360 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



observation hive in a window in his 

 room, where the temperature does 

 not fall below the heat required by 

 Dr. Dzierzon. It would be interest- 

 ing to know his verdict in this ques- 

 tion ; by such decisive experiments 

 the science of bee-keeping would gain 

 largely. 



liemark by tlie Translator. — I ob- 

 tained, this spring, a colony of bees 

 from a frame in an old rotten box- 

 hive ; as it had no legs, whicli were, 

 perhaps, rotten some years ago, it 

 was propped up and nailed to two 

 posts, about one foot from the ground ; 

 the bottom board was entirely gone, 

 exposing the combs to view. On top 

 were two open inch holes not at all 

 covered ; it had always wintered well : 

 had stood there for many years, and 

 swarmed occasionally, but never had 

 it given any sun)lus honey. On trans- 

 ferring it to a Langstroth hive, 1 found 

 plenty of bees and brood and two 

 capped queen-cells. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Wintering Bees. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



As an excuse for coming forward 

 again with this old, old subject, I will 

 say that it is not yet exhausted. 



Loss in wintering is considered by 

 many the arch enemy of the bee- 

 keeper, lam just one year late or 

 behind the time I expected with this 

 article. In the fall of 1881, I pre- 

 pared a large number of colonies in 

 very many different ways, wishing to 

 somewhat test the effects of differ- 

 ent conditions upon the main cause 

 of loss in wintering, namely dysen- 

 tery. The open winter following, 

 which gave the bees a chance to void 

 every two or three weeks, which we 

 all know to be a prevention or cure or 

 both to the malady, prevented my 

 experiments from teaching one any 

 thing upon the subject. 



Last fall I repeated my previous 

 experimental pacKing for winter, and 

 as you know, was favored by a winter 

 long enough, and strong enough to 

 satisfy the most entusiastic truth 

 seeker. As I have much else to say, 

 I will not go into a detailed descrip- 

 tion of my modes of wintering. I will 

 give you my own deductions in as 

 short a space as possible. 



These experiments verified my 

 former opinion that cold and confine- 

 ment is not the main cause of dysen- 

 tery. I do not remember the time 

 when my bees were confined longer 

 or subjected to longer extended low 

 temperature than last winter. There 

 has' not been a time since I kept bees, 

 except one winter when I had 33 col- 

 onies, that dysentery has not shown 

 itself among the bees to a greater or 

 less extent. One year I lost 60 colonies 

 out of 73, another 45 out of 48, another 

 year near two-thirds, another about 

 three-fourths, and once or twice one- 

 half. Once (with the 33 colonies 

 above referred to) all came through 

 in perfect order. If cold and confine- 

 ment were the cause of dysentery 

 (dysentery being the well known cause 

 of our winter losses) of my 350 colo- 



nies put into winter quarters last fall 

 according to the above experience, I 

 should not have had 5 colonies left 

 alive. As it was I lost a little over 

 150 colones out of 350. Many colonies 

 came through in perfect condition. 



My favorite experiment was made 

 with 50 colonies, 45 of ^hich came 

 through in good condition with the 

 exception of 3 or 4 which, had fertile 

 workers, being overlooked during my 

 absence in the fall, caused by severe 

 poisoning from breathing the odor 

 of bees at that time of year. My own 

 experiments are not alone in proving 

 that cold and confinement are not the 

 cause of dysentery, but only one of 

 the necessary conditions ; as a tem- 

 perature above the freezing point is a 

 necessary condition for yellow fever, 

 though heat is not the cause of it. On 



eige 218, of the current volume, Mr. 

 . L. Herrick, of Vermont, says that 

 Mr. McKay wishes to know if any 

 one can beat 130 days without a rtight, 

 and says he can. Says his bees had 

 been confined 159 days, and the whole 

 21 colonies answered the roll call, all 

 seeming in perfect condition on April 

 15. 



Many reports like this can be found 

 to back up my opinion. I have dem- 

 onstrated to my own satisfaction that 

 upward ventilation, downward venti- 

 lation, dry atmosphere, damp atmos- 

 phere, and many minor conditions 

 only act for or against the great cause 

 in a mild degree, and then much 

 according to the condition of the bees. 

 I am now perfectly satisfied, though I 

 admit there is still room to be mis- 

 taken, that the cause of dysentery lies 

 in the food eaten by the bees, and I 

 firmly believe that what is known as 

 " Heddon's pollen theory," giveB the 

 correct solution to the subject. 



I will quote the following from a 

 private letter from that able apiarist 

 and careful student of nature, Mr. A. 

 R. Kohnke, of YoungStown, O. : 

 " There are only two substances in the 

 hive for the bees to eat, namely honey 

 and pollen. We know lioney is a pure 

 carbon sweet, at least practically so, 

 and if eaten in small quantities by 

 bees, is converted into carbonic acid 

 and water, hence leaves no residue. 

 But pollen contains a much larger per 

 cent, of undigestible matter which 

 has to be voided as feces; it must, 

 therefore, be the pollen. That is 

 what you say. It is pollen first and 

 last. Now hold on ; not so fast. 

 During the winter the bees have 

 nothing to do but to sit still and 

 breathe, not breed. To breed, they 

 need and must have pollen ; but to 

 breathe they need not. 1 want to 

 know why they should eat pollen 

 when they do not need it. An an- 

 swer, a correct answer will bring us 

 to a true and correct starting point. 

 Could you bring about such a condi- 

 tion with bees as would force them to 

 eat honey when they want pollen, or 

 pollen when they want honey V Will 

 bees of their own choice eat the one 

 when they are in need of the other V 

 You may. perhaps, say you do not 

 know, but I I'ather think you do. 

 Bees are not yet enough civilized to 

 accept substitutes ot one for the 

 other, " and make it do." They do 



not. They will not touch your pollen 

 if they have honey or some other pure 

 hydro carbon sweet within reach. If 

 they have not, they eat not only the 

 honey but the pollen also, of which a 

 large part is covered with honey, and 

 then the accumulation of feces begins. 

 If at this stage the weather permits a 

 rtight, they will improve the chance 

 and then move around to honey, and 

 no dysentery will be visible, if not it 

 is there." 



It seems that this letter of Mr. 

 Kohnke's is meant by him as a partial 

 controversy with me, while the facts 

 are, it precisely substantiates my 

 favorite opinions and claims. I have 

 said all along that bees unhesitatingly 

 prefer honey if the quality is good, 

 but do not eat pollen except when 

 they are out of normal condition, by 

 the honey being all eaten out of their 

 immediate cluster, and the weather 

 too disastrously cold for the bees to 

 move. Or when breeding begins, I 

 think the bees, in handling the pollen, 

 swallow more or less of it, for some 

 way or other breeding and dysentery 

 keep company to a great extent. 



Very many bee-keepers, who are 

 now observing and experimenting 

 somewhat regarding the pollen theory, 

 are writing me that they believe it a 

 correct one. Among them, Mr. Wal- 

 ter Harmer, of Manistee, Mich., 

 writes as follows: "Two colonies 

 came through all right; the only one 

 that had dysentery, had an excess of 

 pollen, and began to breed the earliest. 

 Xow, I wish to quote from a gentle- 

 man who has experimented, perhaps, 

 more than any other living man upon 

 this question", namely, the consump- 

 tion of pollen as connected with dys- 

 entery. I refer to Dr. A. B. Mason, of 

 Wagon Works, Ohio. In a letter un- 

 der date of March 20, last, he writes 

 as follows : 



" I've just been leAding the Exchange 

 for February, and I notice Mr. Ten- 

 nant's remarks on your pollen theory ; 

 he does not believe that pollen alone 

 is the cause of dysentery, etc. ; I had 

 to laugh. A good many illustrations 

 popped into my head, and the first 

 that occurred was, that 1 would be 

 laughed at too if I was to say that, 

 when a man is hung for murder, the 

 rope around his neck was not not the 

 cause of his death— his getting his 

 neck into the rope is the cause of 

 death ; so of course, pollen is not the 

 cause, it is ' cold weather without 

 purifying flights.' I wonder what do 

 bees want 'purifying flights' for, if 

 they do not eat impure food ? I like 

 to read occasionally what Mr. Cheshire 

 says on page 277, of theBEK Journal 

 for June, 1879. 



" As I wrote you, once before, I 

 have wintered for 4 years without 

 pollen, and without loss, but this win- 

 ter I am experimenting, not for choice 

 but necessity, and I am going to pay 

 for it, too. Being partially paralyzed 

 in my wrists, for several weeks last 

 fall, I was unable to prepare all my 

 colonies for winter without pollen. I 

 put 77 colonies in the cellar (where 

 I have wintered them 2 years without 

 loss), last Nov. 18, in a pile, 13 hives 

 long and 6 hives high, without any re- 

 gard to their condition, only putting 



