AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



819 



Perliai>§ a Case of BecDJarrlica 

 - -" Pollen Theory." 



Writteyi for the American Bee Journal 

 BY C. W. DAYTON. 



On page 586 Mr. J. C. Wallenmeyer 

 asks what was the matter with his bees 

 in the case cited, viz : " The storm blew 

 off the covers, and drenched the outside 

 combs. The next day I saw hundreds of 

 bees dying around, shaking, shining and 

 black, and very large. I suppose they 

 were bloated." In the answer it is sug- 

 gested that the "shaking" is a symp- 

 tom of the nameless bee-disease. In my 

 mind this is a genuine case of bee-diar- 

 rhea. If the bees had been confined six 

 months, they might have died the same 

 way. I have described this same thing 

 at least four times in the Amekican Bee 

 Journal in the last ten years, and the 

 general class of bee-keepers know just 

 as little about it as if it had not been 

 described at all. 



At first the intestines of the bees con- 

 tained a substance nearly like what is 

 called "dry feces." When the rain 

 came into the hives the bees sipped it 

 up — filled themselves up, or loaded up, 

 rather, with water. This water was 

 cold, the whole hive was cold, in fact 

 just like a man with wet clothing. Did 

 you ever over eat of anything that was 

 easy to ferment. Too large a load is 

 more than the stomach can manage. If 

 you started for the honey-house with 

 400 pounds of honey on your shoulder, 

 I doubt whether you would ever get 

 there. Much water, a little honey, and 

 a low temperature are bad things. If it 

 happens to operate as a physic, they 

 would not become bloated, but it as 

 often operates upon the former contents 

 of the intestines in exactly the opposite 

 way. Water and honey in a fermenting 

 state are expansive, and if the cork is 

 not firmly driven, it will help itself out. 



I once read that fruit canned up cold 

 with honey would keep, so I put up a 

 few cans of strawberries well mixed 

 with honey. In a few days the fruit 

 and honey separated, and fermentation 

 began, and one morning I found the 

 screw cap forced off and driven into the 

 ceiling overhead, and the fruit distributed 

 about the honey-room. 



It may be asked why bees sip up this 

 water. It probably ran upon the combs 

 of brood. The instinct of the bees is to 

 keep the hives clean, especially where 

 the brood is reared. Every one wants it 

 neat and clean where they eat and 

 sleep. 



a " POLLEN THEOKY " I'ROP. 



One of the insurmountable questions 

 in connection with the "pollen theory" 

 was, why the bees did not have diarrhea 

 when they had sugar for food and no 

 pollen. Now I will tell you something 

 you can do, and something you cannot 

 do. You can pour water on a cluster of 

 bees in front of the hive, or into the 

 hive of a new swarm for a week and it 

 will not have a bad effect. Let a swarm 

 be away from their brood ten hours and 

 they can be handled much more peace- 

 ably than if they have a little brood. 



I have found out this season that I 

 can take a whole load of new swarms a 

 distance of seven or eight miles over 

 rough roads with the entrances all open, 

 and not a dozen bees will come out ; but 

 if there is one colony in the load that 

 has one frame of brood, they will come 

 out and run all over all the hives, seat 

 or wagon-box, and make matters very 

 disagreeable in the night, and in the 

 daytime they will hold matters entirely 

 in their own hands. Pollen is nearly as 

 good as brood to make bees protect — it 

 is the wherewith to rear brood. Take 

 the brood and pollen away, and they 

 care very little what to do as soon as 

 their brood is forgotten. In which case 

 they have nothing to protect, and no 

 reason to sip up water. This was the 

 one little prop in the "pollen theory" 

 that held out so well. 



Pasadena, Calif. 



Samantlia at Saratogfa.— One 



of the richest books in genuine humor 

 that has been published for many years, 

 in the English language, is "Samantha 

 at Saratoga," by Miss Marietta Holley. 

 Rev. Dr. Newman, the Bishop of the 

 Methodist Episcopal Church, says of this 

 book : 



" I commend ' Samantha at Saratoga ' 

 as an antidote for the blues, a cure-all 

 for any kind of imaginary woe, a recrea- 

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 laughing at fashionable folly ; it is ex- 

 alted wit with the scalpel in one hand 

 and the Balm of Gilead in the other. 

 Her personality is intense, her genius 

 immense, her art perfect. She stands 

 alone in her chosen sphere without a 

 rival." 



Read our great offer of this book free, 

 on page 773 of last copy of the Bee 

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