SEPTEMBER 15, 1913 



647 



enter upon a man's premises and cut the 

 bee-trees so that we may destroy the sources 

 of infection." Here the unwritten law is 

 that, wherever a man finds a bee-tree, it is 

 his to cut and rob. 1 feel sure that this 

 custom is in a large part responsible for this 

 small per cent of foul brood. But this is 

 the locality par excellence for sac or pick- 

 led brood. I have found it in hundreds of 

 hives, but it rarely j^i'oves vei'y serious. 



On May 23 many colonies were literally 

 living" from hand to mouth. Spraying when 

 the fruit-bloom was open weakened many 

 yards, and a number of colonies were re- 

 ported to have been killed. There was very 

 little locust bloom this year. A very dry 

 period, followed by cold rainy days, pre- 

 vented any considerable work on the white 

 clover. Beekeepers in general were feeling 

 very pessimistic in regard to this year's 

 honey crop ; but at this date, June 7, a 

 bumper honey crop is in the making. 



Indianapolis, Ind. 



THE ISLE-OF-WIGHT BEE DISEASE 



BY JOSEPH TINSELY 



The beekeepers of these islands are con- 

 siderably disturbed by the prevalence of the 

 Isle-of-Wig:ht disease; and althoug'h it is 

 some time since it appeared in England, yet 

 it shows no signs of abating. Formerly it 

 was known more as a summer or early 

 spring' complaint ; but in our own county 

 we liave had a rude shock in the way of 

 winter mortality. 



The symptoms in the summer are well 

 known. I was called to a case last July. 

 A beekeeper had a dozen excellent colonies. 

 The bees were storing honey I'apidly. When 

 I went over, eacli colony had fully 60 lbs. 

 in the honey-chambers; then, as if by mag- 

 ic, the Isle-of-Wight disease gripped them. 

 The sight was most peculiar. Thousands 

 of bees were crawling all around the hives, 

 unable to unite their wings. Small pieces 

 of grass and weeds around the apiary were 

 seized upon by the insects to raise them- 

 selves higher, where they clustered in knots. 

 The bees were swollen; and if one was 

 pressed with the feet the execreta would 

 spurt out as if the whole body of the bee 

 contained nothing else. Sulphur and sev- 

 eral advertised cures were tried, but all in 

 vain, and the bees dwindled away rapidly. 



Considerable conflict of opinion is being 

 noticed in England at the pi-esent time as 

 to the cures. Some have achieved success 

 with certain remedies, while the same rem- 

 edies in the hands of others liave met with 

 no success. The investig-ations made by the 



Fig. o. — Bottom-board covered with the excrete 

 of the diseased bees. 



Board of Agriculture have also done very 

 little toward the eradication of the disease ; 

 and in their official report they state defi- 

 nitely that there is no cure, and advise burn- 

 ing. Until last year we were not seriously 

 visited in this county with the pest, al- 

 though it was in adjacent counties. The 

 losses in some places are enormous. I 

 know of more than 500 colonies being lost 

 in one county alone. Even the experiment- 

 al apiary connected with the British Bee- 

 keepers' Association at Swanley was at- 

 tacked by the pest. 



The winter state of the disease is all the 

 more alarming. The bees go into winter 

 quarters in apparently good condition ; but 

 when one takes his early spring peep to see 

 how things are going he finds a gi'eat many 



Fig. 4. — The bee on thp left is diseased. Notice 

 the distended abdomen and the unnatural appear- 

 ance of the wings. The bee on the right is healthy. 



