GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1. As in the case of bee paralysis, so in 

 the disease of the Northwest, some strains 

 of bees are more resistant than others. 

 Sometimes a change of queens brings about 

 relief and often a cure. 



2. Finely powdered sulphur sprinkled on 

 the bees brought about relief and cure with 

 the old bee paralysis of Florida and Cali- 

 fornia, and it also seemed to afford relief 

 and cure to the bees affected in the North- 

 west, down the Mississippi Valley, and in 

 Texas. 



3. An excess of moisture seems to favor 

 both bee paralysis and Isle of Wight 

 disease. Either would be more prevalent 

 during a wet season such as we had last 

 summer than during a dry one. In Great 

 Britain, Florida, and in Washington and 

 Oregon, there is an excess of moisture al- 

 most every season at certain times of the 

 year. But the humidity is greater some 

 seasons than others, and the virulence of 

 the disease varies with the humidity pres- 

 ent. 



It will be noticed by the reports in the 

 symposium that the disease apparently dis- 

 appears when settled dry weather comes on. 

 While we do not know positively, it would 

 seem that a fungus of some sort is the dis- 

 turbing cause. Whether the bees gather it 

 with the pollen has not been proven. Fun- 

 gus seems to develop better in a humid at- 

 mosphere than in a dry one. 



The summer of 1915, especially the fore 

 part of it, was the dampest and wettest we 

 have known for years, and we have heard 

 more of the disease similar to bee paralysis 

 than we have heard before for many years. 

 Moreover, it seems to follow in those por- 

 tions of the country where there is a great 

 amount of humidity ; and it disappears just 

 as soon as dry or settled warm weather 

 comes on. It is quite clearly established 

 that a moist climate, or an occasional wet 

 season favors the propagation of this par- 

 ticular malady, whether we call it Isle of 

 Wight disease or paralysis. 



That it is destructive — fearfully so — 

 when the conditions are right, is abundant- 

 ly proven. One of the remedies is finely 

 powdered sulphur blown over the combs 

 and bees. But the only satisfactoi'y relief 

 is the drying-up of the weather. On this 

 point, perhaps our British cousins may not 

 agi-ee with us; but we doubt very much 

 whether they really know what a dry cli- 

 mate is. What to them would be dry 

 would be only foggy to us. 



Another fact seems to be that this new 

 disease apparently wears itself out. After 

 it has had a run for two or three years it 

 will disappear. Twenty years ago Mr. 0. 



0. Poppleton reported it as very serious. 

 When Dr. Phillips later on sent Mr. De- 

 muth down to investigate he could find 

 nothing of it. When we asked Mr. Popple- 

 ton what had become of it he said it had 

 simply disappeared. 



We have proved out to our own satisfac- 

 tion that some strains of bees, especially 

 some around Portland, will resist this Isle 

 of Wight disease or bee paralysis much bet- 

 ter than some other strains. The same dis- 

 ease has been rampant in Australia, and it 

 was a very serious trouble there until the 

 beekeepers developed a strain of Italians 

 that were immune to it. 



It will be remembered that Mr. F. R. 

 Buehne, of Tooberac, Australia, imported 

 some strains of yellow Italians from Ameri- 

 ca. Everywhere these strains were intro- 

 duced, bee paralysis broke out and made no 

 end of trouble. He could not hold the dis- 

 ease in check until he had eliminated the 

 imported strains entirely, and went back to 

 his own stock that seemed to be immune. 



From all we have so far learned we can 

 draw no positive conclusions, yet the rem- 

 edy seems to be to introduce strains that 

 are immune to bee paralysis as far as possi- 

 ble in those parts of the country where the 

 disease has held sway or where there is an 

 excess of humidity, and use sulphur. The 

 disease is sometimes imported thru the 

 queen, because years ago there was no such 

 thing as bee paralysis; and when a terri- 

 tory is once cleaned up, humidity alone will 

 not bring it on. 



Mr. Poppleton, besides having discovered 

 that powdered sulphur will give relief to an 

 affected colony, also learned that the combs 

 and the bees themselves are not a source of 

 infection to a healthy colony ; but the treat- 

 ment that he found to be the most effective 

 was to form as many nuclei from strong 

 healthy stocks as there were colonies to be 

 treated. As soon as the nuclei had young 

 laying queens he gave to each, as fast as 

 possible, one or two frames of old capped 

 brood from each of the paralytic colonies. 

 He continued to give them brood in this 

 way until the brood from affected colonies 

 was used up. 



At the present time we are not assuming 

 that any theory we have advanced, to the 

 effect that the two diseases are one and the 

 same, are absolute and final. We desire to 

 get more reports in order that we may 

 make further comparison ; but it is our be- 

 lief, but only a belief, that the slight differ- 

 ences between the Isle of Wight disease and 

 the old-fashioned bee paralysis can be eas- 

 ily explained by environment and the con- 

 dition of the season. 



