SiKrTliAlllKK, 19iy 



G 1- E A N I N G S IN BEE C U I. T U K E 



563 



dence until en route; or in some cases, the 

 nail doubtless does not at first penetrate the 

 can, but by constant rubbing, finally causes 

 the can to spring a leak. 



Good results are obtained when two square 

 60-pound cans are shipped in strong wooden 

 cases having the ends and middle partition 

 of %-incli stuff. Any cases lighter than 

 this are too frail. In the West some have 

 trieti using fifteen-gallon steel drums. These 

 are especially good for export shipment, and 

 it is claimed that they are practically inde- 

 structible. 



Most beekeepers doubtless know that 

 there has recently been a proposal by the 

 Interstate Commerce Commission to raise 

 the rate on honey. This is exactly what 

 could be expected while the present careless- 

 ness prevails. The beekeeper usually com- 

 forts himself with the thought that the rail- 

 roads will stand all loss in transit. But in 

 order to stand this loss, the railroads are 

 compelled to put their freight rates high 

 enough to bear the loss and still leave a mar- 

 gin of profit; which, plainly stated, means 

 that the beekeepers and not the railroad 

 company ultimately pay the bill. 



It is impossible to keep down freight rates 

 when beekeepers show an utter disregard of 

 safety in packing. General freight rates 

 are already high enough without an addi- 

 tional increase on honey. Last fall freight 

 rates increased 25 per cent and now late de- 

 velopments indicate that another rise of 

 from 15 to 45 per cent will be made within 

 the next month or so. 



The time has apparently come when bee- 

 keepers will be compelled, not only individ- 

 ually to be more careful in packing, but also 

 collectively to look into the container propo- 

 sition. 



THEEE HAVE PEOBABLY been several 

 more or less related diseases of adult bees 

 that have been de- 

 The So-called. scribed under the 



Disappearing name of either dis- 



Disease. appearing disease 



or paralysis, due to 

 their characteristics of the disappearing of 

 the bees from the colonies and the paralytic 

 symptoms of the sick bees, followed often 

 by a disappearance of these various symp- 

 toms more or less without apparent cause. 

 The trouble often shows up at the begin- 

 ning of a honey flow, when the fielders can 

 least be spared. Sometimes when at its 

 vv'orst, and just as the bees are beginning to 

 store honey, the super will be deserted and 

 the colony will dwindle down to less than 

 half -strength in the space of two or three 

 days. The ground for rods around will be 

 covered with bees crawling — or, rather, run- 

 ning — in nervous haste, for they seem to be 

 trying to get away from something. Short- 

 ly the runners become listless, and cluster 

 in little groups and then die. Then, appar- 

 ently, the trouble will disappear almost as 

 suddenly as it occurred. 



Several severe cases occurred in southern 

 California in early May; and, as the trouble 

 came just at the beginning of the sage flow 

 — the only place in the whole county where 

 it was yielding — it cut off the crop in- 

 stanter. But these severe cases seem to be 

 the exception and often by studying the pre- 

 vious history of the apiary, some very good 

 reasons may be found at least to help ex- 

 plain the condition. 



When this disappearing disease broke out 

 in the locality in southern California re- 

 ferred to we were called in to determine 

 what it was. All we could say was that it 

 was disappearing disease and that it would 

 ' ' disappear ' ' in three or four days, and it 

 did. We also found what we thought was 

 sacbrood. We were able to offer no remedy 

 or solution for the trouble.* 



A small amount of Euroisean foul brood 

 had shown up at the first visit in a few- 

 colonies. On the second visit, a week later, 

 it did not look like European but like sac- 

 brood. Here was a case where we needed 

 the Government bacteriologist if we ever 

 did, and we accordingly wired A. P. Sturte- 

 vant, who, as we have before stated, was 

 sent to California from the Bureau to study 

 bee disease. He was then in Sacramento, 

 and we told him he must go. He was kind 

 enough to rearrange his plans and go. He 

 reports after going, that, while he saw a lit- 

 tle European foul brood, he did find consider- 

 able sacbrood, but the dying off of adult 

 bees had practically ceased. Whatever it 

 was, he had some doubt about its being a 

 tine disease. Furthermore, a later report 

 comes from Mr. Sturtevant that none of 

 the several samples of sick bees taken at 

 this place and from other similar cases else- 

 where, which he examined upon his return 

 to the laboratory in Washington, showed 

 any indication of the presence of No>iC>iia 

 apis. This conclusively eliminates this or- 

 ganism as the culprit. 



He was not prepared to give a definite 

 opinion, as very little is known about these 

 diseases, but offered the following purely 

 tentative theories after having studied the 

 case from all angles: (1) The adult trouble 

 might have been brought on because the bee- 

 men in the afflicted district did not requeen 

 during the previous season, as they had 

 formerly done. This might cause a weaken- 

 ing of the strain, and be due to the fact that 

 the queens did not or could not populate the 

 colonies with young bees before the winter 

 season. (2) It had been an unusually hard 

 w^inter, even for California, followed by a 

 long dry spring. Therefore when the honey 

 flow did come the old bees did not have the 

 proper vigor. (3) There might have been 

 some derangement of their digestive appar- 

 atus due to the sudden honey flow. Mr. 

 Sturtevant found that there was an abnor- 



*Colonies that were fine and strona; the week be- 

 fore, just beginning work on a fine flow from 

 sage — the only good sage we knew of — such colonies 

 it was really' too bad to see i;o down to less than 

 half-sti-ength. 



