206 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



That Bee Disease. 



Mr. Editor : — I see in the November number 

 of the Bee Journai-, page 101, a communica- 

 tion from J. W. Se-dy, in which he demonstrates 

 the cause of tlie Bee Cholera " as clear as mud." 

 I cannot see liow he could come to the conclu- 

 sion he did, after examining as many liives as lie 

 says he did. But even admitting (which of 

 course I do) that those awful lioaey dews did 

 take place in his locality, that does not prove 

 that it was tlie same all over the country. 

 Wherever the bees died, the bee disease, what- 

 ever it Avas, was general everywhere that I heard 

 fi-om ; but this great honey dew was not. Nor 

 can I see why the bees should leave the hive if 

 they died of old age, particularly -VN'hen but few 

 colonies died till after the weather was cool 

 enough to c(mfine the bees to their hive, some 

 living till midwinter and even longer, and then 

 dying. If they died of old age, wliy were they 

 not found dead in the hive ? It is not very com- 

 mon for bees that die with age, to leave their 

 hive in winter time for that purpose. 



I live in Eastern Indiana, and I also own bees 

 in Northern Illinois ; and by close observation I 

 am satisfied that the bees died in both places 

 from the same cause ; and I am sure we had 

 none of those sudden changes from scarcity to 

 abundance, that Mr. Seay speaks of. It was a 

 bad honey season straiglit through, in this part 

 of Indiana; no surplus honey at all. 



As soon as cool weather began to confine my 

 bees to the hives, I noticed an unusual amount 

 of dead about the entrances. I watched them 

 closely and found that however cold the weather 

 might be, more or less of the bees would come 

 out. Some would die near the entrance ; others 

 would get several feet from the hive, then drop 

 down and die; and some wottld take wing and 

 fly out of sight when it was too cold for them to 

 return, even if they had been healthy. They 

 would commence coming out of their hives in 

 tlie morning, even before it was quite light, no 

 matter how cold it was. I soon noticed that 

 many of them discharged their faeces in the hive, 

 the entrances would be perfectly blackened there- 

 with, and the tops of the frames would be in the 

 same condition. If the day was slightly warm, 

 lliere would be quite a stir among the bees; but 

 of those that appeared to have the disease the 

 Avorst, few would relurn. I watched them closely 

 every day ; whether it w:is cokl or warm, wet or 

 dry, they Avould come out, more or less, till 

 every bee Avas gone, and in every case more or 

 li'ss honey was left, though not quite so full as 

 Mr. Seay says his hives Avere. jNIy neighbors' 

 bees went the same Avay, and when asked they 

 said the bees swarmed out and left ; but, as Mr. 

 Seay says, when asked Avhether they had seen 

 them SA\'arm out to leave, the answer was — No, 

 but they must have done so, for they are gone 

 and left plenty of honey ! On examining those 

 hives and finding them daubed as mine Avere, I 

 told my neighbors that their bees did not swarm 

 out and leave, but feeling an irresistible impulse 

 to discharge the contents of their bowels, they 

 left for that puipose, and never returned. 



I Avatched my bees closely till ten stocks were 

 dead. All Aveiit the same way, young swarms 

 dying first, and every stand in the yard affected 

 in like manner. I saw that something must be 

 done or I should not have a bee left by spring. 

 I examined them all, and found them all more 

 or less affected hy disease. Old stocks that had 

 plenty of old honey, Avere not so bad. All the 

 new honey was uncommonly thin. I went to 

 work and took all their honey from them, added 

 a porticm of Avhite sugar, boiled it down, skim- 

 ming it clean, and then fed it to them again. 

 They replaced it in the combs, and from that time 

 on I did not lose another stock; but they did as 

 Avell as I ever had bees to do. I told my neighbors 

 Avhat I had done. Those of them that Avere 

 using movable frame hives did likcAvise, and 

 saved their bees. Those that used the common 

 box hives, could not adopt this measure, but 

 some of them fed tiieir bees Avith sugar syrup 

 and saved nearly half of them. Those that 

 trusted to luck altogether, lost all so far as I 

 know. One man, Avho had tAventy five stands, 

 said it Avas all in luck any hoAV ; so he did 

 nothing, and lost every bee. So much for the 

 Bee Cholera. 



If it Avas old age that was killing off the bees 

 so fast, Avhy should the altering of their food from 

 very thin to good thick honey stop their dying ? 

 In my opinion the bee-disease, call it what you 

 please, Avas caused by bad food ; and when the 

 bees Avere confined to the hive by cold Aveather 

 they c(mld not retain the contents of their boAvels, 

 and it being contrary to their nature to discharge 

 their fseces inside of their hives, they made an 

 effort to get out ; and once out, they never re- 

 turned. Thus their numbers Avasted aAvay, until 

 all Avere gone. This, at least, is my experience, 

 and I watched them closely both in Indiana and 

 in Illinois, and on the way, going and returning. 

 I know tiiere is such a thing as bees gathering 

 too niuch honey, and thereby preventing the 

 queen from laying the proper amount of eggs, 

 and the stock finally dying out from that cause. 

 But that was not the case in 1868, in any locality 

 that I visited. B. Puckett. 



Winchester, Ind., Feb. 10, 1870. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Can robber bees be joined to a weak 

 colony Aivithout caging the Queen ? 



In apiaries of large size it sometimes occurs 

 thatAveak colonies are attacked by stronger ones, 

 and robbed ; and even a careful bee-keeper may 

 not always discover it beforethe robbers have got 

 a good start. A reporter to the Bee Journai., I 

 do not recollect in what number, advises bee- 

 keepers in such case to capture the robbers and 

 unite them with the Aveak robbed colony. Noav, 

 does practice prove this to be good advice ? Be- 

 fore I read the article, I had already, at four dif- 

 ferent times, attempted to remedy robbing, by 

 shutting up tlie robbers, and placing the robbed 

 colony in my cellar for a week or longer. In 

 three cases out of the four the fertile queens were 

 killed ; and I therefore came to the conclusion 



