AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



691 



combs outside the cluster were wet and 

 white with mold. When the bottom- 

 board was removed and a clean one sub- 

 stituted, the bees came out to Hy as 

 clean, healthy and strong as one would 

 care to see. 



I cannot reconcile this case, as well as 

 many others I have examined recently, 

 with the theory that moisture is the 



suited that at the beginning of winter a 

 large portion of the colonies were not 

 only weak in bees, but especially so in 

 young bees. It was not difficult to fore- 

 see the probable consequence of this 

 state of things, so I was not surprised 

 at the loss I have incurred. Apparently, 

 the old bees died off during the early 

 part of the winter, for more than the 



Ajyiary of Mr. W. Z. lluichlnsoa, Flint, Mich. — Summer View. 



cause of diarrhea. Yet I think I have 

 good evidence that moisture under cer- 

 tain circumstances is harmful. When 

 the strength of the colony is sufficient to 

 enable it to keep its immediate neigh- 

 borhood dry, it appears not to suffer 

 from moisture, but if it is so deficient in 

 numbers and vigor, one or both, that it 

 is unable to do that, it seems reasonable 

 to suppose that it must perish, being 

 either chilled to death in the cluster, or 

 else driven to desperation by the misery 

 of the situation, scattering and leaving 

 the hive tenantless. The slight spot- 

 ting of the combs which often occurs 

 under such circumstances, should not, I 

 •think, be taken as a sign of the trouble 

 known as diarrhea. It is rather the re- 

 sult of the weakness of approaching dis- 

 solution, than the cause of it. 



Last season, after the failure of clover 

 and basswood, there was very little nec- 

 tar to be gathered in this locality, either 

 during the remainder of the summer or 

 during the fall, from which fact it re- 



usual number left the hives during that 

 time, thus reducing the cluster to a size 

 too small to enable it to successfully 

 combat the unfriendly influences of 

 moisture combined with a cellar tem- 

 perature. Perhaps in many cases the 

 cellar temperature alone would prove 

 sufficient to create such a feeling of dis- 

 comfort as to make the bees restless, 

 and so cause them one by one to leave 

 the cluster and wander out of the hive 

 and be lost ; but I have no doubt that in 

 other cases the added influence of mois- 

 ture was necessary to accomplish total 

 ruin. 



That the decline of these colonies 

 came about in the way I have indicated, 

 seems substantiated by the fact that in 

 almost all these cases very few dead 

 bees were left in the hives, and in only 

 now and then one had the bees, last to 

 perish, preserved the form of a cluster 

 to the last. 



Quite a strong effort was made to de- 

 termine if possible whether sealed covers 



