1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Ill 



Editor American Bee Journal :— These 

 communications were received after the meeting 

 had adjourned sine die. Respectfully, 



J. W. Porter, Secretary. 



On the Causes of Mortality among Bees in 1872. 



Mr. Chairman, and members of the Michigan Bee- 

 Keepers' Association : 



When I accepted the invitation of your Secretary, 

 Mr. Cook, to prepare a paper upon some topic in api- 

 culture, I had but little doubt of being able to be 

 present, and reading the same in person ; but the du- 

 ties of my ealling direct me to Grand Rapids, instead 

 of your favored spot of meeting, the village of shade 

 and beauty, the bright Kalamazoo. 



No subject in bee-keeping is so significant to the 

 members of this association as the successful winter- 

 ing of bees. This accomplished, and nothing will 

 prevent the multiplication of swarms, until the tons 

 of wasting, sweets, now lost in the cells of the Flora 

 of our State, will be gathered up to sweeten and 

 gladden the life of man. 



Each winter seems to develop some new danger, 

 or challenge the experience of all that have preceded 

 it ; but the winter of 1871 and '72 stands unrivalled, 

 and it would be hard to estimate in dollars the actual 

 loss sustained by the beekeepers of our State. From 

 every quarter, last spring, came the lamentation, 

 " My pets are dead, and why did they die ?" I am 

 not self conceited enough to assume that I can tell all 

 the reasons " why," as they were undoubtedly differ- 

 ent in different localities. In some, the rain-fall was 

 much more in quantity than others, and more timely, 

 and the pasturage was different and differently af- 

 fected by it. All these need to be considered with 

 great care in arriving at conclusions. No one can 

 cover the whole country unless he be as ubiquitous as 

 Hamlet's ghost. 1 speak therefore from my stand- 

 point of observation in the beautiful orchards of Ben- 

 ton Harbor. The loss of stocks in this region, in my 

 judgment, resulted from the following causes: 1st. 

 The age of the bees composing the swarms in the 

 fall. 2d. Improper ventilation, and 3d. Prolonged 

 and intense cold. These three causes deserve to be 

 noticed separately, with such suggestions as to pre- 

 vention as the case demands. Of the three, the first 

 is, in my estimation, the principal ; although I would 

 not underrate the others. In the spring of 1S71. all 

 stocks of bees in this section were strong and vigor- 

 ous. On the 10th of May, nearly all the hives were 

 full of active workers ; and when our apple, peach, 

 cherry, and pear orchards brought forth their profu- 

 sion of blossoms, the little " sweet loving" workers 

 revelled in a perfect banquet of nectar and pollen. 

 This over, and warm showers succeeded, and, with 

 their enticing drops, soon coaxed the raspberry and 

 blackberry to robe themselves in sheets of white and 

 amber ; and now our little industrious fellows were 

 crazy with delight; they rollicked, and rolled, and 

 rambled from early dawn until dewy eve, gathering 

 honey and pollen, crowding every empty cell, and, iu 

 some instances, digging out the embryo drones, that 

 they might have room to store their precious sweets. 

 No sooner did a young bee emerge from the cell, than 

 it was filled with honey by the overloaded workers 

 standing by. This was continued throughout the 

 season as the honey product was very great. The 

 queen was narrowed down to a little space in which 

 to deposit her eggs, and when winter came, with its 

 long bitter cold, it found a hive nearly full of old bees, 

 which would naturally die by the first of January or 

 February. This they did, gradually dropping from 

 the cluster until only a few bees were left. Few in ' 



number, they clustered closer and closer together, 

 gorging themselves with honey to sustain life, which 

 in some instances succeeded, only to die by debility 

 when the warm breath of spring came to give them 

 relief. Unable to generate animal heat, no brood 

 was reared at the proper time to keep up the waste, 

 and they must die. The above is based upon facts 

 which are patent in my own experience, but I will 

 mention only one as connected with the winter of '71 

 and '72. In July of '71 a vigorous swarm lost their 

 queen, and for some reason failed to rear one. I 

 neglected it, and did not observe its condition until 

 the 15th of August. Some days after I secured a very 

 fine Italian queen and gave her to the little bunch of 

 motherless, despondent workers. She proved a very 

 fertile hybrid, and soon there was heard the hum of 

 joy among them. Until the setting in of winter the 

 combs were full of brood. From the hive, not one pint 

 of dead bees were taken in the spring. On the 9th of 

 June they swarmed. The remedy, therefore, for all 

 the above difficulty is very simple : 1st. Use the 

 Honey Extractor judiciously, so that the queen may 

 have room for her larva. 2d. Divide in the fall, after 

 Mr. Hosmer's plan, and keep them rearing brood all 

 winter. 3d. Take away the queen and a small num- 

 ber of bees, after the honey harvest is past, and com- 

 pel them to rear a young one, or return the old as 

 you see fit, about the middle of September. The 

 second cause — that of improper ventilation — unques- 

 tionably resulted in the death of very many which 

 would not have died from the first I have mentioned. 

 The indifference with which this is treated cannot be 

 too severely condemned. Very many in this day of 

 advancement in bee-culture, still cling to the old box, 

 or gum, and no argument can drive them from their 

 use. Their fathers kept bees so and why should not 

 they ? They are as perverse as the Dutchman who 

 would carry a stone in one end of the bag and wheat 

 in the other. Now, talk to them about ventilation, 

 and they will insist that the instinct of the bee is the 

 only safe guide. And do they not stop every crack 

 and crevice in the top of the hive or gum with propo- 

 lis ? Yes, and often kill the whole swarm by it ; just 

 as they build by instinct the honeyed dome around 

 them, and die for the want of room in which to rear 

 their young. There must be absorbents placed in the 

 top of the hive, to take up the moisture, or else a 

 form of ventilation that will allow it to pass off. A 

 failure to do this will envelope the whole swarm in 

 the colder days of winter in a crystal cave^vhose 

 walls are ice and frost. If the cold is intense and 

 prolonged, the ice will gather around the entrance 

 until air is excluded, and then they perish soon with 

 suffocation or sweating. Out of thirteen hives win- 

 tered on their summer stands with dry corn cobs for 

 absorbents placed over the frames, only one died. 

 All ^he rest came through in fine condition. Many a 

 farmer who joins bee-keeping (not bee-culture) with 

 his other labors, will persistently neglect this matter 

 of ventilation under the plea "of want of time," but 

 will 6pend double the amount necessary nursing a 

 little scab-nosed sheep. " Penny wise and pound 

 foolish." But I must consider the last : Prolonged, 

 and intense cold. Bees were confined in this vicinity 

 from the 20th of October until the later days of 

 March. During a large portion of this time the 

 thermometer ranged from 8 degrees above to 12 de- 

 grees below zero. This, with the suddeu changes which 

 frequently occurred, produced great sweating and 

 frosting of the combs. All the uncapped honey drew 

 moisture, became thin and watery, and unwholesome ; 

 that which was capped and well preserved was so 

 covered with frost that it was beyond their reach, and 

 they were forced to eat the thin, watery food produced 

 by tliia condition of things. Is it a wonder they 

 died ? I know of no remedy for all this except well- 



