THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



283 



ture. I lost about 30 per cent, of my bees, 

 but not on account of disease ; about % of 

 the loss was by starvation. The tempera- 

 ture outside, when I removed them, was 

 about 7() .and I assure you they held a "car- 

 nival." Tliey will probably bring in pol- 

 len in a day or two, but 1 have seen none 

 yet. Silver maples and poplars are in 

 bloom. The buds and grass are srowing 

 so fast that w-e can almost "hear" them 

 grow. I notice from my "bee-notes" 

 that, last sprins, the lirst pollen was 

 brought in on April 18 ; in 1883, April 17 ; 

 in 1882, April 115; in 1881, April 20. The 

 mortality amonj; bees, so far as my knowl- 

 edge extends, has been considerable. The 

 winter was one of the coldest ever known 

 here. I think that a good warm cellar, or 

 someplace guaranteeing like conditions, 

 is the only proper place to winter bees in 

 the far North. We might just as well 

 shelter our favorite cows on tlie sunny 

 side of a barbed-wire fence, and expect 

 them to go through the winter all right 

 and yield us a handsome profit, as to 

 leave'the bees out where for three months 

 it is likely never to thaw, and expect 

 them to come out all right. 



Bee-Yards aiul Bee-Passages. — J. H. 



Andre, Lock wood. 9 N. Y., writes as 

 follows on these subjects : • 



I think tliat if bee-keepers would try 

 the temperature of their yards where coal- 

 dust, sand, etc., is used on the ground, 

 they would soon discard it in favor of a 

 lawn. I believe there is a difference of 1.5 

 or 20 degrees in the temperature of coal- 

 dust or lawn bee-yards ; tliis must make a 

 great ditference in the amount of honey 

 gathered during hot weather. I shall 

 never put foundation into frames again 

 without making a hole through the centre 

 of each comb. I know of some colonies 

 that perished during the past winter, that 

 would have come through all right if there 

 had been holes in the combs, or perhaps a 

 space above the frames would have saved 

 tliem. I also know of some bees that died 

 by having the frames too close, the spaces 

 being so narrow that the bees liad no 

 chance to cluster and keep warm. It is 

 my opinion that each frame should be 

 given \% inches space, and that 3 or 4 of 

 the centre spaces should be % of an inch 

 wide during winter. 



Honey-Dew and Winter Losses. — 30— 



I. Feasel, (8-1— 58), Bettsville,(5 Ohio, 

 on April 20, 188-5, writes tbns : 



My observations lead me to believe that 

 honey-dew forms on the top of the leaves 

 during clear nights under certain cou'^i- 

 tions of the atn]0sphere. It requires about 

 three clear nights to accumulate sufli- 

 cientlyas to cause the bees to drop -in 

 front of the hives, and it remains and ac- 

 cumulates during every clear night until 

 it rains, and then it is all washed to the 

 earth. If it continues cloudy at night, for 

 a week, the bees do not continue carrying 

 in tlie saccharine matter, as the apliid;e 

 fail to throw of the spray. Last August 

 my bees were working in the southwest, 

 and we had a rain wliich reached about !4 

 of a mile north of my apiary, and my bees 

 changed tlieir course and worked north 

 for several days. I have lost nearly all of 

 my bees, having saved only a few of my 

 best colonies and non-swarniers. About 

 Jan. 1, my queens commenced laying 

 (they were on the summer stands), the 

 weather was pleasant, the bees were fly- 

 ing, and they commenced capping their 

 brood. The weather turned cold, the 

 mercury was down to zero, and the bees 

 commenced to eat their brood, .even un- 

 capped some brood and sucked the young 

 bees in the cells. In two weeks they had 

 diarrhea of tlie woist kind. Ou Jan. 31, 

 the bees had a fhght, and 1 opened a few 

 hives and found the queens laying. One 



colony that had reared a young queen was 

 eating more brood, and had more diar- 

 rhea. I was a linn believer in the pollen 

 theory, but this brood-eating has shaken 

 my faith in it. Ninety-live per cent, of 

 the bees are dead in this locality, the well 

 arranged bee-honses, chaff liives, and 

 cellars having all fared alike. 



Report, from David Eowe, Lime 

 Ridge,© Wis., on April 25, 1885 : 



I commenced the spring of 1884 with 7.5 

 colonies of bees, and I obtained 4,500 

 pounds of extracted honey, the most of 

 which I sold in ])ails in my home market. 

 I also bad 1,000 pounds of comb honey in 

 IJj'-pound sections, i sold 15 colonies, "and 

 put liiO into the cellar on Nov. 20, 1884. 1 

 took them out on April 20, and I found 

 that 30 colonies had died with the diar- 

 rhea. I have lost 18 more up to date, thus 

 leaving 112 colonies which are in good 

 condition. My cellar is very dry, without 

 any ventilation except the outside door. 

 The past has been the hardest winter on 

 bees that we have had for 20 years ; some 

 bee-keepers liave lost their entire apiaries. 

 Last season we had a big flow of white 

 clover and basswood honey, but no fall 

 honey. 



Bees Nearly all Dead.— Fred Becbly, 

 Searsboro,© Iowa, on April 25, 1885, 

 says : 



Bees in this neighborhood have nearly 

 all died. I have only 8 colonies left out o'f 

 34, and they are so weak that if all were 

 put into one hive, they would make only 

 one good colony. 



Bees Filling Themselves Tvif li ' 'Fizz. " 



Dwigbt Furness, Furnessville.^^Ind., 

 on April 27, 1885, writes as follows 

 concerning bees storing wealc vinegar: 



The following incident from a neigh- 

 boring apiary nuiy be of interest : There 

 were about 75 colonies of bees in the yard, 

 all blacks, except a half-dozen colonies of 

 hybrid-Italians, and owing to the scarcity 

 of honey during the autumn, robber bees 

 were plentiful and troublesome. Early in 

 October, 1884, an extra strong colony of 

 hybrids discovered a vinegar-keg, that had 

 been filled with sweett-'ued water 3 or 4 

 days previous, and worked vigorously for 

 several hours carrying off its contents. 

 After the keg had been closed, the liquor 

 continued to leak out around the bung, 

 and the bees appropriated that also. None 

 of the remaining colonies stored any of 

 the liquid. In aliout two weeks the ninn- 

 ber ot dead bees around the entrance to 

 the hive of this colony, and their peculiar 

 appearance, attracted the attention ot the 

 apiarist. Their abdomens were distended 

 to the utmost, and had a black, slimy, al- 

 most transparent appearance, the slightest 

 pressure causing them to burst. The 

 fecal mass seemed to be full of .solid mat- 

 ter, and resembled the feces of bees suf- 

 fering from diarrhea. The hive and combs 

 were not soiled in the least, and the bees 

 left the hive to die, the weather permitting 

 almost daily flights. On Nov. 2, the re- 

 maining bees (about lialf of them had 

 died) were shaken from the combs, the 

 uncapped honey extracted ; the combs 

 were then returned, and the colony fed 10 

 pounds of sugar sjTup. No more signs of 

 disease were visible from that time, and 

 the colony came through the winter in 

 good condition. Did the sour liquid cause 

 tlve bees to eat pollen? or is not the say- 

 ing wrong, that " You can't load a bee's 

 intestines with fizz ?" Is this a case of 

 bacteria? About two-thirds of the bees 

 in this vicinity were hist during the past 

 winter— a "cleaning out" necessary to 

 the prosperity of the business. 



Only One Colony Lost.— .5— J. P. 

 Moore, (54— .5:^), Morgan, 5 Ky., on 

 April 15, 18.85, writes thus : 



The past winter has been a terrible one 

 on bees in this locality, the mortality be- 

 ing greater, I think, than that of 1880-81. 

 I hear of heavy losses on all sides, 

 though I am happy to say that I have met 

 with excellent success, having lost only a 

 4-frame nucleus out of .54 colonies win- 

 tered on the summer stands. This is my 

 first loss in wintering. I have one colony 

 that survived the past severe winter in a 

 " Simplicity " hive, with notliing over the 

 frames but a basswood mat, and the cover 

 of the hive. By some mishap I overlooked 

 this c'olony last fall, when I was filling 

 the upper stories with leaves. When I 

 raised the cover, in March, and found 

 nothing in the top-story, I was very sorry 

 that I had overlooked tlieni, for I was al- 

 most sure I would find them dead ; one 

 may imagine my agreeable surprise to find 

 them alive and just "a-booming." I have 

 just examined them to-day, and I found 

 their hive literally running over with bees. 

 They are gathering new honey from the 

 elm. The queen is a large and prolific 

 Italian ; the workers are large and fine 

 honey-gatherers. Those who think that 

 the blacks winter better than the Italians, 

 would do well to reflect a little on the 

 matter. I shall run this colony exclu- 

 sively for honey during the coming sea- 

 son, I think, jnst to see how much they 

 will gather. I must say that I agree with 

 Mr. Heddon, in regard to combs built on 

 fonniiation in wired frames ; they are nice 

 to look at, and nicer to handle. 



Nebraska Law on Fonl Brood. — Geo. 

 M. Hawley, Lincoln, (x Nebr., on 

 March 16, 1885, writes as follows : 



The past has been a severe winter on 

 bees, great losses having been reported 

 throughout this State. I should estimate 

 the loss at two-thirds at least. I clip the 

 following Section from a Bill which was 

 passed by our Legislature the past winter, 

 from the "Nebraska Stale Journal :" "It 

 pi-ovides that it shall be unlawful to have 

 in possession bees, brood-comb or honey 

 known to be infected with 'foul brood' or 

 any other infectious disease peculiar to 

 bees or honey, or any hive or other recep- 

 tacle in which any foul brood, diseased 

 bees or Infected honey has been kept. 

 The penalty for violation of tlii.s section 

 is a fine of not less than .§10 nor more than 

 $100 and imprisonment in the county jail 

 not more than thirty days. Any person 

 having such bees, honey or receptacle and 

 failing to destroy it immediately, shall be 

 liable to the same penalty. All persons 

 owning or keeping bees shall cause them 

 to be inspected at least once a year, and 

 procure duplicate certificates as to the 

 condition of the same, one to be kept and 

 one to be filed with tlie county clerk. If 

 the inspector thinks that the disease or 

 infection can be removed, he shall so cer- 

 tify ofticially in his certificate of inspec- 

 tion, and the owner may keep the bees for 

 six months for treatment. Otherwise the 

 owner must destroy them if the infection 

 is not removed at the end .of thirty days. 

 The Governor shall appoint an inspector 

 in any county, on request of the.iitate 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, or anrtither 

 persons interested in bee-keeping residing 

 in such county. The inspector shall re- 

 ceive $2 a day, to be paid by the owner of 

 the bees inspected." 



Report, from B. H. Standish, Evans- 

 ville,$ Wis., on April 29, 1885,:' 



Seven bee-keepers who unitedly owned 

 331 colonies last fall, now have 163 ; so it 

 will be seen that the loss in this vicinity 

 is more than one-half. Small bee-keepers 

 usually have lost all. 



