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Disease of Bees. 



[JUNE, 



Inquiries from a bee-keeper in Cowes early this year shewed 

 that the disease had apparently not yet reached that district, 

 and at Norton, near Yarmouth, the disease was also stated to 

 be absent. 



Losses Sustained through the Disease. — In almost all the 

 cases that I have personally investigated, the disease was 

 found to be so prevalent as to render it practically an impossi- 

 bility to keep a healthy stock for twelve months. Within one 

 mile radius of Upper Lea Farm, Thorley, there were about 

 seventy stocks in the winter of 1905. In March, 1907, there 

 were under eight and some of these were diseased. A bee-keeper 

 in Shanklin has lost twenty stocks out of twenty-two, and three 

 other bee-keepers in the same district have lost their whole 

 stock, consisting of 12, 8, and 4 hives respectively. A bee- 

 keeper in Brook has lost all his hives — numbering twenty-eight — 

 and similar destruction has been personally met with at Sheat, 

 Great Whitcombe, Ryde, and Porchfield, where all the hives 

 have been destroyed. In Freshwater there are about a dozen 

 bee-keepers, but none had any living hives so far as could be 

 ascertained. Furthermore, almost all the bee-keepers can give 

 information of similar instances which it has not been possible 

 to investigate personally. The greatest loss that has come 

 under my notice is in the case of one bee-keeper who has lost 

 over fifty hives. 



In some few cases the destruction has been obviously hastened 

 by dirt and neglect, but in most cases the hives were well-cared 

 for, and in only one instance were the bees kept in the old- 

 fashioned skep type of hive. 



p With few exceptions the bee-keepers are disinclined to pursue 

 the practice another season until they can hear of some remedy 

 which will combat the disease. 



Suggested Causes of the Disease. — Several suggestions have 

 been put forward by the more experienced bee-keepers ; some 

 are inclined to think that it is due to some poisonous plant, 

 while others put it down to artificial manures or to blight. 

 On further inquiry none of these suggestions were found to be 

 based on a single well-ascertained fact. 



In some instances, I have been informed, healthy swarms 

 have been purchased from the South of England and in a week 

 these were dying off by hundreds. In other cases apparently 



