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For the American Bee Journal. 



Dysentery and W ntering 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Is there such a disease among bees as 

 the dysentery? I answer, No. I am 

 well aware that nearly every writer on 

 the subject for the past 10 years has told 

 ns that there was such a disease, and 

 has attributed the cause to cider, honey 

 dew, extreme cold, old bees, &c. But 

 let us look at the thing rationally, and 

 see if all these writers have not been 

 mistaken. Do we see the bees soiling 

 their combs and hives at any other time 

 except after a long-continued confine- 

 ment i If we had July weather steady 

 for one year, would the bees die of the 

 so-called dysentery as they did last win- 

 ter and spring ? Of course not. Sup- 

 posing a person, from some cause, was 

 obliged to retain all he ate for ten days 

 or two weeks, and after nature gave 

 out, would any doctor in the land say he 

 had the dysentery ? No. So, then, we 

 see as nature has made it a necessity 

 for bees to fly to void their faeces, that 

 it is their being obliged to stay in their 

 hives longer than nature allows that 

 causes this so-called dysentery, and 

 nothing else. If this were not so, why 

 do we read many times, by various wri- 

 ters, " my bees were suffering badly 

 with the dysentery, when a fine warm 

 day came and they had a good fly. and 

 now they are all right." Can the reader 

 understand how a bee just ready to die 

 with such a dangerous disease, can be 

 cured of such an epidemic by a few mo- 

 ments' flying, only on the grounds above 

 given ? That nature has made the bee 

 capable of containing their faeces longer 

 during confinement in cold weather 

 than in warm, is a self-evident fact, for 

 bees will soil their combs and hives in 

 one-fourth the time with a temperature 

 of 70° that they will with one of from 

 10° to 40°. It is just this principle, that 

 bees ©an control their excrement for a 

 long period of time during cold weather, 

 that enables us to keep them at all here 

 at the north. Believing the above to 

 be correct, our next point to be consid- 

 ered will be 



WINTERING BEES. 



Having admitted that long confine- 

 ment was the cause of the great mor- 

 tality among bees in the past, let us see 

 what can be done in the future to help 

 the bees control their faeces during such 

 winters as the winter of 1878-'9 proved 



tp be. Now, just see how all agree on 

 this wintering question. Having once 

 taken this view of the matter all is har- 

 mony, and the theory of each writer on 

 the subject of wintering proves correct. 

 Let us notice some of these, for we have 

 nothing new. 



First. Cellar wintering has proven 

 about the best plan. Why? Because 

 from the even temperature of the cellar 

 the bees need but little food to keep up 

 the necessary warmth they require dur- 

 ing this period of partial inactivity 

 which winter compels them to pass 

 through. As but little food is required, 

 the body of the bee easily contains said 

 food after digestion, and thus all goes 

 well. 



Second. Chaff-packed hives on sum- 

 mer stands are advocated by nearly as 

 many as cellar wintering. Why ? Be- 

 cause as the bees are surrounded by 

 porous walls, which take off the moist- 

 ure passing from the bees' bodies, also 

 retaining the warmth generated by 

 themselves, they are kept at a more uni- 

 form temperature than they would be 

 without the chaff -packing, thereby les- 

 sening the consumption of honey, and 

 enabling them better to throw off a part 

 of the moisture contained in their food, 

 and to contain the rest till the weather 

 shall be sufficiently warm for them to 

 fly. This mode has a seeming advant- 

 age over cellar wintering, in that it 

 allows the bees to fly if an opportunity 

 permits during winter, but is offset by 

 a more uniform temperature, and aeon- 

 sequent decrease in the consumption of 

 stores in the cellar. 



As these two plans are about the only 

 feasible ones, let us next look after the 

 other causes which help these plans to 

 be a success or a failure. Those looking 

 toward a failure are these : First. Poor 

 honey, such as honey-dew, cider, soured 

 and unsealed stores, &c. Why ? Be- 

 cause the bees have to take into their 

 bodies an excess of that which is not 

 real food to them to sustain their exist- 

 ence, thereby distending their bodies, 

 and unless a chance to fly presents itself 

 often, they must die in a loathsome con- 

 dition. Second. All causes which dis- 

 turb them in their winter repose. Why? 

 Because as soon as they are disturbed 

 they take into their bodies more food 

 than is required for their existence, 

 thus placing them (with the best of food) 

 in the same condition they would be 

 with poor honey. So we see how im- 

 portant it is that they should have per- 

 fect quiet ; that no mice or rats are 

 allowed in or on the hives, or that the 

 temperature of the cellar does not get so 

 high as to make them uneasy. Third. 

 But few bees, or mostly old ones. Why? 



