1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



249 



miles distant, where they ceased work the middle 

 of July and breeding much earlier than in the 

 other case, yet these all came out in good order, 

 and have done the same thing in the same territory 

 in both cases again this winter? I answer as fol- 

 lows : Those that worked late gathered honey dew, 

 and much of it was unsealed when cold weather 

 came on. In the other case they had none 

 of it. 



But to make a little stronger case against the old 

 bee theory, I will give one or two experiments in 

 the matter. In September, 1872, I removed the 

 queen from a stock of black bees for the purpose of 

 giving them an Italian, but they let her starve in 

 the cage through negligence on my part, and then 

 reared one to suit themselves, but she was worth- 

 less and lost. After the brood had all hatched, I 

 took the bees all out of the hive and put them in an 

 empty cover, and moved it about one rod, leaving 

 it three days, the bees being queenless. All that 

 knew where to go went back to the old hive. I 

 then gave them a queen, but it was so late that 

 they reared no brood that fall. The younger bees 

 not knowing where else to go, remained in the 

 emptyjjcover and received a queen. I then put 

 them in a hive containing six frames, with enough 

 honey to winter them. I now had two stocks, one 

 composed of old bees having their own honey, the 

 other of young bees with honey from other bees. 

 The old ones wintered finely, without any signs of 

 dysentery. The young ones died with dysentery 

 long before spring. The same winter I put a 

 nucleus hive into the cellar and fed them with 

 sugar syrup for about six weeks, and they were as 

 small and lively as when put in, and raised a lot of 

 young bees, but becoming tired of feeding them 

 every day, I went to a hive and cut out a piece of 

 sealed honey large enough to fill one of the frames 

 in the nucleus hive and gave them. In less than a 

 week they began to look bad and in a few days 

 were dead with a malignant form of dysentery, and 

 the swarm from which I cut the honey followed suit 

 in a few days. The winter just past has been the 

 worst I ever knew for bees. They gathered honey- 

 dew again, and bred late, even after cold weather 

 set in. The stuff (for I cannot call it honey) was 

 unsealed much of it, and soon became thin and 

 watery, and wherever the bees had access to beech 

 timber they are, in many apiaries, all dead. In 

 others, one in ten alive. Two miles north or six 

 east, I never saw bees in finer condition, although 

 they did not work as late, in some places doing 

 nothing after July 10th, and have been exposed to 

 the same kind of weather with no protection, but 

 they lacked one essential element of dysentery, 

 viz : honey dew. 



Hosmer says that some one's bees were saved 

 because they were carried out of the cellar, and 

 allowed to fly out, and commenced breeding. Well, 

 I have lost ninety stocks, and they nearly all died 

 with lots of young bees hatched and more hatching 

 all the time. Some of them had four frames filled 

 with brood in all stages, and thousands hatched, yet 

 they died sooner than others which were not breed- 

 ing any, and I think no worse thing can happen to 

 a colony of bees than to have great numbers of 

 young hatched in January, unless they get out and 

 fly before they are very old. At least such stocks 



are the first to die with me. I have had dozens of 

 them this winter that were healthy until they began 

 breeding, when they died off so rapidly that the 

 brood would be left without bees to cover it. There 

 has been several days during the past winter that 

 were just warm enough to let the old bees fly, but 

 the young ones wont come out unless it is very fine, 

 and I think that a flight which does not include the 

 young of a hive, does but little good so far as pre- 

 venting dysentery is concerned. If any one thinks 

 otherwise, of course that is all right, but if they 

 will notice a young bee when it first comes out in 

 summer, at about eight or ten days old, according 

 to the weather, they may generally see a bee as 

 much distended as it should be by a six weeks con- 

 finement of an older bee in the winter season. If 

 to this you add poor honey, and keep that bee con- 

 fined two months or more, how can it live? I have 

 wished many times to see honey dew in the fall, 

 when my bees were doing nothing, but now have to 

 say that I have seen the elephant, for two seasons, 

 and hope to never see it again while I am in the bee 

 business. 



Having lost 190 out of 200 stocks in the 

 past two winters, I consider this paying rather 

 dearly for the sight. I think this letter is about 

 lung enough, but I have been wanting to ^let 

 friend Hosmer know that all did not agree with him 

 on the old age theory. I suppose that Hosmer will 

 have something ready to upset my assertion that 

 young bees are more liable to die than old ones, 

 if they cannot fly out, but I have wintered 

 colonies from November to April, without a queen, 

 and then given them a queen, and had them fill all 

 the boxes and swarm almost as early as any of those 

 that nursed their queens through themselves. 



E. M. Johnson. 



Mentor, Lake Co., 0., March 12, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Non-Swarmers. 



Mr. Editor ; — I have known people to give as 

 high as sixty dollars for a bee palace claimed to be 

 a non-swarmer, and to assign as a reason for it, that 

 they only wanted to keep just enough bees to get 

 honey for their own use, and as the Langstroth and 

 all other patterns would swarm, they could get no 

 good out of them. I have also known such palaces 

 to stand empty for years, the bees not being able to 

 winter in them. I have known but one that would 

 not swarm that did the owner any good. It was 

 merely a common box hive, set in a little dark 

 room, four by eight, five feet high, double walled. 

 The bees in this died this winter, for the first time 

 in sixteen years. 



The New Idea hive, by Adair and Gallup, I 

 believe, will practically prove a non-swarmer. I 

 have made a few, and will try them the coming 

 season. I think that where the extractor is used, 

 and swarms are not desired, and where comb honey 

 is wanted for family use. these hives will prove the 

 best I know of. But where surplus honey in caps is 

 wanted, I think the Langstroth the best. I send 

 you Adair's description of the New Idea, for the 

 benefit of those who wish to try it the coming sea- 

 son. How to manage it, they can see described by 



