1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



125 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



What Kille'd the Bees? 



There is one, — Mrs. Tupper,-;— who at last 

 agrees wifli me. She says ; " We.ave among those 

 "who believe that causes which maybe prevented., 

 are responijible for the great\losses in wiute^-ing, • 

 and not disease. We have been all the season col- 

 lecting facts upon this suj^jectj have visited 

 many persons wlw lost bees last wiutej",. and 

 have failed to find a single instance of any dis- 

 ease not- causL'd by an improper state of the 

 hive, or want of care in the plan chosen to win- 

 ter, or too much honey in proportion to the 

 bees. No doubt bees die of dysentery, but 

 this is caused by improper treatment." 



I agree with this. More than a year ago, I 

 advanced these views. I admitted that dysen- 

 tery might have killed the bees, but suggested 

 an improper condition of the hive as the cause. 

 The experience of the last winter and spring 

 has added additional proof that the vie^\*S. then 

 ex23ressed were correct. Like Mrs. T., t have 

 made diligent inquiry, and studied cause and 

 effect with the best of my ability, and now re- 

 peat my conviction that cold is the cause of 

 failure to winter, dysentery being an interven- 

 ing link. I am pleased with the idea, because, 

 if correct, we can obviate or remove the cause 

 easier than if it was the quality of honey fed. 

 I know of nothing to produce dysentery, except 

 cold weather. I have inquired if it is known 

 in the extreme south, and if bees were lost 

 there last winter, — I mean so far south that 

 they did not feel the cold winds severely. I 

 would inquire further, if they did not suffer 

 according to their latitude and locality, till the 

 extreme north or south was reached ? 



I shall not attempt to prove that all bees that 

 die, do so oi dysentery, but that the general 

 fatality was produced by cold. The quality of 

 food or honey has less effect than is usually 

 supposed. 



In addition to what I said on this point, Mrs. 

 T. relates the circumstances of a yard of bees 

 that were divided. One-half were kept warm, 

 the other exposed to cold in an outhouse, and 

 by moving. One division suffered, and nearly 

 every one died of dysentery. The other half, 

 that was warm, all wintered safely. Here was 

 a case^where the honey must have been all of 

 the same kind and quality. 



I have fed a colony with honey two years 

 old, after scalding it, that had soured, and 

 could discover no difference in that respect 

 with those that stood by their side, and consum- 

 ed their own honey. 



" Novice," and other writers, claim that sy- 

 Tup of sugar is a ijreventive, and will save the 

 bees from dysentery. I wish there was nothing 

 to disprove it. Mr. Elwood, of Herkimer Co., 

 in this State, fed several stocks that were desti- 

 tute, one year ago, with that alone. They were 

 badly affected with that disease, just the same 



as |,hose having their own honey, and exposed 

 to the colcl, the" same'. I fed a colony -v^ith loaf 

 sugar, that ' when exposed as others we're,' "ft'as 

 a'ffected the same.' ' ' , ■ ■ ■> . 



' '" ^ovice,'*'" w'hen 'he fed liis bees witti"(he 

 syrup, doubtl(5ss took a little extra pain's' lor 

 wirmth, without counting the advantage bt it 

 in connection with the feed. Now it Cold is 

 the 'cause or the beginning of all the trouble, 

 instead of the kind of food, let us try and 

 mak6 the thing certain, and if it is not tlie 

 cause, let us try and be certain of that. No 

 great importance shoidd jje attached to guess- 

 ing or believing, — which is equivalent, — but let 

 us have proof that all can comprehend. 



Another point has been discussed pretty 

 freely : The age of the bees. In some places 

 and situations, or peculiar circumstances, they 

 cease rearing brood before the 1st of Septem- 

 ber, and, by the beginning of winter, every 

 bee must be at least three mouths old, and dies 

 in consequence. Bees did just so years ago, 

 without the fatal results of the two last win- 

 ters. We have to look further. I will admit 

 that young bees are preferable, but not all im- 

 portant. It is admitted by all that understand 

 the subject, that bees wear out very fast in 

 warm weather, when they fly. I heard one 

 man assert in a convention of beekeepers, that 

 old bees, or those that were wintered through, 

 were worthless for any lal)or in the hive in the 

 spring. I have some testimony to the contra- 

 ry. I have introduced Italian queens to black 

 colonies in October. Black bees were left in * 

 these colonies in April and May, some lasting 

 till in June, working as industriously as any, 

 bringing in pollen and stores. But to prove it 

 still stronger, lest some might say these queens 

 were hybrids, and the black bees were young, 

 I will say that several of the queens proved 

 drone layers, and, in such cases, not a worker 

 was produced before near the last of May. The 

 middle of April, these drone layers were re- 

 moved, and prolific queens introduced. These 

 bees, six or eight months old, nursed the brood, 

 and reared the stocks into good ones, that sent 

 out swarms, only a little later than the average. 

 The age of the bees did not, in these cases, 

 seem to make them worthless. 



No doubt other causes destroy bees some- 

 times, but I have yet to find the first case where 

 a large num]>er, with sufficient honey, was lost, 

 and cold not at the bottom. 



We all know that they will stand any degree 

 of cold for a short time, when there are bees 

 enough, and their honey properly distributed. 

 But protract the cold for months, as it was last 

 winter, and they cannot. An even moderately 

 cold temperature is also fatal, without warm 

 changes to equalize it. I know cases where 

 over fifty were put into a room, and the tem- 

 perature at no time below 28o Falirenheit 

 and not above 37° for the whole winter. The 

 few in the whole lot, not dead when taken out, 



