216 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the Ajnerican Ceo Journal.] 



Dyentery, or No Dysentery. 



I see in the February number of the Bee 

 Journal, page 145, friend Gallup's article on 

 the prevention of dysentery. He starts out by 

 saying that his bees never have "dysentery;" 

 and that he has come to the conclusion that 

 there is no such disease. Here, he thinks, 

 friend Puckett -will say — "that is more of Gal- 

 lup's buncom." Now friend Puckett does not 

 say so, but he does say that it is a small squib 

 of Gallup's "gas," mixed with a thin slice of 

 his "nonsense." Let us see what there is in 

 his article. He says dysentery is not a disease, 

 "but a condition of the hive or swarm." Well, 

 suppose it is, if the "condition" of the swarm 

 is not the disease, it may have something to do 

 with producing it. It makes no difference 

 what produces it; it is nevertheless a disease 

 after it is produced. Friend Gallup says it is 

 not a disease," and then gives the remedy. He 

 states that his bees used to have it twenty-five 

 or thirty years ago, but "they know better 

 now." Of course his bees "know better" than 

 to have any disease; but that does not prove 

 that three is no such disease as dysentery. 

 May uot other people's bees, not so well trained 

 as friend Gallup's, have the disease ? Was it a 

 "disease," twenty-five or thirty years ago, be- 

 fore friend Gallup's bees learned to "know bet- 

 ter ?" Well, if so, may it not be a disease still 

 amongst bees that have not the scientific knowl- 

 edge that friend Gallup thinks his bees have ac- 

 quired ? A late swarm that has thin watery 

 honey, he thinks may have dysentery. Where 

 did the late swarm get the thin honey. Is not 

 an early swarm just as liable to gather such 

 honey, if it is secreted in the flowers ? Bees do 

 not make honey. They gather it just as they 

 find it in the blossoms, and an early swarm will 

 gather just the same kind of honey that a late 

 one will ; and if they partake of it as food, are 

 they not just as liable to have the dysentery as 

 a la'te swarm, though they may have some good 

 honey, that was gathered in the fore part of the 

 season ? And let us suppose such a case. Sup- 

 pose all the honey that was secreted in the flow- 

 ers in a whole season was thin and watery (as 

 it was last season,) would it not be apt to give 

 everybody's bees the disease that friend Gallup 

 says does not exist? Of course it would, un- 

 less the owners had taught those bees to "know 

 better." The condition of the hive or swarm 

 has nothing to do with the secretion of honey 

 in the flowers. There is no disease either 

 among bees, animals, or the human race, that 

 exists independent of a cause to produce it. A 

 disease of any kind is a condition of the sub- 

 ject, and not a thing. 



B. Puckett. 



Winchester, Ind., Feb. 15, 1869. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bees in Minnesota. 



The piincipal reason why bees have not been 

 reared in greater numbers in this country, is, 

 the almost total neglect of them, by gentlemen 

 of property. 



Mr. Editor : — I am greatly interested in all 

 kinds of information in regard to bees. I have 

 kept bees here in Minnesota longer, by many 

 years, than any other person, having been en- 

 gaged in it over twenty-six years ; and I have 

 more colonies now than any other person hero 

 that I know of, as I am wintering more than 

 two hundred colonies. All these are in well 

 made and painted hives, with movable frames. 

 A large portion of my stock is Italianized, 

 from a queen purchased from Messrs. Lang- 

 stroth & Son. 



I think this a good country for bees to in- 

 crease in and store honey, when once through 

 our long winters; though from some cause, they 

 have not stored as much surplus honey for 

 three years past, as they formerly did. It is 

 probably owing to some change in the climate, 

 or greater variableness of the weather. The 

 fore part of last season was splendid for bees. 

 Mine commenced swarming on the 22d of May, 

 and continued until they had thrown off' a hun- 

 dred swarms by the middle of June. They con- 

 tinued to do well until the dry hot weather par- 

 ched up all the flowers. Then for a long time 

 they had nothing to work upon but honey dew, 

 till the rains brought out the fall flowers in great 

 abundance. It was then, how T ever, too cold 

 for the bees to do much. Hence a portion of 

 my stocks were quite light at the end of the sea- 

 son, though the remainder had honey enough 

 — such as it was. 



Early in June, after the white clover was in 

 full bloom, I noticed that the bees were gather- 

 ing honey and building comb faster than I had 

 ever known before at that time of the year. I 

 examined the clover and all other flowers near 

 by, in the morning, and found no bees at work 

 on them in the fore part of the day, and but 

 few in the afternoon ; and I could follow the 

 bees by their loud humming, when high in the 

 air out of sight, until they reached the oats and 

 willows. There the bees were seen gathering 

 this sweet stuff from the leaves. I climbed up 

 some of the trees and saw, above this honey, on 

 the underside of the leaves any number of plant 

 lice, and supposed they produced the sweet 

 stuff which the bees were gathering. Persons 

 who live several miles from here told me that 

 there was great quantities of it almost every- 

 where during the hot, dry weather, but when 

 the rains came on it all disappeared. 



This honey would granulate in a few days 

 after it was gathered, forming course grains, but 

 does not become solid or hard. It is not good, 

 has a sickening taste, and will spoil all the good 

 honey in the hive. It tastes like some of the 

 poorer qualities of sugar from the Indies. I 

 do not know how the bees will winter on it_ ; 

 but as it is about all they have, I am very suspi- 

 cious of it. I do not know but that it may have 

 something to do with the losses that took place 

 last fall, and fear it may affect the wintering. 

 My bees are very uneasy, and many of them are 

 crawling out and being lost on the groumh It 

 has been the warmest winter we have had since 



