May, 1914. 



IC.i 



I American Hee Jonrnal 



Since I have been running for ex- 

 tracted honey in tlie 10 frame hive, I 

 take brood from the colonies I antici- 

 pate will^warm and replace with drawn 

 combs, or I divide for increase. When 

 one has out-yards of from 4U0 to (juO 

 colonies to manage, and does most of 

 the work himself, he is compelled to 

 adopt some wholesale system. 



I do not wish our wise old friends, 

 Dr. Miller or Mr. Doolittle, to jump on 

 me for being unorthodo.x when I say I 

 do not believe that ventilation has 

 much or anything to do with swarm- 

 ing. Having managed bees in three 

 States — far apart — "locality" cuts no 

 figure, as my e.xperience was the same 

 in each. In the same yard I had hives 

 with deep entrances ; hives with inch 

 wooden blocks under the front of the 

 hive-body; and hives with the small 

 winter entrances, and the swarms, when 

 they came, came fiom all alike. Let a 

 flow set in strong enough to keep the 

 queen and bees humping themselves and 

 yet not strong enough to go into the 

 supers, then look out for swarms galore 

 if the queen is not kept going and the 

 bees have plenty of super room. 



1 refer here to prime or normal 

 swarming. I have very few after- 

 swarms. 



Letohatchee, Ala. 



Isle of Wight Disease 



BY J. A. HEBERLE, B. S. 



THE COMMISSIONERS appointed 

 by the English government to in- 

 vestigate this dreadful bee-disease 

 which was first noticed on the Isle of 

 Wight, but has since spread over all 

 England, has now finished its investi- 

 gation. Dr. Graham Smith and the 

 other investigators state that the dis- 

 ease is caused by the parasite Nosema 

 Apis. In cases where colonies without 

 apparent cause dwindled and died, the 

 presence of Nosema Apis could be 

 proved. No parts of Great Britain 



are free from this disease. Certain 

 symptoms of the diseased bees like the 

 disability to fly, the running and crawl- 

 ing about the ground in front of the 

 hives, the dwindling away of colonies 

 are general symptoms. There are many 

 other symptoms reported, but none are 

 characteristic of this peculiar disease. 



It is probable that the disease is epi- 

 demic, but that it attracts attention 

 only in its most virulent form. The 

 malignant character of the disease is 

 especially noticed after a succession of 

 wet and cold springs and summers, and 

 continues then through years of favor- 

 able seasons. 



It was proved that the disease could 

 be produced in healthy bees with the 

 spores from bees that died of this dis- 

 ease; also by feeding healthy bees with 

 syrup or honey containing spores, or 

 if healtliy food was contanimated with 

 the excrement containing spores. In- 

 fection also took place when healthy 

 bees fed on candy that was first used by 

 diseased bees; when bees that died of 

 this disease were put with healthy bees ; 

 when healthy bees were put in hives 

 that had been occupied by disaased 

 bees. 



It appears that only the spores of the 

 parasite cause infection; and that 

 water and moist places near the api- 

 aries contaminated with the excre- 

 ments of diseased bees are the principal 

 factors in spreading infection. Pollen 

 and nectar may occasionally cause in- 

 fection. The disease may also be 

 spread from colony to colony — from 

 apiary to apiary — by gathering workers 

 and now and then by robbing, by 

 lodging an infected swarm in a healthy 

 apiary, and by using old hives that had 

 once diseased bees in them. Buying 

 bees may be the means of infection. 

 Other insects which come in contact 

 with bees, wax moth, v/asps, ants and 

 wild bees may in rare instances cause 

 infection. Cold, wet weather seems to 

 favor very much the spread of the dis- 

 ease. Among the number of remedies 



Anderson's One year old Bahy Afiary— 230 Colonies. 

 Record 20.000 pounds in one season from *tc colonies, spring count. 



recommended there was not one wliic" 

 was really a success, although the us*^ 

 of some showed a favorable change of 

 symptoms. 



I'RECAUTCONARY MEASURES RECOMMENUED. 



Prevention is the main thing. Healthy 

 colonies should be removed from the 

 neighborhood of diseased ones. Water 

 should be given near the apiary, and 

 daily renewed. Dead bees, combs and 

 frames from diseased colonies should 

 be burned and the hives thoroughly 

 disinfected. The ground around the 

 apiary should be turned overand mi.xed 

 with lime. Buying and selling bees in 

 a diseased district should be prohibited. 



DEVASTATION CAUSED BY THE ISLE OF 

 WIGHT DISEASE. 



Jos. Tinsley, of Stone, England, in 

 an article in Gleanings in Bee Culture, 

 Sept. 15, 1913, states thatthe beekeepers 

 are considerably disturbed by the preva- 

 lence of this disease, and although it is 

 some time (several years) since it first 

 appeared, it shows no signs of abating. 

 Formerly it was known more as a 

 summer or early spring complaint; 

 but in our own country we have had a 

 rude shock in the way of winter mor- 

 tality. 



Foulbrood is insignificant in com- 

 parison. I have seen GO pounds of 

 honey produced from a colony suffer- 

 ing from foulbrood. I doubt whether 

 we shall see (J pounds from one suffer- 

 ing from the Isle of Wight. 



NOSEMA APIS — AN ANIMAL PARASITE. 



This parasite was discovered in 1907 

 by Prof. Dr. E. Zander, of Erlangen, 

 Bavaria, and with the advice of Prof. 

 Doflein, of Munich, a specialist of re- 

 nown, named Nosema Apis, to show the 

 near relation to the Nosema bombycis, 

 which causes the silk worm pest (Pe- 

 brine), and about tiO years ago ruined 

 the silk industry of France, causing 

 damage that was estimated at five hun- 

 dred millions of francs ($100,000,000). 



The size of the parasite is given as 

 1-200 mm. in length, and 1-3.50 mm. in 

 diameter (1 mm. ^millimeter, 25 mm.^ 

 1 inch). It inhabits the intestine of 

 the matured bee, where it rapidly 

 grows and multiplies. The color of 

 the middle intestine is normally a clear 

 reddish to brown, but after the parasite 

 has lodged in it in great numbers for 

 a while, the color changes to a dull, 

 turbid, milky white. The parasite 

 changes after a while to a durable 

 form called spore. These spores are 

 something like the seed of plants. 

 When the spore gets to a place of suit- 

 able condition, the intestine of the 

 grown bee is such a place, it develops 

 itself again to the parasite that 

 works destruction, multiplies, changes 

 again to a spore, and if opportunity 

 favors it, the cycle of development is 

 kept up. 



DIFFERENCE OF OPINION AMONG INVESTI- 

 GATORS. 



Dr. Zander considers the presence of 

 Nosema Apis as a great danger to bee- 

 keepers, and the disease caused by this 

 parasite more alarming than foulbrood. 

 He states that according to the British 

 Bee Journal, in Australia, out of 1783 

 colonies, OOG died. Mr. Percy Wilkin- 

 son, of Melbourne, sent Dr. Zander 

 some of the diseased bees. Mr. White, 



