496 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



divided into two rooms, one of which is 

 used for the general work of the apiary, 

 such as handling sections and supers, 

 extracting honey, etc., etc. The other 

 room is for storage of honey after it is 

 ready for market until sold. The fourth 

 building, which is much obscured by the 

 apple trees, is a house apiary, with the 

 workings of which I am well pleased, 

 and believe that it is a success. 

 Seymour, Wis., Sept. 25, 1891. 



New Bee-Disease in Texas. 



L. B. SMITH. 



About a week ago as I was walking 

 through my little apiary, I happened to 

 notice an unusual amount of bees, dead 

 and dying, lying in front of a hive that 

 contained a strong colony. Thinking at 

 first they were the old worn out bees, I 

 went on and thought no more about it. 



The next day I was looking at them 

 again, and there was a pint or more 

 dead in front of the entrance. I knew 

 that something was the matter. I ex- 

 amined them, taking out all the frames, 

 and found they had plenty of nice sealed 

 honey, and plenty of sealed brood, but 

 no eggs nor larvse. The queen had 

 stopped laying. Not knowing what to 

 do for them, I let them alone, and in a 

 few days they quit dying. 



Then another colony took it, and 

 every one died, queen and all. They 

 still keep dying. I have lost two of my 

 strongest colonies and about half of 

 another. One of them contained my 

 finest breeding queen, and I hated to 

 part with her. 



I find from investigating that several 

 of my box-hive neighbors are losing 

 bees in the same way. Some of them 

 say the moth-worm is killing them, 

 others say ants, while some of them say 

 the king is dead, and they are fighting 

 among themselves, trying to make each 

 other work; but of course, all practical 

 bee-men know different to that. They 

 act more as if they were poisoned ; but 

 it cannot be that, for there is no poison- 

 ing going on in the country, and I know 

 they are not poisoned. Now, if it is not 

 the so-called nameless bee-disease, I have 

 no idea what it is. 



Symptoms of disease are, that it seems 

 as if the old bees were effected. They 

 will come rushing out somewhat excited, 

 and will drop on the ground, after rolling 

 over several times they die, while others 

 will crawl several rods from the hive. 

 They can be seen at all hours of the 



day and night, crawling all over the 

 place. 



I can take a frame from the hive and 

 shake it a little, and nearly half the 

 bees will fall to the ground and never 

 make an attempt to rise, nor get back 

 to the hive, but will crawl off and die. 



Their appearance and size is natural, 

 so far as I can see, with the exception 

 of a few that look somewhat swelled. I 

 can take one and tear it open, and they 

 seem to have an unusual amount of 

 pollen in them, and smell very offensive. 

 1 have most of the standard works on bees, 

 but have failed to find anything suited to 

 this case. 



Lometa, Texas. 



The above is copied from the Canadian 

 Bee Journal, and the editor makes the 

 following comments on the matter : 



Thank you very much, friend Smith, 

 for giving us the particulars of your bee 

 trouble. We have never had the like 

 here, and never known a similar case to 

 yours, therefore, we are at sea in the 

 matter. In our experience we have en- 

 deavored to see what bees would do 

 when poisoned, and they acted very 

 much like you say yours act. We think 

 there must be some poisonous plants in 

 the locality, where they get more or less 

 honey, or it may be from honey-dew ; 

 possibly it may be some strange disease. 



We frequently find contagious dis- 

 eases cropping up among the human 

 race, and why may not similar diseases 

 occur among bees ? We think it would 

 be worth your while to send samples of 

 these dead and sick bees to Prof. Cook, 

 Agricultural College, Mich., that he may 

 examine them. 



fliolesale SlansMer of Bees, 



DK. G. C. MILLER. 



Feiend Newman : — I am in receipt of 

 the following letter : 



" Dear Sir : — I wish you would give 

 me some advice, what to do and how to 

 get about it. Two men, or a company 

 of men, came to our town (Coulterville) 

 and started an evaporator, and left their 

 house doors and windows all open, and 

 had four flues for drying their apples. 

 Well, I keep bees. I have 128 colonies 

 within 300 yards of the evaporator. So 

 you see there was a perfect swarm on 

 the road every day for 4 or 5 weeks, 

 and they killed them by the million in 

 their furnaces, and in a great many 



