1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



BEE PARALYSIS. 



We have never seen but one case 

 of this disease, which seems to be 

 quite a formidable impediment to 

 honey production in the south, though 

 of no special importance in this lati- 

 tude. Prof. Cook has examined 

 many cases and decides that starva- 

 tion is the cause, though the first of 

 last June he thought it a sort of la 

 grippe. While this decision is from 

 a wise man on the subject in question, 

 allow your co-worker in practical api- 

 culture to take issue with the learned 

 professor, and when time may prove 

 us correct, and the salaried gentleman 

 wrong, please recall to mind what we 

 said about it. 



Starving bees act quite similar to 

 those with the paralysis, but success- 

 ful robbers are more like them in ap- 

 pearance. It would be as logical to 

 charge the effects up to robbing as to 

 starvation, but neither would be cor- 

 rect in our opinion. We do not pre- 

 tend to know, but from reports and 

 the one case we have examined, we 

 believe the following, taken from the 

 American Bee Journal is correct. It 

 is on page 240, present volume, from 

 the pen of Getaz Adrian, of Kiiox- 

 ville, Tenn.. We quote: 



" Some of the readers of the Bee 

 Journal will be somewhat astonished 

 to learn that bee paralysis has always 

 existed here, more or less, in all or 

 nearly all the apiaries; at least for 

 seven or eight years, and probably 

 much longer. Nevertheless it is a 



fact. The malady is much worse 

 some years than others, ahd generally 

 much worse in the spring, precisely 

 when we can the least spare the bees. 

 Workers, drones and queens ai-e in- 

 fected, I have seen drones with the 

 symptoms of the disease ejected from 

 a queenless hive, the same as diseased 

 workers. Frequently I have had 

 queens not more than one or two 

 years old, disappear during the 

 honey-flow, or at some other unex- 

 pected time. I suppose they were 

 superseded when found too sick to do 

 their duty. 



The first spring than my bees died 

 in considerable number, I thought 

 they had been poisoned by somebody 

 spraying his trees too soon. A year 

 or two later I fed outside and con- 

 cluded that the shiny bees, dying 

 around the feeders, had been daubed 

 in the syrup, and the others had 

 pulled their hair in trying to lick 

 the syrup. 



It is a fact that the diseased bees 

 will hang around the feeders longer 

 than the others, but perhaps it is be- 

 cause they are not strong enough to 

 fly in the fields. 



My first eye-opener o.i the question, 

 was during a honey-flow. I had acci- 

 dentally left some honey from burr- 

 Combs close to the hive, and when I 

 came back I found the pretended rob- 

 bers trying to get into the hive, and 

 the burr-combs untouched. 



Well, what is the di.sease? Cheshire 

 says it is a bacillus much smaller than 

 the one that produces foul brood, and 

 of a much slower growth. It is found 

 in the grown bees more than in the 

 broods, and more in the queen than in 

 the workers. Cheshire calls it Bacillus 

 Gaytoni, his attention has been called 



