614 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Explanatory.— The flgures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named ; 

 5 north of the center; ? south; O* east; 

 ♦O west; and this 6 northeast; Xi northwest: 

 o« southeast; and ? southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



B*op tlie American Bee Journal. 



Intestinal Accmulations of Bees. 



C. W. DAYTON. 



I have just returned from a wander 

 down through the accumulation of 

 ideas presented on page 567. I found 

 (taking reports for truth) that while 

 Mr. Heddon succeeded in preparing 

 scores of colonies for winter without 

 any nitrogenous food (pollen), Mr. 

 Doolittle was unable to prepare even 

 one colony for winter without some 

 grains of pollen lurking about the 

 combs. This might indicate that Mr. 

 Heddon was a smarter man than Mr. 

 Doolittle. But come to think about 

 it Mr. Heddon's combs were not 

 passed before the microscope as were 

 Mr. Doolittle's, neither had the bees 

 the diarrhea. On the same page we 

 are informed that the testimony of an 

 eye-witness over-weighs all other 

 kinds of evidence ; yet the writer does 

 not inform us whether the evaporated 

 excreta which Mr. Heddon scraped 

 from the brood-frames could be so 

 testified to, as being the excreta of a 

 diseased bee or a healthy one. 



Those who have read the bee-papers 

 should recollect that the bees selected 

 by Prof. Cook for examination were 

 of the last in the colonies to die, and 

 having the most turgid abdomens, 

 and were not fair representatives of 

 the colonies. The diarrhetic accu- 

 mulations are spoken of as consisting 

 almost entirely of undigested pollen- 

 grains, when the majority of the cases 

 finds it to be water with the pollen 

 afioat, and in proportion as to ten to 

 one. 



We would be led to believe that a 

 mixture of sugar and water in a fer- 

 menting condition could not from any 

 cause pass the stomach of the bee 

 and amount to an excessive abdominal 

 accumulation; and a few insist that 

 it would not be diarrhea, because it 

 would not spot the snow. 



I wish to be credited with the idea 

 that the intestines of the bee may 

 become loaded even to bursting, as 

 were those Prof. Cook dissected, and 

 yet not bear a trace of diarrhea, and I 

 think my evidence that it is a func- 

 tion of health, will stand against evi- 

 dence that it is diarrhea. 



There are amongst us those who 

 know diarrhea from healthy condi- 

 tions, and who have seen diarrhea 



with and without the presence of 

 pollen, and it is my candid belief that 

 Prof. Cook can obtain diarrhetical 

 bees for examination whose excreta 

 or combs do not contain pollen. 



On page 567 we read : " Colonies 

 wintered without nitrogenous food 

 have not a trace of diarrhea." I ask, 

 have the colonies so wintered had 

 their combs subjected to careful tests 

 with the microscope as in the case of 

 Mr. Doolittle's V as the writer re- 

 peats elsewhere in his article, that 

 there was no pollen found in the 

 intestines of the diarrhetic bees sent 

 to Prof. Cook by Mr. Doolittle, but 

 because there was a trace of pollen 

 found on the comb sent by Mr. D., it 

 (pollen) must have been the cause of 

 the diarrhea. A frail argument. In 

 the logic offered us we often find a 

 grain of pollen comparable to the 

 particle of musk that continues its 

 ferfume for thousands of years. At 

 other times the cells may be half full 

 pollen, with some sugar syrup cover- 

 ing it, and the colony is safe. 



Again, I find on page 567 : Bees 

 with no pollen do not accumulate 

 fecal matter. Many apiarists have 

 known bees to contain accumulations 

 of a transparent souring substance 

 that emitted the diarrhetic odor and 

 caused the soiling of the surround- 

 ings. I have received bees through 

 the mail that were fed entirely on 

 sugar that showed unmistakble symp- 

 toms of diarrhea, but the evacuations 

 were transparent. Call it fecal mat- 

 ter, or any intestinal accumulation, 

 the effect is the same, the disease is 

 the same, and it is caused by the 

 same, but different cases differ in the 

 composition of the accumulations. 

 An experience of never having lost a 

 colony with diarrhea is a pretty small 

 experience to place against one of 

 hundreds of colonies ; in fact I do not 

 know as so small an experience would 

 admit of good judgment as to what is 

 good evidence for or against the 

 pollen theory. 



It is indeed strange that the accu- 

 mulation may consist so largely of 

 water, and the pollen folks cannot 

 see it ; and it is far stranger still (if 

 the pollen theory be true) that a col- 

 ony may consume pollen all winter 

 and not have the disease ! Yet such 

 men as Prof. Cook and Mr. Heddon— 

 men who do not have time to go into 

 the cellar, more than once or twice 

 during a winter to observe the bees — 

 should view the tracks and attest the 

 cause of the disease with moie cer- 

 tainty than the daily watcher of the 

 bees. The discovery of the true cause 

 of diarrhea ought to be worth a man's 

 whole time and study for several 

 years. I believe we are ready to ad- 

 mit that a colony with sugar stores is 

 not so apt to have diarrhea as when it 

 has honey and pollen, and also that 

 searching the excreta for the cause 

 should be as fruitless as to search the 

 air we breathe for the cause of eon- 

 sumption. 



Near the centre of page 567 it is 

 said, " Diarrhea is due to the accu- 

 mulation of fecal matter." The gen- 

 eral understanding of the disease 

 verifies that it is due to the nature of 

 the accumulation, as the bees that 



soil their hives most, and appear the 

 most uneasy are seldom the most dis- 

 tended. Bees thatconsume food con- 

 taining a large proportion of refuse 

 substance may accumulate much fecal 

 matter in a comparatively dry state 

 and of a solid nature. Bees of this 

 kind, with abdomens ever so dis- 

 tended, do not evacuate until they fly 

 in the open air. If the distention is 

 more than they are able to bear until 

 the flight, then they die outright. 

 When the bees are badly afliicted with 

 diarrhea, they do not even wait until 

 there is an accumulation, but begin 

 early to befoul the hive or combs. 



Sometimes diarrhea may set in after 

 there is a healthy accumulation of 

 fecal matter, in which case the accu- 

 mulation would not be diarrhea, or 

 the diarrhea an accumulation. If the 

 pollen folks are in favor of calling 

 constipation diarrhea, I would advise 

 them to embark and seek an appro- 

 priate name for the " baby," and 

 leave the diarrhea to the rightful pos- 

 sessors. I think the most of the 

 points given may be considered as 

 "testimony of experience," and there- 

 fore I hope they will secure the confi- 

 dence of the jury. 



Bradford, (^ Iowa. 



For the American Bee JonmaL 



Ontario Bee-KeeBers' Convention. 



The annual meeting of the Ontario 

 Bee-Keepers' Association has hereto- 

 fore been always held sometime dur- 

 ing the Toronto Industrial Exhibi- 

 tion. This year, the President and 

 other leading members being away in 

 England, and the association being in 

 a sort of transition state, owing to its 

 having been recently incorporated by 

 Act of Parliament, it was thought 

 better to defer the annual general 

 meeting until a later date. But, as 

 many bee-keepers are present at the 

 Toronto Exhibition, and would be 

 disappointed if the association did 

 not assemble, it was decided to meet 

 as usual, and occupy the time with 

 appropriate bee-talk. Accordingly, 

 on Tuesday evening, Sept. 14, 1886, a 

 goodly number of bee-keepers met in 

 the large committee-room of the City 

 Hall. The meeting was called to 

 order by the Secretary-Treasurer, Mr. 

 W. Couse, and in the absence of the 

 President and Vice-President, Rev. 

 W. F. Clarke was appointed chairman. 

 It was voted to dispense with the 

 reading of the minutes— also to defer 

 all routine business, and proceed at 

 once to the discussion of practical 

 matters. 



The chairman congratulated the 

 association on several felicitous cir- 

 cumstances. The good attendance, 

 although several accustomed to take 

 a leading part, were necessarily ab- 

 sent ; also, the excellence of the honey 

 show at the Exhibition, notwith- 

 standing the drain made by 35 honey- 

 producers having sent the best of 

 their product to the Colonial and 

 Indian Exhibition now being held in 

 London, England. Though we re- 

 gretted the absence of the President, 

 Messrs. Jones, Cornell and Mc- 



