1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



115 



SPRING DWINDLING. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



^N discussing this subject, I must do so from my 

 l| own standpoint. I must mean, by "spring 

 — ' dwindling," that phenomenon we have here to 

 which I have attached that name. Our bees come 

 out in spring alive, and strong in numhcrs, and ap- 

 parently, to the casual observer, " all right." They 

 have already, or immediately commence to breed. 

 The necessary cares of breeding decimate their 

 numbers at a fearful rate. The old bees drop off so 

 much faster than the young ones come forth, that 

 the colony "dwindles" down to a mere handful, 

 which handful never gets to be larger (especially if 

 the "spring" is replete with wintery reactions), and 

 finally the brood dies for lack of protection, and the 

 "jig is up." 



Of these symptoms which 1 term "spring dwind- 

 ling," I will make some positive statements. 



1. I have never known these effects to take place 

 after successful wintering. 



3. I never knew a colony to dwindle (that had a 

 fertile queen) where the workers were not diseased. 

 3. T feel confident that the name of that disease 

 is dysentery. 



For the first few years of my observations, I knew 

 of no other way to look for symptoms of dysentery 

 except outside of the anatomy of the bees. I soon 

 learned, however, that there were always unmistak- 

 able evidences of the disease ivithin the bodies of 

 them, whenever it existed. My eye soon leal'nod to 

 detect it at a glance. I found no trouble in spotting 

 the fated hives that were liable to "dwindle" out. 

 But I also found, by observing with other bee-keep- 

 ers, that the symptoms were almost universally 

 overlooked. 



In friend Townley's article, on page 66 of your 

 last issue, he says his first case happened after a 

 "very severe winter;" and the next, after a winter 

 whose severity he does not mention, the bees 

 "stood out unprotected." All of that sounds true 

 to my experience. T.et us suppose, for the argu- 

 ment's sake, that pollen-eating is the cause of dys- 

 entery. During cold weather, when the bees can 

 not as well change positions in the hive, they, after 

 eating all the honey in their immediate vicinity, 

 naturally make the mistake of using that other 

 kind of food, which is adapted only to every-day 

 flights. Thus severe or protracted cold, or both, 

 tend to pnllen-eating, and the natural results, dys- 

 entery and brooding, as soon as the weather gets 

 warmer. If this action takes place early in winter, 

 and opportunities for voiding are cut off, dysentery 

 will show all over the frames, hive, and sometimes 

 the bees, in dead or living forms, on or before the 

 time of the spring opening. But if, on the other 

 hand, the action occurs nearer spring, or is of less 

 severity, the bees, whose instinct is not to void in 

 the hives, will hold all the fa?cal matter within their 

 bodies, the same becoming diseased; and the mo- 

 ment voiding and its consequent and coincident 

 activity take place, these diseased bodies succumb 

 very readily. As the bees are on the wing mainly 

 when they give out, all we see is a sort of an " all 

 goneness " in the hives. 



I do not claim to know what is the cause or causes 

 of dysentery. I do claim to know that most of the 

 causes attributed to it are not the causes here. I 

 claim to believe that the consumption of bee-bread 



by the older bees, at improper times, is the cause. 

 I may be mistaken, but I shall give it up only when 

 evidences force me to. If such a time comes, then 

 I shall be again entirely lost in the fog in regard to 

 the problem. I have no doubt but that the disease, 

 and its consequent death, has been present, more or 

 less, whenever and wherever bees have been. But 

 just ?io!(' (counting back about 15 years) I think the 

 disease and its cause, pollen, has been more preva- 

 lent than formerly. Forests contain honey and 

 spring pnllcu. When they are cut away, their nat- 

 ural successors, weeds, contain honey and fall 

 pollen. 



Some weeks ago I tried an cxpcrintent. I had four 

 colonies almost perfectly destitute of stores. These 

 four colonies were In my cellar. When they had 

 gone as far as I dared risk their stores' exhaustion, 

 I proceeded to feed three of them two 2-lb. bricks 

 each, of granulated-sngar candy, pure. The fourth 

 one I gave one brick of pure candy, and one of 

 about three-fourths sugar and one-fourth flour. All 

 four colonies procerded to cover the two bricks in 

 each hive. In abnut three weeks the colony with 

 the brick of flour-mixed candy was dead, with as 

 radical a case of dysentery as I have seen within 

 five years. The bricks, frames, and even the bees 

 themselves, are terribly daubed with their excre- 

 tions. Not one sign of the disease is to be seen in 

 any of the other 30 colonies in that cellar. I have 

 left every thing just as it stood, and shall do so till 

 spring, because I wish to show it to as many wit- 

 ne>;ses as possible, and because I know the disease 

 is neither contagious nor infectious. I found, a few 

 days ago, one colony dead, and nnother sick with it, 

 among the ovitdoor-packed colonies. I scrutinized 

 the conditions closely. In the dead one I found 

 them as fallows: From some cause, overlooked in 

 fall, the colony was reduced to a mere handful, so 

 small they were capable of making but little heat. 

 The hive being thickly packed, they felt the sun's 

 rays but little, if any. They had eaten the honey 

 from their immediate cluster, and then eaten bee- 

 bread, and died upon it, and that, too, before it was 

 time to begin brood-rearing. The other hive had 

 ample numbers, but had evidently eaten a combined 

 diet of honey and bee-bread, which were both handy 

 to them, and showed late signs of use. This colony 

 still lives; but unless they reform, they are " goners." 

 They have had their fly, but now the "dwindle" is 

 next. Our colonies were, as a rule, very light witb 

 bee-bread. These were exceptions. All flew lively 

 four days ago. Those In the cellar have been con- 

 fined since Thanksgiving, and I shall keep them 

 there till I can set them out to stay, say March 20th 

 to April 1st, when they will have had the ordinary 

 length of confinement, and the same temperature 

 as though the winter had been of last year's sort. 

 I do this to put to test the problem in one of its 

 branches. I have no fears as to the result. Most of 

 my outdoor experiments will prove only partial, 

 owing to the mildness of the winter; still, they show 

 something. More anon. 



Dowaglac, Mich., Feb. 9, 1883. 



Thanks for the experiment, friend H. We 

 have before had reports similar, and I have 

 also seen something of it, in feeding Hour 

 candy to weak colonies, during cool April 

 weather ; but in all these cases, if I am cor- 

 rect, the excrement was of a whitish color, 

 instead of the usual brown, or dark yellow- 

 something the color of pollen itself. Was it 



