AMEKICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY W. F. CLARKE, CHICAGO, ILL. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANNUM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. 



Vol. VIII. 



JUNE, 1873. 



No. 12 



Novice. 



Dear Bee Journal. — When we last wrote 

 you we had lost thirteen colonies. Well, about 

 April 1st we had a few pleasant days and every- 

 thing went on nicely ; it is true, but little meal 

 was used, for natural pollen came almost as soon 

 as they could work on meal, and there seemed 

 to be every prospect that even our poorest col- 

 onies would "pick up," as they undoubtedly 

 would have done, had not cold rains set in and 

 continued with snow-storms, for variety, until 

 almost May 1st. 



About the middle of April we discovered 

 that the cold weather had killed the brood of 

 many of our weak colonies, and they were fast 

 dwindling down. Some, where unsealed syrup 

 remained in the comb, really had dysentery, 

 and were dying, young and old, very much as 

 flies do when poisoned with cobalt. 



Mr. Johnson, of Mentor. O., called on us at 

 this stage, and gave us much new light in the 

 way the bee-disease works. (See his article, 

 The Old Bee Theory, in the May number.) If 

 a warm day or days would come, we decided 

 the weak colonies might be saved, but as they 

 didn't, nor wouldn't, our duty was plainly to 

 supply them with it artificially, for we claim it's 

 the " bee-keeper, and not the season, you know." 



" Mrs. N., we want the stove in your room, 

 up-stairs." 



" Very well, but how will you get it down ? 

 It took two men to carry it up, and they had 

 an awful time of it, too. Do you want it now ?" 



" This minute, for our bees are dying, and we 

 positively cannot have any more die." 



By this time we had the pipe taken off, and, 

 after a little preparatory tilting, to ascertain 

 specific gravity, took it by "main strength and 

 ignorance" (we mean put our arms around it], 

 and sung out to the ladies to get out of the 

 way, and marched boldly down to the bee- 

 house, where we deposited our " precious' load." 

 (No paralysis, now, thanks to diet.) In a few 

 minutes more we had the desired temperature 

 in the bee-house, and, after making it dark, 

 moved in five of our worst stocks, which were 



immediately put on a diet of good syrup. 

 After this they stopped dying, but one of the 

 five was lost by putting in a comb of hatching 

 brood containing, perhaps, a couple of dozen of 

 bees just hatched on it, and these " infants " 

 stung the queen. Auother one contained at 

 one time only seven bees besides the queen. 

 We didn't care much for the " seven bees," but 

 we did determine not to lose queens. We had, 

 before housing, tried giving hatching brood, 

 but they were too sick to take care of it, and 

 the young bees died, too, when hatching. 



Now comes the point where we want help; 

 not theories, but practical experience. With 

 proper temperature and sugar syrup in the 

 house, the bees ceased dying and the queens 

 laid eggs in the combs profusely, but examina- 

 tion, day after day, showed eggs still, but no 

 larvae. An examination of our strong colonies 

 outside showed that for about two weeks we 

 had none, or almost no unsealed brood ; yet, the 

 comb always contained plenty of eggs. Adair 

 says, in one of his articles, " brood cannot be 

 raised without tarina," and careful examination 

 showed our hives contained none. When a day 

 occurred that some pollen was gathered it was 

 used at once and some larvae was seen, and 

 since May 1st, large quantities of pollen have 

 been gathered, and we never saw brood spread 

 faster. 



When Mr. Adair made the above assertion 

 we were inclined to think it hasty, and that we 

 had made experiments to the contrary, but now 

 we would really like to know if any of our 

 readers have ever seen brood reared when there 

 was an entire absence of pollen. 



We tried putting rye-meal in our empty co mb, 

 placed in the middle of the cluster, but, as in 

 former experiments, the bees would take no 

 notice of it. 



Will Mr. Adair please accept our thanks for 

 turning our attention to the subject, for even if 

 the idea be not new it is certain that pollen 

 exerts a very considerable influence on brood 

 rearing. 



It is our impression that during the spring 

 months but very few, indeed, of the number of 



