1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



203 



were closed up ." days and 4 nights. 

 Being a novelty there,they were bandied 

 in all shapes to get a sight of the queen 

 and the yellow stripes on the bees. 



They were near the organ stand, Where 

 music and tumult was the order of the 

 day. They showed no signs of dysen- 

 tery, though worrying through the day 

 to get out. Bees are con lined and trans- 

 ported hundreds of miles without pro- 

 ducing dysentery. Hut 1 do not wish 

 to write of what does not produce the 

 disease, but what my own observation 

 convinces me does produce it. 



In looking over my bees and cleaning 

 out the hives. 1 found every dead colony 

 without honey. My hives are so ar- 

 ranged that when well packed the bees 

 can go to any part, as they pass through 

 the center of the combs. I found that 

 those bees that were on the bottom and 

 scattered between and hanging to the 

 combs, not in them, were less in bulk 

 than those found in the cells. I also 

 noticed that the amount of tilth on the 

 combs and hive was always in propor- 

 tion to the amount of bees out of the 

 cells. That was so regularly the rule 

 that when I opened a lave 1 could easily 

 tell if I was going to have a long job 

 there to get the bees out of the combs, 

 as the bees in the combs were always so 

 crowded with their feces that it was not 

 only a slow, but a very nasty job. And 

 here let me tell how I did it. I would 

 turn the top-bar down and rap on the 

 side of it, when most of the bees 

 would come out or protrude so I could 

 pull them out with my fingers. My 

 conclusion from the above is this, that 

 the bees not in the cells are those that 

 die first, and before they die they crawl 

 around, discharge their feces on the 

 combs or hive, and thus are less bloated 

 by them. In some hives I found the 

 bees all huddled together in among the 

 combs, and just here the cells were rilled 

 with bees. In this case the hives and 

 combs would be clean, and I concluded 

 that at the time of their death, and be- 

 fore, it was so very cold they could not 

 move. In these the bodies were alike 

 tilled with fecal matter. 



I will give my version of the cases 

 mentioned in the Bee Journal in crit- 

 icising my belief, and for which the edi- 

 tor has my thanks, for I deem it a 

 kindness in a man to attempt to con- 

 vince me if he thinks I am wrong, and 

 a great favor if he gives me real reasons 

 why I am wrong. Bees die with plenty 

 of honey in the hive. This was partly 

 answered in my last article, but I will 

 say that those stupid bees that have not 

 life enough to work their way down into 

 the cluster starve, and before they die 

 they crawl over the combs and discharge 

 their feces; the next under them will 

 do the same, and the last will be found 

 in the combs over which the bees had 

 concentrated, and still there may be 

 plenty of honey that these nearly dead 

 bees have crawled over and besmeared. 

 Again, bees that have the dysentery are 

 cured by a flight out-of-doors or in the 

 house. If a colony has been in so long 

 that some of the most stupid bees have 

 died with dysentery, there will be many 

 more that are too stupid to work their 

 way to the uncapped honey, but if the 

 whole colony can be effectually stirred 

 up, either by an out-door or in-door 

 flight, it will give those half-starved 

 bees a chance to get at the honey and 

 be restored, and all will have an equal 

 chance again, as when first put up in 

 the fall. Again, bees that have been 

 confined for shipment, either queens or 

 colonies, die with or have the dysentery. 

 The first thing the bees of a colony do 

 when disturbed is not to fill themselves 

 as claimed by some, but to rush out and 

 defend themselves ; they will fill them- 

 selves when subdued. Now, I believe 

 some bees when confined will com- 

 mence to worry and try to get out, and 

 continue to do so until they die, and 

 these will not touch food until they die ; 

 some will worry themselves to death be- 

 fore starvation produces dysentery, 

 others do not. but have the dysentery, 

 daub up their hives or cage, then die. 



Dr. Howard, in his article of the -4th 

 of April, says that the dysentery my 

 bees had was caused by confinement. 

 Now, if one of my horses should die in 

 the field on a pleasant, clear day, and 

 somebody in Boston that knew nothing 

 of the case should write me that the 

 horse was struck by lightning I should 



not believe it, neither will I believe thai 

 confinement caused the dysentery in my 



bees, for confinement was as far from 

 them as lightning is from us in a pleas- 

 ant day. The Doctor speaks of those 

 stupid bees. If he is a practising phy- 

 sician, he knows that it is a common 

 thing for a revival to come just before 

 death, in which the patient will be quite 

 strong, and then sink away and die; 

 this may be the case with the bees. 

 The Doctor's experience and mine with 

 starved and dysentery bees are exactly 

 the opposite, but as tins is not the first 

 time doctors have disagreed, we will 

 agree to disagree. But who shall decide? 

 1 our own experience, reason and know- 

 ledge of facts; and remember that one 

 known fact is worth more than the 

 opinion of all the doctors in the world. 



I notice that Messrs'. Doolittle and 

 Heddon are discussing the subject, and 

 I think they are both more successful 

 in destroying each other's theory than 

 in establishing their own. But this is 

 always the case where both are wrong. 

 I have as much confidence in safely 

 wintering bees as I ever had ; but well 

 packed in such a hive as mine, with 

 plenty of honey, will stand even such 

 winters as the past. I believe mine 

 would have been all right if there had 

 been honey. 



One case more and I will stop : In 

 taking off the top cushions to see which 

 bees were dead and which were not, 

 on opening one hive I thought all were 

 dead, but my son, who was with me, 

 said he thought he saw some stir. We 

 separated the combs and found some 

 bees that could move just enough to 

 show they were not entirely dead. I 

 told him I would sweeten their last mo- 

 ments ; covered them up, went to the 

 house and melted some sugar in honey 

 and water, cooled it to blood heat, and 

 turned in among the bees and on the 

 frames about a teacupfull, and covered 

 up the hive. At night I looked at them 

 again and found they had licked it all 

 up clean, and they looked up at me and 

 said just as plain as bees could say any- 

 thing, " Have you any more of that 

 stuff? if you have, bring iton." I fed 

 them that way three times a day until I 

 could safely clean out the hive and put 

 in combs of honey. They had the dys- 

 entery, were cured with honey, did not 

 fly, and are now tilling up with brood as 

 fast as any. 



I have three rules for wintering, fol- 

 low them and you are safe : 1. The col- 

 ony should be fair-sized, healthy, and 

 not very old ; 2. They should have all 

 the good healthy food they need, and 

 not any more ; 3. They should be so pro- 

 tected as to be at all times comfortable. 

 Follow these rules and bid defiance 

 to dysentery and spring dwindling. 



Mendon, Mich., May 9, 1881. 



[We have carefully perused the above 

 ably written article, but can find noth- 

 ing to substantiate the Doctor's theory. 

 Aside from the cases we have hereto- 

 fore cited, we could easily refer to scores 

 of others which have convinced us that, 

 as a rule at least, starvation is not the 

 prime cause of dysentery.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Keeping in Mississippi. 



O. M. liLANTON. 



I closed the season of 1880 with 401 

 colonies, left on the summer stands, af- 

 ter a most discouraging crop of honey ; 

 amounting only to about y. I was dis- 

 couraged and did not give the weaker 

 colonies the necessary attention, and 

 the result was a loss of about 50 colonies 

 from starvation. 



After uniting the weak and queenless 

 ones, I commenced the spring with 340 

 colonies, in excellent condition. All 

 the combs of the dead bees I used for 

 storing surplus honey. I shipped Mr. 

 Muth 2.5 colonies, which left me 215 to 

 commence with. I use the Langstroth 

 hive ,so arran ged as to use either 3 section 

 boxes of 8 frames each, or 10 Lang- 

 stroth frames in the upper story, which 

 enables me to work for comb honey 

 early in the season, when white clover 

 is in bloom, and extract altogether after 

 the first of August, when all of our 

 comb honey is too dark for marketing. 



To save my extra combs from the 

 moths, I commenced quite a number of 

 my hives, with the Langstroth frames 

 in the upper story, which has paid me 

 well in extracted honey. Brood was 

 stored in some, but they were useful in 

 building up others. I have now ob- 

 tained 2,000 lbs. of extracted and 200 

 lbs. of comb honey. 



The season has been very encouraging 

 until within the last 10 days, when 

 heavy rains with low temperature pre- 

 vented the secretion of nectar. I have 

 all my colonies this year located in one 

 apiary, and will test, to that number, 

 the question of overstocking. 



We have the white clover still in full 

 bloom, which will continue until July. 

 The " swamp woodbine," which yields 

 an immense amount of honey, is just 

 commencing. There is scarcely a tree 

 or plant here but what yields more or 

 less; even the bloom of the cottonwood 

 trees were swarming with bees, but in 

 all probability they only obtained pollen. 



There is no necessity of preparing 

 bees here for winter, except to furnish 

 them with a sufficient amount of honey. 

 Packed with chaff or hulls of cotton 

 seed is advantageous for brood-rearing. 

 I prefer 10 frames in the brood-cham- 

 ber, as they can all be occupied by the 

 queen, by the use of the extractor and 

 judicious spreading. With separators 

 I have failed. I approve of Mr. Hed- 

 don's views in regard to them. I never 

 use foundation more than % of an inch 

 wide, extending the entire length of 

 the top bar, and seldom have over 3 

 per cent, of comb unfit to pack in ship- 

 ping cases. 



Our greatest enemies are the red bee- 

 martin (Tanagracestiva), the king-bird, 

 or Pitcherry of the West Indies, and 

 Toads. 



Next to California, the alluvial lands 

 of the Mississippi River will produce 

 the greatest amount of honey, which is 

 merely a question of time. Bee-keeping 

 here is barely in its infancy. 



Greenville, Mis;-'., June 6, 1881. 



Missouri Convention. 



The Missouri State Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation met on the call of Mr. P. P. 

 Collier, Vice-President of the North 

 American Bee-Keepers' Society, and 

 organized by electing Dr. F. A. Grove, 

 of Kirksville, temporary chairman, and 

 Win. Douglas, of Audrain County 

 Secretary. A motion was made and 

 carried thatthe permanent organization 

 be deferred until Friday morning, to 

 accommonate some expected visitors. 



The next thing in order was the re- 

 ports from the bees. 



Win. C. Hamilton, of Audrian, re- 

 ported 87 in the fall, 54 in the spring, 

 lost 33, increased 3. 



Judge S. M. Edwards reported 16 in 

 the fall, 12 in the spring, loss 4. 



P. P. Collier reported 9 in the fall, 8 

 in the spring, loss 1. 



Dr. F. A. Grove reported 31 in the 

 fall, 16 in the spring, loss 15. 



Dr. E.C. L. Larch, of Ashland, report- 

 ed 110 in the fall, 109 in the spring, loss 1. 



W. A. Douglas reported 2 in the fall, 

 2 in the spring, no loss. 



After a general talk on the various 

 causes of mortality during the last 2 

 years, the Convention adjourned until 

 Friday, June 3, at 10 a. m. 



On Friday morning the Convention 

 convened, and on motion P. P. Collier 

 was elected President of the Missouri 

 Bee-Keepers' Society; Dr. F. A. Grove, 

 of Kirksville, Secretary; Jno. B. Sny- 

 der, Treasurer ; and Dr. George Ham- 

 ilton, of Callaway, Corresponding Secre- 

 tary. 



The following Vice-Presidents were 

 elected for their respective counties. 



Adair— Dr. J. D. Pearce, Kirksville. 



Audrian— Win. French, Martinsburg. 



Callaway— John Sallee, McCredie. 



Boone— Dr. E. C. L. Larch, Ashland. 



Pettis— J. M. Thornton, Georgetown. 



Johnson— A. A. Collier. Knobnoster. 



Livingston— Dr. J. W. Greene, Chilli- 

 cothe. 



Cass— Paul Duncan, llarrisonville. 

 Montgomery— Jno Slay ter, Wellsville. 

 Benton- -J. Smith Head. 



— J. S. Duncan, Browning. 



A. L. Seaval. Kansas ( 'ily. 



The Fresident will appoint Vice- 

 Presidents for other counties. 



The Committee reported i nstitu- 



tion and by-laws, winch were adopted, 

 giving as the name, "• Missouri Bee 

 Keepers' Association." 



On motion the next meeting Of the 

 Association will be held at such time 

 mil place as the President may, after 

 consulting the bee-keepers of the stale, 



think besl to suit all parties concerned. 

 On motion, Dr. J. W. Greene, of Chil- 



licothe, was elected a delegate to the 

 National Association, with 1'. P. Collier 

 and Paul Dunken as alternates. 



A communication from Dr. E. C. L. 

 Larch, on " Queen-Rearing," was read 

 and ordered placed on file. Also one on 

 " In-and-in-Breeding," by P. P.Collier. 



On motion, it was agreed that the 

 President and Secretary assign mem- 

 bers various subjects for discussion at 

 the next meeting. 



On motion, the proceedings of this 

 meeting be published in the Bee Jour- 

 nal, and the Bee and Agricultural pa- 

 pers of the State. 



On motion, the Society adjourned to 

 meet at the time and place hereafter 

 designated. P. P. Collier, Pres. 



F. A. Grove, Sec. 



igg" The Northern Michigan Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will hold its fourth 

 Annual Convention at Maple Rapids, 

 Clinton Co., Mich,, October 11 and 12, 

 1881. David Eisiielman. Pres. 



O. R. Goodno, Sec, Carson City, Mich. 



CLUBBIXG LIST. 



We supply the Weekly American Bee Journal 

 and any of the following periodicals, for 1881, at the 

 prices quoted in the last column of figures. The 

 first column gives the regular price of both : 



Publishers' Price. Club. 



The Weekly Bee Journal (T. G. Newman) ..$2 00 



and Gleanings in Bee-Culture (A. l.Root) 3 00.. 2 75 



Bee-Keepers' Magazine (A.J.King).. 3 00.. 2 60 



Bee-Keepers' Exchange (J.H.Nellis). 2 75.. 2 50 



The 4 above-named papers 4 75. . 3 75 



Bee-Keepers' Instructor (W.Thomas) 2 50. . 2 35 



Bee-Keepers' Guide (A.G.Hill) 2 50.. 2 35 



The above-named papers 5 75. . 5 00 



Kansas Bee-Keeper 225.. 2 50 



Prof. Cook's Manual (bound in cloth) 3 25.. 3 00 



Bee-Culture (T.G.Newman) 2 40.. 2 25 



For Semi-monthly Bee Journal, $1.00 less. 

 For Monthly Bee Journal, 1 1.50 less. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1881. Time and Place of Meeting. 



Sept. National, at Lexington, Ky. 



--Kentucky State, at Louisville, Ky. 

 Oct, 11, 12— Northern Michigan, at Maple Rapids. 



12— Ky. State, in Exposition Il'd'g, Louisville, Ky. 



W. Williamson, See., Lexington, Ky. 

 27— Western Mich., at Berlin. Mich. 



Wm. M. S. Dodge, Coopersville, Sec. 



ty In order to have this Table complete. Secreta- 

 ries are requested to forward full particulars of time 

 and place of future meetings.— ED. 



Honey and Beeswax Market. 



BUYERS* QUOTATIONS. 



CHICAGO. 



HONEY- The market is plentifully supplied with 

 honey, and sales are slow at weak, easy prices. Quo- 

 table at I5@18c. for strictly choice white comb in 1 

 and 2 lb. boxes; at L(X3 12C. for common dark-colored 

 and broken lots. Extracted, 7V"-'- |] -i<-'- 



BEES WAX- Choice yellow, 20(<j23c; dark, 15@17. 



HONEY.-Best 



packages, U(*17c. ; 

 White extracted, 



NEW YORK. 



white comb honey, small neat 

 dark llt&l'i ; large boxes 2c. less.— 

 9fel0c.; dark, 1 



BEESWAX.— Prime quality, 20(g*25c. 



CINCINNATI. 



HONEY.— The market for extracted clover honey 

 is good, at 8® 10c. Comb honey is of slow sale at 10c. 

 for the best. „ „ 



BEESWAX-18@22c. C. F. Ml'Tn. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



HONEY.— Receipts this month have been exceed- 

 ingly light, we might say inslgnlffcant, verif ring re- 

 ports regarding a light crop. During the first three 

 weeks ot June last ?ear about 1,500 cases were re- 

 ceived The market is firm, with no demand for new 

 at this' moment. There is a marked difference be- 

 tween prices just now obtainable and the prices at 

 which stocks are held, although a few buyers are 

 bidding better prices on old lots. For one straight 

 lot of old extracted 7'uc. has been offered, and tor 

 the same Bo. is asked. 



We quote white comb, l2@I4o.; dark to good, 9® 

 lie Extracted, choice to extra white, 7@8c; dark 

 and candied. :.<";c. BEESWAX-23r*2f.c. 



STEARNS & SMITH, 423 Front Street. 



San Francisco. Cal., June 18. 1881. 



