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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 26, 1905. 



by their feet is the surest sign of the disease and very 

 readily noticed. 



The disease is exceedingly erratic in its course, some- 

 times commencing suddenly, sometimes slowly. It may de- 

 stroy the colony in a few weeks or it may linger an entire 

 season, or it may recover suddenly, with or without some 

 seeming cause for doing so. This last trait has caused many 

 who have seen only one or a few cases to conclude that they 

 have found a sure cure because a colony happened to recover 

 soon after something had been done. This erratic character 

 of the disease has not only led many to wrong conclusions, 

 but makes it much more difficult to reach right ones. Observ- 

 ing scores or even hundreds of cases is necessary before com- 

 ing to any definite conclusions at all, and we know too little 

 of the disease yet to think we know very much about it at 

 the best. Let us hope that some competent scientist can give 

 us more definite knowledge than vi-e now have. 



Several methods of cure have been suggested, nearly all 

 of which I have tried. None have given satisfaction except 

 the use of sulphur. A single application of this has always 

 affected a cure, except in two instances, when a second appli- 

 cation was required. The method of treatment was to go 

 to the colony to be treated some time during the day, and 

 remove all the combs containing any eggs or unsealed brood, 

 giving them temporarily to other colonies. In the evenmg 

 as soon as all the bees are in from the fields, sprinkle all the 

 bees, combs and inside of the hive very lightly with powdered 

 sulphur, trying to get a little on all of the bees. I never 

 measured the amount of sulphur used, but think about a 

 tablespoonful to a small colony. Usually the bees will die 

 off quite rapidly for a few days after treatment, then cease 

 doing so quite suddenly. The original combs of brood taken 

 away, or others, should be returned the day following treat- 

 ment. Reason for having this brood out of the hive during 

 treatment is because sulphur kills all unsealed brood that it 

 touches. It is very important to observe this point in 

 actual work. 



While this treatment has always succeeded with me, yet 

 I prefer an entirely different method.. That is, to make a 

 new nucleus with young queen, building this neucleus up 

 into a strong colony by giving it the brood from the diseased 

 colony, a comb or two at a time, as rapidly as it can use 

 them to advantage. A cured colony is always very weak, 

 so much so as to be of little or no. value during the season 

 of treatment. A nucleus built up by combs or brood from 

 a sick colony will be in fully as good condition at the close 

 of the season as would be a cured colony, with the added 

 advantage of having a young queen with no known taint of 

 the disease. While a cured colony is not apt to be again 

 disea:ed, yet my experience makes me very shy about using 

 the queens of such colonies for breeding purposes; and 

 the best way of being safe from danger of that, is, not to 

 keep such queens. 



I hear reports of two other diseases known as "bet- 

 paralysis" in the localities where they exist — one of them 

 from California, the other from Wisconsin. Whether these 

 are really types of that disease or are new diseases, is more 

 than I know. The existence of these in our country em- 

 phasizes very strongly the need of thorough examination of 

 the different types by competent scientists. I would suggest 

 that our Association formally request the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture to take up this work and make a 

 thorough investigation of these diseases. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



Dr. Miller moved, seconded by Mr. Laws, that this As- 

 sociation request the Department of Agriculture to make the 

 investigations suggested by Mr. Poppleton. 



The President put the motion which on a vote having 

 been taken was declared carried. 



Mr. Laws — Is this a prevalent disease in our country 

 now? 



Mr. Andrews — We very seldom have a year but we will 

 have from one to five colonies diseased. It never got very 

 extensive with us in southern California. 



Mr. Francis — In Colorado we have a great deal of this 

 paralysis. It seems to affect the bees before the honey-flow, 

 and when the honey begins to come in it disappears. But 

 this season seems to be an exception. Nearlv all my colonies 

 show it. We have lost quarts and qviarts of bees. 



As a practical answer to the question as to the com- 

 monness of the disease Dr. Miller suggests that the members 

 who are familiar with it arise, and at his response some 

 twentv-five or more stood up. 



Mr. Taylor — I have had a little trouble but exceedingly 

 little. I have only had one or two cases. In the spring I 

 had a colony troubled with disease and I removed the queen 



and gave the colony a new queen. When I removed the 

 queen I put her in a cage and kept her for a few days till 

 some one came along and wanted a queen. I said, "I have 

 no queens to sell; I haven't any more than I want, but I 

 have a queen here that I have just removed because the 

 colony was diseased. If you want the queen take her along 

 and try her." In the course of three or four weeks my 

 bees were all free of the disease and my friend came back 

 and told me his colony to which he had introduced the queen 

 had contracted the disease ; showing that the queen had 

 something to do with the disease. 



Dr. Bohrer — How long after the introduction did they 

 c-ntract it? 



Mr. Taylor — Four or five weeks. 



Prof. Benton — My own experience had been very limited, 

 but it has been reported to the Department of Agriculture 

 from a good many States, principally Texas, Colorado, Cali- 

 fornia, Florida and Pennsylvania. I recall those now, and 

 there are others. It was particularly virulent in Texas, Colo- 

 rado and California. 



Dr. Miller — -There is one question that comes up with 

 regard to this which possibly might throw a little light on 

 the treatment of the diseases. In general the disease is not 

 bad. My bees have had the disease many and many a time, 

 and I do not mind it at all ; it doesn't amount to anything. 

 Down South it is a very serious thing. Why is it so much 

 worse in the South than in the North? 



Mr. Poppleton — I had the disease fully as malignant 

 in the North — in northern lowa-^as I ever had it in the 

 South. The first winter it came the old bees continued dying 

 all the time and continued for several months with no new 

 brood being reared. Of course, with the old dying all winter, 

 before the spring comes, there are no bees, and the disease 

 cannot be distributed further. I know of no other reason 

 why it has been so. The only difference in the South is 

 with the weather; there it continues year in and year out. 

 and there is no interval of brood-rearing. 



Mr. France — I found another trouble that so closely re- 

 sembled bee-paralysis that some of us may get conflicting 

 ideas. I found it in Wisconsin, and by reports I learned that 

 there is the same thing in Missouri, Illinois and Iowa, and 

 straight on through to New York, and almost at identically 

 the same time of the year. The characteristic points of it 

 are, first, we see a colony that is unusually strong, and in 

 three days' time it has depopulated from half to two-thirds 

 of all the bees, both young and old bees leaving home. On 

 close examination out in the grass from two to six and sonie- 

 times twenty feet away we find here and there a bee running 

 as if something was after it. It comes to a blade of grass 

 and tries to climb it and makes an effort to fly and falls 

 down again. With paralysis there is more of a tendeiicy as 

 it travels to travel slower, and more with a shaky motion to 

 the body. These do not seem to have time to shake. The 

 seriousness of it is, it simply depopulates the whole hive, so 

 much so that in an apiary a little way north of me there was 

 at least a half or more of all the bees, in three days' time, 

 gone, just at the opening of the honey-flow. It recovers it- 

 self in a few days, as fast as the brood can hatch out. and 

 it re-appears again right in the basswood flow. After finding 

 it in some of those northern }'ards I returned to my own bees 

 confident they were all right, but I found it very much all 

 through, and I kept on going, and going, and seemingly there 

 was no limit to it in our State. It was the same thing. Be- 

 fore I got around the circuit it was all over with. The first 

 yard I went to I understood Mr. Benton sent a man out there 

 to investigate, but by the time word could get to him and 

 the man was sent out there, it had quit. But we will be on 

 the alert and watch for it. To say what caused it I could not 

 say anything in particular. I took a bee and put it under a 

 glass, and I could not see any parasitic trouble, and I am 

 at a loss to know what to call it, for I hardly feel like 

 calling it paralj-sis. 



Mr. Davis — I did not rise when asked because my bees 

 didn't have the trouble just as you describe it, but^ Mr. 

 P'rance has described the trouble that I find in my apiaries 

 in southern Iowa. I didn't know what caused it. 



Prof. Benton — There is one point perhaps that Mr. 

 France has failed to mention. That this case in Wisconsin 

 k'ould not be ascribed at all to spraying. As Mr. Rankin was 

 in western Michigan, I requested him before coming to Wash- 

 ington to go across to Wisconsin to see what he could there. 

 He arrived a little late ; the disease seems to disappear so 

 suddenly. He investigated the surroundings, and was con- 

 fident it was not due to spraying. It was not foul brood; 

 it was not ordinary paralysis, but there were such peculiar 

 conditions we should have to conclude it was some form 



