1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



115 



i a poor season for pasturage, this hive will be no 

 ! better thau any other. 



Bees in Greeley have done remarkably well 



i this season. Two swarms managed as above, 



i in part, have increased to eleven (11), with two 



i swarms gone off in June for want of room (into 



j the desert and probably perished), and yielded a 



surplus of one hundred and fifty pounds (150 lbs. ) 



The first honey produced in Greeley w&k of 



inferior quality. But with irrigation came 



buckwheat, white clover, and various other honey 



i producing plants, until honey is now nearly as 



good as in Eastern States. 



Our dry, clear atmosphere makes the flowers 

 rich in honey and seed. 



A bee farm of ten acres in white clover, stocked 

 with cows, would make another Palestine flow- 

 ing with milk and honey. When we get our 

 clover patches fully developed, and Novice's new 

 hive, full of combs in both stories, we of Greeley 

 will astonish the world with the production of 

 honey. 



Have seen no moths this season, or maggots. 

 Wm. McCleklan. 

 Greeley, Colorado, Sept. 18, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Loss of Bees in 1872. 

 By M. Quinbt. 



More bees have perished in the Middle and 

 Northern States, during the winter and spring 

 of '72, than in any one year in 40 years before. 

 A calamity that was so universal requires close 

 scrutiny into the causes that seem to produce it. 

 Among those assigned, dysentery appears to be 

 the first great cause. When the cause of dysen- 

 tery can be shown, there will be much gained 

 towards a preventive or cure. I think I am pre- 

 pared to show this cause. I have been obtain- 

 ing statistics for months, and find the loss of 

 bees attributed to starvation, old bees, desertion, 

 unsealed honey, as well as dysentery. I would 

 suggest those cold west winds, that continued 

 for months with hardly an intermission, as a 

 great promoting cause, all others as secondary. 



Of our own bees, we lost heavily. We started 

 with near 240. About 70 were in the common 

 movable comb hive (such as is described in " Bee- 

 keeping Explained)." A part, perhaps 20, were 

 in straw hives, made like the board hive. The 

 70 were put in a barn cellar, where 200, 100, and 

 a less number had frequently been wintered with 

 the best results. Those in straw hives were, 

 with one or two exceptions, in good condition 

 in the spring. Those in board hives, with a 

 small colony of bees, actually starved with honey 

 in the hive. They were often between three or 

 four combs on one side of the hive. When the 

 honey in the combs where the bees were was 

 consumed, they were too cold to remove to the 

 other side for more, and starved. A fete bees in 

 the centre combs were apt to consume too much 

 honey in the endeavor to keep warm ; were af- 

 fected with dysentery and left the hive ; a few 

 going at a time. Very heavy hives, with a mod- 



erate colony of bees, were affected in a similar 

 way. It was only the strongest swarms, with a 

 proper quantity of honey, that maintained the 

 right temperature. The greater number of our 

 bees were in the open air, in our new hive stand- 

 ing near the earth. They were packed on every 

 side, as well ns the top, with cut straw of several 

 inches in thickness, ventilated at bottom, but 

 not at top, except what would pass through the 

 straw. Only the strongest ones in this situation 

 passed the winter safely. I consider this the 

 best arrangement for wintering bees that I ever 

 devised. Yet an ordinary weak swarm could 

 not generate warmth fast enough to expel the 

 frost that would penetrate continually till the 

 bees were effectually chilled. 



When we look for the causes of dysentery, and 

 find it in the cold weather, it is not the effect of 

 a few days of extreme severity, but of protracted 

 cold, that keeps the whole colony in a semi-tor- 

 pid state. It would seem to be shown in the 

 following cases : Within a few miles of us I ex- 

 amined two apiaries that stood within half a 

 mile of each other the year previous. Both lots 

 must, of course, have gathered their stores from 

 the same field, making the honey of one quality. 

 About 60 in each lot. Each were set close to- 

 gether for winter, and straw packed closely about 

 them on every side but the front, that the sun 

 might warm them somewhat whenever it shone. 

 One yard was protected by surrounding hills 

 from all prevailing winds, and wintered with 

 comparatively small loss. Combs clear and bees 

 healthy. The other yard was at the north end 

 of an exceedingly abrupt and high range of hills, 

 where strong westerly winds swept by unceas- 

 ingly for nearly three months. The bees became 

 chilled, and remained so without an effectual 

 warming, even for a day. They gorged them- 

 selves with honey ; had no opportunity to fly and 

 avoid excrement, and it accumulated till their 

 bodies would no longer contain it, and the mo- 

 ment a bee left the cluster in the hive — and many 

 of them before — it was discharged. In most 

 cases, when a few bees were left at the close of 

 cold weather, they were too badly smeared to be 

 of any value. Other corroborative testimony 

 may be given. A gentleman offered 70 hives at 

 auction. They had been left on their summer 

 stands, and were in the old box hive. Half were 

 new colonies. Between the day of advertising 

 and day of sale, he found 20 of the young swarms 

 dead. These bees were unprotected, except by 

 buildings that surrounded part of them. The 

 dwelling was perhaps 60 feet long, and stood 

 north and south. The road, 30 feet in front, ran 

 in the same direction. At the north end was a 

 wood-house and other buildings, forming a com- 

 plete break for all the winds in that direction. 

 Between the house door and yard fence were two 

 rows of hives, and one row extended beyond the 

 south end of the house 40 feet. These bees suf- 

 fered just in proportion as they were exposed to 

 the wind. Those wholly unprotected by the 

 house were all dead first. As the rows were fol- 

 lowed to the north end, some were found alive. 

 The last 8 or 10 were all alive, though reduced 

 in numbers. They were besmeared just in pro- 

 portion as they were out of the wind. Thero 



