14 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



January 



this trouble the emerging brood un- 

 cap the cells, and if they have 

 strength enough to come out th»y 

 seem to be deformed and die befoie 

 they have spread their wings. 



A few have reported that the queen 

 is among the first to die. Many now 

 connect this disease with the fact 

 that this year it has been almost im- 

 posible to keep queens in the hives. 

 Some of the older beekeepers state 

 that so far as they :an remember, 

 there never before has been so high 

 a death rate among the queens. 



The bees which died from this dis- 

 ease have a slightly swollen appear- 

 ance, somewhat similar to paralysis 

 victims. The bees are found covered 

 with a gray fungus, or mould, in 

 about forty hours after death. This 

 fungus comes from all of the exposed 

 soft parts of the bee's body, and es- 

 pecially from the segments of the ab- 

 domen and around the mouth parts. 

 Whether or not this fungus has any- 

 thing to do with the disease, is not 

 known. As is customary, whenever a 

 bee trouble appears, many are ready 

 to suspect that the bees are suffering 

 from poisoning. A large number of 

 plants are suggested as being respon- 

 sible for the trouble. As usual, dod- 

 der, being a plant already suspected 

 of being poisonous, heads the list. A 

 significant fact is that of all the 

 plants suspected, a large percentage 

 are heavy pollen producers. Dodder, 

 Cuscuta campacta Juss. (and other 

 varieties), and Partridge pea Cassia 

 Chameecrista L., are the only honey 

 plants that arc reported as being m 

 bloom in the affected region. It 

 seems very peculiar that such a thing 

 as a plant producing nectar poison- 

 ous to bees would exist, as nature 

 would be defeating her own purpose 

 in having nectar secreted to attract 

 insects, which are to act as carriers 

 of pollen and then to have the insects 

 killed by the nectar before they can 

 deliver the pollen. One can hardly 

 believe that poisonous nectar is the 

 cause of the present trouble. 



In the Journal of Economic Ento- 

 mology for August, 1918, Elmer G. 

 Carr describes u summer disease that 

 occurred during the summer of 1917 

 in New Jersey, New York, Ohio and 

 Ontario. Later the disease was re- 

 ported as occurring in Mississippi and 

 Alabama. C. P. Dadant, of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal, in an editorial in 

 the December, 1918, Journal men- 

 tioned a similar occurrence in one of 

 his own bee-yards in Illinois. Mr. 

 Carr suggested that this malady Is 

 caused by an excess consumption of 

 pollen, and, in his article, shows that 

 the trouble occurred during or just 

 after a period of stormy weather, 

 when but a few honey plants were in 

 bloom, and a large number of pollen 

 plants were blooming plentifully. He 

 further reports that the hives affect- 

 ed had a superabundance of pollen 

 and an unusually small amount of un- 

 sealed honey. The theory he ad- 

 vances is that the bees, during the 

 period when there is no honey-flow 

 and an immense supply of pollen, 

 feed too largely upon the pollen, as 

 bees are very reluctant to consume 

 sealed honey during this period. 



The close relationship which exists 

 between pollen and tliis disease be- 

 comes very apparent after one has 

 read the article in the June, 1919, 

 Journal of Economic Entomology by 

 Arnold P. Sturtevant, in which he de- 

 scribes this disease and states that 

 while searching for Nosema apis he 

 discovered only pollen granules in 

 the digestive organs of the dead bees. 

 This leads him to make a number of 

 statements, among which two are sig- 

 nificant: "Such materials as starch 

 and dextrin are indigestible to bees, 

 causing what might be called acute 

 indigestion or auto-into-vication. 

 Therefore, the presence of so much 

 indigestible starch in the pollen 

 food of the bees was probably a con- 

 tributory factor, if not the actual 

 cause, of the dysentery and death of 

 so many of the adult bees, in the par- 

 ticular instance cited." 



Under the title "The Disappearing 

 Disease," an -editorial in September 

 Gleanings, gives an account of the 

 outbreak of this disease in California, 

 Washington and Oregon, in the 

 spring of 1917, in the Eastern States. 



The conditions described by Carr, 

 and again by Sturtevant, seem to be 

 identical with those now existing in 

 Texas. In sections where during av- 

 erage seasons there is a lack of pol- 

 len for fall brood-rearing, this year 

 some combs are solid bee-bread. 

 From the statements of Dadant and 

 Carr, this disease disappears with the 

 same rapidity with which it came, 

 whence its name, the "Disappearing 

 Disease," but necessarily the colonies 

 which are dead cannot be replaced 

 easily, and those which have been se- 

 verely weakened by the death of 

 their members will have to be han- 

 dled with a great deal of care to 

 have them retain their strength. As 

 the best evidence indicates that this 

 disease is caused by the overeating 

 of pollen, it has been suggested that 

 the feeding of sugar syrup or the 

 breaking of the caps on the sealed 

 honey should help materially, as 

 either treatment will cause the ma- 

 jority of the bees to gorge them- 

 selves with syrup or honey. 



In all of the instances cited above, 



this disease occurred during the 

 spring and summer, and between 

 honey-flows. As the Texas outbreak 

 has occurred during the latter half of 

 August, some may think that these 

 maladies are not identical. One must 

 remember that, throughout the 

 southern half of Texas the summer 

 is divided into two seasons; spring 

 and early summer compose one of 

 these seasons. The honey plants 

 reach the height of their blooming 

 by the first of June; by the middle 

 of July there are but very few flow- 

 ers in bloom, and brood-rearing 

 reaches a very low ebb. By the mid- 

 dle of August a change comes, by 

 which the fall-blooming plants, which 

 produce pollen in abundance, and 

 strong-flavored honeys begin to 

 bloom. With the coming of a few 

 rains, the fall flowers bloom in 

 abundance, and the bees again store 

 considerable nectar. It was just, at 

 the opening of this season that the 

 outbreak of "The Disappearing Dis- 

 ease" occurred; thus we have a coin- 

 cidence in seasonal relationship, in 

 the behavior of the bees, and in the 

 condition of the hives, and every 

 beeman in Texas hopes that it will 

 also disappear quickly here. 



College Station, Texas. 



(We suggest that the mould or 

 fungus mentioned in the above con- 

 tribution be investigated. See trans- 

 lation upon this subject in the Sep- 

 tember number, page 305. — Editor.) 



How Many Trips to Fill a Cell? 



By C. E. Fowler 



I HIVED a swarm of bees Monday 

 morning, 11 pounds, or about 

 40,000 bees (full of honey). I 

 used three 10-frame supers of foun- 

 dation, 27 cells to inch, 45^xl6j4 in., 

 or about 4,000 cells to each frame — 

 120,000 cells in all. In four days they 

 drew all the foundation out and 

 filled one-third full of honey (33 lbs.), 

 allowing 10 pounds of honey for 1 

 pound of wax, and estimating the 

 wax made at 1 pound, which is very 

 low for the supers, and supposing 

 one-half the bees remained in the 



Dr. C. E, Sheldon's exhibit at the Kootenai. I.Jabo, tan. Dr. Sheldon at nght nnd Miss Si. 



at Icf;, Geo. W. \ork center. 



!d.a 



