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WINTERING. 



Investigating the Causes of Loss 

 of Bees in Winter. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY C. J. ROBINSON. 



I have written on this subject here- 

 tofore, and I trust that it will bear 

 continuation. Much more ought to be 

 said, and some things repeated and 

 examined in the strongest light to be 

 found. 



A post mortem investigation usually 

 discloses the immediate cause of the 

 subject's death. It may have been 

 tubercle of the lungs ; in such a case, 

 ^unless the inquiry proceeds further, 

 and finds the cause that produced the 

 tubercles, but little is gained. 



When bee-keepers find the cause of 

 death of so many bees to be diarrhea, 

 it behooves us, then, to look further, 

 and, if possible, ascertain the cause or 

 ■causes of bee-diarrhea. When we are 

 not positive on any subject, we are apt 

 to decide according to the evidence 

 that makes the theory (or some pre- 

 conceived notion of our own) possible 

 — allowing it to take the place of 

 direct testimony. Now my hope is, 

 by thorough and intelligent investiga- 

 tion, to find the cause, or causes, and 

 so counteract it, or them. 



Among the many investigators who 

 have acknowledged diarrhea as the 

 immediate cause, some few have gone 

 further, and hold that the malady is 

 produced by the unhealthful quality of 

 their stores — impure honey, immod- 

 erate use of pollen, fermented pollen, 

 and so on ; and to prove their conclu- 

 sion correct, they claim that syrup, of 

 refined sugar, when properly fed, ex- 

 empts bees from the fatal disease. I 

 have fed the syrup, and feel pleased 

 with the result, but I have no faith in 

 it further than its being a substitute 

 Jor good honey. 



Forty years ago I became satisfied 

 that long terms of severe cold produced 

 diarrhea in colonies other than strong 

 ones that were in the most favorable 

 condition as to food and clustering. 

 Actual experience gave me the idea. 

 Perhaps there are other causes that 

 produce, or tend toward producing, 

 the dire disorder ; but it is cold that is 

 the direct cause. 



Father Quinby was authority (none 

 more reliable), that it was periods of 

 intense cold that brought on the 

 dreaded diarrhea. That excessive cold 

 periods are the predominating cause of 

 diarrhea, is jiroved by the case of Mrs. 

 Tupper many years ago. She took 



from a row of colonies that gathered 

 their stores from the same field, each 

 alternate one being removed to a cold, 

 bleak situation, while the others were 

 kept warm. The first perished with 

 diarrhea, while the latter wintered 

 well. 



I think Mr. Heddon's " pollen 

 theory " has some foundation in fact. 

 While bees are eating much pollen, 

 they are not in a condition to endure 

 continued confinement, and when 

 pinched with cold, digestion does not 

 proceed normally ; so, if the two un- 

 favorable conditions (pollen and cold) 

 be present, their food does not digest 

 properly, producing disorder inter- 

 nally, and resulting, inevitabl)', in 

 fatal disease commonly called diarrhea. 

 While bees feed on good hone}', or 

 purified sugar syrup, of the proper 

 consistency, the whole is duly digested 

 and assimilated ; that is, all is con- 

 verted into blood or juices of the bees, 

 and the waste or impurities of the 

 blood is eliminated through the pores 

 of the external covering and lungs in 

 a gaseous form. 



But when bees feed on pollen, or 

 poor honey, their condition is difl'er- 

 ent ; the pollen cannot be all digested, 

 and the residue cannot be elniinated 

 in any way other than through the in- 

 testines as fecal matter. Then, in 

 case the bees are kept in confinement 

 for a considerable length of time, their 

 intestines become surcharged with 

 fecal matter, causing irritation, which 

 is followed by virulent disease. For 

 this reason, pollen is dangerous food 

 while bees are passing through the un- 

 natural ordeal consequent upon cold 

 climates. 



While bees are active, pollen is, 

 perhaps, necessary as food ; but while 

 they are semi-dormant, pollen should 

 be excluded, for the reasons before 

 mentioned ; and, because pollen being 

 highly nitrogenous, it excites or stim- 

 ulates activity at a time when bees 

 should remain quiet, to be safe. 



Food consumed by beasts generates 

 heat, and they take it in proportion to 

 the severity of the weather, to keep 

 warm. Bees seem to act on the same 

 principle ; but as they ai'e natives of 

 warm climates, their structure is dif- 

 ferent — not .adapted to the vicissitudes 

 of extreme cold climates, and do not 

 burn their food in digesting, to keep 

 up warmth as animals do. It is ex- 

 emplified when they have worked in 

 the surplus sections until late in the 

 season. Take off the unfinished sec- 

 tions on some cool morning, before all 

 the bees have gathered into the hive ; 

 most of them will fill themselves with 

 honey before they can be gotten out 

 of the boxes. The result is, tliat the 

 honey swallowed is not digested, and 

 warmth is created, but discharged as 



feces from the bees scattered before 

 they regain the cluster. 



When bees are very quiet during 

 severe cold, some must be on the out- 

 side of the cluster — and colder than 

 those inside. In ordinary winter 

 weather, it is so mild on many days as 

 to enable them to generate heat enough 

 to enable them to change positions 

 with those inside. But when the 

 weather continues verj' cold during 

 weeks in succession, the bees on the 

 surface of the cluster are benumbed, 

 and unable to change places and get 

 warm. Then it is that their food is 

 not digested ; their bodies become 

 filled with feces, and they must leave 

 to discharge it in and about their 

 hives — the well-known diarrhetic dis- 

 charges, which, whenever occurring, 

 hope of safety vanishes — the bees are 

 in death's grasp. 



If diarrhea does not appear, and the 

 weather continues cold, the colony 

 continues to grow smaller, in propor- 

 tion to the length of time and size of 

 the colony. Some colonies maintain 

 the proper temperature by having the 

 honey so distributed that they can 

 have empty cells near the centre, into 

 which they may creep for mutual 

 warmth, thus being more compact. 



Bees can exist but a short time in 

 cold weather, when between combs of 

 sealed honey. They can, when prop- 

 erly clustered, endure any degree of 

 cold for a time, providing that they 

 have food within their reach. When 

 made warmer, do not consider them 

 safe, unless they are made warm 

 enough, and remain so long enough to 

 enable them to change places with 

 those on the inside ; otherwi.se the re- 

 sult is fatal. 



If the foregoing is correct (and I 

 can vouch that it is), it is evidence 

 showing that among those who have 

 housed their bees and lost them, there 

 bees were not warm enough, even 

 though in a cellar or other depository. 

 I am aware that some will say that 

 they have thus successfully wintered 

 bees many times, proving to themselves 

 bej'ond a doubt that their bees were 

 warm enough, but not considering 

 that the place that was warm enough 

 in some certain winters, is not so every 

 winter, because of the variation of cold 

 terms as to duration of time. 



A degree of temperature suitable for 

 large colonies, is too low for small col- 

 onies ; that is, large colonies will re- 

 main quiet in a temperature so low as 

 to render it unendurable for small 

 colonies. 



Fortj'-five years, ago, before know- 

 ing of bees being put into special re- 

 positories, cellars or other places dur- 

 ing winter, I conceived the idea of 

 putting small colonies into my cellar — 

 such colonies as would not go through 



