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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



JtTNE. 



IS THEKE A BEE DISEASE 1 



OR HOW WE AUE MADE TO SAV OUR CATECHISM. 



C^UR friend, J. Burtis, of Marietta, Ononcla- 

 ^ ga Co., N. Y., don't believe tliere is anj' 

 bee disease or d5'sentery, puts us on the Avit- 

 uess stand, corners us up and lays all sorts of 

 traps for our innocent and unsuspecting feet 

 as follows: We always answer when any 

 body asks us questions. 



Is not co'nl weather or winter one cause of bees' 

 (lyint; •' 



We think it is. 



If we had July weather steaOy for one year, would 

 the bees die out as they do in cold weather ^ 



Certainly not. 



(We just begin to see where he is going to 

 take us, but there is no help for it.) 



Is there any such thing as a so called dysentery 

 among bees ? 



Yes, when you feed 'em on cider. 



If there is, what is the cause of said disease? 



Cider, bad honey etc., and may be cold 

 weather. 



Some bee men make statements like this; the bees 

 showed signs of dysentery or were aflected. I ask 

 what signs tlid they show of said dysentery or affec- 

 tion, and if aflected, how or with what were they 

 affected ? Wlien and where did this afl'ectiou lirst 

 show itself? and what were the causes of this great 

 affection or disease ? 



Well they looked sick, and we guess they 

 felt sick, ;'.t any rate they died ; and the more 

 we "took care of them," the more they died. 



It Is stated that bees are sick, and as I understand it, 

 just reatly to die with this dysentery or bee complaint 

 and the very next thing before their articles are closed 

 they state that they let them fly and they were all 

 right and well. 



Now I don't see nor understand how a bee just ready 

 to <lie witii such a dangerous disease at one moment, 

 at the ue.xt can be all right and cured of such an ep- 

 idemic. ' 



Nor do we understand it either. If they 

 could have July weather, we have no doubt, 

 that it would make them all right and well; 

 but that flying them in conlinement, under 

 glass etc., will answer the same purpose, we 

 very much doubt. 



I have been very much troubled with these bee 

 diseases, yes, my head for years back has liad all of 

 these epidemics, very hard too; and since becoming 

 convalescent a new in(iuiry comes. I would like to 

 know lirst, what a bee is affected with ; old age ? star- 

 vation ? or a hive with a pint of old bees in it ? 



We think a good many have been "aflected," 

 with "a hive with a pint in it," especially in 

 April and May. The want of bees, is much 

 like the want of money sometimes ; it is all very 

 well to say "get more," but how V If strong 

 colonics in the fall, were always strong in the 

 spring, the matter would be simple indeed. 

 Dare we hope such may be the case"? 



Again; some of our old bee soldiers say that keep- 

 ing bees too warm produces the so called disease, and 

 liiat is so strange to a new beginner. I can't see into 

 it. Bees are warmer in July, and no one is troubled 

 then with disease. 



We fear you iire wrong there friend B., in 

 our glass experiments, we had the tallest kind 

 of disease when bees were conflned in warm 

 weather. Now we have it. It's confinement ; 

 and all the cold h;is to do with it, is that it 

 keeps 'em shut up. A glass house might an- 

 swer if we only had one a mile long aud a 

 mile high. 



Can jou toll nie why bees now die in spring of old 

 age, more than they did years ago? 



Perhaps the very best thing we can do here 

 is to sit right down and honestly say we don't 

 know. It has been suggested that the 



winters and springs are colder of late, but 

 a very accurate old gentleman, told us yester- 

 da}% that such is certainly not the case. He 

 says the coldest winter he has ever known was 

 in 1816, and that accurate records, show that 

 seasons now average just about as they used 

 to; besides, bees die just about as badly in the 

 Southern states as they do in Canada. See 

 the following : 



Oh ! now I must acknowledge we do have bee chol- 

 era in the South. My bees went into winter quarters 

 with unsealed fall honey, and rather weak. Jan. was 

 the coldest month I ever saw in Texas. North wind 

 nearly all the time. I had one Queen that I raised in 

 Nov., "don't think she ever became fertile. I gave her 

 some brood (it was very scarce) but not enougli to 

 make a. fair colony. Now 1 thought I would ecoumize 

 heat ; so I kept lier on top of the box where she was 

 hatched with two cloths between the bees. About 

 the last of Jan. I made an examination and found the 

 bees all wet and "that old familiar smell" that I had 

 never smelled before, greeted my nose most unpleas- 

 antlj^ I set the box ofl', aud the wind blowing lor 

 several days, they were all dead when 1 examined 

 again. Another colony, that I thought I could w inter 

 in a second story, perished, many of them with dis- 

 tended bodies. One other also perished. The houey 

 candied (or granulated) and looked like lard. Did 

 they not eat the watery portion of the lioney and so 

 become unhealthy ? For they left the white dry 

 sugar in the cells, and it is now being carried out ev- 

 ery day, by the survivors. 



31. S. Klum, Sherman, Texas. Feb. 28th, 1875. 



The dwindling down of the bees in spring 

 in not dysentery, and whetber it is in any way 

 allied to the phenomena of soiling hives, combs 

 etc., or not, we are unable to say. The spring 

 Irvubles, we honestly believe, may be all obvia- 

 ted, by uniting weak colonies until they are 

 strong ; and perhaps the whole mischief could 

 be brought under control, by uniting in the 

 fall until our hives are full, and uniting again 

 in the spring whenever it becomes advisable. 

 By this course we should certainlj^ decrease 

 our number of stocks, but would it not be a 

 more profitable way than to carry colonies 

 almost, or quite through to May, and have 

 them perish after having "boarded" them all 

 winter!* It is very likely that we haven't the 

 necessary courage to sell good Queens in Sept., 

 and put two good colonies together, but for all 

 that, there are those who have, and if you wish 

 to see wliat the result is of so doing, look over 

 again, "How I obtained 8567 lbs., from 44 col- 

 onies," in April No. 



Two postals just at hand illustrate well, this 

 great obstacle to successful bee-keeping. The 

 former suggests what is threatening, aud the 

 latter, gives the closing scene, and tells the 

 fate of thousands of — dare we say — weak col- 

 onies 'r* 



Our bees are reduced lower than we ever had them 

 at this season of the year, in fact so low tliat we des- 

 pair of getting any prolit from them tliis year. Cold 

 winter weather all the while. We can winter bees 

 but we are not a matcli for such springs as tlie last 

 three have been. 



G. M. i>ooLiTTi>E, Borodino, N. Y. May .'Jrd, 75. 



I liave a Queen that is left of a swarm that has 

 dwindled down to nothing but the Queen. 1 have 

 kept her in the house for the last .'5 weeks waiting for 

 warmer weather. But it still remains cold. Now if 

 any body wants her for ^iM) they can liave her. 



L. N. Sheui>, Soutli Stockton, N. Y. May 4th, '75. 



And still another. 



Please don't send me more than one Italian Queen, 

 until you hear from me again. Have lost 12 colonies 

 out of 13, but shall buy some more if I can. 



James Matton, Atwatcr, O. May 5th, 1875. 



We presume more than one of our readers, 

 are having Queens to sell just when thej' ex- 

 pected to want to buy. 



