DISEASES OF BEES 
277 
BEE PARALYSIS IN AUSTRALIA; DEVELOPING 
A STRAIN OF BEES IMMUNE TO IT. 
As already mentioned, bee paralysis 
seems to be more virulent in hot climates 
than in cold ones; and it also appears that 
some strains of bees are less immune to it 
than others. F. R. Beuhne of Tooberac, 
Australia, one of the most extensive bee¬ 
keepers of that country, has had a very 
large experience with it. But Mr. Beuhne 
has it well under control by developing and 
propagating a strain of vigorous leather- 
colored Italians. The yellow strains he 
does not find to be very resistant to the 
disease. It appears that, by paying care¬ 
ful attention to breeding, the tendency to 
contract this disease may be almost entirely 
eliminated, and Mr. Beuhne has succeeded. 
On one occasion he had shipped into his 
locality 50 colonies, and almost immediate¬ 
ly every one of them became badly affected. 
By killing off the queens and introducing 
his own stock he cured the disease. 
Repeated tests have shown that paralysis 
is never transmitted by the brood or combs, 
but that it is carried by the dead or sick 
bees. It is, therefore, important, in giving 
the combs to the nuclei, that there be no 
dead bees in the cells. 
ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE. 
This is a condition that was first de¬ 
scribed from the Isle of Wight, south of 
Great Britain, in 1904. It continued from 
year to year until it came very near 
wiping out all the bees on the island. It 
was feared that it might get on the main¬ 
land of England, and in 1907 it did make 
a start there. At first but little attention 
was paid to it; but the beekeepers of the 
British Isles learned that it is something 
very serious -—- much more so than Euro¬ 
pean or American foul brood. 
A careful reading of the reports in the 
British Bee Journal, covering a period of 
ten years, indicates the symptoms of Isle • 
of Wight disease are as follows: 
A few bees will be crawling out of the 
hives the same as when attacked by bee 
paralysis, crawling up spears of grass; and 
if they can fly at all, it is but a few feet. 
In a few cases the abdomens are distended 
by fecal accumulations. In other and most 
cases there is no distention. Sometimes the 
smaller or the larger wings in some speci¬ 
mens seem to be out of joint. In bee 
paralysis the wings appear normal, but 
show a tremulous motion; but very little 
of this tremulous condition has been seen 
'in the Isle of Wight disease. The bees 
sometimes lose the use of one or more pair 
of legs or drag their hind legs, tho the 
others may be more or less vigorous. The 
bees become listless, and cluster in bunches 
around the entrance of the hive. In bee 
paralysis there may be somewhat similar 
clustering; but the bees are more scattered. 
The affected bees of the Isle of Wight dis¬ 
ease, from reports, are rarely black and 
shiny as in the other disease. In fact, in 
many cases they seem to be quite normal ih 
their appearance, differing only in their 
behavior. As the disease advances, the 
crawling bees will drag their abdomens on 
the ground, seeming not to have the power 
to carry them as they ordinarily do, owing 
to their inabijity to take the cleansing 
flight. As it progresses further, every bee 
in the hive will be involved, and finally the 
cluster will be reduced to just a very few 
in the hive centering around the queen. 
The queen seems to be the last one af¬ 
fected. 
The intestines of some of the infected 
bees are said by some writers to contain 
a large amount of undigested pollen. 
When this disease is contracted, the bees 
seem to have an unusual fondness for 
nitrogenous food, even gorging themselves 
with pollen of all kinds without collecting 
any in their pollen-baskets. This is doubt¬ 
less what causes the abdomens of some of 
the bees to be swollen. So distended at 
times are they that it appears to interfere 
with the proper action of the breathing 
spiracles. 
Sometimes, more especially in early 
spring, the affected bees seem to lose con¬ 
trol of the muscles of the bowel and dis¬ 
charge a liquid looking very much like that 
of ordinary dysentery. 
CAUSE AND CURE OF ISLE OF WIGHT DISEASE. 
The Isle of Wight disease is the most 
serious of any adult-bee disease known to 
bee culture—possibly even more serious 
than either of the brood diseases, bad as 
they are. While its ravages at present 
writing seem to be confined entirely to 
