February, 1909. 



American ^ae Journal 



decline, I can't serve) to revise our no- 

 menclature, and coin such new words 

 and terms as our noble pursuit may 

 require. Such men as Dr. Miller, Prof. 

 Phin (if he's living), and, say, the edi- 

 tors of our bee-papers, would be just 

 the caper; what wrestling they would 

 have ! Now, all this talk, or whatever 

 you choose to call it, was brought to 

 my mind for the thousandth time when 

 thinking or considering that disease 

 called "bee-paralysis." Fudge! We .all 

 know that it is not paralysis. And, 

 further, we are all at sea as to what 

 the disease, malady or whatever it is, 

 really is. I've tried to get expert evi- 

 dence in the case for some time, and 

 I have come to the conclusion that I 

 know as much about the disease as the 

 next fellow, no matter how smart a 

 chap he may be. (Pardon me, Profes- 

 sor, I didn't mean you.) 



Well, it's no wonder I'm "hot in the 

 collar" ; I had a couple of cases of what 

 some would call paralysis. The books 

 I've read when looking up facts, figures 

 and other statistics to illuminate my 

 benighted knowledge, yea, and not even 

 the wise men I consulted, have been able 

 to give me any knowledge worth a fig 

 upon the subject. I am no pathologist 

 nor anything with such an ending, but I 

 venture to say that if some one could 

 only take those sick bees and hold their 

 mouths open long enough to pour a 

 good dose of castor oil or epsom salts 

 down their throats, they would soon be 

 well and kicking as lively as crickets. 

 What we need to do more than we do, 

 is to keep the feet of our bees warm, 

 their heads cool, and see that their bow- 

 els are free and open ! Just in those 

 last few words I verily believe lies the 

 illuminated wisdom on the whole sub- 

 ject. 



What a pity for us 'tis that Dr. T. B. 

 Terry hasn't devoted his time to bees 

 instead of the details of the barn-yard, 

 and the mysteries of the human sys- 

 tem! He would have known long ago 

 what goes through a bee, and if he 

 found an obstruction he would say, 

 "Gee, haw, there !" and away would go 

 the trouble just as "slick as greased 

 lightning." 



Bloated Bees. 



A peculiar malady occasionally at- 

 tacks bees in this part of the State ; it 

 has some of the appearance of dysen- 

 tery, and yet none of the bees so far 

 forget themselves as to muss the inside 

 of their nest, in which respect they 

 would have met the approbation of that 

 astute scientist, William Shakespeare. 

 No, they bloat up and seem to prefer 

 death outside the hive rather than leave 

 any nastiness in the hive. And it would 

 be all right if they got outside the hive 

 and were able to attend to the wants 

 of nature, so therein lies the cause of 

 the, trouble — just a case, probably, of 

 constipation. Yes, it seems to be that 

 and nothing else, hence my remarks 

 elsewhere about administering a laxa- 

 tive to sick bees. I believe a diluted 

 honey into which is added a small quan- 

 tity of senna or some salts that would 

 not be injurious to the bees, would ef- 

 fect a cure. 



I'm going to try some experiments on 



them along these lines. Large numbers 

 of bees die in fair as well as cloudy 

 and rainy weather; it would seem that 

 half a colony in a couple of cases have 

 already been decimated in this way. I 

 believe that it is only in colonies where 

 brood-rearing is in progress that the 

 trouble manifests itself, hence it seems 

 to me that the afflicted bees are the 

 nurse-bees. Probably they suffer from 

 some injurious pollen they ate; I no- 

 tice that whenever I dissected one of 

 these dead bees, it contained a lot of 

 feces of a pollenly nature. A food of 

 a purgative nature might save bees thus 

 afflicted. Who has experience along 

 such lines? 



name of the gentleman between the lat- 

 ter and the president, is forgotten. 



A portion of historic Monterey bay 

 shows between the railroad tracks and 

 the distant sand dunes on the left. The 

 bee-keepers shown form an historical 

 group in one of the most historic spots 

 in California. . 



Some California Bee-Keepers. 



The small group of men in the half- 

 tone engraving herewith was taken at 

 the railroad depot, Monterey, a few 



In Old Monterey with the Bee-Men. 



At the close of the year I made a 

 trip to Monterey, the ancient capital 

 of California, to attend the bee-keep- 

 ers' institute. Those days were cold 

 ones for this State, but we should ex- 

 pect such weather at the end of the 

 year. I expected to meet Mr. Ralph 

 Benton at the Oakland station ; he went 

 on an earlier train, and over the long 

 stretch of marsh on the Alameda side 

 of the bay. I got oif an hour later 

 and fell in with a lot of teachers go- 



Bee-Keei'ERS Attending a Calikurni.^ Convention. 



hours after the adjournment of the bee- 

 keepers' institute held there Dec. 28 and 

 29, 1908. An attempt to get the entire 

 gathering just after adjournment proved 

 abortive, owing to the hazy condition 

 of the weather at that particular time. 

 By this mishap Mr. Ralph Benton, Mr. 

 Andrew Fife, Mr. Sem Ling, and a 

 couple of others who were in attend- 

 ance, are missing from the photograph 

 here shown. Mr. Benton had gone to 

 Pacific Grove and the others to other 

 places. 



The tall man in the group is Vernon 

 Townsend, president of the California 

 Central Counties Bee-Keepers' Society ; 

 next on the right is Edward Smith, 

 next standing well in front, is H. H. W. 

 Lawrence; then John Witham, and at 

 the end K. M. Hennehen. foul-brood 

 inspector for Monterey county. At the 

 extreme left is Mr. B. Schnuchel; the 



ing to San Jose by the Niles or foot- 

 oft-he-hills route to attend the annual 

 State convention of pedagogues. The 

 ride was through a charming fruit and 

 agricultural country. This gave me an 

 opportunity tO stop over an hour or so 

 and see something of California's Gar- 

 den City before I could proceed to 

 Monterey on a train coming from San 

 Francisco. 



The attendance at the institute was 

 not as large as was anticipated. It ap- 

 pears that sufficient notice had not been 

 given of the meeting in the local pa- 

 pers; the San Francisco papers gave 

 good notices but only the day before 

 the meeting — too short a time for many 

 who saw it to make arrangements to 

 attend. Withal there were so few 

 apiarists present, the interest was keen 

 and enthusiastic. Mr. Andrew Fife, 

 who has an apiary in Lassen County, 



