1881 



glea:nixgs in bee culture. 



.543 



must have been the primary cause, while cold and 

 confinement are the great ag„'ravations of this 

 cause. Finally Mr. B. admits that cold caused the 

 bees to eat pollen, which caused the disease, and 

 calls the pollen a secondary cause- and so, after all, 

 all the difference there is between ui is as to which 

 plays first and which plays second fiddle. "Let us 

 sec." Pollen-eating- will produce dysentery, and kill 

 the stocks almost clean throug-h the southern por- 

 tion of Indiana, where no excessive cold of long du- 

 ration, or excessive confinement, existed. The ab- 

 sence of pollen, in any position in the hive where 

 the bees would be inclined to use it during confine- 

 ment, allowed whole apiaries in Northern Michigan 

 to winter successfully, where cold and confinement 

 were existing in all their glory. Now, you can 

 choose for yourself which shall be called the primarj' 

 cause. I have made my choice. Time will decide, 

 and I am willing to abide by the decision. 



I have just read the article on "Upward Ventila- 

 tion " on p. -107, by Jerome Wiltse. It seems to me 

 that this article is worth the price of Gleanings for 

 one year, to every subscriber. That makes a total 

 value of St419. At least, let us sincerely thank Mr. 

 W. for his candid style, his energy in collecting the 

 facts and figures, and his benevolence in giving them 

 to us that we may profit thereby. I have experi- 

 mented every winter of the thirteen that I have 

 kept bees, and I have used different houses with 

 thick-filled walls above ground, house apiarj-, cellar, 

 buried (both above and below the surface), packed 

 on summer stands with different styles of boxes, and 

 used many variations with each and all of these 

 methods, and have demonstrated and written thatf 

 my bees neglected, often came out best of all. I 

 have heard every plan for wintering bees praised 

 and condemned by turns, and now the favorite chaff 

 packing and cushions are being condemned, even 

 when the bees are to be left out. My idea is, that 

 any thing that will prevent the consumption of pol- 

 len by the hatched bees, will prevent the dysentery, 

 which will prevent over nine-tenths of all losses out- 

 side of careless starvation. It seems more than 

 likely that this great amount of ventilation reported 

 in the successful cases by Mr. W. prevented the bees 

 from breeding, and consequent handling of pollen. 

 AVe must not forget, however, that there may bo in- 

 stances where honey is scarce and pollen plenty in 

 the hive; that during cold spells, when the bees can 

 not change position, they will go to eating pollen as 

 a last alternative. I think the success of the large 

 hives consists in the fact, that the size retarded 

 winter brood-rearing. 



I once lost all but 3 colonies out of 48; 46 of them 

 had dysentery. One that had it squeezed through in 

 a weak condition; of the two that did not have it, 

 one was a box hive that was all split open in two 

 places clear up the sides; also on top. It was win- 

 tered on the summer stand, three feet from the 

 ground, and with no care. The other one was a 

 frame hive, brought from a distant locality, where it 

 summered alone, and placed on a square box in 

 our cellar, with three other hives that all rotted 

 down, so to speak, with dysentery in its blackest 

 form, as did all the rest of the apiary in that cellar. 

 This colony did not lose a dozen bees; and this and 

 many other circumstances convinced me that the 

 disease is not infectious. 



Now, we all owe Mr. Wiltse, and all others who 

 have given us their time and losses in experiment, a 

 report of the very most comprehensive experiments 



we are capable of making the coming winter. Near- 

 ly all of us have notions now fixed, and let us dis- 

 prove them the coming winter, if we can. There is 

 no grander exclamation than to sa.v, " I was mista- 

 ken, and hasten to own It, and assist the wheel of 

 progress in its revolutions, ratherthan tohinder It." 

 "Open confession is good for the soul." We need 

 have no fears of treating a number of colonies in a 

 manner formerly considered murderous; they may 

 prove to be the strongest of all when spring comes. 

 Our tests should l)e made on as large a scale as pos- 

 sible. We should also take advantage of and report 

 our observations among our neighbor bee-keepers, 

 as Mr. W. did. Then let us observe, decide, and re- 

 port, without the least bias or care what we may 

 have said and believed before. Let us be honest 

 with our last and best thought. " This, to thine own 

 self be true, and it follows (as the day does the 

 night), thou canst be false to no man." I shall take 

 a large dose of my own advice, and make as extend- 

 ed experiments as mj- '„'10 colonies will admit of. 

 Thca when the proper time comes, we will, by an 

 interchange of experiences, show old Luck that we 

 have taken another fort, and that it is only a ques- 

 tion of time when he will be forced to an uncondi- 

 tional and complete surrender. James Heddon. 

 Djwagiae, Mich., Oct. 1, 1881. 



SOME QUESTIONS FROM AN A B C 

 SCHOLAR. 



p^^lHE selected imported queen I ordered from 

 PJI you Aug. 27 came to hand Sept. 1, and at noon 



you 



— ' to-day she had about one card full of eggs. I 

 was away from home when she came, but my wife 

 introduced her according to directions on the Peet 

 cage, and she is all right. 



It has been very dry here for some time past, but 

 there has been no time during the spring, summer, 

 or fall months of the two years past, that brood- 

 rearing has ceased in my yard. So you see we are 

 rather favorably situated. 



BFSOOD-nEAItlNG WHILE STOIIIXG IS GOING ON 

 AT50VE. 



Ho'v do you manage to keep up brood-rearing, and 

 still get the bees to work in the crates? After try- 

 ing tbis summer to get my bees to fill the crates, 1 

 have found the brood-chamber almost destitute of 

 eggs, larva?, and brood, and the chamber full of 

 honey instead. 



Do you advise extracting from the brood-chamber? 

 and if so, how late in the fall? or how Iohr before 

 time for honey to cease coming in should we stop? 



EMPTY COMB FOR BROOD-REARING IN THE FALL. 



Ought there to be empty comb for brood-rearing 

 after honey ceases to flow? If so, how much? 



REARING BOTH DRONES AND QUEENS FROM ONE 

 MOTHER. 



As I now have an imported queen, how shall I in- 

 sure the purest stock the coming year-by usingher 

 to raise both drones and queens, or would it be bet- 

 ter to use my next best for raising drones? (I have 

 a pretty good one.) How often do you advise chang- 

 ing the stock of queens to prevent in-and-in breed- 

 ing? A man told me to-day he had found 7 swarms 

 in the woods around here this fall -all Italians. 



McBrides, Mich., Sept. 5, 1881. F. A. Palmer. 



I would not extract from the brood-cham- 

 ber, as a general thing. If your surplus re- 

 ceptacles are easy of access, as with the hives 



