1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



135 



Isle of Wight Disease 



By Thos. F. Cobb 



IN the December issue of the 

 American Bee Journal you have 

 commented adversely on the the- 

 ory of "overwork" in connection with 

 Isle of Wight disease, and advise 

 that British beekeepers try the 16x10- 

 inch or larger frame. Now, I have 

 been using the 16xl0-inch right along, 

 and should be on nothing else, ex- 

 cept for the difficulty of buying bees 

 on anything else but "standards," ana 

 yet hold that "overwork" is the root 

 of all evil, therefore it is clear our 

 conception of the matter differs. 



May I try to explain? 



To begin with, it is not suggested* 

 that only the queen is overworked, 

 though that may well be the case in 

 certain instances, but stress has been 

 laid on her, as she is the means of 

 transmitting any harmful effects to 

 future generations, while with the 

 workers it is only a temporary affair, 

 even if it results in their death. 



You ask: "Are the chicks hatching 

 from a prolific hen, properly fed, any 

 weaker than those from an inactive 

 hen, slightly fed?" My answer is 

 that if you feed both hens "properly," 

 then the chicks from the prolific hen 

 are much weaker. The fact that the 

 prolific strains are more difficult to 

 hatch and rear is well known in the 

 poultry iworld; the germ is far less 

 virile, resulting in chicks that never 

 hatch, or if they do, easily die. 



I ask you to seek confirmation of 

 this statement, as the hen is probably 

 the nearest analogy we can get to 

 the queen bee; but if we consider any 

 other creature, the breeding of which 

 man has studied, we always find they 

 are unable to reproduce beyond a 

 certain limit without harm resulting 

 to parent and offspring. 



Let us leave the queen, in dispute if 

 you like, and turn to the workers. 

 You will agree that it certainly is 

 possible to overwork them. The 

 feverish haste to rob or gather when 

 there is no honey in the hive, and 

 after a period without food, show 

 conclusively it is possible to produce 

 the most amazing excitement, during 

 which they will work more than a 

 normal colony. Remembering the 

 powerful influence that feeding has 

 in bee economy, is it not the most 

 natural thing in the world to suppose 

 the food fed to queen and larvae, 

 during the period of excitement, is 

 not of the correct consistency? Per- 

 haps it is weak, badly digested, or 

 maybe lacks certain ingredients, in 

 which case, when fed to the queen, 

 would, of course, produce eggs not 

 up to the standard, and when fed to 

 larva, a weakened bee. 



This form of overwork could exist 

 just as easily in the small British 

 standard hive as in the larger 

 American sizes, and if you will cast 

 your mind over any English bee lit- 

 erature you have read, has it not 

 struck you that all manipulation ad- 

 vised tends to keep the bees always 

 in that state of excitement referred 

 to above, in very strong distinction 

 to the more natural methods of you 

 Americans? Emptying brood frames, 



feeding small quantities daily, spread- 

 ing brood, etc., are not much in favor 

 over your side, and even if you be- 

 lieved in them, with your huge api- 

 aries it would be impossible to carry 

 them out with anything like the 

 thoroughness attained here. 



But even supposing there was no 

 feasible explanation at all of why 

 overwork should Iiave any connec- 

 tion with Isle of Wight or other dis- 

 ease, there is such a mass of circum- 

 stantial evidence jiointing to a con- 

 nection that I should still believe in 

 it. I refer to such facts (more or less 

 established) as the following: 



Strongest colony frequently first 

 to go. 



Incidence highest in stocks that en- 

 ter supers and lowest in skeps. 



Isle of Wight often appears just 

 after a spell of hot weather. 



The peculiarities of "immune" 

 strains, too. are worth considering. 

 Bees come over from Holland and 

 Italy, are dumped down in the midst 

 of infection, absolutely immune, and 

 yet after a short time, under the 

 baneful influence of British beekeep- 

 ing methods they become just as 

 helpless as natives. Something has 

 caused it. Can you think of a better 

 explanation than "overwork?" 



England. 



If our correspondent is right, then 

 there sihould be no disease in api- 

 aries of old style skeps, which are 

 allowed to breed according to their 

 natural instincts. But, as far as we 

 hear, the mortality by Isle of Wight 

 disease is universal in the countries 

 under its influence. Yet the British 

 hives are almost universally of small 

 size. 



On the other hand, the people Kvith 

 large brood chambers should have 

 depopulated apiaries. The evidence 

 is exactly the reverse, in this vicinity 

 at least. 



Mr. Cobb asserts that the prolific 

 strains of poultry are more difficult 

 to hatch and rear. The most prolific 

 strain in this part of the world is 

 the Leghorn chicken, and it is also 

 one of the hardiest. It is true that 

 special food, intended to increase the 

 laying has a tendency to weaken the 

 race. We grant this. But no one has 

 suggested that a special food should 

 be prepared for bees. The large 

 hives give opportunity for the full de- 

 velopment of the queens' prolificness. 



We have no experience with Isle 

 of Wight disease, but if prolificn-jss 

 has any baneful influence, then it 

 should also promote foulbro:)d. The 

 practice does not agree with this 

 theory, which is, after all, on'.v' a 

 ihii ry. 



rection they take their medicine 

 without making much of a face. 



I sometimes feel like folding my 

 hands in my lap, when tlicy start ex- 

 tracting, and enjoy the fun. It is easy 

 to see why honey from the tropics 

 has a bad reputation and brings so 

 low a price. A great deal of the na- 

 tive honey comes from bees in hollow 

 logs, petrol boxes, clay pipes and 

 other receptacles. Even where they 

 extract from frame hives, if they are 

 not almost forcibly prevented, they 

 take everything, good or bad, white 

 or amber, green or ripe. In many 

 cases the tropical honey ferments in 

 the barrels before the steamer comes 

 to load them. I have shown them 

 the reason and have taught my hands 

 the correct way to extract. When I 

 first came here, I did not find a set- 

 tling tank in a single apiary I vis- 

 ited. They would put the honey di- 

 rectly into barrels with all of its im- 

 purities. 



With all the difficulties, we have 

 had a wonderful success. Only the 

 other day Dr. Maldonado said: "Look 

 here, Mr. Brenner, last year you liold 

 me that we would need many new 

 supplies this winter, but how could 

 you expect me to believe then that 

 any man with no trained help could 

 create out of 40 run-down colonies of 

 bees, in hollow logs, four apiaries 

 containing nearly 600 colonies in first 

 rate condition?" The question of 

 supplies has, indeed, been our hardest 

 problem. When we started we made 

 supers out of gasoline and petrol 

 boxes. The doctor has a small hand- 

 mill and I have trained a native to 

 make some first-class foundation. It 

 does not compare with the Dadant 

 foundation I used in Texas, but the 

 bees accept it and draw out perfect 

 combs. 



I wish some of my friends who love 

 nature could be here with me on some 

 of my trips to the apiaries. Especial- 

 ly interesting are our trips by motor 

 boat in nice weather. Mile upon mile 

 we go up the wide estuary of the 

 river and see no house or sign of man, 

 only virgin forest and tangled bush. 

 The white and blue water-fowl have 

 a very grotesque appearance, nothing 

 but neck, wings and legs, with seem- 

 ingly no body. Swans ride gracefully 

 out of our way and dozens of green 

 parrots, with hoarse cries, whirl 

 overhead. 



Beekeeping in Santo Domingo 



By H. Brenner 



THE native help here is very good- 

 natured, but they do not like to 

 work, and one can hardly blame 

 them, since nature produces abund- 

 antly almost everything they really 

 need. And yet, with help like this I 

 do not have any more serious trouble 

 than at home. After they work in the 

 apiaries a week or so under my di- 



Bees Killed by Spraying 



I had my entire apiary, consisting 

 of 120 colonies in all, completely 

 wiped out by spray poison during the 

 season of 1919. Unless something is 

 done to prevent spray poison the bee 

 business is at an end in the Yakima 

 valley. This is a heavy bearing apple 

 section and the apple growers so far 

 have had all the bees necessary in 

 spite of the fact that they killed some 

 every season. When the bees are all 

 killed things may look different to 

 them. However, it is hard to prevent 

 killing the bees so long as they must 

 spray. 



The bees follow a spray machine 

 and work on the wet leaves. The dry 

 arsenate of lead we now use seems 



