172 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Facts and Questions. 



The economy of nature is so perfect that 

 wherever we can trace a difference, we may as- 

 sume that a reason and a purpose exist lor the 

 variation. Thus we do not yet know why some 

 species of bees have three sub-marginal cells to 

 their wings, and others only two. 



In Spain and Italy bees are largely cultivated; 

 and in ihe former country many a parish priest, 

 the religious monitor of an obscure hamlet, can 

 count his five thousand hives. 



Mr. Editor : — "Who can explain the problem 

 why so many bees are dying in this section of 

 country ? Many of our beekeepers are losing 

 large numbers of their stocks. The facts are 

 these — in a majority of instances only one or 

 two pints of dead bees are found, all told, both 

 among the combs and on the bottom-board. If 

 the condition of the hive is found in time, the 

 queen and a dozen or two of the workers may be 

 found living. 



The next fact is, that, in a majority of cases, 

 they leave from six to twenty pounds of honey 

 — perhaps enough to carry a good swarm 

 through the winter. Why have these swarms 

 dwindled away to one pint, having both a 

 living queen and ample stores for wiuter ? 



Is the honey poisonous to them, causing their 

 death ? Or did the failure of the honey crop, in 

 the latter part of the season, stop the queen 

 from breeding, and consequently cause a dimin- 

 ution of the stock, until there were not bees 

 enough left to maintain a sufficient amount of 

 animal heat to keep them from perishing, when 

 the cold weather came on ? 



Have any of the old experienced beekeepers 

 some other and better reason for the state of 

 affairs ? I find no satisfactoiy solution of it in 

 any of our books. Who can answer? Who 

 will answer ? Who can tell us the remedy, and 

 when and how t) apply it ? 



If the thing was poisonous, how can the bees 

 be saved so late iu the season? If it was the 

 failure of the honey that stopped the queen, or 

 rather caused her to cease, from laying and the 

 number of bees to be diminished, then do not 

 Hai bison, Thomas, and Gallup give us the rem- 

 edy, when they tell us to feed during this time 

 of scarcity, that breeding may be continued by 

 the Avorkers feeding and stimulating the queen ? 

 Why is her brood so limited at the coming on 

 of winter, while possessed of ample stores for 

 the winter at hand ? 



Or, lastly, if the queens have become barren 

 — thus causing the failure,- Avhy should it be so 

 extensive and general ? Will the queen cease 

 to lay eggs, if the bee-pasturage fails ? 



Is it a general thing, everywhere, that the 

 bees are dying; or is it confined to certain local- 

 ities ? It general, or local, tell us why it is so, 

 if you can ; and name the remedy. 



J. Davis. 

 Charleston, Ills. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



More of the Disease. 



Last season the bees did little or nothing in 

 swarming, and made no surplus honey, in a 

 general way; and nearly all that was gathered 

 had a peculiar, bitter, pungent taste, so that it 

 would have been worthless for table use. 



At this date (January 14, 18G9) over one- 

 half of the stocks are dead in my territory ; and 

 those that are still alive are, with few excep- 

 tions, not doing well. They commenced dying 

 early in the fall, flying off never to return. On 

 opening the hives after the bees were dead, Ave 

 generally found plenty of honey, with a rather 

 scant supply of pollen. The dead bees seem to 

 be very full of a very offensive fluid-like matter. 



What the end will be I know not, but think 

 there will not be many stocks left. Those who 

 have kept bees twenty -five years say they never 

 knew bees, do so. I would say that some few 

 owners never had bees seemingly do belter than 

 this fall and winter ; while those around them 

 lost nearly all they had. 



For myself, I shall stick to the business, be- 

 lieving the disease to be of an epidemical char- 

 acter; after which the keepers will reap a rich 

 harvest. And to aid me in the undeitakino-, I 

 send enclosed two dollars for that invaluable 

 Bee Journal, every number of which is worth 

 the price to the person who has as many as 

 twenty stocks of bees. 



C. B. Moore. 



Sardinia, Ohio. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



I should hardly know how to get along with- 

 out the Bee Journal, as I receive so liiuch 

 valuable information through it from your nu- 

 merous correspondents, in all parts of the coun- 

 try. Novice's experience is so natural that it 

 forcibly reminds me of some of my own ludic- 

 rous blunders when I first began beekeeping, ten 

 years ago. Especially when I moved six stocks, 

 which I had taken on shares, about twenty rods 

 on the first of June, and in the evening found 

 nearly a bushel of bees clustered in the shed I 

 had taken them from. What to do with them 

 I did not know. I had no Bee Journal then 

 to consult, nor any other work relating to bee- 

 culture — though having heard of Quinby's 

 book, I sent for it a few days later. Procuring 

 a sheet and brushing the bees on it, I carried 

 them to their hives, and spreading it out I let 

 them select their own home. Of course a great 

 many bees were lost, but as they were breeding 

 rapidly, they soon recruited again, and in July 

 following I got a few swarms. 



Novice lives a little further north than 

 I do, but I was ahead of him in early swarming 

 last season, as I had two in May, one on the 

 10th, and the other on the 11th; and that too 

 without feeding, to stimulate them to early 

 breeding, if we except a little rye flour. I am 

 sorry to" say that those two swarms are the only 

 ones I know of that collected stores enough to 

 carry them through the winter. 



D.L. KlRKPATRICK. 



New Paris. Ohio. 



