April 20, 190S. 



THB AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



295 



^ 



(£onr>ention 

 Procccbings 



Worcester County (Mass.) Convention 



J 



Members and friends of the above Association dined 

 and met socially on an afternoon in February, and listened 

 to an address on diseases of bees by Mr. Arthur C. Miller, 

 of Rhode Island. The occasion brought together as many 

 people interested in the busy bee as had ever been congre- 

 gated in Worcester County. 



At 2:30 o'clock Pres. Drake called the meeting to order, 

 and introduced A. A. Hixon as presiding officer. After re- 

 marks of welcome by Secretary Hixon, of the Worcester 

 Horticultural Society, O. B. Hadwen, a veteran horticultur- 

 ist, was introduced. He told of the bee being the first live 

 stock he kept on his farm, and of the profit and pleasure it 

 furnished, besides being of inexhaustible study in Nature. 



Burton W. Potter, President of the Agricultural Society, 

 said he first kept a colony of bees for pleasure, and to get 

 honey for home consumption, but now he has an apiary of 

 S colonies at his farm. He thought the bee an indispensa- 

 ble factor to plant life and fruit-trees. 



F. H. Farmer, President of the Massachusetts Apicul- 

 tural Society, and H. H. Jepson, also spoke of the work of 

 the bee and the bee-keepers. 



Following these introductory remarks the speaker of 

 the afternoon, Arthur C. Miller, was introduced, and spoke 

 as follows on 



DISEASES OF BEES 



At the start I wish you to understand that the ailments 

 of bees are not of such a nature as to endanger humanity 

 through eating the honey or handling the bees. 



Eminent authorities suspect that much that is written 

 of the diseases of bees is fanciful and most of the ailments 

 originate from want of cleanliness or want of food. Bee- 

 keepers are wont to consider their knowledge of the bee as 

 modern, whereas knowledge and practices differ but little 

 from those of two centuries ago. Valuable ideas of early 

 bee-keepers have, as well, been lost sight of. 



Bee-ailments, as known to-day, may be divided into two 

 classes, those due to germs and those due to nutriment, but 

 the degree of malignancy of the former is often dependent 

 upon the bee's food. 



Foul brood is the only germ disease positively known as 

 such. It attacks bee-brood and causes foul decomposition. 

 Black brood is by some supposed to be foul brood, modified 

 by some unknown cause. Pickled brood is another disease 

 of unknown origin. Paralysis attacks the adult bee, and 

 symptoms point to its being caused by bacteria. Aside 

 from foul brood, the diseases mentioned are not common. 



Dysentery, which decimates bees in the spring, is 

 ascribed to no one knows how many causes. Tumefac- 

 tion of the antenns is of rare occurrence," and has been 

 noticed mostly in queens. The ends of the antenna; be- 

 come enlarged and turn yellow. This extends to the front 

 of the head, and the bee soon dies. Vertigo, whose symp- 

 tomsareadizzy manner of flying and irregular motions, fol- 

 lowed by lassitude and death, is another disease. It is as- 

 cribed to nectar from such plants as laurel, azaleas and 

 rhododendrons. 



At varying times and places, what seem to be different 

 diseases, becomes epidemic, and whole districts become de- 

 populated of bees. Careful analyses of the conditions pre- 

 ceding and during bee-epidemics, point to food as being at 

 the bottom of the trouble. Hereditary impaired constitu- 

 tions are also a potent factor in inviting disease. 



Until recent times it was the custom to destroy the 

 heaviest colonies for their honey. This destruction of the 

 strongest left the less vigorous to perpetuate the specitsi. 

 Evil results finally became so obvious as to arrest the a.Lcn- 

 tion of bee-keepers, and methods were devised to obtain 

 part of the honey without destruction of the bee, also of 

 taking the less populous colonies and saving the he vy 

 ones for stock. Next came an era of excessive and unv ise 

 manipulation, resulting in a great loss of bees. 



I know of no practice that has been more productive of 

 harm than that of spreading the brood to increase tne 

 strength of colonies. Brood killed in this way furnish a hot- 



bed for breeding disease-germs. The advent of the Italian 

 bee was hailed as a panacea for all ills in beedom. It did 

 infuse new life into the bee. 



Now again bee-disease appears in all directions, and in 

 all degrees of malignancy. Have any of you noticed that 

 the spread of disease is coincident with the so-called cell- 

 cup system of queen-rearing ? Proper rearing and develop- 

 ment of queens is essential to well bees. 



Faults along these lines we can overcome, but curing 

 illness well seated is not so easy. Treatment of any of the 

 diseases by drugs is difficult and uncertain. Success has 

 been obtained in eradicating foul brood by the use of izal. 

 Bee-paralysis has been controlled to some extent by the use 

 of flour sulphur. The first thing for us to do with any dis- 

 ease is to remove all unclean matter, give the bees clean, 

 dry quarters, sound stores and a healthy queen. 



The McEvoy treatment of foul brood is to take the bees 

 from everything they had, and keep them from combs or 

 brood until their stomachs are presumably free from the 

 germ, then give them a chance to establish a new home. 



Dysentery appears to be a germ disease, which is always 

 present, awaiting favorable conditions to develop. In hand- 

 ling bees we must avoid extremes of heat and cold, and do 

 not change the proportions of nurses to brood so that the lat- 

 ter are liable to suffer from want of food. With bees, as 

 with humanity, an ounce of prevention is worth several 

 pounds of cure. Arthur C. Millkr. 



Following the talk by Mr. Miller, he was interrogated 

 upon various phases of bee-life, successes and failures of 

 bee-keepers. 



Several of those present were enrolled as members of 

 the Society at the close of the meeting. 



It was announced that plans were being made for at 

 least two summer field-days, when the bee in life could be 

 studied. 



®ur> Sister 

 ^ceKecpcrs 



Conducted by Kmma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



A Light-SpFing Bingham Bee-Smoker 



The head of this department hereby tenders thanks to Mr. T. F. 

 Bingham, the veteran smoker manufacturer, for one of his instruments 

 tliat he thinks will please on account of lightness of spring. •*■ jery 

 interesting departure from the ordinary is the manner in which the 

 nozzle IS put on. The usual way lor a detachable nozzle is for it to 

 telescope over the upper part of the fire-box. Instead of that, in the 

 present case, the telescoping is the other way— the nozzle is shoved 

 down a certain distance into the fire-box. The evident intention is to 

 avoid two objectionable things First, the loose fit and dropping off 

 of the nozzle; second, the loose fit that allows the smoke to escape be- 

 fore it reaches the point where it can do the most good. Whether it 

 accomplishes these purposes can only be told after it has been in use 

 long enough to have all the pretty, new look disappear, but it cer- 

 tainly looks hopeful. 



Right here it may not be amiss to protest against the idea that a 

 light spring is a desideratum only in a woman's hands. Anything 

 more than sufficient stiffness to throw the bellows open and still allow 

 a sufficiently firm grasp to prevent the smoker from falling means 

 only a waste of strength. While a giant might handle with ease a 

 spring with twice the necessary stiffness, there is no sense in wasting 

 a giant's strength in that way. 



A Swarm-Hiving Experience 



Dear Miss WrLSON :— As we take the American Bee Journal, and 

 as I enjoy the Sisters' department, I will give my experience in hiving 

 my first swarm of bees. 



I had often helped my husband with his bees, and was more ex- 

 cited than he was when a swarm came out. 1 had long wanted to 

 show my ability in hiving bees, and often thought I could have done 

 better than he did — and perhaps had said so. 



My chance came one fine washday. My husband had gone away 

 from home. So, on looking toward the apiary, I saw the bees swarm- 

 ing. I quickly donned my bee-veil and gloves, and hastened out to 

 see from which hive they came. I was pleased to find that the 

 swarm had a clipped queen. Then my fear was not that the swarm 

 would leave, but that I might lose the queen. 



I searched tor her, and finally found her at the corner of the hive. 



I induced her to crawl into my hand, and carefully carried her to 



> where the swarm had kindly (in consideration of me, of course) set- 



