6 
THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
which becomes so distended with watery fluid 
that the bee is unable to fly, in which state it 
betakes itself to the floor board, where in cold 
weather it dies, but in warm weather it 
wanders from the hive, and falling on the 
ground crawls about until it expires. All 
through the spring and during the finest 
summer weather, the ground in front of the 
hives was perpetually covered with disabled 
or dying bees, which crawled about in all 
directions with feeble vibration of their wings. 
In two instances the queens escaped, and their 
breeding powers seemed to be stimulated by 
the presence of the disease, since their 
fecundity not only overtook the mortality 
which constantly prevailed, but theirs became 
two of the strongest stocks in the apiary. 
In another case of the malady the queen, 
swollen to an enormous degree, perished 
together with the colony. Eight years 
afterwards, another writer, referring to 
Mr. Woodbury’s case, describes a similar attack 
amongst his own bees, and mentions in addition 
that the diseased bees had a “ glistening 
appearance.” 
The only treatment found to be successful 
by these writers appears to have been the 
removal of the hive to a short distance, where 
the bees were shaken off the combs upon a 
sheet, each comb, as it was cleared of bees, 
being returned to an empty hive placed upon 
the original stand. By these means the 
healthy bees were able to return to their hive, 
but diseased ones — supposed to be chiefly 
young bees — perished on the ground, being 
unable to fly. 
In the year 1881 we had a similar experience 
in our own apiary. An imported Italian queen, 
in her second year, and extremely prolific, led 
off a young swarm in the early part of July, 
the colony having previously filled two racks 
of sections, and being apparently in the 
healthiest possible condition. The swarm was 
placed in a frame hive, which by the end of 
the month, was well stored with comb and 
sealed honey, where brood was not deposited. 
But about the beginning of August symptoms 
of the above disease began to appear, 'the 
colony was working splendidly at the time 
upon a field of red clover adjoining the apiary, 
and pollen was daily carried in in large 
quantities, when numerous bees— to the num- 
ber of 200 or 300 per day — unable to fly, were 
noticed crawling over the alighting board and 
covering the ground about the hive. The 
mortality continued to increase, and finally, 
about the first week in September, the colony 
with its queen perished. The combs were 
given to other colonies, and were productive 
of no ill effects. But mark the sequel. Early 
in February of the present year (1885) the 
parent colony, from which the swarm had 
issued, located in a distant part of the apiary, 
headed by a young and most prolific daughter 
of the above-named queen, began to show 
signs of the same disease. 
The hive was extremely populous — literally 
full of bees — and the mortality daily increased, 
although the queen continued breeding freely, 
and the healthy bees worked with redoubled 
ardour, until about the middle of March, 
when we found upon a close inspection of the 
hive, that the queen, although ovipositing, 
was affected by the disease, having lost her 
pubescence and assumed that glistening, 
“shiny” appearance spoken of above. By 
this time the bees had dwindled to such an 
extent that they barely covered two combs, 
and the best hive in our apiary, from which 
we had expected to reap the most bountiful 
harvest, had now become the worst. 
“ lieu ! Quid facerem ?” 
“ Quo Jietu manes, qua nutnina voce 
mover em P' 
Suddenly it occurred to us that Bacillus 
depilis ( aut Gaytoni) was the author of all 
this mischief, and on reference to page 317 
of our vol. xii., the suspicion became a 
certainty. Immediately we applied Mr. 
Cheshire’s remedy of phenolated syrup, as 
recommended for foul-brood, having closed up 
division-boards, and removed outside combs. 
The syrup was freely taken, and soon we had 
the pleasure of inserting into the brood nest 
a frame of empty comb, then another, and 
another, until the colony attained its former 
prosperous condition, and thequeen resumed her 
plumage, her bright glossy look and sprightli- 
ness, and the dread mortality gradually ceased. 
By the third week in May our colony received 
its first super; soon another was placed beneath 
it ; and in due course fifty-six 1-lb sections 
were removed, and by the end of Sep- 
tember about 301bs. of extracted honey 
to boot, an abundance of winter store being left 
for the bee’s consumption. The “ new disease ” 
of America, therefore, and the “dropsy” 
of our venerated Woodbury, are surely none 
other than the Bacillus depilis of Mr. Cheshire. 
And in our case, at least, the disease apparently 
was transmitted from mother to daughter, and 
has been entirely eradicated by the phenol 
remedy, since the colony is now in perfect 
health, and up to the present time has exhi- 
bited no further symptoms of the malady, 
fhe disease, in our case, appeared chiefly to 
attack the young bees; but the brood, before 
emerging from the cells, seemed healthy. 
There was no unpleasant odour in the hive, 
and one decided and well-marked effect of the 
disease was the extreme irritability of the 
bees. No other hive in our apiary was 
attacked. — British Bee Journal, ls< December, 
I860. 
