DISEASED BKOOI<. 217 



MB. -WAGNBHS VIEW. 



Mr. Wagner, whom I have before mentioned, offered, a 

 solution, in substance as follows. After the old queen had 

 left the stock, and all brood had been fed and sealed up, 

 no more food was required for the yoiuig bees, till the 

 young queen had laid eggs which should hatch and need 

 it, a period of some two or three weeks. During this in- 

 terval, the workers continued to collect pollen, the principal 

 food of the larvae, and store it in the hive. During the 

 time this pollen remained stored in the hive, and before 

 needed for brood, it became soured, decomposed, or by 

 some other process, rendered unhealthy, when fed to the 

 larvae, and some of them sickened and died. The reason 

 that the swarms were not affected, was, that they had an 

 old queen steadily producing brood, which required food 

 every day, and consumed this pollen in its fresh state, con- 

 sequently remained healthy. N'ow here was a theory ex- 

 plaining the origin of the phenomena better than most 

 others, though not perfectly satisfactory. A year or two 

 later, we had a very poor season for swarming, and but 

 few issued. This furnished a sort of test of this theory. 

 If on examination of g, given number in thfi fall, there 

 should be more diseased ones among those that had 

 swarmed, than among those that had not, it would be 

 strong presumptive evidence in its favor. The result was 

 so nearly equal, that it proved nothing. Adding still an- 

 other hyjDothesis, and supposing that this poisonous mate- 

 rial is not obtained every year, would help it some, yet it 

 would be necessary then to admit that these bad quaUties 

 would affect the hive for several years afterw ard. It would 

 also suggest that the material was not pollen, but some 

 other substance. For instance, the secretions of the Ajjhis, 

 or Plant Louse. We all know that they are more numer- 

 ous some seasons than others. Mr. Wagner says that in 

 Germany the Aphides appeared one season, in countle.iR 

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