1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



201 



and a very valuable paper by him on bee culture, 

 in one of the reports of the department of agricul- 

 ture, which show his thorough familiarity with 

 rhe subject, and make us regret that lie was not a 

 frequent correspondent of the Journal. His 

 pleasant manner and great kindness of heart en- 

 deared him to all who had the good fortune to know 

 him, and his early death, for he was a man in the 

 prime of life, leaves a vacancy in the list of apia- 

 rians which cannot easily be filled. 



Daniel M. Worthngton. 



St. Denis, Md., Feb. 12, 1873. 



Note by Ed. A. B. J. — We feel obliged to Mr. 

 Worthington for calling attention to the late Mr. 

 Colvins' worth and usefulness. The circumstances 

 of great affliction and sore bereavement in which 

 Mr. Langstroth has recently been placed, and which 

 are explained more fully elsewhere in this number, 

 sufficiently account for the absence of any obituary 

 notice from him. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Dysentery Among Bees. 



The primary cause of dysentery lies in the food 

 upon which the bee subsists, while there are other 

 tributary causes, such as atmospheric temperature, 

 too long confinement in the hive, sudden transition 

 from cold to hot while in confinement, etc. 



When the food, honey or syrup, is free from an 

 overcharge of acid, of a refined character, free from 

 gross particles, and of proper consistency, bees are 

 seldom affected with dysentery. During long 

 drouths, bees gather a large proportion of acid with 

 their honey, for the reason that the flow of the 

 sacharine matter is so scant and slow that it par- 

 takes largely of the impurities and acid of the 

 vegetable, and will produce mortality in a very 

 short time, when the bees are confined to the hive. 

 Very thin honey is also unfit for winter food. The 

 fluid and alimentary proportions being unequal, the 

 fluid cannot be thrown off sufficiently fast through 

 the pores and in respiration, but accumulates and 

 distends the bowels, and when long confinement in 

 the hive ensues, dysentery follows. 



The instinct of the bee never errs in the prepara- 

 tion of its food, when all things are equal, bees in 

 numbers, and the internal temperature of the hive 

 proper. The alimentary and fluid proportions of 

 honey are always equal, and when free from acid 

 produced by long drouths, gathered when season- 

 able, and the flow of honey is free and easy, bees 

 will live upon it in confinement (the repository 

 being kept at a proper temperature) for six months. 



Although bees get no older with the lapse of 

 time while hibernating, still bees that have lived 

 out one-half or two-thirds of their lifetime before 

 going into winter quarters are more easily affected 

 than young bees. 



Mr. Quinby suggests that the primary cause of 

 the great loss of bees in the middle and northern 

 states, during the winter and spring of 1872, was 

 attributable to the cold north-west winds that blew 

 for months without cessation. But we are strongly 

 inclined to the opinion that the primary cause was 

 in the food, and the long continued cold only a 



secondary cause. During the winter of 1855-G 

 bees were not permitted to fly out of their hives for 

 near three months, in Illinois ; the ground was cov- 

 ered with a deep snow, and the mercury ranging 

 from zero to 26° below during the night hours, and 

 the cold north-west winds almost constantly sweep- 

 ing over our vast prairies, yet it did not affect the 

 bees with dysentery, and, so far as I know at this 

 time, they all wintered on their summer stands, 

 repositories being little used at that time. 



Mr. Q. calls our attention to Giles B. Avery's 

 repository of bees in Albany county, which had 

 safely wintered for years, but all died during the 

 winter of 1872, except fourteen swarms, and the 

 mercury stood quite evenly at 36°. Now when we 

 contrast the temperature of Mr. Avery's repository 

 with the temperature of the winter of 1855-6 in 

 Illinois, we feel more than ever confident that the 

 food is the basis of the health of the bee. My 

 bees were also affected with dysentery during the 

 winter of 1872, and twenty -five swarms were en- 

 tirely lost. In the month of May, when I com- 

 menced multiplying swarms, I made a number of 

 swarms by brushing the bees from the frames and 

 giving them cards of honey from the hives left by 

 the bees that died with the dysentery, and closed 

 them up in a dark room, from two to three days, 

 and when liberated they were badly affected with 

 the dysentery, leaving their excrement at the mouth 

 of the hive. The old bees were most affected and 

 vice versa. I substituted a different quality of 

 honey, but not better in appearance, and other 

 swarms came out of the dark room all right. 



Dr. Jewell Davis asks the question in the North 

 American Bee Journal, why it is all colonies are not 

 alike affected that forage upon the same pasturage 

 during a heavy drouth, if that affects the honey 

 with acid and destroys the bee? I suppose the 

 Doctor only wanted this question answered sup- 

 posing it would accommodate some new beginner. 

 I might ask the Doctor why all swarms do not fare 

 alike in the same warm repository, when the differ- 

 ence in them when the deposit was made was 

 imperceptible. The simple fact lies here: the 

 internal condition of the hives or swarms at the 

 time the acid honey gathering commences. The 

 one surviving was well stored with good honey at 

 the time, but the other had its combs empty, or so 

 nearly so, that it had room enough to store away 

 acid honey, evaporated cider, and grape juice, to 

 make its once happy home a melancholy abode, 

 where affliction and death reign. 



Mr. Alley, of Wenhani, Mass., more than sug- 

 gests, if my memory serves me right, that the cause 

 of the great mortality among the bees was produced 

 by the honey-dew gathered in the fall season. But, 

 honey-dew being the saccharine part of the fluid or 

 sap of vegetation, and, when abundant, exhales 

 through the countless pores of the leaf, condensing 

 in drops as it comes in contact with the atmos- 

 phere, I suppose no one ever saw honey-dew in the 

 fall of the year in our latitude, not even aphis 

 honey-dew, it being nothing more or less than an 

 extra amount of honey from the tendrils and leaves 

 of vegetation taken into the stomach, that cannot 

 be absorbed by the insect, and is thrown off in 

 excrement, changed little from honey. 

 Camargo, III., Nov. 15, 1872. A. Salisbury. 



