lee 



May, 1!)14. 



of Washington, found theNosema Apis 

 in America. 



Dr. A. Maassen, of Berlin, and Dr. 

 Hein, of Munich, do not think the 

 parasite itself so dangerous, so destruc- 

 tive. Nosema Apis is widely dissemi- 

 nated in Germany. Dr. Hein states in 

 the Muenchner Bztg.,that Dr. A. Maas- 

 sen had in the fall of U)0!l, 30 colonies 

 of bees that were strongly infested 

 with Nosema Apis, and wintered them. 



In the spring of 11)10, 3 colonies 

 showed dysentery; 2 had a heavy loss 

 of bees, and one died apparently for 

 want of stores. The other 24 colonies 

 wintered well and developed them- 

 selves normally. Those that had dysen- 

 tery recovered. It was easy to prove 

 the presence of Nosema Apis in all the 

 colonies. In the spring some of the 

 colonies showed what is known as 

 May sickness without great loss. In- 

 vestigation showed that the parasites 

 were present in 7'fry la>\i^r,- numbers. 

 The colonies that had the May sickness 

 got over it and thrived during the sum- 

 mer just as colonies that had not been 

 infected ; but some of their bees were 

 still infected with the parasite. Only 

 the young bees just hatched were at all 

 times free from it. 



Dr. Maassen's experiment tends to 

 show that a Nosema infection is not 

 necessarily very disastrous, since even 

 the 21 infected colonies that were taken 

 through the winter did not show an 

 unusual number of dead bees. The 

 wintering was good, and the develop- 

 ing in spring was good. Only 10 per- 

 cent of the Nosema-infected colonies 

 that were wintered showed dysentery 

 in the spring, and even these got over 

 it and developed into useful colonies. 



Opinions are conflicting, and these 

 opinions are corroborated with good 

 testimony. Probably both parties are 

 right. Peculiar conditions are neces- 

 sary so that the parasite may fully de- 

 velop its destructive character. It may 

 be that only weakened colonies or bees 

 whose power of resistance has been 

 weakened through hereditary influence 

 or conditions caused by inclement 

 weather or poor management suc- 

 cumbed rapidly. Probably consider- 

 able damage is done by shortening the 

 life of the worker bees infected, and 

 might be overlooked, even by a keen 

 observer. This would show itself in a 

 smaller amount of surplus; still it 

 would be difficult to positively blame 

 the Nosema for it. It will be well to 

 keep our eyes open and call for more 

 light — from science — at the same time 

 keep our bees in first-class condition 

 regardless of the Nosema Apis that 

 may lurk near our apiaries, 



Markt Oberdorf, Bavaria, Germany. 



|In the foregoing article, Mr. Heberle 

 gives us a very good short history of 

 the Isle-of-Wight disease. We believe 

 his conclusions are right. In dry cli- 

 mates there is evidently but little to 

 fear from the May disease or from the 

 Nosema Apis. But it is well for the 

 beekeepers to be on the lookout. Now 

 that we have efficient bacteriological 

 workers at Washington, it would be a 

 mistake to remain in the dark for want 

 of enquiry. If your bees suffer from 

 any cause, be sure and send samples 



American ISee Journal 



of the diseased insects to Dr. G. F. 

 White at the Bureau of Entomology of 

 Washington, D. C. — Editor.] 



The Chaff Hive 



BV J. E. HAND. 



ON page 19, Dr. Bonney has shown 

 the bright side of the chaff hive 

 situation in a very fair and candid 

 manner. There are two sides to most 

 questions, however, and with due re- 

 spect for the opinion of Dr. Bonney, 

 and others who may be interested in 

 the problem of winter protection for 

 bees, I will endeavor to present the 

 practical side of the chaff hive ques- 

 tion as it appears from my point of 

 view. Barring two slight errors of 

 minor importance, I can endorse what 

 friend Bonney has said, but my object 

 is to reveal conditions that evidently 

 have escaped his notice. 



Undoubtedly some will feel slighted 

 by his statement that there are but 

 three chaff hives listed in the country. 

 The champion chaff hive is advertised 

 quite extensively by western dealers, 

 and is not materially different from the 

 others. Others will have cause for 

 complaint because of his statement 

 that all use chaff trays, but it is to his 

 credit who has dispensed with that 

 nuisance, as well as with the nuisance 

 of deep telescope covers. 



A noticeable feature of the chaff hive 

 situation is that during the past quar- 

 ter century they have been deteriorat- 

 ing in quality and advancing in price 

 until in most cases the price is out of 

 proportion to the service rendered. 



More than 2.5 years ago A. I. Root 

 introduced a chaff hive that provided 

 much better winter protection than 

 any that have appeared since that time, 

 but it being quite elaborate, the ad- 

 vance in the price of labor and material 

 increased the cost of its manufacture 

 until the selling price rendered its use 

 prohibitive. This resulted in the modi- 

 fication of the original hive, which re- 

 duced the price as well as the quality, 

 for it was robbed of its most desirable 

 features ; and still the price of labor 

 and material has advanced until the 

 cost of production has rendered the 

 second edition prohibitive, and this is 

 also true of all chaff hives. 



In a new catalog issued by a western 

 firm, chaff hives are listed at $4-2.'i with- 

 out any summer equipment except 

 fr-imes ; which means that we must pay 

 that price for indifferent winter pro- 

 tection, with an added expense for sum- 

 mer equipment necessary to make it 

 an all-the-year-around hive. 



When we consider that the price is 

 as low as is consistent with the cost of 

 production, the logical conclusion is 

 that the times are fully ripe for a revo- 

 lution in wintering methods that will 

 consign all such expensive wintering 

 equipment to the scrap heap in favor 

 of a hive that provides perfect protec- 

 tion for its colony 3i;.') days in the year 

 with practically no extra equipment 

 more than is required for summer use. 

 The hive that will do it is already in 

 the field ; it is named " the convertible 

 hive," and is the result of a happy 

 blending of the principles of economy 

 of construction, simplicity of equip- 



ment, and utility of manipulation. No 

 hives for sale. 



BEES AND ODORS. 



On page 20 is an article by Arthur 

 C. Miller, on odors and their relation 

 to the introduction of queens. While 

 the direct introduction of queens with 

 the fumes of smoke from burning to- 

 bacco has been practiced for many 

 years, to Mr. Miller belongs the credit 

 of the discovery that clean smoke from 

 ordinary combustible material answers 

 the purpose fully as well with none of 

 the evil effects upon the bees resulting 

 from tbe sickening fumes of burning 

 tobacco. While this important dis- 

 covery will undoubtedly mark an 

 epoch in the history of queen intro- 

 ducing methods, it is not clear wherein 

 the success of this method disproves 

 the odor theory; on the contrary, it 

 may be so construed as to present 

 about the strongest circumstantial evi- 

 dence in support of that theory that has 

 yet appeared. 



His e.xperiments with different odors 

 and perfumes smeared over queens 

 prove nothing, when met by the one 

 fact that smoke is a great deodorizer, 

 for the defence will stoutly maintain 

 that in the presence of smoke all other 

 odors are obliterated, while the one 

 odor, that of smoke, permeates the 

 hive and contents, and deprives the 

 bees of their onlymeansof distinguish- 

 ing friends from strangers; for with 

 bees it is evident that unity of odor 

 means unity of associations, and smoke 

 evidently is the most harmless and 

 economical unifier of odors in exis- 

 tence. 



It is useless to ignore the fact that 

 the sense of smell is more highly de- 

 veloped in bees than in most animals 

 and insects, and we have tangible evi- 

 dence to show that this faculty enables 

 them to locate fields of nectar at a 

 considerable distance from the hive. 

 Bee hunters are enabled to attract bees 

 by the odor of burning honey, and 

 strong circumstantial evidence is not 

 lacking to show that the fine sense of 

 smell is their only means of distin- 

 guishing friends from strangers. 



Mr. Miller has said that pounding on 

 the hive, and otherwise disturbing and 

 exciting the bees will answer the pur- 

 pose of direct introduction of queens 

 as well as smoke. This is accounted 

 for by the fact that when bees are thus 

 ruthlessly disturbed they become panic 

 stricken to such an e.xtent that all their 

 energies and senses are devoted to 

 the one object of self preservation ; 

 and if a strange queen is given at this 

 time, the chances are that she will not 

 be molested, because her presence will 

 not be noticed until such time as she 

 will have acquired the colony odor, 

 when she will be perfectly safe. It is 

 reasonable to suppose that this odor is 

 very quickly acquired where the queen 

 has access to the combs and honey. 



Without fear of successful contradic- 

 tion, I maintain that when deprived of 

 the colony odor, bees will readily and 

 eagerly accept any number of queens 

 without smoke or disturbance of any 

 kind. We have proved this hundreds 

 of times, when putting up small pack- 

 ages of combless bees for shipment. 

 We first scoop in the required amount 

 of bees, drop in a strange queen, and 



