314 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



inland to the Burnley apiary. These were 

 very small, and could not have recovered 

 ■without some assistance. A comb of hatch- 

 ing brood was therefore given to each. In 

 three months all of them had completely re- 

 covered, and showed no trace of nosema 

 apis. 



In view of the success obtained, a further 

 and somewhat larger experiment was made. 

 In January, 1915 (which, of course, is sum- 

 mer here), 24 colonies were selected from 

 an apiary 60 miles from Melbourne. Mi- 

 croscopical examination of bees proved all 

 of them to be infected with nosema. Nine- 

 teen of these were sent to the Burnley api- 

 ary, while five were left behind as controls. 

 In May examinations of all were again made 

 by Dr. Laidlaw, and showed that, of the 19 

 shifted to Burnley, 16 were now clean, 3 

 were still affected, but in a lesser degi-ee 

 than in January. The 5 controls still re- 

 tained the parasite. 



Owing to much brood-rearing without an 

 income of nectar it became necessary to 

 feed the 19 colonies in May. Fifteen were 

 given sugar syrup, and four some dark 

 honey of unknown origin obtained in the 

 open market. In spring (September) the 

 examination made showed that three out of 

 the four which had been fed honey were 

 rather badly affected, and only one of the 

 sugar-fed, slightly. Of the controls, two 



succumbed during winter, but the remain- 

 ing three were now clean. 



The fact that three out of the four colo- 

 nies (wliich were clean at the previous ex- 

 amination) became infected after being fed 

 honey (which possibly came from old 

 brood-combs), that one, altho given exactly 

 the same, remained free, opens up several 

 new issues for further investigation. 



The infection of one of the sugar-fed 

 colonies may be accounted for by robbing, 

 of which a little took place at the time. 



That the surviving control colonies rid 

 themselves of the parasite may indicate 

 that, under the stimulus of a plentiful sup- 

 ply of good pollen and new neetai*, bees are 

 able to throw off the disease in spring. This 

 also applies to the Burnley apiary, where, 

 owing to its location among artificially 

 watered flower-gardens, and the vicinity of 

 the river, there is never a dearth of normal 

 pollen. Nothing is finally proved by the 

 experiments, and I have departed from the 

 rule to publish nothing that is not complete, 

 only with the object of indicating the direc- 

 tions in which a solution of some of our 

 troubles may be looked for, which I take to 

 be the inherited vigor of the strain of bees 

 together with a plentiful supply of good 

 nitrogenous food during the period of their 

 infancy. 



Tooborae, Vic, Australia. 



THE NEW BEE DISEASE ; MORE LIGHT WANTED 



BY GEO. W. BULLAMORE 



A few years ago I found it necessary to 

 read thru the descriptions of the Isle of 

 Wight disease written by thousands of the 

 beekeepers of this country who had suffered 

 losses. I soon found that, with regard to 

 the symptoms, the definite statements of any 

 one beekeeper were usually at variance with 

 the i-eeorded experience of some other bee- 

 keeper, and that the only point on which all 

 writers were in agreement was that there 

 had been a heavy loss of bees. I am re- 

 minded of this when reading the accounts 

 in Gleanings of "that Western bee-disease." 

 While some are claiming that the disease 

 disappeai-s as the result of the sulphur 

 treatment, another states that the cures are 

 apparent only, and the bees dwindle away 

 and eventually die out. One writer does 

 not think the weather has anything to do 

 with it. To others, weather is the chief or 

 only cause. Some speak of it as a form of 

 paralysis, a disease known to attack the 

 adult bees only, while other accounts men- 

 tion the rotting brood. A constant feature 



of the reports is the crawling bees. This 

 was the case at first in the descriptions of 

 Isle of Wight disease in England; but a 

 careful study of the coui'se of the trouble in 

 districts and apiaries for a year or more 

 convinced as that a symptom of this nature 

 was associated with the dwindling of stocks 

 without sign of dying bees, and also with 

 abnormal winter losses when the bees were 

 found dead in heaps on the floorboard. 

 Whether a sick bee dies inside the hive, in 

 front if it, or away at the pasturage, prob- 

 ably depends on a number of factors of 

 which the organism causing the trouble is 

 but one. 



A good account of a trouble which we 

 should diagnose as Isle if Wight disease is 

 given by Critchlow in Gleanings for 1904, 

 page 692. The loss of several thousand 

 colonies in Cache Valley and Salt Lake 

 Valley is described. Other accounts ai-e 

 given by Bedell, 1909, page 412, where loss- 

 es in New York State are recorded, and by 

 Fawell, 1909, page 704, who tells of heavy 



