I'HE BEE-KEEPERS REVIEW. 



251 



The Nature of Bee Paralysis and Some Sug- 

 gestions for Its Treatment. 



In the treatment of any disease it is a long 

 step to learn its nature. The best of any- 

 thing that I have seen in this line regarding 

 bee paralysis is an article from Mr. Getaz of 

 Tenn., that appeared lately in the American 

 Bee Journal. It is as follows : — 



"Some of the readers of the Bee Journal 

 will be somewhat astonished to learn that 

 bee paralysis has always existed here, more 

 or less, in all or nearly all the apiaries ; at 

 least for seven or eight years, and probably 

 much longer. Nevertheless it is a fact. The 

 malady is much worse some years than oth- 

 ers, and generally much worse in the spring, 

 precisely when we can the least spare the 

 bees. Workers, drones and queens are in- 

 fected. I have seen drones with the symp- 

 toms of the disease ejected from a queen- 

 less hive, the same as diseased workers. 

 Frequently I have had queens not more than 

 one or two years old, disappear during the 

 honey flow, or ^^t some other unexpected 

 time. I suppose they were superseded when 

 found too sick to do their duty. 



The first spring that my bees died in con- 

 siderable numbers, I thought they had been 

 poisoned by somebody spraying his trees too 

 soon. A year or two later I fed outside, and 

 concluded that the shiny bees, dying around 

 the feeders, had been daubed m the syrup, 

 and the others had pulled their hair in trying 

 to lick the syrup. 



It is a fact that the diseased bees will hang 

 around the feeders longer than the others, 

 but perhaps it is because they are not strong 

 enough to fly in the fields. 



My first eye-opener on the question, was 

 during a honey flow. I had accidentally left 

 some honey from burr combs close to the 

 hive, and when I came back I found the pre- 

 tended robbers trying to get into the hive, 

 and the burr combs untouched. 



Well, what is the disease ? Cheshire says 

 it is a bacillus much smaller than the one 

 that produces foul brood, and of a much 

 slower growth. It is found in the grown 

 bees more than in the brood, and more in the 

 queen than in the workers. Cheshire calls 

 it Bacilbts Gaytoni, his attention having 

 been called to it by a Miss Gayton. Miss 

 Gayton thought the disease was connected 

 with the queen, and had succeeded in curing 

 it by changing of queens. 



Somebody may ask here what is a bacillus? 



Bacilli are microscopic ' critters ' in the 

 shape of a stick. These sticks grow rapidly 

 under favorable circumstances, and when 

 they reach a certain length, break into two 

 or more pieces. These pieces grow as well 

 as the first ones, and break also, and" so on 

 as long as there is plenty to eat, and the oth- 

 er circumstances are favorable. 



When the feed is about to give out, the 

 last ' sticks,' instead of growing and break- 

 ing, contract themselves into egg-shaped 

 ' spores ' These spores are to the sticks ex- 

 actly what the seeds are to the plants. They 

 can be kept like seeds perhaps for years, un- 



der certain circumstances, without any 

 change, and then when placed in the right 

 conditions, develop into sticks again, and 

 these sticks multiply like the original ones 

 as long as they are favorably placed to do 

 so. 



Foul brood is caused by a bacillus called 

 Bacillus alvei, which develops rapidly in the 

 brood, but seemingly under diflficultiesin the 

 body of the grown bees, though it is found 

 there also. The spores are transported from 

 one cell to another, also one hive to another, 

 by the bees, and even the apiarist. The dis- 

 ease can be prevented from spreading to the 

 healthy hives by spraying the diseased bees 

 with some antiseptic (phenol or salicylic 

 acid). The operator is also to wash his 

 hands and instruments carefully. 



But these spores cannot live exposed to the 

 air very long, some say not more than a few 

 hours. On the other hand, they will keep 

 their vitality almost indefinitely in honey, 

 and when honey containing spores is fed to 

 larval bees, the ' sticks ' develop at once with 

 an astonishing rapidity. 



Owing to the impossibility of reaching 

 everywhere into the hive, and in all the hon- 

 ey, with antiseptics, the treatments with such 

 have generally (not always) failed. 



There is a similar disease attacking the 

 silk-worms, but of a more slow growth, and 

 developing itself in the moth as well as in 

 the worm. If the attack is strong, that is, 

 if the bacilli are numerous, the worm will 

 succumb before spinning its cocoon, but 

 usually dies in the cocoon. Often the silk- 

 moth comes out of the cocoon and lays her 

 eggs as usual. In such cases spores are 

 found not only in the body of the silk-moth, 

 but also in the eggs ; and of course these 

 eggs hatch diseased worms. 



Generally, the spores come from the ex- 

 creta of the diseased worms, or the putrefied 

 bodies of the dead ones, and are swallowed 

 by other worms when eating. 



By what proceeds, it seems as though bee 

 paralysis is much more like silk-worm dis- 

 ease than foul brood. Like silk-worm dis- 

 ease, bee paralysis develops itself gradually, 

 and attains its full development in the grown 

 insect. I have never seen any brood that 

 did not look perfectly healthy, but for all 

 that it might be diseased already — only on 

 account of the slow development of the 

 Bacillus Gaytoni, the disease would not 

 show itself until much later. 



The silk-worm disease is disastrous ; bee 

 paralysis comparatively not. This may be 

 due to the fact that as bees void their excre- 

 ments, and also die outside of the hive (ex- 

 cept in winter), the spores contained in their 

 bodies are generally carried out. I do not 

 know whether the queen transmits the dis- 

 ease to the brood by her egg or not, but the 

 fact that removing the queen has often 

 cured the disease, seems to point in that di- 

 rection. 



What can be done ? The treatment used 

 to cure silk-worm disease cannot be applied 

 to bees. The chief part of it consists in a 

 microscopical examination of the eggs to 

 ascertain if there are any spores in them, 

 and reject all but the healthy ones. 



