THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



327 



Getaz, Prof. A. J. Cook, C. W. Dayton and 

 O. O. Poppletoa. 



The rapidity with which the disease has 

 spread throughout the entire United States 

 within a few years is truly alarming. I be- 

 lieve its ravages have become more wide 

 spread within a given time than foul brood. 



I did not intend to give my limited ex- 

 perience with it until a positive remedy had 

 been deduced therefrom, but, owing to the 

 demands naturally growing out of the ex- 

 tremely grave situation, I concluded to do so 

 from a sense of duty ; hoping a clue to the 

 disease may be discovered, and a remedy ap- 

 plied. 



In my experience I have endeavored to lo- 

 cate the disease, which would naturally lead 

 to the cause, and finally to a remedy or pre- 

 ventive. 



Although not altogether exhaustive, ray 

 experiments have led to the following con- 

 clusions : 1st. That the disease is confined 

 to the nurse bees exclusively, with the excep- 

 tion of the queen, which I shall hereinafter 

 consider separately. 



My method of proving the above is to 

 supersede the queen of a diseased colony by 

 one of another color. If blacks are affected, 

 give them a yellow queen. If Italian?, give 

 them a dark queen. By this test the progeny 

 of the new queens will show no disease until 

 the expiration of eighteen or twenty days. 

 This will explain why a temporary benefit is 

 found in requeening, as set forth in Mr. 

 Ford's article, page 240 of the Review. 



It will be observed that the domestic peri- 

 od ends here ; furthermore, these bees never 

 become fielders — no old bees with ragged 

 wings are ever seen with the infection. 

 Also, self-cure apparently takes place when 

 all breeding ceases, particularly at the end 

 of the season. The interval of none but 

 sealed brood after swarming is rather short 

 to exempt the nurse bees sufficiently long 

 for more than a partial cure. These facts 

 would lead the observer to consider the dis- 

 ease exceedingly erratic, as mentioned by 

 Mr. Poppleton, second paragraph, page 2<)7, 

 Review. As to further evidence relative to 

 the apparent erratic tendency, I shall speak 

 of that in another paragraph. 



2nd. As to the queen, we can readily un- 

 derstand how constant feeding by the nurse 

 bees during the height of egg laying, would 

 transmit the disease. An objection may be 

 raised : why do not the larva? also become 

 infected? That the nurse bees do not become 



infected to an appreciable extent until the 

 expiration of the nurse period, might ex- 

 plain it. Again, the queen may be fed by 

 nurse bees of that age exclusively ; if so, we 

 can readily see how the queen could receive 

 the contagion and the larvae escape. Young 

 queens introduced into infected colonies 

 often suddenly disappear. See article by 

 Adrian Getaz. American Bea Journal, page 

 240, first paragraph. I had a beautiful Ital- 

 ian queen superseded in less than four weeks, 

 notwithstanding she was large and prolific ; 

 furthermore, out of the five cells of super- 

 sedure, two of them contained dead larvte. 



3rd. The foregoing observations have led 

 me to believe one cause of the disease lies 

 in the food, and may be transmitted by nurse 

 bees feeding with each other ; also, during 

 their flights they may mistake the entrance, 

 and so carry the infection to other colonies. 

 Another fact that came under ray observa- 

 tion was, that a first swarm from a diseased 

 colony showed no signs of the infection after 

 being hived one week, and remained healthy 

 throughout the season. In the mean time 

 the parent colony continued to grow worse, 

 and withal sulphur was frequently applied. 



If the cause is contained in the food it ex- 

 plains just why Prof. Cook's experiments in 

 feeding were a partial cure, bringing about 

 the apparent erratic tendency referred to in 

 Mr. Poppl«ton's article. The various honey 

 plants succeeding each other, yielding a sup- 

 ply which is pure, in lieu of the old gerra 

 laden honey at the bottom of the cells, 

 would certainly tend to abate the disease. 

 On the contrary an exhausted supply would 

 produce the opposite result. 



4th. I believe that the disease is heredi- 

 tary through the queen, or rather that her 

 progeny become more susceptible to the con- 

 tagion ; through a tendency to inherit the 

 disease, each succeeding generation becom- 

 ing more susceptible to it, I can see how the 

 entire force of nurse bees becoming infected 

 would even cause starvation of the brood, as 

 in California. 



.Just how the food happens to contain 

 germs is the question which remains to be 

 solved. At one time I thought they might 

 possibly be transported through the pollen. 

 During our continued dry and consequently 

 dusty seasons of late, I found the pollen con- 

 tained large quantities of foul matter plain- 

 ly visible with a -;; objective of my micro- 

 scope. It. was evidently dust from our thor- 

 oughfares borne by winds to the honey fields. 



