BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Sumac (_Rhus typhina_). This common shrub has the staminate and pistillate flowers on different individual plants. Not common enough in Maine to yield a surplus. Honey bright amber, with a bitter flavor at first which later disappears.
Sweet Clover (_Melilotus alba_). Does not grow well on the clay soil of this State, requires a limestone soil.
Willow (_Salix_). Valuable in spring for both pollen and nectar, a great help in building up the colonies and bridging over backward springs. The pussy willow (_Salix discolor_) is most important. It could be planted to advantage in useless wet land.
Willowherb (_Epilobium augusifolium_). Also called fire-weed since it springs up abundantly on land which has been burnt over. An excellent honey plant; honey water white; flowers red-purple.
Bee-keepers desiring further information about the honey plants of this State are referred to John H. Lovell, Waldoboro, Maine, botanist to the A. I. Root Company.
. Kibble
# Bee Disease Control
Elmer G. Carr
Deputy of the State Entomologist in Bee Inspection
New Jersey State Department of Agriculture
## Introduction
Save for the annual report of the state entomologist which has had only a limited distribution, no effort has been made during the past four years to present to the people of New Jersey a statement of the progress in control of bee diseases, the advancement in the methods of fighting the diseases, and the possibilities of bee keeping as a business. Because of this lack of information, the Department of Agriculture has seen fit to authorize the publication of the following paper, in which the subjects mentioned are taken up.
The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the state entomologist, Dr. Thomas J. Headlee, for helpful criticism and advice in the preparation of this circular.
_History of Bee Disease_
Every form of animal life is subject to disease, and in the economic animal forms the control of disease is necessary for their successful management. This is true of honey bees.
The exact date when it became known that bees have disease is not fixed. The difficulty in keeping a single adult bee under observation for any considerable length of time and the fact that they do not respond to efforts directed toward their domestication makes their study for disease difficult. Hives so constructed that every part can be readily examined have been in use but
## Bee Disease Control
American Foulbrood
The date when the differences in the two diseases were positively recognized is obscure, but the work of Dzierzon in 1882 is the first which appears at all reliable.
American foulbrood is an infectious disease of the larvae of the honey bee, caused by _Bacillus larvae_ White*. The majority of the larvae are killed by this disease about the time they are normally sealed. For this reason the initial stages of the disease are seldom seen in a colony only recently attacked. As the disease progresses the larvae lose their plump form and nearly white color, sink down in the cell and the color becomes at first a light brown, changing to a dark brown in the last stages of the disease. Finally, the dried down larva forms a scale on the lower side wall with the head toward the mouth of the cell and the posterior end slightly turned up against the cell base. These scales adhere tightly to the cell wall and are removed only with difficulty by the beekeeper and practically not at all by the bees.
There is a pronounced odor accompanying this disease which has been likened to that from poor glue when heated. It also resembles somewhat the odor from decaying animal skins. This odor while pronounced is usually not intense. If a comb containing advanced stages of this disease is removed from the hive and kept in a warm place, the odor increases for a time, then gradually becomes less.
The first symptoms which attract the apiarist's attention upon opening a hive infected with American foulbrood are the scattered appearance of the brood, and sunken and perforated cappings over the diseased brood. The disease causes death in the majority of cases after the larvae are sealed. This is particularly true in a colony which has been infected a short time. The bees, finding the brood does not emerge as it should, make holes in the cappings varying in size from a mere perforation to the removal of the entire capping.
The color of the capping over diseased larvae is darker than that covering healthy brood. The cappings become sunken andalso look as though they were saturated with grease, whereas the cappings over healthy larvae have a porous appearance somewhat resembling coarse paper.
At that stage of the progress of the disease, when the larva has sunk down in the cell, the color has become a pronounced brown and the larva is still moist. If a small stick is inserted in the dead larva and withdrawn, a part of the decaying mass will adhere to the stick and be drawn out in a thread sometimes several inches in length.
In the final stages of the disease the dried-down larvae are found, with rare exceptions, on the lower cell wall.
In advanced cases many larvae die before the sealing stage, but usually there are in such cases a sufficient number of the characteristic scales to make it evident that American foulbrood is the invader. Death sometimes does not occur until pupation has begun, and occasionally the dried-down pupa is found with the tongue extended across the mouth of the cell.
Usually only worker larvae are attacked by this disease, although drone and queen larvae are sometimes affected.
Contrary to experience with European foulbrood, American foulbrood shows no sharp increase or decrease in relation to any particular part of the active season, neither has there been found a race of bees which have shown definite resistance to its attacks.
In an apiary where this disease is present, usually a small percentage of colonies are found affected unless the disease has been much neglected. The spread of this disease in an infected colony is much slower than is the case in a colony infected with European foulbrood.
European Foulbrood
This form of foulbrood is caused by _Bacillus pluton_ White5. The majority of the larvae affected die before the time for sealing; in advanced cases, many do not get beyond the stage when they are curled up in the bottom of the cell. Some are sealed before death occurs. There is a loss of form of the larva. The
color varies. It is sometimes gray, some specimens are a decided yellow, others have a yellow spot near the head and still others are light brown.
Eventually the dead larvae dry down and form irregular scales, which may be found on any wall of the cell or on the base. These scales are not difficult of removal. The larvae affected with this disease also exhibit this irregularity. Sometimes both ends of the larva will be toward the base of the cell or both toward the cell mouth. This irregularity of the position of diseased larvae and scales is one of the most important symptoms in determining this disease.
The rotting larvae present a jelly-like mass and when a stick is inserted and withdrawn there is rarely any pronounced ropiess, as in American foulbrood. In his description of this disease Phillips says: "There is little or no odor to European foulbrood, but sometimes a sour odor is present, which reminds one of yeast fermentation." In the writer's experience the odor accompanying this disease, particularly in advanced cases, is often so intense as to be readily detected several feet from the diseased hive. There is nothing to which it can be readily likened, although there is a slight resemblance to the odor of earwax (cerumen). Sometimes this odor is slight and scarcely noticeable, even when the infected comb is held close to the face. This condition, however, is quite exceptional.
In the examination of over i,000 colonies infected with Euro- pean foulbrood, the writer has found about six which did not have the characteristic odor so marked as to be easily recognized. Therefore, it would seem that the odor symptom is fairly constant under New Jersey conditions.
Diseased combs when removed from the hive lose their pronounced odor within a few days. This disease does most damage in the spring and early summer. Drone larvae are attacked quite as readily as worker larvae, and queen larvae are also often. affected.
Italian bees show a higher resistance to this disease than do blacks or hybrids. It is common to find a large percentage ofcolonies affected in an apiary where this disease is present, although this cannot be considered the rule. The symptoms of this disease are so variable that often close observation is necessary to determine which disease is present in the colony. This disease often works with great rapidity, entirely ruining the colony in one season.
### 1.3 Sackrood
Another recognized disease affecting bee larvae is known as sackrood, formerly sometimes called "pickled brood." This disease, according to White7, is caused by "a filterable virus." It causes death in the larvae in an advanced stage of their development, usually at or immediately after the time of sealing. Often a slight discoloration is noticed in the cappings covering larvae which have died of this disease. Perforated cappings are seen but seldom. Apparently the bees entirely remove the capping7 at one operation.
Footnote 7: White, G. F., 1913. Sackrood, a disease of bees. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bur. Ent. Cir. 169.
The dead larvae are found on the lower cell wall, the head outward, usually pointed and slightly turned upward away from the lower cell wall.
The color is brownish gray to a dirty grayish brown. The head is darker than the body, often being nearly black in color. When dried the dead larva forms a scale which is removable without the least difficulty.
Practically no odor accompanies this disease, although if a punctured larva is held close to the face a slight yeasty odor is noticed. The larval skin does not decay as readily as the body contents, but remains unbroken, and by careful manipulations the larva can be removed from the cell entire. The body contents are watery. The dead larvae show no ropiess whatever. This disease does not usually cause a high mortality, and it is extremely rare to find a colony of bees in New Jersey so badly affected as to cause appreciable loss.
### Paralysis
This is a disease which affects the adult bees. When a colony of bees is attacked by this disease great numbers of the dead and dying are seen immediately in front of the hive. Many are seen feebly crawling about and crawling up blades of grass or other elevated objects and, attempting to fly, they fall to the ground. A majority have the abdomen considerably swollen. Many are almost hairless. A considerable number show a peculiar trembling movement. Upon opening the hive many bees are seen almost entirely devoid of hair. Seldom does this trouble cause the death of a colony although often the colony is so weakened as to be of no use as a producer of surplus honey. It is rare to find more than one or two colonies even in an apiary of considerable size affected with this disease. No cause has been assigned for this malady and there is no evidence to show that it is either contagious or infectious.
### Dysentcry
This is a disease of the adult bees which is manifested by the bees spotting the hive with their excrement It occurs in late winter or early spring and is caused by too long a confinement on unsuitable stores. Any stores which contain a large percentage of indisgtible matter will bring on this trouble if the bees use such poor stores at a time when they cannot take cleansing flights.
### Control Measures
There has not been discovered as yet any method of curing American foulbrood and at the same time saving the combs. This is because the bees are unable to remove from the cells the scales caused by the dried-down larvae. These scales are full of the spores of the disease and their destruction by heat is the only known method for their elimination.
The process for curing a colony infected with American foulbrood is known as the shaking treatment. The bees are shaken or brushed from the diseased combs into a clean hive on the oldstand. This hive is furnished with frames containing starters of foundation. The old hive is disinfected by scorching with fire, the wax rendered from the combs and the frames disinfected by boiling or destroyed by burning. If sufficient honey is in the diseased combs to make it worth while, it may be extracted and used for household purposes or it may be fed back to the bees after being diluted with an equal amount of water and heated sufficiently to kill the spores of disease which it contains. The heat necessary to render the combs makes the wax safe for further use by bees. Whites1 has shown that a temperature of 210deg F. for ten minutes is sufficient to kill the spores of this disease.
Footnote 1: White, G. F., 1914. Destruction of germs of infectious bee diseases by heating. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bul. 92.
If considerable healthy brood is in the combs! and a number of colonies are to be treated, the hives of beeless combs may be placed above an excluder over a weak colony and at the end of to days, when practically all the good brood has emerged, this colony may be shaken and the combs rendered. This is best done at the beginning of a honey flow.
If a considerable number of colonies are to be treated it will be found best to do the work in the middle of the day, taking every precaution to prevent the spread of the disease by robbing. If only one or two colonies need treatment, it is best done just before 'nightfall. In any case, to guard against absconding it is advisable to place an entrance guard, drone trap or perforated zinc before the hive entrance in such a manner that the queen is confined in the hive.
If the disease is not discovered until the season is well advanced and no further honey flow can reasonably be expected, one of two courses is open to the beekeeper. He can, if the disease has not reached a stage when destruction of the colony is advisable, leave it until broodrearing has ceased and shake the bees onto combs entirely full of honey free from disease. Or he can shake the bees' onto foundation and feed sugar syrup to enable them to build and stock the combs. This latter process will not be found profitable.
It is much better, however, to treat a diseased colony late in the fall and fail to bring it through the winter alive than to leave it and have it die in the winter. The hive would thus be robbed out by other bees and the disease probably spread all through the apiary and possibly to neighboring apiaries.
Honey disinfected by heating must not be fed to bees at a time when it will be stored for winter use. Such stores will cause the death of the colony by dysentery
Formerly the same treatment was recommended for this form of foulbrood as for American foulbrood.
Within the last few years much work has been done on a modified treatment, and saving the combs of a colony infected with this disease is now possible, _provided the disease has not reached the last stages, and provided further that all the conditions are met._ The possibility of success with this modified treatment is remote unless good Italian bees are used.
Three conditions are necessary to succeed with this modified treatment. First, the colony must be strong; second, it must be without a laying queen for a period of time; third, it must be given an Italian queen of good stock.
_Make the Colony Strong._--Definite strength of colony is not easily measured, but estimating the strength by the amount of brood and the number of frames covered by bees is sufficiently accurate. Figuring on the basis of the common L-size frame (9% x 17% inches), the colony should have no less than 5 frames well filled with brood and enough bees to cover 6 frames. A deficiency should be made up by adding frames of emerging brood from healthy colonies or by uniting two or more diseased colonies. If it is desired to add bees only to the colony, frames of bees from healthy colonies, which can spare bees without being harmed, may be shaken in front of the colony to be strengthened. The old bees fly back to their hive and the young bees enter the hive in front of which they.are shaken. The addition of young bees is important since young bees are the most active in cleaning out the cells, and this is the work needed at this time.
Figure 1: Diagrams showing Percentages of Diseased Apiaries and Colonies Found in New Jersey, 1912-1916.
Figure 2: M
Figure 3: Map of New Jersey showing Results of Bee Inspection in 1913.
Figure 4: Map of New Jersey showing Results of Bee Inspection in 1914.
Figure 5: Map of New Jersey showing Results of Bee Inspection in I915:
Figure 6: Map of New Jersey showing Results of BeE Inspection in 1916.
At the beginning of 1913 it was decided to select a part of the State, thoroughly inspect it and reinspect to learn what the result would be. Because of their geographical location, Cape May, Cumberland and Salem Counties were chosen, as it.was believed that the danger of reinfection from outside sources was not great. Another inspection was made in 1915, and the results of these inspections are shown in Table II.
In 1913 European foulbrood was found in each of these three counties, and American foulbrood also appeared in Salem County. The number of apiaries in each county, although not large, was about the same. Salem led in the number of colonies. In Cape May County the percentage of both diseased apiaries and diseased colonies was greater than in either of the other two counties. In one apiary in Salem County both form of the disease were found. The combined figures for the three counties for the year show 34.1 per cent of the 129 apiaries infected and 18.1 per cent of the 836 colonies diseased.
In 1915 in this area no case of American foulbrood was found. The percentage of diseased apiaries in each county was reduced and the percentage of diseased colonies had dropped in each county. The greatest reduction both in diseased apiaries and diseased colonies is shown in Cape May County. Each county shows an increase in the number of colonies; the greatest, 57 per cent, is in Cape May County. The increase in Salem County is 45 per cent.
Taking the combined figures for the three counties, we see that there is a slight increase in the total number of apiaries. American foulbrood has entirely disappeared from the area, and the proportion of diseased apiaries is reduced to 25.9 per cent. The number of colonies increased from 836 to 1,136, or a gain of 35.8 per cent. The reduction in the number of diseased colonies is more rapid than is true of the diseased apiaries, 'the percentage in the whole area falling from 18.1 per cent in 1913 to 6.2 per cent in 1915.
It is readily seen that in this area three desirable changes have taken place. (1)^ American foulbrood has entirely disappeared. (2) European foulbrood has greatly decreased, and (3) the number of colonies of bees has increased. These are some of the tangible results of bee inspection--results which usually follow bee inspection. A fourth result, which is not shown in these figures and for which no definite data are at hand, is an increased honey crop due.
first to the larger number of healthy colonies to gather nectar, and second, to the renewed courage of the beekeeper who gives the bees better attention.
Thorough inspection in any other part of the State will bring equally gratifying results; in fact, it is reasonable to suppose that because of the smaller number of box hives and box-hive beekeepers, better results could be secured in some other localities.
European foulbrood has been found in every county in the State except Gloucester and Hudson; and American foulbrood in all except Atlantic, Cape May, Mercer and Ocean. This indicates how widespread the disease has become, and the fact that there are upwards of 12,000 colonies of bees in the State gives some idea of the magnitude of the problem of disease control.
To get a correct idea of the amount of the disease in the State it would be necessary to inspect every colony of bees each year. However, from the data available from the work which has been done, a fairly reliable estimate of the amount and distribution of the disease can be had.
There are a considerable number of beekeepers who are progressive and who give their bees such attention that brood diseases are not likely to cause them any serious trouble. Their number is increasing at an encouraging rate.
The maps (fig. 2-6) show the approximate number of apiaries in each county, the number of apiaries inspected each year, the form of diseases found and the number of apiaries infected.
Some of the counties, it will be seen, have been quite thoroughly inspected. American foulbrood, it will be noticed, is, with one or two exceptions, confined to the upper half of the State, while European foulbrood is quite generally distributed over the whole State and is the form of disease which is threatening the beekeeping industry with extinction.
This is at the same time a disadvantage and an advantage--disadvantage because the action of European foulbrood is often so rapid that it soon kills all the bees belonging to the careless person; an advantage because the progressive beekeeper can control the disease without destroying the combs, and further, the introduction of good Italian queens is a large factor in its control.
It may be confidently stated that if every colony of bees in New Jersey should be furnished with a good Italian queen, European foulbrood would be reduced 75 per cent within a year.
### Education
Many who own bees have little or no knowledge of their care, and in order that they may do effective work in disease control it is necessary that they be taught both the identification of and treatment for diseases. Unless, therefore, much educational work is done in connection with bee inspection, bee disease control will not be entirely satisfactory.
The ideal condition is had when every beekeeper is thoroughly familiar with the symptoms of bee disease and with the latest approved method of control. Then disease can be treated upon its first appearance and it will not become epidemic.
The need of educating the beekeeper has been recognized from the beginning of inspection work in New Jersey, and it has been given considerable attention. During the past year, without in any degree relaxing the. efforts in inspection, emphasis has been placed upon the educational side of the work.
Efforts have been made toward reaching the beekeeper with better methods of management; (1) direct, (2) through the mails, and (3) through the farm demonstrators.
_Educating the Beekeeper Direct._--When an apiary is visited, all conditions about the yard or hives which are not such that good financial results can reasonably be expected, are pointed out to the owner and remedial measures suggested. Highly important events in the cycle of the year--events which if properly controlled will result in success, and if neglected will cause failure--are discussed and the best practices in connection therewith are made known to the beekeeper.
Stress is laid on the money value of the honey crop from properly handled bees. also on the importance of correct manipulations at the proper time if a satisfactory crop is to be secured. The absolute necessity of proper management of swarming, the introduction of queens and proper supering are impressed upon the beekeeper.
_Through the Mails._--During 1916 five circular letters were sent to the entire mailing list of about 2,000 beekeepers. These letters discussed "Building"up Colonies," "Swarm Control," "Supering," "Requeening," and "Wintering," and were sent when the information they contained would be timely. Many letters asking adviceon bee management are received, and the best known practice in connection with the topic in question is given to the inquirer.