104 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



for I have bought a piece of land and intend 

 to follow farming in connection with bee-keep- 

 ing. Kut as I shall have a very favorable lo- 

 cation for bees I expect to keep profitably about 

 l.TO colonies in this yiird. 



Now, perhaps it may interest some for me to 

 give my opinion as to the cause of the large loss 

 of bees here last winter and spring, and to 

 describe some of the things in regard to bees 

 that took place the past summer. 



Although it was very dry here in 1894 we had 

 a fair fall flow which lasted very late, and col- 

 onies went into winter quarters very strong in 

 bees, especially young bees. But I believe 

 there are other things of more importance for 

 the successful wintering of bees than to have 

 plenty of young ones in the fall. One summer 

 I had a strong second swarm issue from a large 

 box hive. T do not remember the date, but it 

 was just before basswood blossomed. The 

 queen of this swarm was lost on her mating- 

 trip, or in some other way, for I am certain 

 that they did not have a laying queen at any 

 time during the summer. I thought I would 

 let them do without one, to see what they 

 would do. They were hived on combs that 

 contained considerable honey, so they did not 

 havei:.u.l: room to store below; but they filled 

 up what room there was, and then, instead of 

 working much in the sections, they took the 

 world easy. 



In the fall I thought I would unite what few 

 of them were left, with some oiher colony; but 

 on coming to examine them I was surprised at 

 the amount of bees there was left. There 

 seemed to be nearly as many as when I hived 

 them; so in order to experiment further they 

 were put in the cellar, where the rest were. 

 They came out in good shape in the spring. A 

 queen was given to them: and although they 

 dwindled away very fast, they pulled through 

 all right. 



Now, in this case the workers lived at least 

 10 or 11 months, not only a few, but thousands 

 of them. But they would not do so every year. 

 If the same thing had been tried the past sum- 

 mer I do not think there would have been a 

 live bee left after they had been in the cellar a 

 month. 



I believe bees live longer some years than 

 they do others. In the fall of 1894 there was a 

 good deal of honey-dew gathered in this locali- 

 ty. This, or something else, caused the bees 

 to have diarrhea after they had been confined 

 for some time. I think it was the honey-dew 

 that caused it, for colonies that had sugar stores 

 did not have it. Still, I have wintered bees on 

 honey-dew in first-class shape; in fact, last 

 winter some colonies wintered in good con- 

 dition on it. Again, some that died with 

 honey-dew stores did not get the diarrhea. 

 They seemed to fall right down from the combs, 

 and die without a struggle. What caused this 



difl'erence in some cases, where the stores were 

 the same, gathered from the same yard, and 

 the colonies side by side in the same cellar, is 

 more than I know. But these cases were ex- 

 ceptions; for most colonies that were on stores 

 that'they gathered got the diarrhea, and were 

 in poor condition when put out in the spring. 

 Mine were put out the latter part of March, 

 and for a week or two every thing was very 

 favorable. But suddenly the field -bees com- 

 menced to die by the thousand. Strong colo- 

 nies were, in a few few days, reduced to a small 

 nucleus; many colonies peiished outright, and 

 this when the weather was warm and mild. 

 The bees were at the time working on a species 

 of willow from which they were getting large 

 quantities of honey or honey-dew. I felt sure 

 that this was poisonous, and that it was the 

 cause of so many colonies dying around here 

 last spring. On examining these willow blos- 

 soms with a strong glass they were found to be 

 alive with a small species of louse. Some 

 around here thought that the reason the field- 

 bees died off so suddenly was because they had 

 poor winter stores, and that they were, there- 

 fore, in a feeble condition when put out in the 

 spring, and able to stand but a few days of 

 hard work. do not think this was the reason, 

 because I had some colonies thai had pure bass- 

 wood honey, and some that had sugar for win- 

 ter stores, and these colonies suffered as badly 

 as the rest. 



About the time these willow blossoms were 

 gone there commenced to be a good deal 

 of dead brood. It seemed to die in all stages, 

 and this dead brood continued all summer. It 

 was not foul brood, although it resembled it 

 somewhat. Every colony I had was aflfected 

 with it, some more so than others. I do not 

 know what it was, or what caused it. I thought 

 at first it was caused by poisonous honey; but 

 that could not have been the case, for this dead 

 brood continued as long as there was any brood 

 reared. 



Last fall I put some colonies Into clean hives 

 on frames filled with foundation. Others were 

 put into new hives on new empty frames. 

 Others I treated the same as one would for 

 foul brood, giving frames with starters first, 

 then changing again. But in all cases, as soon 

 as new brood was started it commenced to die 

 as badly as before. Some queens that I got 

 from a distance were introduced to some of the 

 worst-affected colonies. In some cases this 

 changing of queens seemed to help; in others, 

 it did not. 



Just before white-clover bloom the workers 

 took another spell of dying. They would come 

 out of the hives mornings soon after sunrise, 

 crawl around awhile, then die. Their intes- 

 tines seemed to be full of thin transparent 

 liquid of a very sharp and acid character. 

 While this lasted only a tew days, some colo- 



