Nov. 22, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



741 



nvention Proceedings. 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 31st Annual 



Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, held at Chicag-o, 111., 



Aug. 28, 29 and 30, 1900. 



BV DR. A. B. MASON, SEC. 



(Continued from page 72".) 

 THIRD DAY— Morning Session. 



The Thursday morning session of the convention was 

 called to order by Pres. Root, and v^as opened with prayer 

 by Rev. L. Allen, after which there was a song- by Miss 

 Ethel Acklin. 



Pres. Root — The first thing- on the program this morn- 

 ing is the paper by Dr. William R. Howard, of Ft. Worth, 

 Tex. I received it this morning, and have handed it to Mr. 

 York and requested him to read it. 



VARIOUS FORMS OF DISEASES AMONG BEES- 

 CAUSE AND CURE. 



In 1881 and 1882 I undertook the investigation of bee 

 paralysis and dysentery. As laboratories for original re- 

 search were then crude compared with those of the present 

 day, my success was not pronounced. Since I have been 

 better equipt with laboratory appliances, and become better 

 acquainted with the technic necessary for such investiga- 

 tions, I have, again, partially investigated these diseases. 



In dysentery, I have succeeded in finding several forms 

 of fungi and water bacteria, none of which were isolated or 

 determined ; neither were the experiments made with cul- 

 tures capable of reproducing the disease in prosperous colo- 

 nies. I have quite a number of times repeated these experi- 

 ments without arriving at any satisfactory conclusions. I 

 have found as many as a dozen forms of fungi, besides 

 numbers of algids, water bacteria, etc., growing in cultures 

 made from bees of a single colony ; this, at first, was some- 

 what strange, but further investigation showed that the 

 pollen (bee-bread) found in these combs furnisht many of 

 the same forms which, on suitable media, grew luxuriantly. 

 Cultures made from the excreta and body contents gave 

 similar results. 



Here allow me to mention a point worthy of attention, 

 since it has been taught and is very generally believed, 

 that old bees do not consume pollen when in a normal state ; 

 that they may be successfully wintered without it : that 

 they do not require it except for brood-rearing ; etc. I have 

 always found more or less pollen in the stomach of all bees, 

 both old and young, whether suffering from disease or in a 

 healthy condition. I have always found pollen more abun- 

 dant in the bees during confinement, especially in the 

 spring months, but I have examined them during all the 

 months with the same results. Climate .may have some- 

 thing to do with it, as bees here are usually not confined 

 over a week at a time during the winter months. In all 

 bees suffering from dysentery, that have fallen under my 

 observations, they have had an abundance of pollen, heav- 

 ily charged with various forms of fungi in their excreta. 



These outbreaks of dysentery usually follow a period of 

 activity closed with a few days of confinement, on account 

 of showers or cold weather sufficient to prevent daily flying. 

 Frequently pollen has been gathered from flowers upon 

 which the rain has fallen ; this may have had fungi from 

 the branches of the plant or tree conveyed to it by the rains. 

 The warm, wet weather of spring starts to life thou- 

 sands of forms of microscopical animal and vegetable or- 

 ganisms. Trees, plants, ponds, pools, etc., become liter- 

 ally alive with groves and swarms. Thru the water many 

 of these forms find their way to the hives, bringing about 

 unsanitary conditions, which, to a greater or less extent, 

 influence the general health of the colony, giving rise to 

 spring dwindling, and possibly dysentery, paralysis, etc. 



I have seen yards badly affected with paralysis and 

 dysentery cured in a few days by feeding artificial pollen 

 and pure water in the hive, when the weather was too bad 

 for bees to fly ; or fed in the open air when the weather was 

 fair. Good water, plenty of honey in the field, fresh pollen 

 and hygienic environments, will generally put an end to 

 paralysis, dysentery, and pickled brood. 



Apiaries should be so arranged and located that plenty 

 of sunlight and pure, fresh, dry air could circulate thru 

 them ; the bottom-board should always be dry, even on the 

 underside; many harmless molds and mildews spring up 

 in the presence of heat and moisture, some grow in the 

 dark better than in the light, many spores are carried into 

 the hive and find a suitable medium in which to grow. 

 High weeds and grass should not be allowed to grow about 

 hives, neither should the shade be so dense that a few hours' 

 sunshine could not dry the ground. 



Cheshire found the cause of some of these diseases to 

 be a bacillus which he isolated. I have not been so fortu- 

 nate as to isolate a single species that would infect a pros- 

 perous colony with paralysis or dysentery. In fact, during 

 a good honey-flow, with a prosperous colony and proper 

 sanitation, it will be found a difficult task to infect such a 

 colony with any disease and obtain immediate disastrous 

 results. The most infectious, and one that is always pres- 

 ent and more or less visible, is foul brood. Black brood, 

 pickled brood, dysentery and paralysis all disappear during 

 a good honey-flow and hygienic surroundings ; to this com- 

 mon-sense principle the " McEvoy method " owes its 

 success. 



Much has been said in conventions and written for 

 journals on paralysis, yet little is known as to its cause. 

 I have not had the time at my disposal to make a thoro 

 analysis of this disease, but will give some of the results 

 obtained. It appears, at first, as an indigestion ; dissec- 

 tion shows obstruction in the waj' of casts of pollen and 

 fungi in the true stomach and intestinal tract ; there seems 

 to be an enlargement, as if engorged, of the tubules cor- 

 responding to the urinary apparatus of higher animals — a 

 general displacement of the internal organs is comthon. 

 The mycelia, or threads, of various fungi are found in the 

 uriniferous tubules and air-passages of those dead from the 

 disease. All of these bring me to conclude that when an 

 individual bee has a bad case of paralysis nothing would 

 cure it, and that it mig-ht be worthless if cured. What is 

 usually meant by curing all diseases among bees, is stop- 

 ping the infection from spreading to new individuals, and 

 not individual cures. 



In dysentery dissection shows a dropsical condition, an 

 extra amount of fluids in the circulatory system, fungus 

 and pollen casts in the excretory organs, and in some cases 

 a great amount of liquid in the alimentary tract. 



In pickled brood the adult bee is rarely affected ; in the 

 larva and pupa much the same conditions are found as in 

 the adult bee in dysenterj', and I have known pickled brood 

 to follow dysentery and finish the destruction of the already 

 decimated colony. In this, which is strictly a fungus dis- 

 ease, the attack seldom occurs before the feeding of pollen, 

 yet I have sometimes found it earlier in larval life, where 

 the disease had raged previously. Combs which have had 

 any disease, whether of a fungus or bacterial nature, are 

 never entirely free from the infection ; while many cells 

 may be free and safe, yet, as a rule, there always lurks 

 spores capable of reinfection. Nearly all bee-bread con- 

 tains fungi of various forms which are gathered with it, 

 but which are unimportant, as they do not grow except 

 upon the leaves of plants, grasses, etc., and are incapable ^ 

 of producing disease. 



In the two colonies which were used for experimental 

 purposes last spring, in which black brood was well devel- 

 opt and thoroly establisht, the disease entirely disappeared 

 during the spring honey-flow from' horsemint ; they be- 

 came strong, and one swarmed, giving off a good swarm, 

 which was placed in one of the hives, on the infected combs 

 left after the death of the colonies used last winter in ex- 

 perimenting with this same black brood. 



In order to make a more severe test on a new swarm 

 during a good honej'-flow, I used a sufficient number of all 

 the combs sent from New York last fall to fill a frame, 

 transferred these to the center of the brood-nest and watcht 

 the results. The combs were all thorolj' united and cleaned, 

 and no disease occurred in this hive. A cessation of the 

 honey-flow in the latter part of July came, and the disease 

 reappeared, so that on the first of August quite a number of 

 both larvK and pupje were found diseased. The fall honey- 

 flow came in about this time, so that on Aug. 20th no sign 

 of the disease was present. The disease recurred in one of 

 the colonies used last spring — not the one which swarmed, 

 nor in the new swarm. 



In this disease the first germ-growth appears in the 

 ventriculus, which, in the larva, is a blind sack, which, oa 

 account of the sedentary life and liquid food provided, is 

 not a fully developt- alimentary canal till late in pupal life. 

 There is no evidence of solid excreta until after the bee is 



