THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



155 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Beo Disease in Kentucky. 



Mr. Wagner : — Your favor of the 2d instant 

 came in my absence. I answer as soon as I 

 could note contents. 



Bees in this section have done poorly all the 

 season. While the poplar was in blossom they 

 did well for about eight days ; but till they 

 commenced dying-, they only made a support. 

 They produced about one swarm in a hundred, 

 last spring. 



About the 20th of August, I noticed a great 

 number of dead bees on the bottom board and 

 in front of a hive. On examination, I discov- 

 ered that about the half of them were still alive, 

 crawling about among the dead; and when I 

 placed a handful of them by themselves, I found 

 some four days passed before lite was extinct. 

 But in ten days from the first attack every 

 Btock of mine (twenty-lour in number) was 

 dead. 



The bees of some hives did not all get sick or 

 diseased at the same time; and the well ones 

 cleaned out the dead. In some cases there were 

 not a dozen bees left in a hive. So it has been 

 with our friend Broil, who once rejoiced in forty 

 stands, and awoke to see (as he thought) that 

 his bees had Med to parts unknown. 



My yard and garden were strewn with 

 the dead and dying — many having gone 

 out to get relief from the dead at home. All 

 the honey made this season is very dark and 

 bad flavored. 



We have but few individuals in this part of the 

 State who have as high as one hundred stocks. 

 I know in Oldham, Shelby, and Jefferson coun- 

 ties, four men with one hundred stocks each, 

 twenty with sixty, fifty with thirty, one hun- 

 dred with fifteen, and one bundred and fifty 

 with from one to ten. Now I am satisfied that 

 of all these, not one stock in a hundred is alive 

 to-day. Yet nearly all I have examined have 

 plenty of honey left. The strongest stocks, in 

 numbers and surplus, were as liable to go as 

 any. 



I have not heard of a swarm being seen astray 

 this fall in either of the three counties named ; 

 and if seven or eight thousand had taken wing, 

 I presume some one would have been seen. 

 Therefore this part of the account is a hoax. 

 Yours truly, W. F. Cunningham. 



Middletown, Ky., Dec. 21, 1868. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



That Bee Disease. 



In September last, when the first cold weather 

 set in, my bees began to die. First, I found in 

 one of my best stands, with all the frames full 

 of sealed honey and some in boxes, the bees all 

 dead. After that the bees began to die in all 

 my stands, mostly pure Italians, and some hy- 

 brids. First about one third of the bees would 

 be dead; next I would find the queen lying dead 

 before the hive; and in about a week more the 

 whole colony lay dead in and around the hive. 

 Sometimes the queen would live, with a handful 

 of bees. 



The hives were full of honev gathered the 

 latter part of the season; and the least ones had 

 enough to winter on. In this way I have lost 

 forty stands, and have now only fifteen skele- 

 ton colonies, which I think will also perish be- 

 fore spring. 



I first thought I was the only victim in this 

 way, but I have now ascertained that all the 

 bees have died in this neighborhood, and as far 

 as thirty miles north and eighteen miles south. 

 Yesterday I saw a letter from Kentucky, in the 

 Country Gentleman, where a man thought his 

 bees had stampeded. I suppose they stampeded 

 in the same manner as mine, from the hive to 

 mother earth. 



Some of the colonies had brood, others had 

 not. Late in October all the queens had com- 

 menced laying again. To some colonies I 

 gave three queens in about two weeks, and they 

 lost each in turn. 



My bees are Italians and hybrids, in movable 

 frame hives. My neighbors have black bees in 

 boxes and "gums." 



In looking over my German books, I find that 

 bees sometimes die for want of bee-bread; and 

 on examining the frames of the dead stands, I 

 find pollen very scarce. Some had none, while 

 others have died with some of it in the combs. 

 Have any of the old bee-fathers auy idea of 

 the nature of this ailment '? I do not find any- 

 thing relating to it in Mr. Quinby'sbook. There 

 was no foulbrood in the hives. Last year I lost 

 some stands, possibly from the same cause. We 

 have had now two or three late springs, the time 

 when bee bread ought to have come in. I 

 think mustard is the best crop for pollen. I had 

 melilot clover last year, but could not find my 

 bees to work on the white blossoms, and plowed 

 it under. 



Please publish this at an early date, as I am 

 desirous to know the cause of this bee mortality. 

 T. Hullman, Sk. 



P. S.— Friend Baldridge told me last spring 

 to give the bee-veil to my wife, if I had one° 

 I am happy to tell him that I have one of the 

 best of wives; but to open fifty or more hives of 

 bees, cut out queen cells, drone comb, &c, 

 without protection to the face, I cannot. He is 

 ahead of me in that, and will please give me his 

 modus operandi. My bees have a partiality 

 for the eyes, and one or more sting iu or 

 about them I do hate, and before I commence 

 blowing smoke it is usually about too late. I 

 do not think the Italian bees less inclined to 

 sting than the black. I had queens from differ- 

 ent apiaries. The finest and handsomest were 

 from Mr. Gray, of Reily, Ohio. 



Some factory might make stuff for face pro- 

 tection. The common bobbinetis too close and 

 heavy. I always had some stands that were 

 ' 'inapproachable. ' ' 



If auy bee friend should come this way, he 

 will please stop and see the condition of the 

 hives and combs in which the bees died. It is 

 my opinion that the bees died for want of pollen. 

 If this is the case, what could be done ? Would 

 not meal be injurious if given to the bees in fall 

 and winter. T. H. 



Terre-Hatjte, Ind. 



