THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



517 



Explanatory — The figures before the 

 names indicate tbo number of years tliat the 

 person has kept bees. Those abter, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring-, 

 fls the time of the year may require. 



This mark indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named; 

 6 north of the centre ; 9 south ; 0+ east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; ^northwest; 

 Ovsoutheast; and 5^ southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



for the American Bee JoumaL 



Cause and Prevention of Diarrhea. 



DR. G. L. TINKER. 



As a disorder among bees, diarrliea 

 has several causes, whicli, operating 

 in unison, produce the effect — diar- 

 rliea. In some caseg one cause pre- 

 dominates, and in others, another. 

 Usually cold is the primary cau.se, 

 and the other causes are developed 

 consecutively. It does not appear 

 that any one of the causes may by 

 itself develop the affection ; for in- 

 stance, thin honey and conlinement in 

 a moderately cool atmosphere may 

 produce the mischief, in a colony, 

 very early in the winter. Again, the 

 stores being good, the hive small, 

 thin-walled and insufficiently venti- 

 lated, the approach of continued 

 severe cold develops the phenomena 

 in order as follows : Dampness in 

 the hive, condensation of vapor, fol- 

 lowed by unabated chilliness of the 

 bees, excessive consumption of food, 

 and the ultimate causation of diar- 

 rhea from slowing up the respira- 

 tions and checking the pulmonary 

 exhalation of water. 



Cold as a radical cause, however, 

 often produces as great havoc as bee- 

 diarrhea. It has been held that the 

 latter is the source of more loss than 

 all other causes of loss put together. 

 This is a mistake, or at least it is in 

 some winters. If the cases of spring 

 dwindling be added to those dying of 

 diarrhea, they will still not equal the 

 number lost during the past winter 

 from the direct effects of cold. We 

 ■will simply observe here that the re- 

 sult was forced starvation ; the bees 

 being unable to reach ample stores 

 nearby. In a very large number of 

 cases the bees starved while protect- 

 ing, with a true mother's instinct, 

 their brood. They chose to die rather 

 than abandon it. If on the middle of 

 last March the bees could have had 

 one or two warm days, so that they 

 could have brought honey into the 

 cluster, we would not have had so 

 great and unprecedented a mortality 

 to record. 



Seeing that great loss would occur 

 from the continued severity of the 

 cold (the ground was frozen nearly 4 

 feet deep) last March, we took occa- 

 sion to note carefully the condition of 

 over 100 colonies that died here at 



that time and subsequently, from 

 spring dwiiulling. We found insuf- 

 ficient protection ;ind badly managed 

 ventilation in all cases. We noted 

 especially tliat tlie bees w'ere not con- 

 lined to their hives over four weeks 

 at a time. Up to .Ian. 10, they had 

 llights every few days, then again on 

 Feb. 3 and 28 they had free (lights, 

 especially at the latter date when all 

 the bees were out, and very few colo- 

 nies liad died. Then again March 26 

 all flew that were alive, but there 

 were then hundreds of colonies in 

 this country wrapt in the mysteries 

 of death, and great numbers followed 

 after, from spring dwindling that did 

 not cease till late in May. Of course 

 there were plenty of cases of bee- 

 diarrhea, but I wish here to remark 

 that it is unlikely that since the bees 

 had a free flight as often as every 4 

 weeks, that the bee-bread they con- 

 sumed should have been the cause of 

 their death. Those who hold to the 

 pollen theory have told us all along 

 that where there were frequent 

 flights there coidd be no diarrhea. 

 Surely no accumulations of bee-bread 

 could take place in four weeks suf- 

 Hcient to irritate the intestines ! The 

 pollen theorists are advancing a 

 highly unreasonable hypothesis ! 



We examined minutely the dis- 

 charges of the bees on every occasion 

 of their flight. They canie out of 

 many of the hives greatly distended, 

 but the discharges' were nearly all 

 water, while the quantity of pollen 

 was insignificant. If the consuming 

 of much bee-bread is a cause of bee- 

 diarrhea, then it would be'reasonable 

 to suppose that whenever consider- 

 able accumulations of pollen husks 

 and '• nitrogenous matter " had taken 

 place, diarrhea would invariably fol- 

 low as the effect of " the cause." But 

 I have just shown that we had the 

 most inveterate cases here during the 

 past winter, and yet there was not 

 enough pollen grains in the discharges 

 to make the matter of note. Now I 

 can bring abundant proof that bees 

 have been constipated with pollen 

 husks, etc., and so burdened as to be 

 unable to fly before evacuating, and 

 still there was not a sign of diar- 

 rliea. IIow is this V Will theorists 

 say that there are exceptions, that 

 bees may be sometime.'! over-loaded 

 with fecal matter without there being 

 diarrhea V If so, the theory should 

 point out the cause of the exceptions. 



Bee-diarrhea and bee constipation 

 areas unlike as two distinct condi- 

 tions can be ; that the two have no 

 relation to each other, by way of 

 cause and effect, I am well convinced. 

 From what has been said by some 

 writers, one would think that the 

 diarrhea of bees was little else than a 

 discharge of bee-bread. But it is not 

 so, in many cases at least. In all the 

 cases I have ever seen of true bee- 

 diarrhea, the large proportion of 

 water was the most marked feature. 

 Often in a few days after a good flight 

 and exposure to severe cold, solitary 

 bees would run out of the hive and 

 discharge nothing but a dirty yellow- 

 colored water. I have often witnessed 

 simple constipation and copious semi- 

 solid evacuations after a long period 



of confinement, but in these cases 



there was not the remarkable loss of 

 vitality nor the spring dwindling that 

 is sure to follow (if the colony lives 

 till spring), as is the case where the 

 bees become bloated with water, 

 whicli fact 1 now look upon, occuri'ing 

 late in winter, as the tell tale evi- 

 dence of a fearful struggle with cold. 



Bees affected with diarrhea soon 

 become weak and sluggish, tliey come 

 out of the hives slowly, often tremb- 

 ling, and many are unable to fly. 

 Impaired vitality is one of the most 

 striking features of the malady. 

 With every cold snap many fall dead 

 from tlie combs. If the colony sur- 

 vives till spring, a single cold night 

 will cause many to fall, but a week of 

 moderate cold and confinement will 

 cause handfulls tofall from the combs. 

 Often their wings and legs drop off in 

 tailing, or soon afterwards, so that 

 they appear to be almost decayed 

 before they die. If the colony lives 

 on into May, they are soon unable to 

 care for their brood, they continue to 

 fall dead on the bottom-board or fly 

 out to return no more. About this 

 time, or shortly before, the queen dies 

 when none are left but a few hand- 

 fuls of young bees that appear every 

 day on the alighting-board en masse 

 to enjoy the gorgeous sunsliiue ! This 

 is spring dwindling. 



The cause of bee-diarrhea rests on 

 far different grounds than that set 

 forth by the pollen theorists. In fact 

 we do not now regard pollen or bee- 

 bread to be even a factor in the causa- 

 tion, unless it shall be established that 

 its consumption by the bees affords a 

 special nidus for the development of 

 putrefactive germs. We can under- 

 stand how the germs may be de- 

 veloped, how that the bees having 

 suffered a great loss of vitality from 

 long struggling with cold, extensive 

 germ development becomes possible. 

 In this case cold is still the primary 

 cause, as I have so long contended. 

 Germ development in man or animal 

 is invariably restrained by a vigorous 

 vital organism. If bees can be pro- 

 tected so as to sustain their vitality, 

 there need be no fears from this 

 source. But even here the successful 

 prevention of diarrhea must turn on 

 other measures than the taking of 

 their natural stores and substituting 

 sugar syrup. So long as there are 

 instances of the most perfect and sat- 

 isfactory wintering on the natural 

 stores in the very midst of those 

 localities where many have fed sugar 

 syrup and lost all or a part, we may 

 feel sure that when we understand 

 the matter fully, we shall be glad if 

 we can always have sufficient of the 

 natural stores to winter upon. Again, 

 the results of the past winter have 

 finally set at rest that specious and 

 alluring argument that the pollen of 

 one locality is any more hurtful, 

 either from quantity or quality than 

 that of any other. 



We account for the watery accumu- 

 lations on the humidity theory, and 

 as many may not fully understand it, 

 we will' give our version of it. The 

 animal heat of bees is developed al- 

 most wholly in the process of the 

 oxygenation of the hydro-carbons 



