A 



C 



AI-KII-. 1917 



C. K., Illinois 



— How tan 1 



il e t e r m in c 



when a colony 

 has or has had 

 (lysontory '>. 



A. In early 

 spring, when the 

 bees have their 

 first flight there 

 will be more or less spotting of the liivos. 

 even with healthy colonies. That is to say, 

 the bees will in flight cast small drops of 

 a light yellow liquid excreta. Unless these 

 spots are of a very dark-brown or black 

 color they do not indicate anything abnormal 

 — certainly not dysentery; bnt if the front of 

 the hives is badly smeared up with dark- 

 brown or black spots, and particularly if the 

 inside of the hive has its combs smeared over 



• with ill-smelling dark-brown or blackish ex- 

 creta, about half or two-thirds of the bees 

 dead, and the rest listless, it may be con- 

 cluded that it is a bad ease of dysentery, and 

 that there is probably no hope. 



A colony may have a slight attack of dys- 

 entery affecting a few individual bees; but 

 with the approach of warm weather it will 

 soou recover itself. 



B. C. C, Pennsylvania. — What is the cause of 

 dysentery ? 



A. Bad food, insufficient protection, a 

 small cluster in the fall, improper housing, 

 or a severely cold winter. Any one of the 

 conditions mentioned may cause dysentery; 

 but usually it requires a combination of two 

 or three. A good colony on bad food, well 

 protected, will generally come thru the win- 

 ter in good condition without dysentery. A 

 small colony or nucleus, even when well pack- 

 ed, may have the disease, because the cluster 

 is not large enough to keep up bodily heat in 

 a severely cold part of the winter in spite of 

 jirotection. Bad food, unripened honey, or 

 honey-dew may cause dysentery when all 

 other conditions are as they should be. A 

 very prolonged and severely cold winter, with 

 the mercury below zero most of the time, 

 may cause a good many well-housed colonies 

 in the apiary to show dysentery before 

 spring; but such winters fortunately are few 

 and far between. 



Dysentery will be caused by having the 

 house cellar too warm with insufficient venti- 

 lation. It may be caused, likewise, by the 

 opposite condition of the cellar — too cold. A 

 temperature of 50 degrees Fahr., with a larfe 

 amount of ventilation in the cellar, will 

 usually insure against dysentery, provided, 

 of course, the colony is not too weak or the 

 stores bad. Even then, if temperature and 

 ventilation are right, there may. and prob- 

 ably will be, no trouble. 



W. Z. K., New York. — What is sprint; dwindlins? 



A. This can hardly be called a disease, but, 

 rather, a gradual reduction in the strength 

 of a very weak cluster of bees to start on. 

 Improper housing or improper food may start 

 dysentery. In either case, the colony, in an 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



GLEANED by ASKING 



E. R. Root 



1 



^^^^^^^^ 



277 



effort to keep 

 warm, becomes 

 too active, and 

 consumes too 

 heavily of its 

 stores, with the 

 result that many 

 bees, in their 

 distress from re- 

 tained feces, rush out of the hive in cold 

 weather and die. This constant depletion in 

 numbers continues until not over a handful 

 will be left surrounding the queen. Some- 

 times spring dwindling is accompanied by no 

 signs of dysentery but a gradual dying-off 

 of the bees, due to the fact that the colony 

 went into winter quarters with too many 

 old bees, and these, continuing to die off, 

 leave but a mere handful by spring. 



Uniting small clusters with other small clus- 

 ters does but little good. However, a bunch of 

 bees on a frame of brood placed in the upper 

 story of a strong colony may build up into 

 a nice colony. See Alexander plan in A B C 

 and X Y Z of Bee Culture. 



N. A. C, Ohio. — Nearly every spring my neigh- 

 bors complain that my bees are visiting the cow- 

 stables, and driving the cattle out of the barn. 

 What can I do to prevent this? 



A. There is not much that one can do to 

 stop it. However, the presence of a large 

 amount of pollen the previous fall in combs 

 placed outside of the brood-nest, will go a 

 long way toward its prevention. Placing 

 cotton-seed meal or rye meal in tra,vs in the 

 apiary will sometimes act as a counter-at- 

 traction. Get the bees started with a little 

 syrup or sweetened water. The trays should 

 be placed in a sheltered spot in the sunshine, 

 when the bees will visit it on warm days. If 

 you can get them started in the first place on 

 these trays of meal they will not bother the 

 neighbors' stables. 



J. K. M., Iowa. — How soon (an I unpack my 

 tees in the spring ? 



A. Better leave the packing on too long 

 than to take if off too soon. Leave it on un- 

 til settled warm weather comes on. The 

 outer cases sometimes have to be removed in 

 order to make it possible to put on upper 

 stories with a large amount of extra room; 

 but when a colony is able to take an upper 

 story, no harm will be done by removing the 

 outside packing-case. 



L. S. V. Indiana. — How many combs of stores 

 ought a colony to have in early spring to carry them 

 thru until the honey-flow? 



A. They cannot very well have too much. 

 There usually will not be more than two or 

 three combs of sealed stores. In the center 

 of the brood-nest most of the food will be 

 eaten out, and in its place will be brood. A 

 colony that is "rich in stores," as Doolittle 

 says, will rear more brood than one that is 

 short of them; hence it is very important to 

 have the brood-nest well supplied. If there 

 is only a comb or two of honey in the brood- 

 nest, two or three extra combs of sealed 



