May 16, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



309 



Contributed Articles, l 



Bees Dying in tlie Hives^One of the Causes. 



BY C. P. DAliAXT. 



I SEE an inquiry on page 201, concerning the cause of 

 death of a lot of bees. This case seems to me identical 

 to the bee-losses in this vicinity during the winter of 

 1879 SO, and I will ask leave to describe it. 



The season of 1879 was very dry. During the summer 

 and fall the bees harvested nothing. But fruits were plenti- 

 ful and so were birds, and the bees worked during the fruit 

 season on all sorts of damaged fruit. They began on dam- 

 aged peaches, in August, then took to grapes, and later to 

 apples. The number of bees found in small vineyards was 

 so great that vintners held meetings in which they dis- 

 cussed the advisability of petitioning the Legislature to 

 obtain a law forbidding the keeping of more than 20 colo- 

 nies of bees in one apiary. Wherever a damaged berry 

 was found it was full of bees and most of the grape-grow- 

 ers were of the opinion that it was the bees that punctured 

 the fruit. Arguments were out of question until the heads 

 became cooler, and it was at that time that we decided to 

 plant grapes on a large scale in order to show our neighbors 

 that grapes and bees could be kept profitably on the same 

 farm, in large numbers and without mutual injury. The 

 damage in this case was really greater on the bees than on 

 the fruit, which had of itself no value for any one, and 

 the bees themselves would have been better off without it. 

 This unwholesome sweet (?) fermented in the hive and 

 became inferior wine, cider, vinegar — yes, mainly vinegar. 

 But there was nothing else for them except an occasional 

 sorghum mill, and sorghum molasses is a poor addition to 

 cider from rotten apples. 



We removed all that we could find of this unhealthy 

 food, and fed our bees on the best of sugar syrup. But in 

 spite of it all, we had heavy losses, especially because the 

 bees were confined to the hives for a number of weeks 

 together during the coldest weather. But some people were 

 worse off than we. We bought up an apiary, of some 80 

 colonies, the following spring. This apiary had been 

 almost entirely destroyed by this bad food during that win- 

 ter. 



Those bees had not been fed, but there seemed to have 

 been enough of this stuff in the cells to keep them till the 

 coldest weather, and there was some of it j et to be found 

 in many of the hives. The bees had slowly dwindled down 

 and had changed position in the hives as the combs had 

 become soiled, until the last small cluster had perished in 

 an upper corner, driven there by the cold and by the stench 

 arising from the foul dead bees. It seems as if a little of 

 this sour food went a great way towards sickening them, 

 for colonies which we had plentifully supplied with healthy 

 food nevertheless showed signs of diarrhea, indicating that 

 they, too. had consumed the nasty stuff. 



Strange to say, after the opening of spring, it seemed 

 as if the consumption of this food for breeding was not 

 attended with unpleasant results. Strong colonies that man- 

 aged to pass through this disastrous winter, prospered and 

 thrived when warm days came, on the plunder that they 

 obtained from deserted hives, for the stuff seemed to be 

 scattered in small patches in many of the combs, the most 

 of it being unsealed, as might be expected. 



The most damaging result of this bad food is certainly 

 brought about by the long confinement of the bees during 

 cold weather. In an open winter, when the bees can have 

 a flight once a week, I believe much less trouble would 

 ensue, but when the bees are long confined on the combs, 

 with such watery unhealthy food, they become unable to 

 retain their excrements and the healthy bees catch the 

 infection, from the diseased ones. The after result of this 

 trouble in spring is, sometimes, constipation or an 

 inability on the part of the bees to discharge their excre- 

 ments. This constipation becomes contagious, and in the 

 latter form has been described by Cheshire under the name 

 of " Bacillus Gaytoni." The bees that suffer from it are 

 heavy, they drag themselves about as if partly paralyzed, 

 they shine as if varnished; this comes, I believe, from 

 their having lost all their coat of hairs. Even the queens 

 catch the disease, sometimes, and in such a case the colony 

 is not slow to perish, even if the weather has become 



warm. But in most instances the disease slowly disappears 

 or wears out. I have, however, seen it persist through the 

 summer in a few hives and the disea.sed bees kept themselves 

 almost invariably at the top of the brood-combs, until they 

 were carried out by their merciless sisters, for the bee is 

 pitiless to the useless member of the family, and sickness 

 finds no sympathy with her. 



I cannot help thinking that the case mentioned on page 

 201 is identical with what I have described. The fruit-juice 

 stores, the sickly bees dying in small clusters, the stench 

 in the hives, and the protracted cold weather, all lead to the 

 conclusion that the case is similar, and that we need look 

 to no other cause. By the time this article appears in print, 

 what there may be left of that apiary will probably be in 

 much better condition, as the spring blossoms are a sover- 

 eign remedy for Winter's ill-doings. 



Hancock Co., 111. 



Numbering Hives and Keeping a Record. 



BY C. DAVENPORT. 



THERE are some who do not consider it necessary to 

 have hives numbered, but to me it would seem almost 

 impossible to handle a large number of colonies unless 

 the hives were all numbered or distinguished by a letter or 

 figure of some kind. My hives are in rows, and these rows 

 are also numbered, and to have both hives and rows num- 

 bered saves a large amount of work, for, as will be 

 explained, it enables me easily to keep track of each colony 

 through the entire season, and, what is of nearly as much 

 importance. I can find or tell where any colony is without 

 searching over the entire yard. 



Instead of using a record-book I use smooth pieces of 

 thin boards, which are about four inches wide and 18 inches 

 long. I much prefer these boards to a book or paper of 

 any kind for all transient records, as they are a great deal 

 handier. For permanent records a book is, of course, pref- 

 erable. With my system it requires about three of these 

 record-boards for a yard containing ISO or more colonies, 

 but each board can be used for a number of seasons, for at 

 the end of the season, if there is anything on them which 

 is desired to be preserved, it can be transferred to a book, 

 and the writing on the boards planed off, when they are 

 ready for use again the next season. 



After the bees are put out in the spring, the condition 

 of each colony is set down on one of these boards. A 

 board is marked off into as many rows as there are rows of 

 hives in the yard, and if, for instance, the colony in hive 

 No. 8 in row 5 is weak in bees and short of stores, it is 

 marked on the board under row five thus : 8 — M — W — B. 

 The letter M after the number of the hive shows that this 

 hive is in the middle, or about the middle, of the row. I 

 have the rows run east and west, and if it had been nearer 

 the east end of the row than the middle, the first letter 

 would have been E instead of M ; or W if nearer the west 

 end. 



The first letter after the number always tells where in 

 the row the colony is, and this saves a good deal of walk- 

 ing where there are 25 or more colonies in each row. 



The next letter in the record is W, which shows that 

 the colony is weak. Next is the letter B, showing that they 

 are short of stores. If they had had plenty of stores the 

 last letter would have been A instead of B : and if they 

 had been so short that it would be necessary to feed within 

 two or three days, the last letter would have been C. 



To explain my system further we will say that under 

 some row we find this record ; 98— E — W — A X. This says 

 that the colony in hive No. 98 is at the east end of that 

 row, and is weak in bees, but has an extra amount of 

 stores. An X after the letter A tells that that colony has 

 an extra-large amount of stores, and in this case, as they 

 are weak in bees, they have more than they can use, so we 

 can draw a frame or two of honey and exchange with and 

 help out No. 8, whose record will now read thus : 8 — M — W 

 — B — A, The letter B being crossed shows that this colony 

 has been fed, and the letter A after it shows that they have 

 been fed enough to make them strong in stores. But say 

 we waited a week or ten days before feeding No. 8, and 

 then only fed a small amount, then it would have read : 8 

 _M— W— B— B— 4— IS. This says that they were fed April 

 ISth enough to last them a week or 10 days from that date. 

 If no honey comes in from the fields by this time, or before, 

 we can tell by looking at this record-board what colonies 

 have to be fed again, what rows they are in, and where in 

 the row. 



Later, if it is desired to equalize the colonies in 



