254 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



keepers at that, for they know the blacks 

 are the best and healthiest in the world. 



But how about queen-breeders ? If 

 you are dealing in live stock, you must 

 have better looking bees. You will get 

 a better price for nice yellow queens. 

 As a general thing, black queens are not 

 wanted at any price. The question is, 

 Are you a queen-breeder or a honey- 

 producer, or do you keep bees for pleas- 

 ure or for profit ? 



If any one should doubt my words, 

 just notice your black bees in cold 

 weather. They will be out working 

 before others, and in Spring you will 

 notice that they bring in the first pollen, 

 also start in surplus earlier. 



Of course all bees will sting, but if you 

 give the blacks a little more smoke when 

 opening the hive, they will not fly up so 

 much as some people think. I have 

 often had a single bee following me for 

 hours, and you may be sure that it was 

 either a hybrid or a cross Italian. As a 

 general thing black bees will not do 

 that. Always handle them easy, and 

 give them a good smoking. I have had 

 many years' experience, and can prove 

 the blacks are far ahead of all others. 



Jersey City, N. J. 



[The black bees are neither as hardy, 

 docile nor industrious as the Italians. 

 This is incontrovertible. — Ed.] 



Sour Pollen anJ Bee-Dlarrliea. 



G. R. PIERCE. 



On page 191 is an article from the 

 pen of that veteran bee-keeper, Chas. F. 

 Muth, entitled, " Winter Protection for 

 Bees," which, though in the main cor- 

 rect, contains one statement that I 

 think is entirely at variance with the 

 facts. 



He says in the fourth paragraph of 

 his article, " Why should bees not get 

 diarrhea if we permit their honey or 

 pollen to get sour in their combs? 

 Who ever saw diarrhea ivithout moldy 

 combs f ' (Italics are mine). " Keep 

 their food in a healthy condition, then 

 no diarrhea need be feared." 



There is no doubt that bees enjoy a 

 greater degree of liealth when in posses- 

 sion of food — honey and pollen — that is 

 entirely frt^e from fermenting agencies. 

 There is no .doubt that, while a colony 

 may endure exposure for a long time to 

 a cold atmosphere heavily charged with 

 moisture, a dry, warm atmosphere is 

 more conducive to healthy bee-life ; but 



this does not signify that we are to rush 

 to the extreme of the argument and de- 

 clare that all disease in the apiary 

 results from the presence of excessive 

 moisture. If we always found diarrhea 

 where we found mold, the argument 

 might be legitimate, but such is not the 

 fact ; bee-keepers often take out their 

 colonies in the Spring, none of which 

 are afflicted with diarrhea, and yet 

 every hive has more or less moldy combs. 



On the other hand, 1 have often ex- 

 amined hives in which every comb was 

 clean, bright and dry, and the bees ap- 

 parently in perfect health ; and yet in 

 48 hours afterward the same colony 

 would be badly diseased. 



Then, again, I have noticed colonies 

 when the disease was apparently in its 

 incipient state; when, though afflicted, 

 the bees were able, from the state of the 

 weather, to eject their excrement oMt- 

 side the hive; in all such instances 

 neither the honey nor the pollen shows 

 signs of being sour. 



When the excrementitious matter is 

 deposited upon the comb, and comes in 

 contact with cells containing bee-stores, 

 then fermentation immediately sets in, 

 for these bee-stores are composed of 

 substances that are especially suscepti- 

 ble to the forces of decomposition, and 

 it requires but a short time compara- 

 tively to produce the state of affairs that 

 Mr. Muth describes. The souring of the 

 pollen is therefore the result following 

 diarrhea, and not the producing cause 

 of the disease, as Mr. Muth seems to 

 imply by his question, " Who ever saw 

 diarrhea without moldy combs?" 



In the same article, second paragraph, 

 occurs also the following sentences: "We 

 need no cellars, nor double-walled, nor 

 chaff hives. Single-walled of 1 inch or 

 % boards are all that is necessary." 

 These conditions may be all that are 

 required in Mr. Muth's vicinity, and I 

 may say that in Iowa, during the last 

 four winters, colonies prepared in the 

 manner described in " Winter Protection 

 for Bees," would do fairly well ; but if 

 this method of protecting bees were 

 usually adopted in the Northwest, one 

 Winter like 1884-85 would sweep bee- 

 keeping as an industry out of existence 

 in Northern Iowa, Minnesota and Wis. 



If we had a mortgage" on the Winter 

 season, we could protect our bees accord- 

 ing to the weath(>r; but as it is, we must 

 every season prepare for the. icorst. The 

 beginner in bee-kiseping must, therefore, 

 weigh well the one phrase in Mr. Muth's 

 article, i. c, "in our latitude," before 

 he decides to follow his method of win- 

 tering ; for, if he lives in the Upper 



