120 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEVy. 



" mother " of vinegar. The inside of the 

 hives were very damp and in places so wet 

 that water trickled down. The combs were 

 damp and to a considerable extent mouldy 

 outside of the cluster. These hives were all 

 the new Heddon of two sections each. 



It is necessary here to explain that the bees 

 in the cellar referred to have wintered ex- 

 ceptionally well. Out of a little less than 

 150 the loss has been only five and the loss 

 of these is explained by queenlessness undis- 

 covered in the fall or by other abnormality 

 of condition so that it may be affirmed that 

 they wintered almost perfectly as almost all 

 rate from strong to very strong in numbers, 

 and as to health they are in excellent condi- 

 tion almost without exception, and yet the 

 hives of a large portion of them — I estimate 

 from one-third to one-half — show more or 

 less of what might be taken to be the char- 

 acteristic marks of dysentery, but these are 

 always outside the cluster and generally out- 

 side the hive. It may be that this is an in- 

 dication of incipient dysentery or diarrhoea 

 as it is perhaps more generally called. But 

 I think it will not be questioned that it is 

 the retention of the fasces that causes the 

 disease whose effects are to be dreaded, so I 

 prefer to think that when the temperature is 

 such that the bees willingly go outside the 

 hive to respond to the call of nature they 

 thereby escape even the incipient stages of 

 the dreaded disease even though the other 

 conditions are such that they cannot safely 

 take wing. In other words, flight is not 

 necessarily essential to a sanitary condition. 

 Every observant bee-keeper of experience 

 has noticed, when the sun suddenly breaks 

 out about the first of June after a storm that 

 has kept the bees confined two or three days 

 and the bees rush out, how they may be seen 

 on all sides sitting on the leaves of the shrubs 

 and bushes at the same time voiding their 

 faeces. But this has never been taken for 

 signs of disease. 



This however is not the real question at 

 issue, but what I have said takfen with what 

 is to appear further on will enable the reader 

 to form a judgement as to how the five col- 

 onies in question wintered in comparison 

 with those deprived of the luxury of a wet 

 sheet envelope. The real question is wheth- 

 er the necessity for the voiding of the fieces 

 is caused by the high percentage of moisture 

 in the atmosphere or by something else. 

 Although in the present case it is claimed 

 there was only little if any of the disease 



known as dysentery present, still it may be 

 granted that had the conditions been such 

 that the bees would have felt compelled to 

 retain their faices indefinitely the disease 

 would doubtless have been induced thereby. 



It will be found difficult, if not impossible, 

 I think, to find any indication that the con- 

 ditions within the wet sheet were more favor- 

 able to the development of the disease than 

 those outside of it. However, since the rel- 

 ative humidity of the air outside is so high 

 that it may with much show of reason be 

 claimed that the total possible difference be- 

 tween that outside and that inside the sheet 

 is not sufficient to warrant an expectation of 

 any great difference in results. To meet 

 such a case it may be of use to compare the 

 results of the past winter with those reached 

 in wintering bees in the same cellar during 

 other years. 



It can hardly be said that the relative 

 humidity of the air in a given cellar kept 

 under like conditions is a very variable 

 quality taking one year with another and 

 certainly the humidity of the air in the cel- 

 lar in question could hardly have been great- 

 er during the past winter than during previ- 

 ous winters, for not within the memory of 

 the living has the ground in this part of 

 Michigan been so dry during the winter sea- 

 son as it has during the past winter, never- 

 theless never during the eight seasons which 

 have seen this cellar in use have the evi- 

 dences of the approach of the danger of un- 

 due accumulation of faeces been more j/en- 

 erally seen, although in two or three years 

 many times the damage was done, for though 

 the cases were comparatively few the real 

 disease had been induced by undue reten- 

 tion. As the result of another winter's cam- 

 paign out of almost two hundred colonies at 

 most but one colony showed any sign of the 

 trouble. This question suggests itself: 

 Which is the more likely, that the humidity 

 of the air in the cellar or the quality of the 

 stores possessed by the bees varied from one 

 year to another ? 



I now give a detailed statement of the con- 

 dition of the five colonies in tabulated form, 

 upon their removal from the cellar on the 

 8th of April, together with the weight of 

 each when placed in the cellar on the 22nd 

 af November. Little requires to be said here 

 by way of explanation and I need only state 

 that the bees of No. 5 voided much excre- 

 ment on the front of their hive when re- 

 moved from the cellar which the others did 



