48 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



en Gleanings. What little I have been 

 able to accomplish I never could have done 

 had it not been for the kind and earnest sup- 

 port and encouraging words from God-fear- 

 ing friends like yourself. 



BEE DIARRHCE A : WHAT DO WE KNOW^ 

 ABOUT IT? 



MAY IT BK THE FAULT OF THE QUEEN AND NOT 

 THE BEES? 



fOR the past three or four years I have been of 

 the opinion, that if our bees could fly every 

 two ^veeks or oftener we should never 

 know of such a thing as bee-diarrhoea; and 

 while I am of the same opinion still, as far as 

 our losing large apiaries is concerned (with the 

 above conditions present), yet I have had an experi- 

 ence the past fall and this winter which shows that 

 bees can have the bee-diarrh(ea when they have a 

 chance to fly often. This experience also points 

 toward the trouble being caused by the queen, and 

 wholly upsets uearly if not quite all of the theories 

 which have been advanced regarding this dreaded 

 disease of the bees. 



The fore part of September, 1885, 1 commenced to 

 prepare ray bees for winter by looking each one 

 over carefully, taking out the frames to see if they 

 had honey enough, and to know their condition gen- 

 erally, as I gave on page 731. In this way I prepar- 

 ed a few colonies a day, along as I had time from 

 ray other cares, so that I did not fully complete the 

 job till October 15. In thus preparing thera I found 

 that only 5 out of the 95 colonies had any brood in 

 their hives, four of which had young queens which 

 began to lay about Sept. 25th, the colonies of which 

 were formed by uniting several nuclei together, 

 and one other which was the colony which cast the 

 third prime swarm cf the season; consequently it 

 had one of the first queens reared during 1885, as 

 the colony was allowed to rear its own queen. This 

 last-named colony happened to be one of the 15 last 

 gotten ready for winter, and was prepared on Oct. 

 12th. At this time I noticed a little patch of bi-ood 

 in one comb about as large as a silver dollar, which 

 looked similar to the first brood started by a colony 

 in the spring. The queen looked rather larger than 

 the other queens in the yard, and more as a queen 

 does in early spring. They had plenty of well- 

 ripened basswood honey, and a fair awiount of pol- 

 len. A few days after this the hive was packed for 

 winter, as were the most of the rest of them at that 

 time. From the 20th to the 31st of October, all my 

 bees had three or four flights, as they also did on 

 one or two occasions in November, at which time 

 those colonies formed by uniting nuclei, which had 

 brood in them, carried in pollen from the witch- 

 hazel quite freely; but from long continued watch- 

 ing I failed to see a bee carrying pollen into the 

 hive above mentioned. Instead of this they acted 

 as nearly all colonies of Italian bees do in early 

 spring; i. c, they were standing thickly about the 

 entrance, with many bees flying; those not flying- 

 were acting as if they were trying to guard the 

 hive from robbeis. As it came late in November I 

 would see them flying upon days when not a bee 

 would be stirring from any other hive, and now 

 they began to show outward signs of diarrhoea, as 

 they would spot the tops of tjie hives abopt thpni Jn 



tiieir fl}sr)itg: 



I was resolved, that if a day occurred that was 

 warm enough to handle bees I would open this hive 

 and see what I could learn regarding them; but so 

 far there has been but one day on which this could 

 be done, and that was when I was at Detroit at the 

 bee convention. The day before Christmas they 

 flew some, with the mercury at 44°, jDut I did not 

 think it best to open them when so cool. The next 

 day after I got back from Detroit I raised the hive 

 from the bottom-board and found several imma- 

 ture j'oung bees, all of worker size, on the bottom- 

 board, at which time I cleared off all the debris 

 found. At that time the hive seemed filled with 

 bees, some of which flew out while I was cleaning 

 the bottom-board, spotting the snow, and soon dy- 

 ing, as all bees do when they have the diarrhoea, 

 and can get out. I have again this morning cleared 

 the bottom-board, getting about a quai't of dead di- 

 arrhoetic bees, together with quite a number of 

 immature bees, the most of which are now dwarf 

 drones. There was also a large quantity of as nice 

 white wax scales fallen to the bottom with these 

 dead bees, said scales being as perfect as any I ever 

 saw in July. The bees, instead of occupying the 

 whole hive, are now reduced so that they are between 

 only five combs, occupying four spaces. Those 

 on the outside of the cluster (if they can be said to 

 be clustered) are bloated to nearly bursting, while 

 the combs and surroundings are soiled, and smell 

 as badly as do such hives having had diseased col- 

 onics in them, and dying in Mai-ch. In fact, to-day, 

 Jan. 1, 1886, they are in the last stages of beediar- 

 rhnea, which disease, it is evident, began about Oct. 

 1, when that little patch of brood was started. 

 Now, what caused it? Did the queen and bees 

 know that she was to become a drone-layer, and 

 th\is try to rear brood out of season so as to get a 

 new queen? Or what did that desire for brood spring 

 from? Surely it w^as not cold nor confinement nor 

 dampness, nor their being obliged to eat pollen, 

 nor any of the many causes heretofore given as 

 producing said disease. Perhaps friend W. F. 

 Clarke, of Canada, will say it was lack of hibernat- 

 ing. Well, perhaps it was; for all the other 94 col- 

 onies, both in the cellar and outdoors, even to the 

 four colonies made of united nuclei, are in that qui- 

 escent state Mr. Clarke calls "hilternation." 



Borodino, N. Y. 0. M. Doolittle. 



Friend D.. this matter was discussed some 

 years ago, you may remember, and the 

 thought Drought prominently forward then 

 was, that it so often happens a colony will 

 winter all right, year after year, so long as 

 the old queen lives ; but when a new one 

 takes her place, then we have losses in win- 

 tering. Almost every bee-keeper has had 

 particular hives that always wintered nicely, 

 and gave a good yield of honey, and large in- 

 crease in bees, until the queen was changed 

 or superseded, and then troubles came. 1 

 have been strongly of the opinion for some 

 time that queens sometimes have much to 

 do with this matter ; at other times the pe- 

 culiar good qualities of a set of combs seem 

 to have something to do with it ; and, again, 

 the location of the hive, where wintered out- 

 doors — its protection from the prevailing 

 winds, etc., has seemed a factor. I am glad 

 you have called attention to the matter of 

 the queen in regard to this matter of dysen- 

 tery, for may l)s tUere is more tbgre than wp 



