July. 1909. 



American Hee Journal 



ing some bees a short distance to the 

 cellar, after they had been confined to 

 their hives by a half-depth body screen 

 on the bottom for ventilation, it being 

 the intention to leave this screen on 

 the hives all winter so that the bees 

 would not be able to leave the hives at 

 all, a la Hershiser. After the bees were 

 shut in, and before they were put into 

 the cellar, the weather turned quite 

 warm, and as a natural result the bees 

 were very much excited and very un- 

 easy when put into the cellar, and for 

 some days afterwards. In commenting 

 on the experience of Mr. H., I said 

 that I would not like to have my bees 

 in that shape, but hazarded the guess 

 that all would be well, provided the 

 stores were of the best. 



In the April Review, Air. Hutchinson 

 tells of the results of his experiment, 

 and I am sorry to say that it is not of a 

 very encouraging nature. The bees re- 

 mained very uneasy and had to be put 

 out of the cellar in January, and if the 

 winter had been severe the chances are 

 that the loss would have been very 

 heavy, but as it is he expects to pull 

 through with a loss of 25 percent. He. 

 of course, blames the disaster to the fact 

 of the bees being shut in the hives, but 

 personally I would be inclined to blame 

 the abnormal condition under which the 

 bees were put into the cellar. 



Whea I said that I would not like to 

 have my bees go into the cellar in that 

 condition, I had in mind that abnormal 

 condition, and never thought of the 

 bees being confined to the hives, as be- 

 ing a cause of bad wintering. True, I 

 did jokingly say that Mr. Hutchinson 

 was using a device which he had char- 

 acterized as a "harmless invention," in 

 that he was confining the bees to the 

 hive as did the Hershisher bottom- 

 board, but there is a vast difference be- 

 tween a screen at the bottom of a hive- 

 body as compared with the Hershisher 

 device that has the screens at the side. 

 In the former case the dead bees would 

 fall on the screen and shut off ventila- 

 tion. 



Be it understood and right here that 

 I hold no brief for Mr. Hershiser, and 

 have no actual experience with his clos- 

 ing device, but as I understand its con- 

 struction, I would have no hesitation 

 in using it if I were doing much cellar- 

 wintering. 



Let us consider for a minute the con- 

 dition those bees of Mr. Hutchinson's 

 were in when they were put into the 

 cellar. If they could have been put 

 into the cellar as soon as they were shut 

 in, the chances are that all would have 

 been well, as there are numerous in- 

 stances where bees have been moved 

 and put into the cellar without having 

 had a flight after the moving. How- 

 ever, I believe that all of us think it 

 better for the bees to have a flight in 

 such cases if it is possible. In the case 

 referred to, the bees were shut in and 

 moved off the stands, and then the 

 weather turned very warm. This natu- 

 rally aroused the bees to a great pitch 

 of excitement, and as they were kept 

 closed and then carried into the cel- 

 lar while all in an uproar, it would not 

 surprise me if bees in that condition 

 should develop dysentery inside of a 



montli. It is quite possible, as all who 

 have shipped bees much know, to de- 

 velop a case of dysentery in a colony 

 even in the summer time ; especially is 

 this true of some of the more excitable 

 strains of bees. 



Mr. Hutchinson says, "When the 

 schoolmaster or the parent, or the edi- 

 tor, makes a mistake, there always seems 

 to be a lot of enjoyment on the part 

 of the children or the subscribers, and 

 it is possible tliere will be something 

 doing,'' now in that line. If he means 

 that ICC "children" are going to rejoice 

 because of his failure, I venture to say 

 that he is making a bigger mistake than 

 he did when he roused those bees up 

 so before putting them in the cellar. 



While it is true, as he says, that his 

 characterization of the Hershisher bot- 

 tom-board as a "harmless invention," 

 did afford "a lot of interest to our 

 Canadian friends," I hasten to remind 

 him that both he and Mr. Hershisher 

 know the writer of these notes well 

 enough that they must surely have dis- 

 covered ere this his weakness in being 

 inclined to treat some things with the 

 spirit of levity, and perhaps failing too 

 often to treat the things of this life 

 in a serious enough manner. Thi^ will 

 be my excuse if I have in the question 

 under discussion, said anything that 

 would have been better left unsaid. 



Distance Bees Go for Nectar. 



What G. M. Doolittle says in the June 

 number about the distance bees will go 

 for nectar, does not in my opinion give 

 so much encouragement to the idea that 

 bees ordinarily fly as much as 4 miles or 

 more. The pasture gradually extending 

 up a hillside, link by link, as was the 

 case with the basswood in the years he 

 recorded such long flights, is something 

 that does not occur in many years in 

 most localities. Under such conditions, 

 one can readily imagine that bees would 

 fly much farther than they would when 

 great blank spaces, in so far as nectar 

 is concerned, have to be passed over. Be 

 that as it may, I know that our home 

 yard of bees have in years past got noth- 

 ing whatever when 3 miles away where 

 there was buckwheat, bees there would 

 be storing a good surplus. 



As far as I am concerned, under or- 

 dinary conditions, I do not take into 

 account any possible value of forage 

 over 2I/2 miles away, as time after time 

 I have seen incidents as related about 

 the buckwheat 3 miles away. Had there 

 been patches of buckwheat scattered all 

 along the 3 miles I can readily believe 

 that the bees might have found the large 

 acreage at the end of the chain, but there 

 was absolutely notliing to connect with 

 the source of nectar, consequently it was 

 never found by the bees. 



outhern 



Conducted by LOUIS H. SCHuLL. iNew braunieis, lex. 



Bee-Stlngs for Rheumatism. 



Although this is an old story, there are 

 many doubting Thomases who do not be- 

 lieve that bee-stings can be used as a 

 successful cure for rheumatism. The 

 writer was one of these for a long time, 

 although leaning toward the belief that 

 there might be something in it, until sev- 

 eral 3-ears ago when I was so thoroughly 

 convinced that I have been not only an 

 advocate of such treatment, but have ap- 

 plied the treatment both to myself and to 

 other patients with success. 



It is needless to say that a cure can 

 be eflfected for all kinds of rheumatism, 

 perhaps. However, all the cases of 

 which I know, a cure was made in every 

 case. I do not know of a single case 

 where the bee-sting cure failed, and some 

 twenty cases of treatment can be refer- 

 red to. 



Several persons have told me that af- 

 ter suffering for years, and having tried 

 all the doctors and patent medicines, be- 

 sides trying different "baths" at various 

 resorts, which had been recommended to 

 them, without avail, their last resort was 

 "bee-stings." and now they are well. 

 Some have stumbled on this "cure" ac- 

 cidentally, tried it, and w-ere cured. 



while others had known of bee-stings as 

 a relief for rheumatism, but who dread- 

 ed this kind of cure more than the dis- 

 ease. Later, being finally driven to 

 "bear it and grin," the bee-stings were 

 tried and the patients were healed. 



For a time — possibly about 3 years — I 

 suffered more or less from rheumatism 

 in one arm and one leg. This was dur- 

 ing a period in which very little work 

 with the bees was done by me, and hence 

 I was not stung often. Later I took up 

 bee-keeping again, but without the least 

 thought about my rheumatism and the 

 connection bee-stings might have with it. 

 It was not until late in the season that I 

 became aware that my pains were gone. 

 The numbers of stings received in the 

 work ran into the hundreds, and I am 

 sure that they cured me. Never since 

 then have I had anv more trouble with 

 rheumatism, and neither is its return 

 expected unless the bee-stings are left 

 off entirely. Then if such should occur 

 my first remedy would be bcc-stings. 



One of my relatives, and next door 

 neighbor, suffered so severely with rheu- 

 matism that he had to give up work en- 

 tirely for months. All kinds of medi- 

 cines and doctors had been tried, and 



