APPENDIX 
DISEASES OF BEES. 
NOSEMA APIS.—This is a disease of adult bees, and is not consid- 
ered a very serious one; for, although slightly infectious and although 
many colonies die from this cause, the percentage is small. Usually the 
colony is but slightly affected and recovers of its own accord. An appar- 
ently normal colony that is weak, especially in the spring, and yet had had 
good packing, plenty of stores and a good queen, is quite likely to be af- 
fected with the nosema disease. An examination of the stomach of a field 
worker, however, gives still more reliable evidence. If affected, the stomach 
will appear swollen and lighter in color than a healthy one, or in more 
advanced cases it will be chalk-white and easily torn. In badly infected 
bees the stomach when crushed is milky in appearance. 
BEE PARALYSIS.—Paralysis is a disease common in the warm South 
where it appears to be contagious and sometimes affects whole apiaries. 
Now and then the trouble appears in most apiaries even in the North, but 
seldom spreads or makes much trouble. 
The first symptom the beekeeper is likely to note is healthy bees tug- 
ging at the affected ones, pulling them from.the entrance. The bees often 
show a trembling motion and sometimes scratch at their bodies with their 
legs as if there were violent itching. In some eases, some of the bees 
have swollen abdomens and a black, greasy appearance. Some of the sick 
bees are very active, running this way and that, attempting to crawl up 
spears of grass only to fall back unable to fly; others appear listless and 
eluster in bunches around the entrance of the hive. 
Many different treatments have been advocated, but none are univer- 
sally successful. One treatment is simply to interchange the places of a 
diseased colony and a strong healthy one. Another method calls for 
nuclei and, as soon as they have laying queens, the giving to each nucleus 
two frames of the oldest capped brood from the paralytic colony. After 
the brood is disposed of in this way the bees and queen of the affected col- 
ony are destroyed with sulphur fumes. 
DYSENTERY.—Poor stores, such as honeydew or unripened honey, 
confinement and insufficient protection often cause what is known as dysen- 
tery. If the hive is too cold, in order to keep up the temperature the bees 
are compelled to eat large quantities of honey. The poorer the honey, the 
more fecal matter accumulates in the intestines of the bees. This waste 
matter is normally voided only in flight; therefore, if cold weather pre- 
vents flight, the long-retained fecal matter causes purging or dysentery. 
An amount of yellow or brownish disagreeable excrement all about 
the entrance of a hive indicates dysentery. If warm weather permits flight 
and the brood-nest is contracted to only as many cgmbg ag the bees can 
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