98 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



I think, friends, that very much depends 

 upon one's circumstances. A bee-keeper 

 who is in debt, and who is constantly 

 pressed by his debtors, ought to work 

 hard at something all winter long, and I 

 think he will find as much enjoyment in 

 this way as in almost any of the things that 

 have been mentioned. If he is comfortably 

 off, he certainly ought to devote a good 

 share of his time toward helping and en- 

 couraging those who always need help aud 

 encouragement round about bim. I am 

 very much pleased to see how many there 

 are among our number who urge the impor- 

 tance of following Christ's last commission 

 which he laid upon us—" Go ye into all the 

 world and preach the gospel to every crea- 

 ture."' This does not necessarily mean that 

 we should go to foreign lands' as mission- 

 aries, nor that we should feel that we are 

 called upon to climb up into a pulpit. 

 " Whether ye eat, or whether ye drink, do it 

 all to the glory of God." When it comes to 

 having real fun, I think every bee-keeper 

 should have a greenhouse, so he can be hap- 

 py in watching for sunshine, and in seeing 

 things grow. 



Question 105.— What do you do when you find a 

 colony affected with dysentery in the cellar, and it 

 is too early or too cold to give them a cleansing flight 

 by removing them temporarily from the cellar? 



I do nothing. 

 We let them go. 



Geo. Grimm. 

 P. H. Elwood. 



I generally let them alone, except to make the 

 cellar warmer. C. C. Miller. 



Nothing can be done, and we would not even look, 

 for it does them harm to be disturbed. 



Dadant & Son. 

 I place a wet cloth over the brood-franies, or 

 Hi row a handful of salt into the entrance, or both. 



Chas. F. Muth. 

 I do not winter in cellar much. I should do what- 

 ever I could to make them more quiet; and, beyond 

 that, let them alone as much as possible. 



E. E. Hasty. 

 I just let them alone and lose them. In nine 

 cases out of ten, the more you tinker and fuss with 

 them, the quicker they will die and the more you 

 will lose. James Heddon. 



I mean to prevent this. I have cured them by 

 giving them a flight in a warm room. This is best 

 done by putting them in a large box and covering 

 with netting. A. J. Cook. 



I have not had a colony affected with diarrhea in 

 the cellar in years; and if I were to have, I would 

 simply let them alone; for, as far as my experience 

 goes, fussing with this never does any good. 



G. M. Doolittle. 



I would let such colonies alone. The disturbance 

 will Injure others more than it will help those 

 affected. If such a stock were at the bottom of the 

 room it might be a benefit to raise it to the top, 

 where it would be warmer. L. C. Root. 



I let them alone. If the bees are all right, and 

 have suitable stores when put into the cellar, and 

 the cellar is properly ventilated, and kept at the 

 right temperature, say :>8 or 10°, there will be no 

 dysentery. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



I put them in a room of the bee-house in which is 

 a stove, and warm them up to nearly 100° for sever- 

 al hours at a time, keeping the room perfectly dark, 

 giving the hive free ventilation at top and bottom, 

 and repeat the dose at intervals of several days if 

 necessary. H. R. Boardman. 



I let it alone, for none of my colonies are so badly 

 affected as to need attention. I aim to have each 

 colony provided with proper food in the fall, and 

 then kept at the right temperature in the winter, 

 and I have no trouble in wintering. Pollen, or bee- 

 bread, is not a proper winter food for bees; and be- 

 cause " Rambler" saw the "pollen theory " " go up 

 in a balloon " is no evidence that the theory is not 

 correct. Dr. A. B. Mason. 



This is a subject that was discussed largely in the 

 bee-papers jus-t before Gleanings was born; and 

 while I never experimented in giving cellar-winter- 

 ed bees a cleansing flight, I have done so largely 

 with bees that were being wintered out of doors. I 

 did this by letting them fly on top of the hives in a 

 shallow hox covered with glass, the rays of the sun 

 through the glass giving heat enough for the pur- 

 pose when the outside air would be freezing. These 

 experiments led to my learning the value of chaff 

 as a winter protector for bees, and the use of the 

 solar wax extractor; but I am not satisfied that it 

 was of material benefit to diseased bees. This ex- 

 periment can be easily tried with cellar-wintered 

 bees by removing them temporarily to a light warm 

 room and putting on them a box some 5 or 6 inch- 

 es deep, covered with glass, after opening the top 

 of the hive so the bees can come up freely on top of 

 the frames. While I have little faith in the practi- 

 cal value of such an experiment, it will cost but 

 very little to try it, and may be of greater value 

 than I Ihink for. O. O. Poppleton. 



Our older readers will remember that, 

 about the time Gleanings was " born," as 

 friend Poppleton expresses it. I had a green- 

 house, or, rather, a large cold-frame, built 

 on purpose to cure bees that had the dysen- 

 tery. Well, it worked tiptop, providing we 

 had warm sunny days, so the bees could be 

 put outdoors not very long after they were 

 cured (V) by the treatment in the green- 

 house. If we didn't have days when they 

 could be set out, and given a good fly under 

 the blue vault of heaven, they had a kind of 

 fashion of relapsing, and ultimately " going 

 dead " in spite of the cure. They were not 

 exactly like the Irishman's bird, that he 

 shot as plainly as could be, but wouldn't die 

 because it was so contrary ; for after they 

 had been doctored and cured, as plainly as 

 could be, they died, just to be contrary. 

 May be, if 1 had pushed my investigations 

 further I might have triumphed over the 

 difficulties ; but, if I remember correctly, 

 just about the time of these experiments, 

 our good friend P. H. Elwood wrote to me, 

 that even if they could be cured by the 

 greenhouse treatment, it cost more than to 

 buy some good healthy bees of somebody 

 who had them, in the spring. At the low 

 prices at which bees have been offered for 

 some time back, it does not pay to fuss very 

 much with weak and sickly colonies, pro- 

 viding one has some other occupation that 

 pays him fair wages. 



