1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



379 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Imported Krainer Bees. 



J. M. SHUCK. 



I have just received from Herrn, 

 Michael Ambrozie, Legenfeld, Krain, 



Austria, a full colony of Krainer bees. 

 These bees are to me great beauties, 

 being nearly black with white stripes, 

 the white probably due to hairs, as 

 they all seem to be young bees. They 

 arrived yesterday after a voyage of 26 

 days, and although the combs were 

 smashed, the bees were lively and only 

 a few dead. I am not certain that the 

 qeeen is alive, but she probably is, as 

 she customarily survives the colony 

 through almost any number of mis- 

 haps. 



The hive to me is a curiosity, being 

 made of tough, hard, rough boards, 

 about 24 inches long inside, 1-1 inches 

 wide, and 5 inches deep ; top and bot- 

 tom nailed with odd-looking hand- 

 made nails, wooden pegs and wire 

 nails: no frames inside; combs had 

 been built diagonally, and were tilled 

 with dark-colored, thick, rich honey, 

 about 20 pounds. It was quite a task 

 to open this hive, but I did it. and 

 found the Krainers lively, good na- 

 tured, and so fond of honey that they 

 all soon had their fill. 



Their flight seems to be very strong, 

 and I am inclined to think them large 

 as compared with the Italians. It 

 seemed odd enough to see these moun- 

 tain bees flying very freely to-day, 

 with the mercury at 45°, when not'a 

 wing was to be seen about my other 

 hives. I have no Krainer bees for 

 sale, and if I succeed in keeping them 

 till spring, will rear no drones from 

 this queen next year. 



Des Moines, Iowa, Nov. 22, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Bee-Bread Injurious in Wintering. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



As I have the near future laid out 

 for much hard work of this kind, I 

 will hasten to reply to the article of the 

 Rev. Mr. Clarke, on page 364 of the 

 Bee Journal for Nov. 16. I am glad 

 he has attacked my theory, and if lie 

 proves to me that bee-bread is not the 

 main cause of our greatest drawback, 

 I shall have occasion to thank him 

 again and again. 



It is true I stand 10 to 1 in favor of 

 the pollen theory ; but as long as the 

 1 remains the " guess" also remains. 

 It may be possible that I " waxed too 

 confident, " enthusiastic and warm 

 upon the subject, but, after all, such a 

 weakness is. to say the worst, a moral 

 one, and to be too full of earnestness 

 and enthusiasm to leave any room for 

 hypocrisy and deception is not so very 

 bad, is it? With a possession of the 

 first named propensities, and the ab- 

 sence of the last, we will get at the 

 truth by-and-by. 



The " unaccountable phenomenon" 

 of the total destruction of a whole 

 apiary over there, and the success of 

 this one over here, proves conclusively 

 that the causes of the effects above 

 named are entirely different, and it is 

 an error to look for them in the realm 

 of cold, or confinement, or any other 

 condition that is common with both 

 places. I believe that the pollen the- 

 ory solves the problem because, first, 

 a few miles intervening changes the 

 amount, quality and position of bee- 

 bread in the hives. 



Second. Close observation of the 

 pollen condition of the remaining 

 hives and dead bees, argues that pol- 

 len-eating is the cause of dysentery. 

 My knowledge of chemistry and the 

 chemical properties of pollen are too 

 limited to allow me to prove that this 

 substance cannot be eaten in large 

 quantities during confinement with- 



out sickening the bees, but other evi- 

 dences cause me to " guess" thai such 

 is the fact. 1 see no knowledge be- 

 trayed in Mr. Clarke's able essay that 

 convinces me that he has any evidence 

 to the contrary. 



I have long supposed that bees did 

 discharge small dry pellets when win- 

 tering successfully, but I simply shut 

 that phenomenon out of the consider- 

 ation, because 1 can see no bearing 

 that it has upon the subject. In nearly 

 all of our most successful cases of 

 wintering, our bees void a liquid feces, 

 and we hardly stop to consider this 

 "dry" technicality; had I said "no 

 liquid excrement," the argument 

 would have remained the same, with 

 the chance to quibble a little left out. 



If "two-thirds of the food eaten by 

 man passes from the system through 

 sensible or insensible perspiration," 

 we have every reason to believe 

 that it does from the bee in a much 

 greater proportion. At all events, we 

 have seen the need of upward ventila- 

 tion and cushions to take care of the 

 excess of the first named matter. 



There is no proof, either way, in re- 

 gard to what Mr. Root's bees did or 

 did not eat, so why mention the matter 

 at all V 



True, an ox-chain is no stronger than 

 its weakest link, but this rule has no 

 bearing upon a collection of proofs, for 

 teachers of logic have said : " Never 

 back up a strong argument with a 

 weak one ; the diplomatic and cun- 

 ning will attack this weak point, ut- 

 terly ignoring the strong ones that may 

 amply prove your position, and thus 

 defeat you in the minds of your hear- 

 ers." I quote the above, not as having 

 any bearing direct upon the wintering 

 of bees, but to show that so able a 

 logician as Mr. Clarke can possess the 

 weakness of error : or the unfairness 

 to wish to put my arguments in a false 

 light. 



But I will try to show that the weak 

 point is not there. I said that the 

 dead colonies either left plenty of bee- 

 bread showing signsof late work with 

 it, or brood in all stages, and generally 

 both, but nearly always brood. Mr. 

 Clarke quotes this " nearly always," 

 as though the exceptional cases had a 

 bearing against my argument. My 

 theory is that the consumption of pol- 

 len causes the dysentery, and my ob- 

 servation was that nil dead colonies 

 showed signs of using it one way or 

 the other, either in connection with 

 brooding or without, but "nearly al- 

 ways" in connection with brooding. 

 Mr. Clarke will stick fast if he tries 

 to get through any hole in that part of 

 my argument. 



He says that " inasmuch as some 

 colonies died that had no young brood, 

 the argument becomes inconclusive." 

 He misunderstands; the argument is 

 not based on young brood at all, but 

 the winter consumption of bread by 

 the old bees (whether that consump- 

 tion is induced by handling the bread 

 in feeding larvae or otherwise), and I 

 made the statement that in my care- 

 ful observations I had noticed that 

 "' neary all those that died had brood 

 in all stages," to give the idea that the 

 greatest cause of pollen-eating by the 

 older bees came from brood-rearing. 

 Let us examine almost the first posi- 

 tion assented to by Mr. Clarke. I 

 quote : 



" I can understand that it may and 

 probably does interfere with successful 

 wintering to have brood-rearing car- 

 ried on too late. It necesitatesagood 

 deal of nurse-work, and more activity 

 generally than accords with that state 

 of quiescence which we know to be so 

 desirable." 



"We know;" why, Mr. Clarke, I 

 only said I " guessed." I stood 10 to ]. 

 I dare not say " I know" too much 

 about that " quiescent" state, for see 

 the opinion of so careful an observer 

 as Mr. Chas. Dadant. in Bee Journal 

 of Nov. 9, page 354. I return your 

 advice, "go slow." Recant; be as 

 modest as I was in the article you at- 

 tacked, and say "we guess." Re- 

 member, whatever you may say upon 

 this wintering problem, men of large 

 experience are ready to take the argu- 

 ment all out of the assertion. 



But what are we to understand by 

 the above statement? That in Mr. 



Clarke's locality bees carry on brood- 

 rearing in the Call, after the commence- 

 ment of the quiescent period? Was 

 that ever the rule anywhere? He 

 seems to mistake the condition of 

 things. This brood that, we find is 

 Spring brood, and not. fall. 



I did not say, nor assume, that bee- 

 bread was poisonous, and because 1 

 believed thai such portions as the bees 

 often indulged in were the cause of 

 dysentery, why should Mr. Clarke 

 drag in this venomous word "poison," 

 any more than 1 should, because he 

 admits that, eating "too freely" of il 

 might perhaps cause trouble? If it 

 should cause trouble should I use the 

 word "poison?" If that trouble 

 should tie claimed by me to reach as 

 far as dysentery, even unto death, 

 should Mr. Clarke set up a straw man 

 of " poison" to combat ? Is it not, as 

 easy to answer what I said, as what I 

 did not say? Men do not, as a rule, 

 eat poison, but they still continue to 

 partake of food that causes intestinal 

 diseases, unto death. 



I thought I had made it clear that 1 

 believed that the eating of bee-bread 

 by the older bees, during continued 

 confinement, was the cause of dysen- 

 tery, compared with which, as acause 

 of our loss of stock, all other causes 

 combined fade into insignificance. 



I think I need waste no time in re- 

 plying to Mr. Clarke's claim that he is 

 of the opinion that pollen is necessary 

 (or may be) for the most successful 

 wintering of bees. I see that lie is not 

 cajiable of convincing me, through my 

 reason, that nitrogen, carbon, hydro- 

 gen and oxygen are so arranged in the 

 bread that it is (under the conditions 

 I have named) necessary or even 

 wholesome to the bees. Hives com- 

 pared to houses, and bees to cows and 

 horses, are in my mind rather poor 

 comparisons. Horses, like other large 

 animals, are governed by the same 

 laws winter and summer. Not so witli 

 bees at all. He asks, " If pollen pre- 

 vents dysentery in summer, does it 

 cause it in winter?" From the first 

 part of the proposition I dissent, to 

 the latter I answer, yes. Never mind 

 Mr. Von Morlott, whoever he may be, 

 but demolish us one at a time, please. 



I think Mr. Clarke underrates him- 

 self when he says that bees in "many 

 things are far wiser" than he. I may- 

 be in error in this regard, however, 

 and will "go slow," making no rash 

 statement to get picked up on ; but I 

 am sure that the successful results 

 arising from bee instinct are not born 

 of knowledge at all. If from knowl- 

 edge, the bees really may be, and ac- 

 cording to him are liis superiors some- 

 times at least, for he says that though 

 he knows that porridge is good and 

 necessary for him, he is strongly 

 tempted to give it the go-by, though 

 he is sure the bees will only take that 

 which is best for them. 



I explained fully that I thought they 

 ate bread only when the facilities for 

 getting at, or the attraction of the 

 quality of the honey was against them. 

 Finally, Mr. Clarke comes to a serious 

 close by telling us what we do know. 

 I will not occupy space by quoting 

 them, for we all know that we cannot 

 control temperature unless in special 

 repositories, and we, have further de- 

 monstrated that, one year with an- 

 other, said repositories have little or 

 nothing to boast over the changeable 

 out-door position. 



We also know that "quietude" is an 

 effect, and not a cause. We do not 

 know that those who use, or pretend 

 to use division boards succeed any 

 better than those who do not; but we 

 do know that in spite of any and all 

 sorts of "fall preparations," dysentery 

 claims whole apiaries for its own. 

 "Spreading combs" has also signally 

 failed, to our certain knowledge. 



I never bad, or pretended to have, 

 any " bacteria," but only threw out a 

 bacteria hypothesis. All those who 

 believe in the detrimental effects of 

 cider honey and all fermented honeys 

 among which is Mr. Chas. Dadant, are 

 bacteria-ites, are they not ? What, is 

 fermentation but bacteria ? If I un- 



derstand the primary principle of 



chemistry correctly, wipe out of ex- 

 istence " bacteria.,!' and fennenlal ion 



and decomposition are things of the 

 past only. Did any one think that I 

 made bacteria? All I did was to sup- 

 pose a new species of this well-known 



race of microcoxi. and say, "let, us 

 reason togelher." hoping to possibly 

 point in a direction where some man 

 of more ability and time might liml 

 the evil genius. No one. ever answered 

 any argument upon that hypothesis, 

 but a few spent all their force trying 



to identify the supposition with me as 

 an assertion. 



Now, many of those who believe the 

 " pollen theory" absurd and false, are 



working hard to settle it firmer with 



me than it belongs, while those who 

 corroborate the theory never mention 

 my name. Such charities are com- 

 forting. 



If the future years of experience 

 should positively demonstrate that 

 bee-bread, nitrogen. carbon, hydrogen, 

 oxygen and all combined, was the real 

 cause of dysentery, will you, Mr. 

 Clarke, couple it with my name with 

 the same earnestness you do now ? I 

 feel that you will, and Iwill return the 

 favor by trying to keep in its proper 

 place any discovery you may be di- 

 rectly or indirectly the parent of, if 

 any such circumstance ever happens. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Nov. 19, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Size of Frames and Hives. 



J. S. DUNCAN. 



I commenced the season with five 

 small colonies, covering three 1 1 l^xl 1 % 

 frames. Not satisfied with the small 

 frames, I adopted one 10x15, calcula- 

 ted to hold six 5x5 sections ; the hive 

 is for exclusive side-storing, and has 

 a capacity for 14 frames (16x21xl0}£) 

 when worked for extracted honey, or 

 3 frames of sections on each side of 

 brood nest. I allowed natural swarm- 

 ing ; one absconded ; after this 1 caged 

 the queen and hung her where the 

 bees were settling, but very soon they 

 were all in the air again, leaving 

 about a quart of bees with the queen. 

 From the action of the bees after the 

 excitement of swarming and loss of 

 the queen, it is evident that they lose 

 all recollection of their old home, as 

 they are liable to go into any hive, or 

 several hives, making great confusion 

 among the surrounding colonies. 



In queen-rearing I had a case simi- 

 lar to that described by your Kansas 

 correspondent, on page 118. I formed 

 3 colonies with ripe queen cells ; ex- 

 amined them next, day and found the 

 cells all open, while one of the queens 

 had a comb partly filled with eggs. 

 On examining the comb I found it, had 

 been cut open, the intruder being a 

 queen I had doubts about, as she had 

 been in another hive 16 days and had 

 not commenced laying, i examined 

 the hive this queen was in after leav- 

 ing the others, and picking her off the 

 comb threw her into the air to test her 

 wings ; she circled around the yard 

 several times, and on returning went 

 into the wrong hive, was accepted, and 

 lias proved to be a very good queen. 



My honey carriage is a small hive 

 mounted on a boy's express wagon I 

 bought for a dollar, and has all the 

 conveniences required in an apiary — 

 boxes for scrap wax. fuel, queen cages, 

 nails, dissecting knife, veil, gloves, or 

 anything that may be required ; the 

 cover of the box being a handy record- 

 ing desk, racks fora smoker and ham- 

 mer, and a comb-holder that does not 

 revolve. It is not patented and never 

 will be. It, is more convenient than a 

 wheelbarrow ; one great advantage is 

 in having one hand at liberty to guard 

 against any of those ferocious bees 

 that may happen around. 



My bees are all in fine condition, and 

 packed for winter on from 3 to 6 frames 

 (according to size of the colony), with 

 a division-board on each side and a 

 thick cushion on top ; did not remove 

 the oil-cloth, but spread the frames a 

 little. 



