80 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



dians) will never take to Europe 

 an article, etc., unworthy of our 

 country, ourselves, and beekeepers. 

 We are not shortsighted enough for 

 that, and it is to be hoped could 

 we gain even, we are not dishonor- 

 able enough to place upon the mar- 

 ket an article not as represented. 



FLUX AS A BEE DISEASE. 



By a. J. Goodwin, M.D. 



HISTORY. 



So far as known in temperate 

 climates, it has been coexistent 

 with the domesticated life of the 

 insects ; occurring usually at the 

 periods of winter and spring. 



SYMPTOMS AND COUHSE. 



They present a distended and 

 elongated abdomen, so that in walk- 

 ing the tip drags ; their movements 

 are somewhat sluggish with fre- 

 quent and uneasy stopping and 

 turning about on the front of the 

 hive, alighting board, frames or 

 combs, where they may happen to 

 be, according to the weather, the 

 heaviest finally discharging their 

 faeces as they stop, turn, or drag 

 along ; if mild weather occurs oth- 

 ers essay to fly and, finding their 

 load too heavy, soon reach the 

 earth, crawl about and discharge 

 their burden ; some die at once from 

 the exertion and collapse, others 

 rise a moment and sink again be- 

 ing overcome ; still others fly and 

 discharge their loads and return to 

 the hive and recover, if suitable 

 weather continue. The evacua- 

 tions present a fluid to a semi-solid 

 consistency^, often retaining their 

 cylindrical shape and, in color, 

 vary from a pale yellow to orange 

 or brown. 



CAUSES. 



These maybe divided or classed 

 as the predisposing and exciting. 

 Of the former, first in rank stands 

 age (1). Now, as is well known 



in all life, the very young and the 

 aged are much less able to with 

 stand the conditions and forces that 

 constantly surround them, than at 

 the intervening period of existence. 

 Thus it so occurs that, when the 

 winter is over or about so, or even 

 spring opens, the majority of the 

 colony are old and feeble in a de- 

 scending scale, rendering them an 

 easy prey to natural and the ex- 

 citing causes of disease. 



Second, insufficient protection 

 from atmospheric conditions : as 

 sudden changes of temperature, dry 

 or moist locations, or domiciled in 

 hives not duly proportioned to their 

 numbers. 



Third, stores. These are regard- 

 ed as to qualit}^ and quantity ; 

 the location thereof^ being the prin- 

 cipal one of these. 



Fourth, early cessation of brood- 

 rearing which is but a plain infer- 

 ence from age (1). The last three 

 are or ought to be under the control 

 of all apiarists (and surel}' they may 

 be), which would mitigate greatly 

 the first and do away with many 

 that are classed as the exciting 

 causes. 



First, and embracing all others 

 of this class will be found undue 

 excitement which arises principally 

 through temperature (A), meddle- 

 some liandliyig (B), fear (C) and 

 loss of queen (D). Temj^erature, 

 A. Too long a continuance of cold, 

 as is well known, tends to impair 

 the vital powers of life. In most 

 cases, the greatest liability to dis- 

 ease, however, arises, not from its 

 intensity in regard to insect life, 

 as is well known in the winter life 

 of ants and bees in the forests of 

 the north, where they are frozen 

 solid as are the trees that contain 

 them ; but rather to the too sudden 

 rising of temperature after expo- 

 sure in walls either too thin or 

 composed of good conductors of 

 heat which tends to induce undue 

 excitement, when the cluster be- 



