NOVEMBER 1, 191;: 



701- 



trouble in very hot dry weather, and I 

 used to keep a boy going around with a 

 very weak solution of salt water. He used 

 to lift the lids and dash a cupful over the 

 frames of the hives. I used to call this 

 "heat paralysis," and it never did a great 

 deal of harm. 



Next we got' a more malignant form of 

 the trouble. The bees used to swell up 

 and die in such nutnbers that there would 

 be from a cupful to a dipperful in front 

 of each hive each day. No colony could 

 stand this strain, and many soon ceased 

 to exist. We used to requeen to effect, if 

 lot a cure, at least some mitigation. We 

 were told the disease was in the queen; 

 but I think it was a case of the blind 

 leading the blind. 



W^hen I had been keeping bees twelve 

 months I knew all about it, and was ready 

 to put the whole world right. When I 

 liad been at the game twelve years I did 

 not know half as much, and I was not 

 at all sure of the correctness of what I did 

 know. Now I have been at it for more than 

 double that time and I know less than 

 ever. One thing I am very sure about, 

 and that is, that I know nothing about 

 paralysis, and that is why I hailed with 

 delight the statement in Gleanings that 

 some of your scientists are investigating 

 the disease. It is, Avithout a doubt, the 

 greatest curse that ever struck the Aus- 

 tralian bee world. 



We know nothing about it ; we never 

 know when it will hit us, nor why it comes, 

 nor any thing about it. If a man had 

 asked me twenty years ago hoAv many 

 colonies I had I would have said 800, and 

 I would have been sure about it ; but if 

 one asked me now, and also asked me if I 

 were sure, I Avould become suspicious that 

 he knew something, and I would want to 

 get around the farms soon to make sure. 

 A man never knows what he has. He might 

 have 1000 colonies now, and not 200 in a 

 month. 



For instance, one of my farms was giv- 

 ing me an extracting of a little over two 

 tons every month up to last March. About 

 the end of April I went out with the gang 

 to extract again. Not only was there no 

 honey to extract, but the colonies had 

 dwindled until most of them would cover 

 only about three combs. We moved on 

 to the next farm, ten miles away, and the 

 conditions were the same; and a month be- 

 fore they had been rolling the honey in 

 wholesale. Yet the farm I originally start- 

 ed from was all right, and showed no 

 signs of paralysis. The bees were not 

 dead about the hives. There were a few 



odd bees hopping about. They had sim- 

 ply disappeared. They went into winter- 

 quarters in tliis state, and I am expect- 

 ing a big mortality in the spring, which. 

 1 am glad to say, is not far off now. I 

 have known a Avliole farm to die out in a 

 month; and in all of these cases there is. 

 any amount of honey in the hives, and 

 often several frames of brood, but no bees. 

 At one time we only had to see that 

 each hive had enough stores, and we were 

 safe; but now Ave are never safe for a 

 single month. No Avonder I am getting 

 baldheaded; but still I don't growl, you 

 know — just "count your many blessings," 

 and keep scratching along. If this were 

 all the puzzle there is in the matter it 

 Avould be bad enough; but how do you ac- 

 count for the fact that you can keep bees 

 in one place, and they hardly ever get 

 paralysis, and yet only four miles away 

 you can't keep bees because they get paraly- 

 sis, and die right out without constant at- 

 tention? HoAv do you account for the 

 fact that a farm (my own) will get 

 paralysis, and need constant watching, and 

 another, only Iavo miles aAvay, gets none 

 at all? I had a lot of rivals start in the 

 bee business Avhen they saw me getting 

 crops; but they started in this paralysis 

 country, and all the farms died out the 

 first year. I know one man whose bees 

 ahvays had paralysis more or less. He 

 moved some of them into a splendid loca- 

 tion so far as bee pasturage was concerned, 

 but, although he ga\'e them constant at- 

 tention, they nearly all died. I know an- 

 other man avIio had over 200 colonies in 

 splendid order on the old site ; but he got 

 dissatisfied with the quality of the honey 

 he was getting, and moved the lot to with- 

 in two miles of the former man. He met 

 the same fate. They all died from paraly- 

 sis. If it is the feed, Avhy do not both 

 farms, only two miles apart, suffer? or 

 Avhy don't the two farms, four miles apart, 

 suffer? This does not apply to just one 

 small portion, but to parts of Australia 

 hundreds of miles apart. Only last March 

 my bees, 400 miles south of here, were in 

 splendid order, but they suddenly died off, 

 leaving them all very weak to go into win- 

 ter quarters. 



I have been patiently waiting for some 

 other microbe to come along and eat this 

 paralysis felloAV up ; but he is a long time 

 coming. 



To say, as Mr. Simmons says, that bee 

 paralysis will never make headway where 

 the owners use Italians is not correct. I 

 wish it were. I have been keeping bees for 

 my living more than half my life, and 1 



