

 adapted to the reciuiremeuts of the bee, still 

 we feel as though the frames are less mov- 

 able, and our lingers and clothing become 

 soiled by it. 



I append this item more especially to fur- 

 nish the Review readers a simple plan for 

 removing it from clothing. Having used it 

 for three years 1 cannot recommend it too 

 highly as completely removing every trace 

 from any fabric. It is simply to rub the 

 soiled portion with a small piece of ice, 

 when in less than a half minute it is ren- 

 dered brittle, passing imperceptibly away. 



Jackson. Mich. July 3, 1S<»7. 



Bee Paralysis, Its Symptoms and Contagi- 

 oasness. 



T. H. FOBD. 



[As explained in a former number of the Re- 

 view, the -Mich, State Experiment Station is 

 KoiDK to try and "lo somethinK at invehtij^atmi; 

 tlio ch;iract«TiHticB f)f bee p.iriilysis 1 learned 

 tliat Mr. Ford, of Missiesippi, could fiirninh 

 iineens from ^footed coloiiii's, .ind 1 som liim 

 two hoftlthy (ineens, in rftnrn f<>i- which ho was 

 to wend me two queenH from iliHpaBed colonies, 

 .in<l I wan to forward them to the Experiment 

 .Station. HpIow is an extract from a letter t,hat 

 accompanii'd the queens.— Kp. | 



" 1 have this morning received from you 



the two queens, and when I go home this 



afternoon will make the exchange, and send 



you two queens from infected biveB. As I 



wrote yon last week, the symptoms of bee 



paralysis give way more or lees in hot 



weather. By far the greater part of my 

 colonies now show no signs of the disease, 

 except a pretty large death rate. Not one 

 in twenty shows any swollen bees, which is 

 the most marked diagnostic indication of 

 the presence of the infection. But there are 

 visible numbers of individuals that have 

 been pulled and hauled about so much by 

 the guards that they are almost hairless. 

 And the multitude of toads and green lizards 

 that infest my apiary can't consume all the 

 dead. They lie pretty thick all about the 

 hives. I had some hopes that this locality 

 would be more favorable for my diseased 

 bees than the interior, but find that I am 

 mistaken, and that it is even worse here 

 than up the country. I am almost surround- 

 ed by salt water. We have the Mississippi 

 Sound on the south, the Pascagoula river on 

 the west, and a large bayou on the east, all 

 within 200 yards of the apiary. If there 

 were any healing influence in salt, here I 

 thought would be the place to test it, as the 

 bees could get all the salt or brackish water 

 that they could need. But, as above stated, 

 the mortality is greater here than at my old 

 residence 100 miles north. This confirms 

 my former opinion, as I already had given 

 salt a thorough trial. I do think, however, 

 that while salt has no healing influence on 

 this malady, it is indispensable for the wel- 

 fare of the apiary, and that bees are far 

 more prolific where they have access to 

 salty water. 



" Now as to queens. I have noticed in some 

 colonies the symptoms persist all summer, 

 although in the greater majority of cases 

 swollen bees are not seen after the first of 

 June. My theory about the matter is that 

 in these cases, where swollen bees persist all 

 summer, the qneen herself is infected. I 

 shall, however, send you queens from such 

 hives where I find bees dying all swelled up. 

 Of course these queens, if not diseased 

 themselves, will have the germs on their 

 bodies. I have myself known one case 

 where the bees hhd apparently fully recov- 

 ered from the disease, and no sign of it was 

 to be seen. I took the queen, which ap- 

 peared healthy, and introduced her into a 

 colony in an apiary a quarter of a mile off, 

 where there had been no disease, and yet in 

 thirty days the malady broke out, and in 

 three months the colony perished with the 

 worst case of the disease I ever saw. 



'' I hope that the gentleman who conducts 

 these experiments will not have the same 



