664 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Nov. 1 



colonies of Italian bees the past season, by 

 raising my own queens and adopting modern 

 methods of increasing, I now have eleven 

 colonies in good condition. While our flow 

 of nectar is not so abundant at any one time 

 as in some localities, it seems to extend over 

 a long period of time. Our first frost last 

 season was Oct. 24, and the flow from alfalfa 

 and other fall flowers seemed to continue up 

 until that time. 



Our winters are mild and open, there be- 

 ing scarcely a week when the bees do not fly 

 out. Their last flight was Sunday, Jan. 9, 

 when they were out in full force, as though 

 it were spring. 



The field here is as yet almost entirely un- 

 occupied, and I am sure that a great amount 

 of nectar is going to waste for want of bees 

 to gather it. 



Cherokee, Okla. 



DISEASES OF MATURE BEES. 



A New Animal Parasite Discovered by Dr. 

 Enoch Zander, which Lives in the Mid- 

 dle Intestine, and Causes Incur- 

 able Diarrhea. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



At the big German convention lately held 

 at Weissenfels, a notable number on the 

 program was Dr. Enoch Zander's "Animal 

 Parasites as Disease-producers in Bees," 

 which is reported in full in September Bie- 

 nen- Vatcr. 



Heretofore there has been no word of any 

 microscopic enemy taking up its abode in 

 the body of a bee except those belonging to 

 the vegetable kingdom, such as the bacilli of 

 foul brood. Dr. Zander has been quietly 

 carrying on investigations for the past two 

 years — investigations not yet completed — 

 through which he has determined that an 

 unknown foe has been making devastations 

 among the bees— devastations worse than 

 those produced by any other cause — worse 

 even than any thing in the line of foul brood, 

 and that this microscopic foe belongs to the 

 animal kingdom. 



To this new acquaintance Dr. Zander has 

 given the name Nosema apis. It is a one- 

 celled, egg-shaped affair, light-refracting, 

 about -;„',M, inch in length, and y.^, „ in diam- 

 eter. That's in the spore form. It is found 

 only in the middle bowelof the bee. If one of 

 these spores succeeds into the middle intes- 

 tine of a healthy bee, the shell bursts, and 

 there emerges a tiny, longish parasite, which 

 immediately bores its way into the wall of 

 the intestine, grows and increases in a won- 

 derful manner, and in four days after its en- 

 trance again forms spores. After a number 

 of generations the cells of the wall of the in- 

 testine become so filled with these spores 

 that the structure of the intestine is no long- 

 er recognized, but it appears to be made up 

 entirely of the spores of Nosema apis. A 

 striking result of the nosema spores getting 

 the upper hand is; thp coloring of the m ddle 

 bowel. While in a healthy bee it is trans- 



parent and reddish, it becomes, after infec- 

 tion, opaque and entirely milk-white. This 

 white color is a sure sign by which one can 

 recognize the disease, even without the aid 

 of a microscope. 



The parts of the intestine crammed with 

 these spores gradually die and are emptied 

 with the evacuations. Through this comes 

 the possibility of infection "f healthy bees, 

 for there is always the possibility that some 

 of these evacuations may come in contact 

 with the food of the bees. The infected bees 

 are hopelessly doomed. They plunge out of 

 the hive, fall to the ground imable to rise 

 again, and after a longer or shor'er time die. 

 Accordmg to the degree of the infection, the 

 bees die off gradually or rapidly, in some 

 cases the dead bees bting piled in front of 

 the entrance two or three inches deep. Many 

 of these latter colonies are entirely extermi- 

 nated in spite of being queenright and well 

 supplied with stores. 



It must be mentioned, however, thatqueen- 

 lessness is apt to result from the disease. 

 Unlike foul brood, this is a disease of the 

 mature bee and not of the brood, and the 

 queen may be infected as well as a worker, 

 so that in some cases where a colony was 

 supposed to disappear through queenlessness 

 it was really the disease that destroyed the 

 colony, queenlessness being merely one of 

 the results of the disease. 



In bees from colonies that have died with 

 diarrhea, almost always masses of these 

 spores will be found. In 22 out of 25 cases 

 observed last spring, Dr. Zander found not 

 a single bee without the parasites. He rec- 

 ognizes two kinds of diarrhea — the mild kind, 

 which is ni^ really a disease, but merely a 

 distention of the intestines; the other the vir- 

 ulent type, caused by the presence of Nose- 

 ma ap s, and a sure-enough disease. 



While the mild type may be avoided in 

 many cases by replacing objectionable honey 

 with sugar syrup, the infectious type — the 

 nosema disease — may prevail where sugar 

 syrup is the only food; and a colony, after 

 apparently wintering well, may become rap- 

 idly depleted in spring, even to entire ex- 

 termination. The failure to retain the feces 

 is not a constant symptom, as in the mild 

 form of diarrhea but incidental, although 

 frequent. Bee-keepers have recognized 

 "dry diarrhea," which they dread worse 

 than the wet. But the milk-white middle 

 bowel shows that the nosema has got in its 

 work. 



The disease is highly infectious, and once 

 having got a foothold in an aoiary it is liard 

 to rout it. The soiled coinbs, especially 

 while the dejections are liquid, readily con- 

 vey the disease if they are moved from one 

 hive to another. When the bees take their 

 cleansing flight, the surrounding neighbor- 

 hood is fouled, and healthy colonies may be- 

 come infected through drinking-places or 

 otherwise. Robbers may carry the disease. 



In some cases, circumstances favoring, the 

 diseased colony recovers provided the queen 

 has not been affected. 



The M:iy sicknpss of Germany (is that our 



