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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The Louisville (Ky.,) Democrat, of November 

 19, contains the following account of a recent 

 extraordinary emigration or desertion of honey- 

 bees — whether fact or fiction, we cannot say. 

 If not a "moon hoax," we hope soon to receive 

 from some correspondents residing near the 

 scene, a more full account of tbe occurrence : 



Extraordinary Exodus of Honey Bees — 



They Abandon their Winter Stores 



and Disappear. 



One of the most remarkable occurrences that 

 has ever come to our knowledge was related to 

 us yesterday. Mr. James Broil, a farmer, who 

 resides about seven miles from this city, 

 on the river road, has for some time past been 

 engaged extensively in raising honey bees, and 

 with almost unprecedented success . He has late- 

 ly rejoiced in as many as forty-five hives of the 

 industrious little "cusses," and to use a homely 

 phrase, tliey have been plying themselves like 

 Turks, and making "slathers" of honey for the 

 winter, A few mornings ago, however, Mr. 

 Broil woke up to rind his bees non est. They 

 had "lit out" between two days, leaving no 

 trace whatever of the point or region of country 

 to which they had so unceremoniously migrated. 

 There was not a solitary bee left to keep itslone- 

 ly watch over the forty-five hives. As might 

 be expected Farmer Broil was left in considera- 

 ble of a dilemma, and immediately consulted all 

 the authorities at his command in relation to 

 the peculiar habits and freaks of the bee tribe. 

 Alter wading through many volumes it occurred 

 to him that some of his neighbors might be 

 able to explain the whys and wherefores of this 

 "bounty jumping" move on the part of his army 

 of honey makers. He accordingly made a "bee- 

 line" for the residence of his nearest neighbor, to 

 consult him on the singular problem. To his 

 utter surprise, he ascertained that his friend, 

 who is also a "beeist," had met with the same 

 loss in the same sudden manner, and was in the 

 same perplexity as to the cause. They at once 

 resolved on examining the hives, and it revealed 

 to them the fact that each stand contained from 

 sixty to seventy-five pounds of honey. This 

 develop nent led the two bee raisers to seek for 

 further information, and in their rounds, for a 

 circuit of twenty-five miles, they found that 

 every hive had been deserted about the same 

 time, and all of them were left full of honey. 

 The farmers in that region are unable to account 

 for this mysterious disappearance of their bees, 

 and many theories have been advanced, but up 

 to this time the problem remains unsolved. The 

 opinion of the most of them is, that the mildness 

 of the weather up to so late a season, caused 

 this singular migration. 



The description of Mr. J. L. Hubbard's 

 Honey- Emptying Machine, intended for this 

 number of the Journal, had to be postponed 

 till next month, as the diagram to accompany 

 and illustrate it, could not be got ready in time. 



We conclude, in this number, Mr. Lambrecht's 

 essay on the cause, source, and cure of foulbrood; 

 and shall, in our next, present Dr. Preuss's re- 

 cent article on that subject contained in the 

 Bienenzeitung, a lucid abstract of which has al- 

 ready been given to our readers in the commu- 

 nication from the Baroness Von Berlcpsch, in 

 the Bee Journal for November. Though 

 each of these inquirers assumes that he has 

 traced the disease to its source, and their views 

 consequently differ; we conceive that there 

 is no irreconcilable difference between them, 

 the observations of the one being in fact, 



in essentials, only the complement of the other. 



11 



To J. P. of C. — We have not seen Darwin's 

 late work on ""The Variations of Animals and 

 Plants under Domestication,' 1 '' and cannot say 

 whether the author indulges in any "new vaga- 

 ries," or not. We presume that whatever facts 

 he adduces are correctly stated : but we should 

 incline to exercise great caution in following 

 him, whenever he gets astride of his favorite 

 hobby and throws his lasso around the neck of 

 an inference. The hunter and his quarry are 

 then rather apt to come to the ground together. 

 Please complete your ' Strictures,' 1 '' and send 

 them to us. 



_ — i an 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



That Bee Disease. 



Since the date of my previous letter to the 

 Journal, my bees have continued to die as 

 before, the disease finally attacking the Italians 

 also, so that now I have not a single healthy 

 stock left. The disease is not by any means 

 confined to my apiary, as nearly all my neigh- 

 bors have lost all their stocks. It is generally 

 considered here to be something similar to chol- 

 era. The abdomen is swollen, and emits an 

 extremely offensive fluid when crushed. 



The first warning I had of anything being 

 wrong with my bees, was an unusual activity 

 about some of the hives, as though they were 

 robbing, but I found they were not. A neigh- 

 bor observed the same in his apiary. 



The fact of the disease appearing simulta- 

 neously in apiaries several miles apart, would in- 

 dicate that it is epidemic rather than contagious. 



We have used the honey on the table for sev- 

 eral weeks, and find it perfectly good and whole- 

 some. 



Some have ascribed it to a want of pollen, but 

 I find my combs well supplied with bee-bread. 



C. E. Thorne. 



Selma, Ohio, Dec. 7, 1868. 



HP Mr. Thorne sent us some of the bees that 

 died of the disease referred to above, but there 

 is nothing in their appearance that could lead us 

 even to conjecture the cause of their death. It 

 cannot be foulbrood, for that does not affect or 

 prove fatal to mature bees. 





