THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



25 



tbe cat-bird and oriole. One fruit- 

 grower, in one of the lower counties, 

 was said to have expended 200 pounds 

 of shot on them. No complaint was 

 lodged again.st the honey-bees. When 

 other and better forage was scarce, 

 tliey worked freely on grapes and 

 other sweet fruits which had been 

 punctured by birds, or whicli had 

 biirat their skins from diseased or 

 luxurious growth. Such fruit, it was 

 admitted, was of little value if not 

 sucked out by the bees, for it would 

 speedily decay or dry up. 



A public expression of the Society 

 might be valuable. Perliaps it has 

 already been given, but I have not 

 noticed it in former reports. 



Virden, p Ills., Dec. II, 1885. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Location vs, Cost of Prodnctiofl, 



C. W. DAYTON, (116). 



On page 728 of the American Bee 

 JouKNAL, for 1885, C. P. Dadant says 

 that I •• suggest very correctly that if 

 the honey crop lasts only 20 days, 

 there is no need of having any larger 

 Lives than the queen can well hll with 

 brood between the winter and the few 

 days previous to the honey crop." In 

 this it is evident that he made a mis- 

 take of 17 days, which, added to 20, 

 equals 37 days— about the length of 

 time which is required to get bees 

 from freshly laid eggs, into the fields 

 as honey-gatherers. 



Mr. Dadant also asks if the honey 

 crop, throughout the Northern States, 

 lasts only 15 or 20 days, as it does at 

 times in my location. "It will be found 

 that I did iiot say that I had known 

 the honey crop to last not more than 

 15 or 20 days in any location, but what 

 I did say is this: "Provided the honey 

 harvest lasted not more than 15 or 20 

 days, as that from white clover has 

 been known to do, it would be wisdom 

 to shut down on brood-rearing 15 or 20 

 days before the arrival of the honey 

 harvest." From the sentence, " The 

 honey harvest generally does not last 

 more than 3, 4, 5, and occasionally 6 

 ■weeks, or 42 days," written by Mr. 

 Chas. Dadant near the top of page 774 

 of the American Bee Journal for 

 188.5, 1 infer that in his(C.P.Dadant's) 

 location, the honey crop has been 

 known to last not very much more 

 than that length of time ; and that 28 

 days is not very far from the average. 

 That is liow the honey harvest lasts in 

 Illinois. 



Mr. D. A. Fuller, on page 762 of the 

 same volume, says : •' I do not see how 

 location can make any difference, as a 

 large swarm is better at any time than 

 a small one." Does Mr. Fuller fail to 

 see how an average swarm at the be- 

 ginning of the honey harvest may be 

 equally as profitable as a larger swarm 

 in the middle of the honey harvesty 

 Can he get large swarms as early in 

 the season as average ones, or does he 

 Lave to hold his colonies back in the 

 spring, in order to keep tliem from 



fetting too strong y But perhaps Mr. 

 'uUer is comparing large swarms 

 with swarms of about the size that 



the third or fourth swarm from a 

 colony generally is. Now I (\o not 

 think that Messrs. Heddon, Hutchin- 

 son, or any one else, have expressed a 

 liking for swarms of that kind, and 

 though the hives used by them have 

 been called small, it was not because 

 they were too small for average colo- 

 nies at the average time of the begin- 

 ning of the honey harvest, in average 

 locations throughout the Northern 

 States ; nor have they been called 

 small liives because there was any- 

 thing " teenty-taunty " about them, 

 but because they are a shade smaller 

 than some other hives which are in use, 

 and because their size is best suited 

 the wants of an average colony of 



bees when viewed 

 cent stand-point. 

 I am aware that 



from a dollar-and- 



in a hundred colo- 

 nies there are exceptions of perhaps 

 10 weaker and 10 stronger colonies 

 than the average, and that one is 

 necessary as a help for the other in 

 making all colonies average. 



While dealing in facts, we might 

 say that it is a close, if not a despei-- 

 ate, race we will run if we make the 

 colonies average 8 solid combs of 

 brood by the beginning of the honey- 

 flow. Yes, in my locality I have 

 known whole apiaries to occupy 15 or 

 20 days of a heavy yield of honey 

 from white clover, in gathering 

 strength to be able to decently take 

 advantage of a 4 or 5 days' flow of 

 honey from basswood. In a case of 

 this kind it is probably needless to 

 say that the large swarms would not 

 be very numerous, and it need not be 

 an apiary of small (average) hives 

 either. 



Bradford, 6 Iowa. 



Read at the Detroit Conventloa. 



Tlie Pollen Tlieory, 



A. J. COOK. 



The pollen theory as I understand it, 

 is simply this : Under certain circum- 

 stances bees may winter with less 

 liability to diarrhoea, disease and 

 death, in case there is no pollen or 

 bee-bread in the hive to serve as win- 

 ter food. 



There are reasons drawn from ex- 

 periment, I think, for the belief. that 

 facts sustain the theory. For several 

 years we have tried to arrange our 

 bees so that some should have abund- 

 ance of pollen in their hives, while 

 others should be destitute of the same, 

 making a careful record in each case. 

 While we have never lost a colony by 

 diarrhaja during these experiments, 

 we have had several cases of such 

 disease, but never in colonies where 

 the pollen was all excluded. In truth, 

 the main portion of the diarrhetic ex- 

 creta is almost always — if not always 

 — composed of pollen grains, thus 

 showing that pollen was present, if not 

 the cause of the trouble. Careful ex- 

 amination of bees from colonies with 

 no pollen— some dead, others alive and 

 lively, show little and frequently no 

 pollen in their intestines. 



Now with the theory and these facts 

 in mind, let us study briefly the nature 



of food, and see whether or not physi- 

 ological science has any facts or sug- 

 gestions to offer us regarding this 

 question. 



There are four kinds of food, each 

 of which probably enters more or less 

 largely into the food regimen , of all 

 animals. Of these the inorganic,* such 

 as water, lime, chloride of sodiuu), or 

 common salt, etc., are important as 

 entering into the structure of organs; 

 preserving the requisite consistency 

 of tissues, and in aiding the vital i)ro- 

 cesses. Thus it is necessary that 

 blood, or the nutritive substance of 

 the animal body, should be liquid. A 

 large proportion of water keeps it so ; 

 hence, what wonder that water is so 

 essential to life, and so craved and 

 sought after by most animals. In all 

 vital activity, osmosis — or the passing 

 of liquids through animal membranes, 

 is all important ; common salt pro- 

 motes this osmosis, and thus it is that 

 salt has such saving properties. 

 Hence those of you who believe so 

 heartily in giving water to bees may 

 still rejoice in that y(ni are improving 

 the blood of your pets, while those 

 who take pleasure in adding salt, may 

 exult as you atlirm, " here goes for 

 osmosis!" These inorganic elements 

 are usually obtained in suflicient quan- 

 tities in the general food, though water 

 is generally required in larger quanti- 

 ties and must be had- in addition, 

 separately, to secure the best health 

 and greatest strength. We have all 

 seen bees sipping water, and often in 

 such places as to suggest that the ad- 

 dition of salt is very welcome to them. 

 All kinds of food are required in 

 greater quantity when the vital ac- 

 tivity is increased, hence oiu' bees will 

 need more water as breeding, storing, 

 or other work is increased in the hive. 

 The second kind of food is known 

 under the term carbo-hydrates. It 

 includes all the sugars and starch. 

 As starch, when eaten, is changed un- 

 der the influence of a ferment, into 

 sugar, we mav well consider it with 

 the sugars. The carbo-hydrates con- 

 sist of oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon 

 — the two former in proportion to form 

 water. It is a matter of common ob- 

 servation that when the carbo-hydrates 

 enter largely into the food, the animal 

 is apt to gain rapidly in fat. We are 

 not sure that the sugars are changed 

 directly into animal fat, possibly they 

 serve so admirably as food, that they 

 produce such an excellent condition 

 of the animal system, that all the food 

 is utilized, and a surplus is at hand 

 which is stored up as fat. May be the 

 nitrogenous food as well as the sugars 

 aid in forming the fat of the body ; in 

 either case the food must be chemi- 

 cally changed in that wonderful labora- 

 tory, the animal organism. The fact 

 remains that much sugar in the food 

 promotes the deposits of fat. We all 

 know how the feeding of corn increases 

 the fat, and does not the fact that 

 corn contains over 67 per cent, of 

 starch, which when eaten and digested 

 is all changed to sugar, enfoice the 

 position here taken V Again, when 

 animals hibernate, or when tliey are 

 long sick and take no food, the stored 

 fat is used up. Thus, if this stored 

 fat can for a time serve the purpose of 



