392 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Arc 



WHY DID THEV DIE? 



ItY .I.VMES HEDDON. 



"CDiuf, let us reason together." 



flHIS case of last winter's depredations is one of 

 such vast importance and interest lo us, that 

 it will never come off the docket till the fate 

 of next winter cniwdx it off. The reports of last 

 season's successes and failures bear me out, at least 

 to a g'reat extent, in my preconceived notions as to 

 why our bees die during- winter. 



For some few years back I have felt .sure that the 

 principal trouble was in the food, and so I wrote up- 

 on the sub.ieet. Now I wish to appeal directly to 

 the reason of each reader, and ask him this 

 question: Is it not fair to suppose that this disas- 

 trous result, whose phenomena are so universally 

 alike, is caused by one and the same thing? What 

 proportion of colonies in apiaries generally, do you 

 suppose, would die during winter if there was no 

 such a disease or effect as what we know by the 

 name of bee dysentery? Now, the worthy object of 

 each scientific searcher is to find the fdimr of this 

 malady. I have declared that my experience and 

 observation forced me to believe that the cause is 

 in the food, in the form of an over-amount of animal 

 or vegetable matter. I thought that perhaps it 

 might be animal (bacterious), and threw out the hy- 

 pothesis, to see what might come out of a philosoph- 

 ical if not a mechanical research into the theoi'^. I 

 always said I did not lamw that any such micrococus 

 existed; I never said I really and fully believed it; 

 but that, in our inttaite ignorance, why not guess at 

 a cause, and then base our experiments upon that 

 guess? I could sec no other way to get hold of the 

 case. We were forced to commence at the outside, 

 and work in to a center. I considered that bacteri- 

 ous guess as the only one that would cover all the 

 cases that had come within my knowledge, and con- 

 sequently a good point to commence work at. Last 

 winter, all of nine-tenths of the colonies of this 

 whole region failed to survive the period of confine- 

 ment. Of my own 196 colonies, 1 was presented with 

 122 subjects for post-mortem examination. I im- 

 proved the opportunity to the best of my aliility, 

 and have only just closed the work; and for the first 

 time since I have kept bees I am iimc salisfinl (tx to 

 tlif catiKC iif hcc ihjxeHhrn. What I suspected as the 

 possible cause (as referred to on page 272 of June 

 Gleanings), I now fully believe to be pollen. My 

 former suspicions, that the trouble was wrapped up 

 in the food, were correct; but that it is in the honej' 

 I now do not believe. I place it in the adjoining 

 cell, in the form of bee-bread. Upon this rock I 

 shall stand, until forced by further proof to step 

 down and off. I believe that all the results that have 

 been made known, either by observation, experi- 

 ence, or report, can be accounted for upon the pol- 

 len theory. The kind of bee-bread, the amount, the 

 quality of the honey, and consequent greater or less 

 preference for it over bee-bread; the hardiness of 

 either during our protracted cold spells, when the 

 bees can move about but little to choose which they 

 will feed upon, and, in fact, all conditions that cause 

 the bees to consume bread instead of honey, will ac- 

 count for the \ astly different results that we expe- 

 rience, observe, and read about in different seasons 

 and localities. 



I am of the opinion, that any process that will 

 cause the bees to feed upon any honey that they 



may have in the hive, to the total avoidance of the 

 bee-bread, will be the "open sesame" to success in 

 wintering. I deem all the talk about "dampness," 

 ' fall honej'," "ventilation," "holes throu^'h the 

 combs," etc., as having only a slight bearing upon 

 the cause at best, and a tendency to lead our minds 

 from the rra^. cause. I can think ( f no greater sin 

 than intentionally leading astray those of less expe- 

 rience; so when we tliiiik that some one is being mis- 

 led, however honestly so, it becomes a duty to put 

 in our mite in what we hdicir the right direction, as 

 viewed from our standpoint, whether the future 

 should bear us out or not; and so the discussion 

 goes on. These discussions arc not only of profit, 

 but pleasure, because it is his argument, and not 

 the man, that we combat. 



Our old friend and benefactor, Langstroth, has 

 given his views upon our recent disasters, and I am 

 compelled to say that my experience does not cor- 

 roborate his conclusions. In regard to "spreading 

 the combs," I supposed that the distance we placed 

 our frames apart was taken from nature. I never 

 discovered that combs in box hives were further 

 apart than those in the Standard L. hive, except 

 some drone pieces sometimes found in the extreme 

 corners. But however that may be, I am unwilling 

 to recognize box hives or hollows in trees to be our 

 standard of successful wintering. This same dysen- 

 tery cleans out trees and box hives wholesale, when- 

 ever it visits us in its severity. Mr. Ferry had one 

 left alive out of 85; Mr. Jenkins 1 out of tiS; all in 

 box hives. I doubt not but holes in the combs 

 would serve the purpose of giving the bees a better 

 choice in food, and pro\e an adjunct to success; but 

 as long as these holes of nil sorts (tio-lined) have 

 long been advocated, owinv'- to the impracticability 

 of the process, they are hardly ever used. 



I accomplish what 1 believe to be the same result,' 

 and more completely, too, in the following manner. 

 I put two little bows, thus: ' — - over the top of the 

 hive, and the quilt and packing over them, and this 

 2-inch space gives the cluster a tine chance to work 

 down between any of iheir 8 ranges of combs and 

 honey, in the shallow 8-frame L. hives. We know 

 that colonies fed with sugar are more apt to siu-vive. 

 My idea is, that its superior sweetness, and addition 

 to the amount of honey compared to the amount of 

 bee-bread, induces the bees to partake of it only to 

 the avoidance of the bread, as a rule. We know of 

 cases, however, where stocks have died with the 

 malady, fed all their liquid stores of sugar syrup. 

 I believe that if, in addition to this, all bread had 

 been removed, success would have been realized. 



Now, I do not wish to be understood as ignoring 

 most of the modern appliances for the safer winter- 

 ing of bees. Packing in boxes is good. Cellaring is 

 good (some winters one is safer, and in others the 

 other plan;) absorbents are also an aid; but that 

 young bees, over-grown colonies, high board fences, 

 the way the hive faces, and a dozen other such con- 

 trivances, arc causes, or even potent adjuncts, to 

 success, experience does not bear us out in be- 

 lieving- 



I have just read the article of Mr. Grimm, "one 

 who does winter bees." His first admonition, to 

 supply each full colony with at least 2 five-pound 

 combs of thick sealed honey ("if they need it"), 

 would likely prove a great advantage to all well bee- 

 breaded colonies. These combs would be filled with 

 honey to the exclusion of bread. I suppose he 

 world consider that they needed it, provided they 



