THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



26T 



are now doiiis well. Of the other in- 

 fected colonies, there has. ui> to this 

 time, () swarmed out ami joinetl other 

 colonies. Ifeartliall will lose sev- 

 eral more, as many are so weak and 

 dwindleil down, that they can hardly 

 hold out miicli longer, and soon will 

 have to give up tlie battle. I have 

 wintered 14 colonies out-ot'-doors on 

 the Slimmer stands; 9 packed in chaff, 

 and :! witlioiit any protection; they 

 all came throiia;h the winter in good 

 condition. Two colonies I had cov- 

 ered up with ground, only leaving the 

 front open, and they wintered the 

 best of all : one of them had drones 

 flying to-dav. E.xperience teaches 

 nie that coloiiies from which honey is 

 removed during the summer, will have 

 diarrhcea ; while those worked for 

 comb honey show no signs whatever, 

 and are strong and healthy. 



JoHX Xebel. 

 High Hill, Mo., April 14, 1S84, 



The Weather and Bees. 



The weather has been cloudy and 

 cold for the past ten days. With only 

 a few exceptions, bees h ive been con- 

 fined during that time. It is still 

 cloudy, and the indications are that 

 we w'ill have some snow. Bees are 

 getting short of stores, 



C. Theilmann. 



Theilmanton, Minn,, April 1.5, 1«84. 



My Affliction, etc. 



I have been compelled to neglect 

 my correspondents on account of my 

 suffering with an unfortunate eye, 

 and linaTly submitting to the removal 

 of the lens. The operation was pain- 

 ful but short, and my progress to- 

 wards recovery is exceptionally good. 

 My coQtinement in a dark room for 

 almost two weeks was a greater tor- 

 ture to me than the operation itself. 

 In a week from this date I hope to be 

 myself once more. My bees seem to 

 have wintered better than usual. 

 From reports, I judge that a larger in- 

 terest than ever will be manifested by 

 bee-keepers the coming season. 



Chas. r. MuTn. 



Cincinnati. O., April 12, 1884. 



Bees Confined 149 Days. 



I believe that bee-diarrhcea is 

 caused by dampness in the hive ; and 

 that dampness is produced by the 

 breath of the bees and damp air col- 

 lecting on the combs. What is found 

 in the intestines of the bee after 

 death by diarrhcea ? We find 14 part 

 pollen, and ?| parts water. I think if 

 the inside of the hive be kept dry, 

 there would be no bee-diarrhoea. The 

 bees become damp and cannot fly, and 

 death is the result. Was there ever a 

 colony lost by diarrho^i. when the 

 combs and hive were dry ? My bees 

 were put into the cellar Oct. 26, and 

 taken out March 2.5, being confined 

 149 days. I found 4 dead colonies ; 

 1 starved, having no honey but plenty 

 of pollen ; 3 that had diarrhcea were 

 wet and moldy. The hives had been 

 near the bottom of the cellar, and the 

 cap fitted tightly. Sixty colonies 

 came out in fine condition ; but they 



are light in honey. I have never had 

 bees eat so much honey in the cellar 

 as was eaten dnruig the past winter. 

 One wintered out-of-doors came 

 through nicely ; it was a Syrian C0I7 

 ouv, and the hive is full of bees. 

 Th'ey endured 4U- below zero. Syrians 

 are id ways on the alert, and a robber- 

 bee stands no show if it makes an ap- 

 pearance at the entrance of the hive. 

 When the .Syrians will not produce 7.5 

 pounds of honey per colony, spring 

 count, I will try some other race of 

 bees. Location has something to do 

 with the yield of honey ; it is not all 

 in the race of bees. 

 Cokato, Minn. Fayette Lee. 



Valuable Instruction. 



The books, "Bees and Honey," and 

 Prof. Cook's iManual, I have studied 

 very carefully, and find both of them 

 invaluable to bee-keepers. The Bee 

 Journal is imlispensable to any en- 

 terprising beekeeper. Every number 

 contains one or more articles that are 

 worth as much, or more than the sub- 

 scription price for one year. Leaflet 

 No. 1, and '"Honey as Food and 

 Medicine," are just what is wanted. 

 0. E. Cannaday. 



West Berne, N. Y., April 12, 1884. 



Winter Losses Slight. 



Bees in this section are in good con- 

 dition. The winter loss is but slight, 

 compared to some years. I did not 

 lose a colony, and I am feeding but 

 one, whicli was left unpacked as a 

 test. All were on the summer stands, 

 packed with chaff and dry leaves, 



H, D, Cutting. 



Clinton, Mich., April 14, 1884. ' 



Still Cold in the Pineries. 



After 1.59 days confinement, I took 

 my 108 colonies out of the cellar, and 

 found 100 live ones. Three had 

 starved, 3 liad lost their queens, and 2 

 died with diarrhcea. The ice has not 

 yet thawed in the bay, and the ground 

 is covered with snow. It looks pretty 

 gloomy for a specialist in bee-keeping 

 tljis far north. C. Case. 



Petoskey, Mich., April 17, 1884. 



Pollen and Fermented Honey. 



On opening one liive about the 

 middle of January, I was struck by 

 the peculiar condition of one of the 

 frames. The (;aps were bursted off of 

 about one-lialf of the cells, and a yel- 

 lowish substance protruding from 

 them. I removed the frame and car- 

 ried it to a neighboring bee-beeper, 

 where we examined it together. We 

 founcl it to be pollen and honey fer- 

 mented; which, acting the same as 

 anything else in the same condition, 

 generated gas which probably bursted 

 the caps off the cells, Now, why was 

 the honey and pollen in the same cell? 

 A bee-keeper tells me the honey was 

 put over the pollen to keep it moist. I 

 claim the bees were crowded for 

 space to store their honey, and so 

 placed it over the pollen ; and, conse- 

 quently I am ridiculed, but still I 

 liold the same opinion. If bees placed 



honey over pollen to keep the latter 

 moist, why would they leave Ja or ?^ 

 of it uncapped ? If it preserves Jij ot 

 it, the bees surely ought to know that 

 it would also keep the other %. We 

 all know the use of any liquor in a 

 state of fermentation, is very little to 

 give the person the dysentery who uses 

 It ; and is it not reasonable to suppose 

 that honey and pollen, in a state of 

 fermentation, would do the same 

 thing with lieesy This is no fancy 

 sketch, but facts as I saw them. 



Fred C. Hathaway. 

 Portland, Mich., April IG, 1884. 



Bees in Nebraska. 



My bees are in the cellar yet. I 

 think they have wintered all right, 

 and are now beginning to wake up to 

 a sense of their duty. I will have to 

 set them out before long. We are 

 having a very wet, backward spring, 

 but everything works for the best. 

 G. W. Stark. 



Holmesville, Neb., April 11, 1884. 



Moving Bees on the Railroad. 



I moved 29 colonies of bees March 

 10, from Illinois to Iowa. The weath- 

 er was so cold, and so much snow on 

 the grotuid when I arrived, that I 

 could not put them out. Ten colonies 

 starved ; the remainder are in good 

 condition. David Watterson. 



I3enzette, Iowa, April 6, 1884. 



Poor Honey a Cause of Disease. 



Out of 66 colonies put up for the 

 winter, 11 died of diarrhcea. 1 think 

 poor honey vv'as the cause of it. They 

 were last year's swarms, and did not 

 work in the sections. Those that did 

 work in the sections are in fine condi- 

 tion ; have plenty of honey and bees. 

 Those that died had from 16 to 30 lbs. 

 of honey left ; about }-^ down from the 

 top was white clover honey ; the rest 

 was of a pinkish color. The bees that 

 stored the poor honey in the sections 

 are all living, while those that stored 

 late honey below and had to eat it 

 first, are all dead. On Oct. 7 a swarm 

 of black bees came to my yard. I 

 hived them in a box, captured the 

 queen, and put the rest of the bees 

 with a nucleus of Cyprians that had a 

 young queen. I fed these about 12 

 lbs. of ttie best white sugar, and now 

 they are doing nicely; of those that 

 died, 9 were Italians and 2 blacks. I 

 wintered my bees on the summer 

 stands in Simplicity - Langstroth 

 hives. We had very cold weather the 

 past winter, 30° belovi' zero at one 

 time ; but the cold weather in March 

 was the most detrimental to the bees. 



Casey, Ills, D. K. Rosebrough. 



Fruit Bloom is Backward. 



The weather is cold and the spring 

 is backward. Bees have dwindled 

 badly. Loss, 2.5 per cent.; cause, dys- 

 entery, resulting from poor honey, 

 gathered mostly from honey dew and 

 from yellow willow, late in the fall 

 White clover looks promising ; fruit 

 bloom is backward. 



S. COULTHARD. 



Preston, O., April 1.5, 1884. 



