590 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1917 



at about the grocer's price, or he is doing 

 himself an injustice and is helping to keep 

 honey down and its market unsatisfactory 

 and unstable. The greatest enemy to higher 

 honey prices in the past (and today) is that 

 beekeeper who doesn't know the market and 

 sets his standard of price for local sales by 

 the car-lot figure ottered by the big buyer 

 and bottler rather than by the price of the 

 bottled and labeled product on the retail 

 grocer's shelf. 



Until the honey-producer clearly recog- 

 nizes this truth and acts on it firmly, the 

 price of honey is going to remain uncertain, 

 unsatisfactory, and lower than it should be. 



It's up to the honey-producer himself. 



WE ARE AGAIN having reports of bees 

 dying in large numbers in a few localities. 



The symptoms 



IS IT THE 



ISLE OF 



WIGHT 



DISEASE? 



tally very close- 

 ly with those 

 reported for the 

 Isle of Wight 

 disease, of Great 

 Britain, or the disappearing disease, as it 

 has been called in this country. It affects 

 only the adult bees; and whatever it is, it 

 seems to attack old and young bees as well 

 as drones alike. But it has no effect on 

 the brood in any stage of growth. In yards 

 where the disease appears, bees will be 

 found out in front of the entrances, nerv- 

 ously running about, crawling up spears of 

 grass and trying to fly. They seem to be in 

 great distress, running around till exhaust- 

 ed. As the disease advances, the bees seem 

 to be tugging away at their wings, and 

 scratching their bodies with their legs as if 

 itching or in pain. In the more advanced 

 si ages they will be found with wings out 

 of "joint crawling around the apiary, and 

 even several rods away. Sometimes only 

 one colony is affected, while the other colo- 

 nies in the yard are in normal condition. 

 In other instances there will be four or five 

 colonies near together, and all afflicted with 

 the same trouble. 

 . So far as reported in this country, the 

 disease comes and goes. Sometimes it 

 cleans out the colony entirely, and some- 

 times only a small proportion of the bees 

 die. In one instance where it was very bad 

 last summer it disappeared, and did not 

 occur again in that yard until this summer. 

 In one yard which we recently examined 

 the disease was reported to be very bad 

 about two weeks ago. At the time of our 

 visit recently it had all but disappeared and 

 a big crop was being harvested. 



We have never seen it in our Medina 



yards, altho a few yeai-s ago we found a 

 few bees crawling up some spears of grass. 

 The number was very few. 



We should be pleased to learn if others 

 have seen any of the symptoms of the dis- 

 appearing disease ; and if so, have any of 

 the symptoms of last summer reappeared'? 



It should be explained that this disease 

 of which we speak is very much unlike bee 

 paralysis. The bees are not black and 

 shiny, nor are the abdomens distended. A 

 paralytic bee is logy, wliile a bee affected 

 with the other disease is as lively as a 

 cricket until it exhausts itself by constant 

 running and by its hun'ied rush thru the 

 grass. Except for extended wings, con- 

 stant running in the gi'ass, and general un- 

 easiness, and a tugging of the legs against 

 the body as if itching or in pain, the bees 

 appear to be perfectly nonnal. Externally 

 there are no symptoms expect in the gen- 

 eral behavior. 



SOME OF OUR apiaries in the early part 

 of the season are used for supplying nuclei 



and pound pack- 

 H AT CHIN G ages and whole 

 BROOD OVER colonies of bees. 

 EXCLUDERS Othere are de- 

 voted exclusive- 

 ly to queen-rearing. When a colony loses 

 three frames of brood and bees or a pound 

 of bees in June, it is crippled for honey- 

 production ; but such colonies when weath- 

 er conditions are favorable, followed up 

 by the proper kind of manipulation, may 

 often be in good condition for extracted 

 honey, altho they will generally be too 

 weak for the production of comb unless 

 the season is late. 



This year the dandelions helped out 

 amazingly in brood-rearing, for our colo- 

 nies were depleted by the sale of bees and 

 queens. The result was, brood - rearing 

 was kept up to a high pitch for nearly a 

 month, because the dandelions kept in bloom 

 owing to the backward rainy weather for 

 a much longer period than usual. It was 

 astonishing how some colonies built up 

 from some four or five frames of brood and 

 bees. Where queens were unusually pro- 

 lific we drew from their colonies frames 

 of hatching brood and gave to the weaker 

 colonies. The result was that most of our 

 colonies were of very nearly even strength 

 about the first of July, but not up to good 

 honey-gathering strength. As the ..colonies 

 continued to build up we worked the hatch- 

 ing-brood principle still furtlrar. When 

 any colony reached a point where it was 

 boiling over with bees, and was likely to 



