248 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVI&.». 



go whenever they get a chance. It would be 

 verj desirable, if the above theory is true, 

 if they would become accustouied to getting 

 it about the hive, but they will haidly do 

 this unless such water is extraordinarily at- 

 tractive to them. Water would be prefer- 

 able to feed for those with large apiaries 

 who have no feed honey and would be com- 

 pelled to buy sugar. I therefore suggest 

 that for the experiment's sake pure water be 

 used, sweetened with saccharine instead of 

 sugar. As is known, this material is i5U0 

 times sweeter than sugar, so that a very 

 small quantity would suffice. Several years 

 ago Mr. Hasty reported that some one was 

 going to try saccharine in connection with 

 bees, and report. I have never lieard how 

 it came out. 



It will be appropriate here, as further 

 quotations will show, to allude to a peculiar 

 condition of affairs last spring in therimme- 

 diate neighborhood of Denver (and nowhere 

 else) up to about ten miles from the city in 

 several directions, perhaps in all. In April 

 the colonies were strong. After that time 

 they steadily evaporated. The bees seemed 

 to fly out and die in the fields. When .lune 

 came the strongest were no more than 

 nuclei ; some had entirely disappeared. 

 The bees of Rauchfuss Bros, had the paral- 

 ysis in the usual form; as described on page 

 191, for 2f2 days, then this somewhat differ- 

 ent trouble. [By the way, in that descrip- 

 tion the phrase " Wheneve7~ there is rainu 

 weather it nearly stops," etc., was dropped 

 in printing.] Out of their 3O0 colonies 

 there were perhaps bees enough to make 25 

 strong ones. By not uniting when a colony 

 was strong enough for a nucleus, I preserved 

 17 out of 38, but really had no mo»'e than 

 enough to make four or five medium ones. 

 One bee-keeper could not tiave made more 

 than one strong colony out of his sixty. 

 Another with several out-apiaries estimated 

 his loss at about $2,0()0. Within a mile of 

 me four or five colonies were wholly unaf- 

 fected. A few miles farther away from the 

 city all bees did well. Other circumstances 

 which apparently have a connection with 

 the theory below are that the atmospheric 

 conditions last spring here were peculiar, 

 including, I am told, several fogs, though I 

 do not remember them ; more dew than 

 usual in my locality, according to a neigh- 

 bor (I did not notice) ; the fact that some 

 colonies which were weakest when the 

 trouble set in, afterward became strongest ; 



and the existence of considerable smoke 

 around Denver, proceeding mainly from 

 three large smelters in active operation. 

 Near the smelters the smoke has a decidedly 

 acid suiell. There are also chemical works. 



Tlie following is the theory, being a trans- 

 lation in full of an article by Herr Kugler, 

 entitled " Wliat is the Cause of May Sick- 

 ness ?" 



" Observations of several years have re- 

 peatedly shown me that in my apiary Mny 

 sickuess only appeared after a spring fog, 

 and that the thicker the fog, and the more 

 often it was repeated nights and mornings, 

 the more pronounced was the disiase and 

 the longer it continued. In 181*2 such a fog 

 was very thick each motniug from May 2.5 

 to 30 ; and from May 25 to -lune 5 ensued 

 one of the worst canes of May sickness that 

 I have known in my long experience. Dur- 

 ing the days referred to the fog also spotted 

 the leaves of ivy in bloom as brown as if 

 they had been sprayed with a corroding 

 liquor. Hence, and from the fact that the 

 colonies I had happened to feed on the crit- 

 ical days remai ed healthy, the thought oc- 

 curred to me that the bees carry home and 

 consume such poisonous dew as falls on the 

 leaves, together with the [loUen and nectar 

 on which it likewise falls; that they toj 

 must then sicken, like the ivy ; a' d that fog 

 in spring must have a close connection with 

 May sickness. To convince myself, I i>ro- 

 ceeded as follows ; When from April 18 to 

 22, 1894, the disease and the fog again 

 showed themselves together, during this 

 time I fed some colonies abundantly with 

 rather thin feed, and at the same time held 

 back from flight some colonies in the fore- 

 noon, until the greater part of the dew on 

 the plants had vanished. By this procedure 

 the fed colonies were wholly spared the at- 

 tacks of May sickness, and those shut in 

 were also spared witli the exception of a few 

 bees, in contrast with those colonies which 

 had been left to themselves. I believe it is 

 allowable to conclude that the bees are sick- 

 ened by a poison which falls on tlie plants 

 with the spring fogs and is carried home by 

 the bees with their food, causing, in the 

 preparation of larval food, inflammation, 

 constipation, convulsions and death. 



For further confirmation of what I have 

 said I will endeavor to briefly answer a few 

 questions : — 



1. ^Vhy is May sickness violent in one 

 locality, and less so, or entirely absent, in a 



