AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



265 



" INameless Bee-Disease."— 



Mr. Chester Belding, of Claremont, Va., 

 asks these questions about the so-called 

 " Nameless Bee-Disease :" 



Can you give any information about 

 the "nameless bee-disease," or where 

 the bees turn black and shiny, and 

 other bees in the same hive fight and 

 kill them ? Do they hatch out in that 

 condition, or do they become so with 

 age, etc. ? Does changing combs from 

 hive to hive carry the disease with the 

 combs ? Is there any known cure or 

 remedy for it? My bees have been but 

 slightly troubled thus far with it. Please 

 answer in the Bee Journal. 



Chester Belding. 



There is a good deal of difference of 

 opinion about the nameless disease, some 

 thinking the queen at fault, and a num- 

 ber of cures have been reported as a re- 

 sult of changing the queen. Allowing 

 the bees access to salt water has been 

 reported a cure. Others, however, who 

 have had considerable experience, re- 

 port that the disease disappears of itself 

 when let alone, and think that in the 

 cases where the trouble ceased upon 

 changing queens, it might have ceased 

 equally soon in the same cases had no 

 change of queens been made. 



Perhaps the majority are in favor of 

 changing queens. It is quite possible 

 that the disease is more virulent in some 

 cases than others, as some look upon it 

 as no very serious matter. 



The bees do not hatch out with the 

 black, shiny appearance, neither does 

 it seem the result of age, for such bees 

 are generally found with perfect wings. 



INEice in Bee-Cellars, Etc.— 



Mr. E. S. Miles, of Denison, Iowa, asks 

 this question about mice troubling bees 

 in the cellar ; its answer will serve to 

 reply to similar questions that we have 

 received : 



I have nevor seen anything in the bee- 

 papers about mice injuring bees in cel- 

 lars. Do they injure bees when in the 

 cellar, where they can get into the hives? 



One day, lately, as I was holding a 

 light so as to shine Into the bottom of a 



hive, a mouse jumped out from between 

 the combs almost amongst the bees. I 

 saw where they had been eating dead 

 bees, and other signs of their being un- 

 der the combs. • 



As most of the writers advise leaving 

 the bottoms off, or large entrances, I 

 don't see how a person can keep them 

 out of the hives in the cellar ; and it is 

 pretty hard to have a mouse-proof cellar. 



That article by the Chinese contribu- 

 tor, on page 858 (1892), was quite a 

 diversion. I hope we will hear from 

 him some more. 



We are having some zaro weather 

 here now (Jan. 13), with plenty of snow 

 on the ground. The coldest it has been 

 yet is 120 below zero. E. S. Miles. 



Yes, indeed, mice will do plenty of 

 damage if allowed to get into hives in 

 the cellar. They will eat live bees, and 

 they will eat honey, but perhaps the 

 greatest damage done by them is the 

 gnawing of the combs. They will gnaw 

 great holes in the combs, and build nests 

 there, in which they no doubt find it 

 very comfortable. 



As you say, a mouse-proof cellar is 

 not easily had, but you can do much by 

 way of persistent trapping, and also by 

 giving the mice a diet of some kind 

 spiced with poison, as thin slices of 

 cheese sprinkled with strychnine, cut 

 up into little cubes and placed where 

 the mice can get it conveniently. 



The best thing is to bar them out of 

 the hives. With an ordinary entrance 

 that is easily done by means of heavy 

 wire-cloth, having the meshes about one- 

 third of an inch. The same wire cloth 

 may be used full size of the bottom if 

 the hives are left without bottom-boards. 



You may like the plan devised by Dr. 

 Miller. He has reversible bottom-boards. 

 One side of the bottom-board is a plain, 

 flat surface, on which the hives rest dur- 

 ing summer. The other side is a shal- 

 low box an inch and a half or two inches 

 deep, open at the front end, where a 

 piece of wire-cloth closes the entrance. 



Don't close the entrance with wire- 

 cloth of fine mesh that will not allow 

 th* bees to get through, for in that case 

 the bees that try to get out and find 



