92 BEES FOR PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 



importance, therefore, of keeping all stocks headed by vigo7-ous 

 Italian or hyl)rid queens (whether the bee-keeper imports 

 them or breeds them himself) must be manifest to all.* 



Certain disinfectants, such as Bacterol, Izal, and Flavine, 

 are recommended for the cure of Isle of Wight bee disease. 

 They should be used both as sprays, and also to medicate the 

 syrup fed to the bees, in the proportions indicated on the 

 bottles sold by the dealers in bee goods. " Aj)icure," adver- 

 tised by the proprietor of the British Bee Journal., is also 

 recommended for curing this disease. 



When medicated food is fed to the bees for this purpose 

 it is best fed to them in Taylor's "Physic" feeder (fig. 41a) 

 as in the case of foul brood ; and the syrup used for such 

 feeding should (except in late autumn) be thin — made with 

 3 lbs. of sugar to each quart of water. 



Whether Isle of Wight disease is infectious or not is a 

 moot point, but as it is certainly highly contagious, it will be 

 best, if the stock attacked be a weak one, to smother the bees 

 with sulphur in the manner described in the case of foul brood, 

 and to burn all the quilts, combs, and frames, as well as the 

 dead bees, while the hives must be most thoroughly disinfected 



* In this connection the experience of an American bee-keeper, Mr. Wni. Belshaw, 

 Everett, published in the Bntish Bee Journal of 3rd February 1921, is of great 

 interest : — 



"To give you some idea how I would treat Isle of Wight disease," says Mr. 

 Belshaw, "I will first give as near as I can Nature's way as I saw it, and which 

 seemed to be good. Six hives were badly affected in the spring ; my hi\es were on 

 a bench 3 feet from the ground, the cripples coming out and falling to the ground. 

 Hone\' was coming in from spring flowers, brood rearing going on in all the hives, 

 sick and healthy alike, bees were increasing in numbers notwithstanding the heavy 

 loss of sick and dying, and they eventually swarmed. 



' ' I was on hand in each case, and while watching them I noticed they had lost 

 their queen, and saw several bees go back to the hive to hunt for her. I then began 

 to look for her myself, and found her 4 feet from the hive, crawling on the grass 

 unable to fiy. I iii'cked her up, put her on a stake thinking the bees would cluster 

 around her, but they did not, and paid no attention to her whatever. The bees 

 returned to the hive and raised another queen. 



"My experience with the other hives was similar to this, only most of the queens 

 got lost in the weeds, and neither me nor the bees were able to find them. In every 

 case where the queen was lost in the swarming process, and another one raised to 

 take her place, these colonies quickly reco\ered from the disease ; in fact, as soon as 

 the young queen got to laying, there was no disease to be seen. 



''I studied the matter over for some time, and came to these conclusions: — That 

 the queen was able to go on with her eg^^ laying although her wings might l)e useless, 

 but when she was required to go with the swarm she fell to the ground like a crippled 

 worker bee. The reason why the bees could not find her after she went out was, they 

 would hunt for her by scent, and she being diseased, her odour would be repulsive 

 instead of attractive to them. 



" The diseased queen being lost in the swarming process eliminated the chief centre 

 of infection in each hive. The raising of a new (jueen out of the bunch of cells gave 

 Nature an opportunity to develop and select, by the survival of the fittest among 

 them, a queen with greater resistance to the disease." 



