56 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Messrs. Wm. Camm, Martin Metcalf 

 and Dr. E. Gallup state, as the result 

 of their observations, that stocks 

 having HO pollen, or a scarcity of it, 

 do not winter as safely as do those 

 which are well supplied, 



3. I emphatically deny the truth of 

 the statement that scarcity of honey 

 within reach of the cluster, will cause 

 the bees to eat pollen, so as to produce 

 diarrhea. In a recent number of the 

 Bee JouR^^AL, Dr. C. C. Miller men- 

 tions a case in which one of his colo- 

 nies starved outright, leaving plenty 

 of pollen in the combs, but not a drop 

 of honey, and yet there was not a 

 trace of diarrhea about the hive or 

 combs. Last winter 13 of my stocks 

 starved in the bee-cellar and one 

 which I sold and guaranteed to win- 

 ter safely, starved outside. I exam- 

 ined carefully each of the 84 combs 

 belonging to these stocks. There 

 was not a cell of honey in any one of 

 them, but there was plenty of good 

 sound pollen. There was no abdom- 

 inal distension in the bees which 

 starved outside, nor were there any 

 signs of diarrhea. Those which 

 starved in the cellar were in hives 

 without bottom-boards. The combs 

 were clean and bright, showing none 

 of the usual signs of diseased bees. 

 Additional evidence on this matter 

 will be found, later on, in the observa- 

 tions of Messrs. D. A. .Jones and J. 

 W. White regarding winter-breeding. 



-I. I now go fartlier and state that 

 bees often eat pollen quite freely 

 while continuously confined to their 

 liives, for Ave or six months, without 

 over-loading their intestines, so as to 

 produce abdominal distension, diar- 

 rhea, or spring dwindling. In taking 

 this ground I dispute the claim which 

 is most essential to the truth of the 

 pollen theory. I ask the careful at- 

 tention of the reader to the testimony 

 quoted in support of my position. 



Mr. Ileddou says : " Whatever will 

 cause winter breeding will engender 

 the disease," and other supporters of 

 the theory are in accord with him, 

 because in rearing brood for any 

 length of time, the consumption of 

 pollen in considerable quantities by 

 the bees, is indispensable, and this 

 causes, as they say, " an aggregated 

 loading of the intestines " producing 

 disease unless the bees have a chance 

 to fly. They are correct as to the con- 

 sumption of large quantities of pollen 

 in brood-rearing, but it seems strange 

 that none of these writers ever no- 

 ticed that extensive brood-rearing 

 with its attendant consumption of 

 Iiollen, frequently does take phice in 

 confinement, without producing ab- 

 dominal distension, diarrhea, or spring 

 dwindling. In support of the fact 

 that this often occurs I submit the 

 following testimony : 



Sometime in February, 1882, Mr. 

 I). Reekie, a bee-keeper residing 

 about .30 miles west of this place, 

 called on me and during our conver- 

 sation he mentioned that tiis bees had 

 then nearly as much brood in their 

 combs as they should have in sum- 

 mer, and asked my opinion as to the 

 probable consequences. I said I 

 never had such a case, but I knew 

 that some of the writers in the bee- 



papers would say that his bees would 

 certainly have dysentery* before 

 spring. At the late Ontario Bee- 

 Keepers' Convention I asked him to 

 state the particulars of this case. 

 After describing the condition of his 

 bees in the cellar, he added that they 

 all came out in good condition the 

 following spring, and that they 

 swarmed early. 



Mr. D. A. Jones then told us that, 

 last winter, for some reason, he 

 thought owing to a little light getting 

 in at a door in one of his wintering 

 houses, several colonies deserted their 

 hives and entered others nearer the 

 door. These hives became so crowded 

 that the bees started brood-rearing 

 extensively, in consequence of which 

 they consumed all their honey and 

 starved, leaving brood in all stages, 

 in from four to six combs in each 

 hive. On examination, the combs 

 were found to contain pollen. They 

 were clean and bright and the bees 

 had no appearance of disease. 



On page 381 of the Bee Journal 

 for 1881, Mr. J. W. White writes: 

 " In keeping bees for 17 years I have 

 not made notes on every point but I 

 think I may call the following a state- 

 ment of facts : The colonies which 

 wintered well were not deficient in 

 pollen. Good colonies which starved 

 to death exhibited no signs of disease 

 from the use of pollen or any otiier 

 cause. Good colonies which were con- 

 fined for months in the cellar and were 

 short of stores, so that they had to be 

 fed in March and April tokeep them 

 from starvation, showed no signs of 

 dysentery brought on by using pollen 

 to save scanty stores of honey. In 

 the winter of 1871-72, before I had 

 heard of the bad effects of pollen and 

 winter brood-rearing, and wlien I 

 knew they reared brood in February, 

 I fed my bees for about five weeks, in 

 the cellar, a mixture of honey and 

 flour to stimulate brood-rearing. Did 

 they rear brood V They did. Did 

 they get dysentery ? They did not. 

 Did they do well the next summer? 

 It was the best year I ever had." 



On page 24 of the Bee Journal for 

 187(5, Mr. T. S. Bull describes a case 

 in which one of his hives was acci- 

 dentally upset in the bee-cellar, 

 breaking down the combs. lie fixed 

 it up as best he could. Before spring 

 the bees had built a frame full of new 

 comb which was filled with brood 

 and from which young bees had 

 emerged. AVhen taking liis bees out 

 in the spring tliis colony was found 

 to be in splendid condition. 



On page 286 of the same volume, 

 Mr. Frank Henton describes how to 

 prepare stocks for successful out- 

 door wintering. He says: " I have 

 had stocks prepared in this manner 

 that reared brood all winter and were 

 in splendid condition for the next 

 season's work. There will be no 

 trouble about "springing" such 

 stocks." 



On page 118 of Oleanings for 1882, 

 Mr. Frank Boomerhower says : "Some 

 say that rearing brood in "the cellar 

 causes uneasiness and dysentery and 

 spring dwindling ; but if this be so, 

 others must have different bees from 

 mine. I have never yet had a case of 



spring dwindling nor any dysentery. 

 My bees rear brood nearly all winter, 

 never get uneasy, and always come 

 out strong in the spring. My experi- 

 ence is that to have bees winter suc- 

 cessfully, without loss, and come out 

 strong in the spring, without spring 

 dwindling, they must be wintered in 

 such a shape that they will rear brood 

 from the last of December." 



Rev. E. L. Briggs has kept bees for 

 over .30 years. In 20 years of cellar- 

 wintering he has not lost to exceed 

 one per cent. On page 198 of the 

 Bee Journal for 1882, he says : 

 "Somehow our bees out here (in 

 Iowa) persist in living through this 

 winter, though their combs are full 

 of pollen, and though they have been 

 breeding quite plentifully ever since 

 the first of January. Something else, 

 then, besides pollen and breeding 

 causes dysentery." 



Mr. II. V. Train has wintered his 

 bees in a cellar for 1.5 years. He has 

 not lost 5 per cent, in any winter and 

 for the last five years has not lost one 

 per cent. He says : " I have become 

 so confident in my cellar and my 

 ability to manage it, that I would not 

 give one per cent, to have my winter- 

 ing insured, if the bees are in natural 

 condition in the fall, and I do not care 

 how much pollen they have either." 

 In 1879-80 his bees reared brood ex- 

 tensively in the cellar. When put- 

 ting tliem out that spring, many of 

 his 144 hives were crowded with young 

 bees but all were in good, healthy 

 condition. In the disastrous winter 

 of 1880-81 he had 138 stocks confined 

 in the cellar without a flight, for five 

 months. One stock in a box-hive 

 died of dysentery, being the only case 

 of the disease lie had. On putting 

 them out nearly all had brood in all 

 stages. Nearly one-half of his hives 

 were literally full of young bees, 

 being stronger in number than when 

 placed in the cellar in the fall. The 

 following summer he was able to of- 

 fer ten bushels of bees for sale by the 

 pound. 



Mr. H. R. Boardman, " the man 

 who does not lose his bees in winter," 

 is not afraid of having plenty of pol- 

 len in his combs in the fall. He win- 

 ters in a house built for the purpose. 

 His hives are carried in without bot- 

 tom-boards, the first row being placed 

 on scantling. They are then tiered 

 up, pieces of two-inch stuff being 

 placed between the tiers. He finds 

 that his bees start brood- rearing in 

 February, and to keep it up he sup- 

 plies water and artificial heat, when 

 necessary. On putting them out in 

 the spring his bees are always 

 healthy and his hives crowded. Dur- 

 ing the winter of 1880-81 his bees 

 were confined in winter quarters 

 without a flight from Nov. 15 till 

 April 15. After putting them out 

 lie writes: " I cannot see what the 

 long, cold winter has to do with suc- 

 cess so long as the bees are in proper 

 condition and kept so inside a warm 

 house." Out of 140 colonies he lost 

 4 by starvation. In another house at 

 a distance, he lost 6 out of 70 from 

 the same cause. In the following 

 June he advertised lOObushels of bees 

 for sale by the pound. He has been 



