Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 110, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1911 — SPRAYED TREES CHASE BEES [ARTICLE]

SPRAYED TREES CHASE BEES

Apiarists in Connecticut Who Have Lost Honey Gatherers Advance Theory for Disappearance. Hampton, Conn. —Bee keepers tn this section are fearful that the honeystoring industry is to be a failure the coming season, and on comparing notes they are becoming convinced that the trouble is due to the spraying of trees, especially apples and other fruit trees, while in bloom or just before the opening of the blossoms. City Clerk A. C. Scripture of Willimantic, who was one of the first to make the assertion, states that in the winter of 1909 he took especially good care of his hives, kept them well covered during the severe weather, fed the bees as necessity demanded, and in the spring the little honey gatherers came out in prime condition, so that when the apple trees began to blossom they Mere in trim to make a vigorous attack on the hidden sweetness. He supposed the bees were storing honey as in former years and paid little attention to them for two or three weeks. When he did visit them, he was surprised to find very few bees about the hives. At first he thought nothing of it, reasoning that they were out gathering honey. The next time he looked over the hives was at a time of day when the bees should have been about their quarters in large numbers. He was surprised to find even fewer than he did before. Investigation disclosed that the bees were practically all gone. It was too early in the season for them to swarm, and there were no Indications about

the hive that they had died, no dead bees being In sight. Inquiring of other bee keepers, Mr. Scripture learned that he was not the only one who was losing bees, and that others had concluded that the spray applied to fruit trees to kill the tiny moths which infect the blossoms, and later the fruit, was doing equally effective work In killing off the honey bees.