1881 



GLEANIi^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



529 



This observation is of no little interest as an item 

 in science. Every new fact like this is very valua- 

 ble. A. J. Cook. 



Ag. Col., Lansing, Mich., Oct. IT, 1881. 



A NEW CO.II B-HOL.de: R. 



WN taking out the fir.st comb from a hive 

 Jll full. I presume almost every one has 

 looked about wishfully for some place 

 to hang or stand it. witliout hurting the bees 

 that ought to be found covering every part 

 of it. If stood on end with considerable 

 care, you may not hurt bees ; but if it tum- 

 bles down, or gets blown over by the wind, 

 you may not only have bees killed, but the 

 queen too. as has happened several times to 

 my knowledge. You will observe that we 

 have a device, made of folded tins, shown in 

 our price list, to hang on the edge of the 

 hive, for this purpose. Well, a few days 

 ago a visitor, Mr. H. W. Minns, of Xew 

 London. Ohio, brought into the office a de- 

 vice for the same purpose, shown below. 



It is made of strap 

 iron, such as is used 

 for ironing the upper 

 edges of wagon-box- 

 es, and, when well 

 made,looks very neat. 

 When it is to be 

 shipped, or laid away 

 on a shelf, the cross- 

 irons can be turned 

 on the rivets so that 

 it is in a very com- 

 pact form, and it oc- 

 cupies less space than 

 MACHINE FOR HOLD- ^yhen opeu. as in the 



ING THE FIRST C03I15. put. The CXpeuSC iS 



just the same as our tin ones ; but as the 

 iron is heavier, it will cost more to send 

 them by mail. 



^ m » 



POLLEN; ITS PRESENCE IN W^INTER. 



FRIEND PETERS' OPINION OF IT. 



IfT^DITOR GLEANINGS:— In your August num. 

 f^^ \ ber is an article headed " Come, Ictus Reason 

 Together," from Mr. Heddon, seeming! j' in- 

 tended to invite discussion, or, rather, to draw out 

 the opinions of bee-keepers on the subject of the 

 influence of bee-bread, or pollen, as a factor in the 

 production of bee dysentery. It is not the purpose 

 of this paper to criticise the settled convictions of 

 one so practical in all his views on apiculture as 

 friend Heddon has hitherto shown himself; but as 

 he invites us to " reason together," I suppose his ob- 

 ject is to call forth the opinions of other bee-keepers 

 on that especial subject. For myself, I can not for 

 a moment entertain the belief that pollen, perse, 

 ever did produce bee dysentery. For all insect cre- 

 ation, nature has been lavish in yielding natural 

 food for their support and development. Fields and 

 forest abound in a profusion of pollen-bearing 

 flowers whose secreting vessels pour out the fra- 

 grant pabulum of bee-life. The physiology of bee 

 organism, from the earliest history to the present 

 time, clearly indicates the peculiar fitness of such 

 food; and there is not, never was, and perhaps 

 never will be, any substitute that is so perfectly 



adapted to that end. So well established is the fact, 

 that the food sought bj' instinct in nature's labora- 

 tory by all animal nature Is essentially the very ele- 

 mentary principles of those creatures, that some 

 physiologists have supposed that at some antece- 

 dent period the food, or ingesta, had a great influ- 

 ence in molding the characteristics of both insect 

 and animal races. How, then, I ask, can bee dysen- 

 tery be ascribed to the food so well suited to the 

 growth and development of the young insect, and 

 in part the food during the natural life of the older 

 bees? Such a fact, if such it could possibly be, 

 would subvert nature's laws of aliment and assimi- 

 lation. I am ready to admit, there are many cir- 

 cumstances connected with bee-cellars and bee- 

 houses in the State of Michigan, which we of this 

 latitude can not fully appreciate; but if friend 

 Heddon's views are correct, the Avhole multitude of 

 nursing bees in existence must learn anew how to 

 select some food better adapted to the digestive or- 

 gans of bees besides the time-honored bee-bread — 

 the aliment of all former generations of bees. I do 

 not believe bee-bread is as noxious as he supposes, 

 from the fact that there is a greater variety of pol- 

 lens gathered from the flora of the Mississippi 

 River bottom than from any other place in America. 

 The great earthquakes of 1811 produced an upheaval 

 of all the region about New Madrid, Mo., and a cor- 

 responding sinking in Tennessee, on the east side, 

 creating Red Foot Lake, and a corresponding de- 

 pression on that side along the St. Francis River, e.v- 

 tending over a large area of land; this last, the sunk 

 lands, goes dry after the subsidence of the spring 

 floods, when myriads of vines, weeds, shrubs, etc., 

 spring up and fill the air with aroma many miles 

 around, and affording the greatest locality In the 

 world for bee-raising, on account of the great 

 quantity and variety of pollen. Hunters take large 

 amounts of wild honey for market, and yet the 

 number of wild colonies is still on the increase. 

 This strange convulsion, resulting in the produc- 

 tion of sunken lands, and upheaval of the New 

 Madrid countrj-, has developed the flnest country 

 for bee-keeping known to this region of the State, 

 and no one ever saw bee dysentery among either 

 wild or domesticated bees in that section. In this 

 bottom country, where the alluvial soil is most fer- 

 tile, and flowers exuberate and are rich In honej" 

 and pollen, and where bee-rearing is so successful 

 without any disease whatever, I am forced to discard 

 the views of friend Heddon. All the world will 

 agree that animal life is most thrifty, and the indi- 

 vidual more perfectly developed, where natural 

 food is most abundant. In all this vast variety of 

 heterogeneous flowers, whoso pollen is all thrown to- 

 gether in the arcana of the bee-hive, why has the 

 bee dysentery never visited us? If bee-bread ever 

 did produce the disease, this extensive mixing of 

 many kinds of pollen should certainly develop it. I 

 I have known bees In February without one drop of 

 honey, but with a liberal supply of pollen, pull 

 through for three weeks until the maple blossoms 

 came to their relief. No dysentery then. For fifty 

 years have I seen abundant stores of pollen In my 

 colonies, on M'hich the young bee was fed, and the 

 old bee partly supported through wintw, and up to 

 this good day never have I seen a case of bee dys- 

 entery. From these considerations, I am Induced to 

 believe our friend is mistaken In his conclusions as 

 to the causes of the disease, and do not hesitate to 

 advance the opinion, that the real cause may be 



