Bee-l;eeping in Victoria. 89 



as the disappearing trouble, it does not appear to be the only one, since 

 in many localities bees are exceedingly prosperous, notwithstanding the 

 presence of the parasite in their organism. 



These micro-organisms were tirst noticed by Douhoff and Leuckart 

 in 1857, but regarded as vegetable parasites, protozoa being at that 

 time unknown. Bees were then not kept in such large numbers of 

 colonies in one spot, and theslrame hive being then not known, new 

 combs had to be built by the bees after every robbing of the hives. 

 "With the advent of the frame hive system bees began to be kept in 

 apiaries, numbering hundreds of colonies, the old combs were used for 

 many years, and the swarms hived and placed close to the old hives. 

 /Whenever large numbers of animals are kept for any length of time on 

 'the same spot diseases break out, vmless certain precautions are taken. 

 In the case of bees in a state of nature, their nest is usually some 

 distance from the ground ; all refuse and dead bees thrown out, as well 

 as the excreta, fall to the ground out of harm's way. When a swarm 

 issues, it establishes a new home some considerable distance away in 

 clean surroundings, where it builds new combs. In the case of a modern 

 apiary, large numbers of colonies are kept on a comparatively small 

 space ; the hives are on the ground, which in time becomes contaminated 

 with excrement, dead bees, and refuse from the hives. 'The bees are 

 compelled to breed in the same combs .year after year. The causation 

 of disease by micro-organisms depends upon the amount of resistance 

 which the invaded host offers and the degree of infection which takes 

 place. A vigorous, well-nourished animal will overcome a degree of 

 infection to which a constitutionally weak one, or an ill-fed one, would 

 succumb. The modern apiarist, by keeping large numbers of colonies 

 on a limited space for years, and using the same brood-combs con- 

 tinuously, has thereby raised the degree of infection to which the bees 

 are subjected, while by breeding his queens for prolificness and colour 

 he has weakened the race and reduced its vigour and resistance to 

 disease. 



To counteract these results of the present day system of bee- 

 keeping remedies may be found in the periodical shifting of apiaries on 

 to new ground (the further from the old site, the better), the replacing 

 of the brood-combs with new ones at intervals of a few years, and the 

 restoration of the bees to their original vi.gour,l)y breeding all queens 

 from stocks giving the highest yields'^ of honey (an indication of 

 longevity) and not from colonies with an abnormal amount of brood 

 only. 



Disappearing Trouble. 



Of the cause of the periodical mortality knowTi by the name of Dis- 

 appearing Trouble or Spring Dwindling nothing definite is as yet 

 known. It appears to be a result of certain climatic conditions in the 

 autumn preceding a winter or early spring honey-flow from certain 

 eucalypts, and is looked upon rather as a condition of the bees than a 

 disease. A characteristic of this trouble is that there are no symptoms. 

 Colonies become gradually, and sometimes rapidly, w^eaker day by day 

 without more than the normal number of dead bees being visible in or 

 near the hives, while under microscopical examination neither dead nor 



