324 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Clueens— Diarrhoea. 



A. E. KOHKKE. 



If, as Mr. Doolittle admits, that hy- 

 brid queens " will produce workers of 

 the best type to produce comb honey," 

 because '"a direct cross always pro- 

 duces vigor," why should a cross of 

 the second deatree. when queen and 

 drone are bred from such vigorous 

 colonies, deteriorate V Should they 

 not, according to the claims of the ad- 

 vocates of puie-bred stock, produce a 

 still more vigorous type of bees ? 



Taking the dollar queen, as bred 

 and sold bv reliable breeders, as rep- 

 resenting the real unit-value of a 

 queen, how does it increase the value 

 of that queen, to the buyer, by beuig 

 kept by the breeder long enough to 

 test her ? 



It may be said, the breeder charges 

 that much more for his trouble, for 

 whicli he should be paid ; but that is 

 not the question. I am asking this 

 question with reference to the buyer, 

 not the seller. Is a tested or any other 

 queen worth more than one dollar to 

 the honev-producer V It is my expe- 

 rience, aiid I believe that of most 

 honey- producers, that individual 

 queeiis and their offspring are change- 

 able ? , , 



Mr. Ileddon is reported to have put 

 the question in some convention, like 

 this : " AVIiv will a colony one season 

 out-do all the rest, and the next do al- 

 most nothing : and then again in an- 

 other season excel all others in furnish- 

 ing a surplus, and all this takes place 

 wlien the colony is of apparently the 

 same strength oiie season as well as 

 another?" Does it not prove that 

 queens are not at all reliable ? May 

 not a dollar queen produce a colony of 

 excellent workers, and a select tested 

 one prove to be worthless to the honey- 

 producer? It cannot even be said, 

 the chances are against the former. I 

 am quite confident that no breeder of 

 high-priced queens will guarantee the 

 amount of honev the olfspring of his 

 queens will gather in a good locality. 

 It appears that some bee-keepers 

 suppose that some of the fraternity 

 think pollen to be the tirst, last, and 

 only cause of the bee-diarrhoea. I do 

 not know, nor have I read of a single 

 bee-keeper who has expressed his be- 

 lief to that effect. But one thing is 

 certain, if the bees had no pollen to 

 eat, then their evacuation could not 

 be largely composed of undigested pol 

 len, of which it does, and thus consti- 

 tutes the disease. 



I lost 10 per cent, during the past 

 winter, bv different causes, among 

 which som'e died of diarrhrea. Two 

 of them had it as early as Xovemler. 

 when we had several days of quite 

 warm weather each week. One of the 

 two was the strongest and heaviest^ 

 colony I had. I think, when preparuig 

 themf or winter the latter part of Sep- 



tember, I may have killed the queen, 

 and instead 'of clustering, the bees 

 kept up a continual turnmoil,not keep- 

 ing warm enough. 



I liave noticed in all my colonies 

 thus affected, two conditions which 

 precede or accompany the disease. 1. 

 A colonv thus affected, or very nearly 

 so, presents to a hand held above the 

 cluster on top of the cover, a sensation 

 which I cannot compare to anything 

 belter than the body of a person about 

 to die— cold and clammy. 2. The de- 

 gree of the disease with my colonies 

 seemed to be in an inverse proportion 

 to the size of entrance, though I had 

 all of them entirely open ; they varied 

 in lieight nearly I4 of an inch. 1 have 

 made them all now a full H inch. 



Insufficient ventilation may be a 

 factor to be taken into consideration 

 in accounting for the cause of the dis- 

 ease ; l)Ut when some one says, it is 

 caused by " intlanunation," that word 

 cannot be used regarding any condi- 

 tions to which bees may be subject. 



Nor do I believe they are ever 

 trouViled with consumption or neural- 

 gia. If bees were nearer related to 

 mammals, tlian they are, we woidd be 

 better enabled to understand their 

 body, and the causes and conditions 

 l)ro(lucing disease or health ; Init as it 

 is. we cannot know much, and the lit- 

 tle we do know we acquire not liy 

 com])arison to other animals, but by 

 experiment with the bees themselves. 

 Those two colonies lirst affected. I 

 took into the kitciien, made a rousing 

 tire, heated the room up to yu-. and 

 had them tlv for about (i hours. Then 

 I examined' both and found no queen 

 in the stronger colony ; butthe weaker 

 pulled through without losing many 

 more liees. The stronger one lived 

 until nearly the end of March ; and I 

 then examined the combs and found 

 the two frames in the center almost a 

 solid mass of pollen, having been cov- 

 ered with honev which had Iteen eat- 

 en, of course ; this honey, as also that 

 in all mv colonies, had been gathered 

 from w'hite clover. No fall honey 

 around here : hence fall honey cannot 

 lie a cause of the disease as some one 

 seems to believe. The dead colony 

 previously exhiliited a most voracious 

 appetite. " having consumed all the 

 honey, 24 lbs., and had not reared any 

 brood either, as they had no queen; 

 consequently brood- rearing cannot be 

 a cause, as some one suggests. 



In fact. I found in the several colo- 

 nies that I lost bv diarrhoea, only one, 

 which had a patch of Inood of about 

 the size of a silver dollar; thus, I 

 think, proving quite conclusively that 

 brood-rearing'has nothing todo with it. 



It may be, that anything which 

 makes the bees uneasy, may be the 

 first cause or starting-point, in causing 

 the bees to move about too much, in- 

 stead of clustering quietly ; such cases 

 may be queenlessness, lack of ventila- 

 tion, or rather, a lack of sufficient 

 fresh air, frequent disturbance or jars; 

 all this causes them to eat more than 

 is necessary, partake of pollen also, 

 and the result is overloaded intestines. 

 My lighter colonies wintered best; 

 some came through all right on lbs. 

 of honey, by actual weight. 



Youngstown, O. 



Utah Convention. 



At the late convention held in 

 Tooele City, Utah, the Interests of 

 bee culture were represented by the 

 following encouraging reports : 



C. Conley, from Kox Elder county, 

 stated that there were some 700 colo- 

 nies in the county, and that about 30 

 colonies were lost during the winter. 

 He had examined some -500 colonies, 

 and found them in good condition. 

 But little foul brood in the county. 

 Some little chill brood had been dis- 

 covered. His nO colonies had win- 

 tered well. Last season he took 1 ,000 

 pounds of honev. 



German Ellsworth, of Payson, said 

 there were over 700 colonies in Pay- 

 son. Had lost only about 3 per cent., 

 —wintered on summer stands. He 

 commenced in the spring of 1883, with 

 30 colonies, 2 of which were queenless. 

 He had increased them to 60 colonies, 

 taken from them 4.000 pounds of 

 honey and 40 pounds of wax. He ex- 

 plained how they successfully man- 

 aged foul brood for the last 4 years, 

 which, he maintains, is in the honey, 

 and does not attach to the bee. Bees 

 bred in September all die before the 

 following May. 



O. B. Huntington, of SpringviUe. 

 stated that they had no organization 

 at that place, where there were sev- 

 eral old-fashioned bee keepers, who 

 would not adopt modern methods in 

 bee-culture. He owns 27 colonies, 

 which wintered without loss. Last 

 season he took 1,300 pounds of honey 

 and 79 pounds of wax. He uses the 

 patent extractor, and has sent for a 

 foundation machine. There is foul 

 brood now in the place, which has 427 

 colonies, averaging 70 pounds of honey 

 to the colonv. 



Simon :N^oall, of this city, com- 

 menced in the spring of 1883 with one 

 weak colony. He subsequently bought 

 2 heavy ones. From the 3 he procured 

 300 pounds of honey. There was some 

 foul brood in his section. 



:^Ir. Welch, from Morgan county, 

 last spring started with (i colonies, 

 which he increased to 14. Lost one 

 during the winter: took but 30O 

 pounds of honey. There were 72 col- 

 onies in the county ; some 14 perished 

 during the winter. One man had 30 

 colonies in old-fashioned bee-gums. 

 He lost a good many. The altitude is 

 great and seasons short. There is no 

 foul brood in the county, and no bee 

 association. He likes the Simplicity 

 hive and when his bees need food, he 

 feeds them mill dust through a lo- 

 inch tin tube. „ „ ,,-r , 



John Morgan, of Salt Lake county, 

 believes that the smelter fumes and 

 foul brood caused the great mortality 

 among his own and other apiaries m 

 the county. Last spring he captured 

 a deserting swarm by clodding them. 

 These he increased to 3 colonies. 

 Bees should not be overhauled too 

 early lest thev become chilled. He 

 found great prejudice against honey 

 extractors, which is because of igno- 

 rance and in over-using. Bee inspec- 

 tors are not encouraged by the County 

 courts, who pay them grudgingly. 



W. M. Egan. of this city, said he 

 was sorry to learn that there are still 



