366 



AMERICAN BEK JOURNAi-, 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 



BEBvrLLE, Texas. 



An Experience with Bee-Paralysis. 



I see on page 137 of the American 

 Bee Journal that Prof. Cook thinks 

 that starvation is partly or wholly the 

 cause of bee-paralysis. Now, 1 don't 

 like to dispute such good authority on 

 bee-matters as the Professor is, but I 

 know that starvation is not the cause of 

 the disease known as "paralysis" in 

 this part of the country, for I have colo- 

 nies that have from 50 to 75 pounds of 

 honey now, that are badly affected with 

 that disease, and it is almost always ray 

 strongest and best colonies that are 

 aftected first. Of course feeding will 

 check it, but it will reappear almost as 

 soon as the feeding is stopped, or if 

 there should come a sudden flow of 

 honey, it will always check it. 



I have had this disease in my apiary 

 ever since I came to this county (Lam- 

 pasas), four years ago, and from what I 

 can find out, it had been here for several 

 years before I came, for several of the 

 old-time bee-keepers told me when I 

 came here that I could not keep bees in 

 this county, saying that the ants and 

 moth-worms would destroy them. All 

 said that the bees would gather lots of 

 honey, but that ants would eat the bees 

 in the summer after the weather be- 

 came hot. and leave the hive full of 

 honey. But I had come to this country 

 to make bee-keeping a specialty, and 

 would not believe such foolishness, and 

 the ants and moths have given me no 

 trouble, but the disease known as bee- 

 paralysis has, and I am sure it was this 

 disease that was causing the trouble in- 

 stead of ants and the moth-worms, for I 

 have had several of those old-timers to 

 come into my apiary and say to me, 

 " Why, see here, Smith, the ants are 

 carrying them off?" When the truth 

 was, it was only the dead and sick bees 

 that the ants were carrying off, that had 

 died from that disease. 



Mrs. Atchley, I guess it was I whom 



your Australian correspondent had ref- 

 erence to on page 173, where he says, 

 " It must be a very prevalent disease In 

 your country, if more than % of the 

 bees have fallen before it in the last 

 three years," as I wrote words to that 

 effect sometime last year for the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. I can't recall the 

 page just now, and haven't time to look 

 it up, but I am sure I wrote nothing but 

 facts then, and I don't know but more 

 than ':':< have died from that cause alone, 

 in the last three or four years in this 

 part of the country. L. B. Smith. 



Lometa, Tex., Aug. 25. 



Friend Smith, the reason I made the 

 remark that I did about Mr. Jones being 

 badly informed about bee-paralysis in 

 this country was, the term you used 

 seemed to implicate the tvhole United 

 States. You said that more than % of 

 the bees had fallen under bee-paralysis 

 in this country. Now you likely meant 

 your own and adjoining counties, and 

 our brother across the waters took your 

 statement as the whole of this country. 

 There never has been a case of bee- 

 paralysis in south Texas that I know of, 

 and you are about 300 miles northwest 

 of me, and as there is none in this part 

 of Texas, it surely does not extend far 

 from your county (Lampasas). I think 

 we should be particular about describing 

 certain localities when speaking of dis- 

 eases among bees, especially as it is 

 likely to injure some friend, when noth- 

 ing of the kind is intended. 



Try the sulphur plan on bee-paralysis, 

 and report. Jennie Atchley. 



A Bee and Snake Story. 



The boys went out deer hunting a few 

 days ago, and Charles found some bees 

 watering in a knot on a tree, and he 

 traced them to their hive very soon, and 

 found them in a small live-oak tree, 

 scarcely larger than a common candy 

 jar. The bees went in about 3 feet from 

 the ground. Well, the boys were in a 

 " bad box," as they call it. They had 

 no smoker, nor anything that they could 

 smoke bees with, and they feared that 

 if they left the spot without taking the 

 bees, they would likely not find it easily 

 again, as it is very thickly wooded. So 

 when Willie came up, they concluded 

 to tear the left pocket out of their pants 

 (as they could best spare that one), and 

 made a smoke, the moss and rotten 

 wood being wet. They blew in smoke 

 at the entrance, and cut the tree above 

 and below the bees, put their coats in 



