A SURVEY OF BEEKEEPING IN NORTH CAROLINA. 5 
Madison, Mitchell, and Buncombe Counties in 1912. It was found 
that the sample from Buncombe County had been taken from a ship- 
ment of bees from Kentucky, in which the trouble was at once 
noticed and given radical treatment, and, so far as can be learned, 
the disease was entirely stamped out. In Guilford County the dis- 
ease has been receiving careful attention. The beekeeper from whose 
yard the sample was sent has examined practically every colony of 
bees in the neighborhood and has found no disease except in his 
own apiary. There it has been so reduced that only two colonies 
showed infection in 1915 and in these it was light. The infection in 
Madison County is great and that in Mitchell County is considerable, 
and disease is spreading in both counties. 
Sacbrood or "pickled brood." — This disease was observed in one 
case. Since even where some type of movable-frame hive is used 
examination of the brood nest is but little practiced, no definite idea 
of the extent of this disease can be formed. 
Paralysis. — This condition was reported a number of times, and 
always by the better beekeepers. This does not indicate that it is 
absent where bees receive less care, but, it is believed, the less careful 
beekeepers fail to observe closely or else do not recognize the disease. 
In one yard of over 100 colonies the owner reports 50 per cent of the 
colonies affected by paralysis at some time during the season. The 
usual treatment is the sprinkling of sulphur on top of the frames and 
at the entrance, but with doubtful benefits. 
WINTERING. 
Perhaps no one thing connected with successful beekeeping is re- 
ceiving as little attention in North Carolina as is protection for the 
bees in winter aside from that provided by the hive. 
A study of weather records for Asheville from November 1, 1914, 
to March 31, 1915, shows that a daily variation in temperature of 
20° F. is frequent. The maximum variation was 40°, which occurred 
once, and the minimum 2°, which occurred five times. The maximum 
temperature during this period was 62° and the minimum 4°. Five 
times during this period the temperature fell below 20°, twenty 
times below 25°, and forty times below 30°, or, on an average, below 
30° once in three days. The figures for Wilmington are as follows : 
Maximum temperature, 76° ; minimum temperature, 20°. Twice the 
temperature was below 25° and below 30° eight times. These two 
points are mentioned, as they probably represent the extremes of tem- 
perature in the State. 
Only two beekepers in the State, so far as known, are providing 
protection for the bees in winter, and in these two cases it is slight. 
One beekeeper places an empty super filled with leaves over the 
brood chamber, and the other is using a hive which takes a super of 
