ITo 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



their hives for a day or so in bad 

 weather. I think that tlie Ileddon 

 ease is just the tiling. 1 would not 

 give a penny each for Italian cjueens 

 for the purpose of Italianizing my 

 apiary. 

 Grand Rapids,+o Mich. 



ror ttie Amertcan Eee JoumaJ. 



The Pollen Theory Has Not Gone. 



W. N. HOWARD. 



Xotlong since we read the bold as- 

 sertion that ■■ The pollen tlieory must 

 go;" next comes the startling an- 

 nouncement that " The pollen theory 

 has gone."' Tried and convicted by a 

 court of two. Upon wliat ? I'pon 

 unimpeachable evidenced No; for 

 none lias been given that can sur- 

 mount the undisputable facts with 

 which it has been defended, and any 

 one who possesses average compre- 

 hension cannot fail to see that ^Ir. 

 Heddon has not admitted it incorrect, 

 as Mr. Pond, on page 90, says. 



Mr. Heddon has simply said that 

 bees can winter in a good condition 

 with plenty of pollen in the hives if 

 all other conditions are right, which 

 statement is true, and it in no way 

 contradicts the pollen theory; for it 

 matters not if every other cell, in all 

 the combs in the hive, are filled witli 

 pollen, so long as the bees let it alone 

 they will, if supplied with plenty of 

 suitable food, be just as well oft as 

 though the pollen was ■'> miles away. 

 But as we have no knowledge by 

 which we can at all times induce the 

 bees to let it alone while they are In 

 confinement, tliey will, in a large 

 majority of cases, partake of it to 

 their destruction. Small -pox, as we 

 all know, is a highly contagious dis- 

 ease, yet persons who never have had 

 the disease, nor have been vaccinated, 

 have been in attendance upon those 

 affected with the disease without con- 

 tracting it. Yet that does not alter 

 the fact that three-fourths of the peo- 

 ple so exposed would contract it ; and 

 because colonies of bees are sometimes 

 wintered with pollen in their hives in 

 a healthy condition, it does not alter 

 the fact that pollen is the cause of 

 diarrhea in thousands of cases. Be- 

 cause A can drink a pint of whisky in 

 a few hours and show no visible ef- 

 fects, it does not alter the fact that 

 lialf the amount taken by B would 

 make him drunk ; and because Mr. 

 So-and-So thinks that his bees have 

 eaten pollen, because he finds some in 

 the hive in the spring, and his bees 

 are in good condition, it does not alter 

 the fact that hundreds of colonies are 

 alHicted with diarrhea caused by eat- 

 ing pollen. 



If a colony of bees is wintered upon 

 stores of the best of honey and pollen, 

 and have the diarrhea, as we all know 

 tliey do, whence comes the solid par- 

 ticles of brownisli-looking matter 

 found in the excrement, if it is not 

 pollen V 



Mr. Pond wuU, peradventure, in- 

 form us that the internal arrange- 

 ments of a bee are similar to those of a 

 hen, and these particles of solid mat- 

 ter found in the excrement of liees 



affected with diarrhea, are simply small 

 gravel-stones that the bees take into 

 their gizzards to grind up the pollen 

 into a suitable condition to perform 

 its indispensable part in wintering 

 bees in a sound and healthv condi- 

 tion. 



The case of Dr. Miller's, mentioned 

 by Mr. Cornell on page 56, is a fair 

 sample of the conclusivene.ss of all 

 the evidence offered by him in his 

 article, and it only shows that the 

 bees ate all their honey and then 

 starved because a diet of this indis- 

 pensable pollen would not sustain life 

 long enough to develop diarrhea. The 

 evidence on page 5S, by Mr. C. L. 

 Sweet, may convince some overwhelm- 

 ingly, but it does not satisfy me. It 

 will take more than a court of two to 

 annihilate all the evidence and proof 

 that has been given in support of the 

 " pollen theory." 



Derby, 5 Vt. 



For tlie Amcric:in Bee Journiil, 



Experience in Wintering Bees, etc. 



C. 51. DAVIS. 



I Iiave found that frequently a 

 queen leaves a very small colony in 

 the spring. I had such a one with a 

 very pixiliflc queen that deposited 

 eggs quite awhile, but which never 

 developed into bees; today I find 

 them without a queen, but with 

 queen cells started. The queen was 

 young. I also had one of the same 

 kind to swarm out, which I found to 

 be minus a queen ; the next day I dis- 

 covered a dead queen in front of a 

 hive that had a queen. Will some 

 Texas bee-keeper tell me whether 

 there will be any drones to mate with 

 queens by March l.j ? I do not know 

 how bees have wintered here, but I 

 think there must be large losses. One 

 bee-keeper told me that he liad lost 

 all except a few colonies. Bees did 

 very poorly here last season. I do 

 not see wliy bees should not do well 

 here, as it is a fruit-growing section. 

 There are apples, peaches, plums, 

 cherries, grapes, etc., with lots of 

 horse-mint, which is said to be a 

 great honej^-producing plant, besides 

 large varieties of wild flowers. I have 

 kept bees for the greater part of 50 

 years, and I have tried to winter them 

 in almost all kinds of places and ways 

 with good success one time, and bad 

 success at another time with appar- 

 ently the same conditions. Three 

 years ago I had a hole dug in the side 

 of a sand bank about 4 feet square, 

 5 feet deep, and roofed over. It was 

 covered 2 feet deep with sand, with a 

 o-inch ventilator. A medium colony 

 was in the same, and it remained 

 therefrom November until April 1, 

 and to my surprise it came out in 

 good condition with but very few 

 dead bees on the bottom -board, and 

 only slightly moldy. The best place 

 that I have ever found to winter bees 

 was in a dry, dark cellar, with fre- 

 quent ventilation by opening doors or 

 windows. A continuous ventilation 

 would be still better if it could be 

 controlled at any time. Bee-diarrhea 

 will never be wholly prevented, as the 



causes are as varied as the changes 

 of weather, conditions of stores, etc., 

 etc. 



Bees never exist in an abnormal con- 

 dition, or in a dormant state. I have 

 seen bees after having swarmed and 

 clustered for 10 or 12 hours, so close 

 together that they would appear about 

 as they do in cold weather ; especially 

 do they appear so early in the morn- 

 ing after clustering over night. Fre- 

 quent changes in weather without 

 flight, as well as frequent disturbance, 

 tends to bring on bee-diarrhea. I 

 have always noticed when our winters 

 were severe, with but few changes, 

 bees invariably come out nicely with 

 but little if any diarrhea ; but with 

 frequent changes there is great loss 

 by dwindling and diarrhea. I have 

 kept only the black and Italian bees, 

 and I had an idea that the Italians 

 were the best workers, but I notice 

 that opinions on this conflict. 



Denison City, -o Tex. 



For me American n^e Journal. 



Nemaha County, Nebr., Convention. 



The bee-keepers in this part of 

 Nemaha county met at 10 a. m. on 

 Feb. 24, 1S85, at Johnson, and com- 

 pleted the organization of the 

 " Nemaha County, Nebraska, Bee- 

 Keepers' Association," by the elec- 

 tion of the officers as follows : Presi- 

 dent, W. F. Wright, Johnson, Nebr. ; 

 Vice-PresidentSj J. P. Miller, of John- 

 son, Mrs. B. Aldrich, of Brock, and 

 II. M. Stover, of Elk Station ; Secre- 

 tary, R. Corgell, of Brock ; and Treas- 

 urer, Wm. Steward, of Brock. The 

 President, 1st Vice-President and Sec- 

 retary constitute an executive com- 

 mittee. 



There are at least 25 bee-keepers 

 within a radius of 5 miles of .Johnson, 

 having from 1 to 50 colonies each. 

 No one in this locality has taken any 

 special interest in bee keeping beyond 

 the box-hive and a few pounds for 

 home use, until within the past year. 

 Nearly all are now wide awake to the 

 interests of bee-keeping. It seems 

 strange that one of the best counties 

 of the State for fruits of all kinds, 

 shoullbethe smallest in the produc- 

 tion of honey. However, Nemaha 

 county will very soon go to the front 

 as a honey-producing county, as it 

 has, without any doubt, the best and 

 greatest amount of bee-pasturage of 

 any county of the State. Abou£ one- 

 half of the colonies left on the summer 

 stands have either frozen or starved ; 

 those which were protected have 

 come through the winter in pretty 

 good condition. 



The next meeting will be held at 

 Johnson, Nebr., on Saturday, March 

 14, 1885, at 10 a. m., for discussion of 

 topics of interest. 



. W. F. WuiGHT, Fres. 



i^ The Northern Ind. and South- 

 ern Mich. Bee-Keepers' Association. 

 will meet at the Court House in liosh- 

 en, Ind., on April ;i, 1885. All inter- 

 ested in bee-keeping are invited to 

 attend. F. L. Prrr, .Sec. 



