116 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



was not a No. 1 stock in the lot, and only about 

 a dozen able to recover. I examined all care- 

 fully, and have described minutely, because it 

 seemed that here was a chance to study causes 

 and their effects. If we want to avoid dysentery, 

 we ought to understand what produces it. Bees 

 have dysentery without standing exposed to the 

 wind. It' in the sun, they soil the hive and combs 

 much less. "When the sun shines, the bee that 

 leaves the cluster to discharge its faeces is gene- 

 rally kept warm enough to get away from the 

 hive before soiling it, but they are chilled before 

 they get back to it. 



( Hies B. Avery, of Albany county, reports more 

 accurately than many others. After describing 

 the house for the bees in winter, which was made 

 specially for them, he tells us (see American Bee 

 Journal for May, 1872, page 264) that 60 colo- 

 nies wire put in the room. The temperature of 

 the house ranged from 25 to 40 degrees ; most 

 of the time stood quite evenly at 36 degrees. 

 Bees were put in the middle of November, and 

 remained till April 5th, at which time only 14 

 colonies were living, most of them having died, 

 apparently, with dysentery. He then asks, Did 

 these bees require more vent, or were they too 

 cold? Here we have a case where bees had 

 been successfully wintered, probably many times, 

 and now for the first time badly affected. A 

 strong colony of bees is capable of generating 

 heat fast enough to drive out for a time almost 

 anydegree of cold. When a large number are in 

 one room, they assist each other to raise the 

 temperature. But when the cold is protracted 

 beyond certain limits, say two or three months, 

 ♦the amount of honey consumed to resist it will 

 accumulate in the body, improperly digested, 

 till it cannot be contained. Hence, dysentery, 

 even in the house. 



"Why do some colonies in the same apiary 

 show this disease, when others do not, while ex- 

 posed to the same cold?" It may be explained 

 in this way : It is known that bees must pack 

 closely, in cold weather, for mutual warmth. 



Examine the condition of those that winter 

 best, you will always find a space usually in the 

 centre of the combs from which brood have 

 hatched, such combs are near half an inch apart ; 

 most of the cells are empty. The bees will creep 

 into these cells, beside being three or four deep 

 between the combs, the best situation to keep 

 warm. Examine the surplus box that has been 

 filled timing a bounteous yield of honey, there 

 is only a quarter inch space between the combs, 

 and room tor only one bee to get through. When 

 a hive is filled like this box, how many bees 

 could creep between the combs? and how long 

 could they be kept from dysentery at the ten£ 

 perature of 35 or 40 degrees? 



We can produce dysentery in a few minutes 

 by cold. Try the experiment some frosty morn- 

 ing, when the weather is just cold enough to 

 chill a single bee and not freeze it, when exposed 

 outside the hive. Disturb a thrifty stock, and 

 have the bees fill themselves, and afterwards 

 Scatter a few in the open air, nearly everything 

 they alight upon will be soiled. It is impossible 

 to have every hive in just the right condition of 

 honey and dry combs. In a large apiary, some 



will probably have too much honey — if the yield 

 has been fair — and we must expect some will 

 show it. 



A few bees were found that were successfully 

 wintered, -showing still further that this theory 

 is correct. Mr. Floyd, of this county, in one of 

 over 50 stocks, lost but two. Mr. Burklin, in 

 Herkimer county, lost but about half a dozeu 

 out of 200. Mr. Ford, also of Herkimer county, 

 lost'less than 20 in 300. In every instance, where 

 less than 80 were successfully wintered, they had 

 the benefit of artificial heat. There was a fire 

 kept in the room above, or adjoining the one in 

 which the bees were kept. In most cases in the 

 cellar, directly under the living room, where there 

 was a constant fire. 



Stocks that are queenless, or destitute of stores, 

 &c, I have said nothing about, as they would 

 need some other treatment. A physician that 

 has a correct diagnosis of his patient's case, has 

 him already half cured. If we have a correct 

 theory of dysentery, the cure or preventive will 

 probably suggest itself. Watch the weather, if 

 too cold, make them warmer. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bees not Working in Boxes. 



Mr. Editor : — I cannot get any of my stocks 

 to work in boxes this season — here it is the 

 middle of July, and I have not got a single box 

 of honey yet. It cannot be for the want of 

 forage, for there has been plenty from the first 

 of June until now. White clover began to bloom 

 about the middle of June, and there is just as 

 much now as there was then, and there was an 

 abundance of bloom on linden, catnip, etc., 

 which was crowded from morning till night. 



On the 17th of this month, I opened a hive 

 to arrange for putting on side boxes (I thought 

 I would try them, as the bees would not work 

 alone), and found every comb, except about three 

 inches square in each comb which had brood in, 

 filled up with the nicest honey I ever saw. This 

 would do very well to self if it were not for the 

 brood. 



This is the condition of most of my stocks, 

 and I was compelled to send for an extractor, 

 for if I do not take the honey from these hives, 

 there will not be a young bee in the hive in a 

 month, as the queens are almost completely 

 crowded out. Can any one tell me the reason 

 why the bees would not work in the boxes? 



If it had only been so with some of them I 

 would not have thought anything about it, but 

 it seems that every stock in the apiary have 

 caught the contagion of working in the body of 

 the hive. They will work in small frames, put 

 in the body of the hive (like the Buckeye), bat 

 the queen lays on them as well as the large 

 frames, so I am just as bad off as ever. The 

 boxes were all glass, and were put on about the 

 last of May. The glass is no objection, as I have 

 had no trouble before. 



C. E. Widener. 



Cumberland, Md., July 19, 1872. 



