1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



459 



Cat;)adiar) Bcedon;. 



Summer Losses of Bees. 



We are familiar with the term " winter losses," but the 

 phrase " summer losses" is a new thing under the sun. In 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review for June, the following editorial 

 paragraph appeared : 



" Bees are dying in some parts of this county. I mistrust 

 that it is of starvation. The warm weather during fruit-bloom 

 caused the rearing of large quantities of brood, and now there 

 is no honey to gather, and it looks at present as though there 

 would be none from white clover. Possibly there will be some 

 from Alsike and basswood." 



"Starvation in June," I soliloquized; "whoever heard 

 tell of the like ?" Within two or three days I met with a bee- 

 keeper who told me he was losing some of his weak colonies 

 by starvation. Feeding in the fall, he said, might be thought 

 of, but feeding at midsummer was out of the question. 



In 30 years' experience as a bee-keeper, I have never 

 known such a dearth of honey in the season of the honey har- 

 vest as there is now in many parts of Canadian beedom, my 

 own locality included. It is chiefly caused by the terrible 

 drought, which has continued, almost unrelieved by a single 

 shower, for about six weeks. White clover when it appeared, 

 had a very stunted look, and seemed to be devoid of nectar, 

 for the bees did not visit it at all. The same may be said of 

 Alsike clover. The only flower I have noticed the bees fre- 

 quenting is the viper's bugloss, and they are by no means 

 numerous on it. A long stalk of blue bloom will have perhaps 

 one or two bees on it — not more. I have never considered this 

 "vile weed," as Dr. Darlington calls it in his "American 

 Weeds aud Useful Plants," a very fruitful source of honey 

 supply, and I do not think it is doing much to mitigate the 

 effects of the terrible drought as I have, I think, truthfully 

 called it, under which we are now suffering. 



In a few days the Canada thistle, as it is slanderously 

 termed, will be in bloom. It is no more the Canada thistle 

 than it is the United States thistle, having been imported into 

 both countries from the continent of Europe. This vilest of 

 vile weeds has the one redeeming feature that it yields honey 

 of an excellent quality. I am curious to know whether it will 

 prove itself drought-proof, and yield its usual quota of nectar 

 this year. 



From the editorial paragraph in the Review, it seems they 

 have basswood expectations in Michigan. We have none 

 here, whatever. A new crop of leaves has hidden the black- 

 ened remains of the first leafing-out, but buds and blossoms 

 there are none. 



The drought is local, but I am inclined to think extends 

 over a large portion of Canadian beedom. There have been 

 abundant rains within a few miles of me in various directions, 

 and I am inclined to think that many districts of country will 

 give their usual favorable returns of the honey harvest. But, 

 in some sections, the summer losses will exceed those of the 

 past winter, though it was an exceptionally severe one. 



Experiments in Wintering Bees. 



In the Bee-Keepers' Review for June, a series of experi- 

 ments is reported by Mr. R. L. Taylor, which furnishes much 

 food for thought. A lot of 37 colonies was weighed according 

 to several characteristics. The average strength of the whole 

 number was 6.59 ; average fall weight, 53.52 lbs.; average 

 spring weight, 42.20 lbs.; average consumption, 11.32 lbs.; 

 average consumption per unit of strength, 1.72 lbs. In four 

 tables the classification is according to the absence and to the 

 different degrees of the voiding of excrement. One table in- 

 cludes those which showed none of these signs. The amount 

 consumed by the bees in this class was 1.57 lbs. per unit of 

 strength. Ten colonies that showed signs of excrementitious 

 matter in the smallest degree consumed 1.75 lbs. per unit of 

 strength. Seven colonies that showed the existence of diar- 

 rhea to a moderate extent, consumed 1.84 lbs. per unit of 

 strength. Three colonies that showed much voiding of ex- 

 crement consumed 2.11 lbs. per unit of strength. It will thus 

 be seen that the amount of stores consumed increases steadily 

 with the evidence of a deposit of excrement. Whether the too 

 great consumption of food caused the voiding of excrement, or 

 whether the conditions leading to the voiding caused the con- 

 sumption, or whether some other condition, such as moisture. 



was the cause of both, does not appear from these experi- 

 ments, but will be enquired into later on. 



It is to be regretted that no colonies wintered exclusively 

 on sugar stores figure in these experiments. These experi- 

 ments do little more than confirm the importance of quietude 

 and freedom from uneasiness as necessary to the best winter- 

 ing of bees. 



Some experiments in upward ventilation lead Mr. Taylor 

 to the conclusion that upward ventilation tends to increase 

 the accumulation of feces, and also to decrease the strength of 

 the colony, the reason probably being that an upward move- 

 ment of the air disquiets the bees and causes a larger propor- 

 tion than otherwise would to leave the cluster and perish. 



The six strongest colonies in the lot of 37, consumed stores 

 in the proportion of 1.34 to the unit of strength. The five 

 weakest consumed no less than 2.37 lbs. per unit of strength. 

 This result backs up Father Langstroth's old-time advice pub- 

 lished in capital letters : "Keep all colonies strong." 



Mr. Taylor's summing up of this series of experiments is 

 as follows : 



" These results are not particularly surprising, perhaps, 

 for more heat comparatively would be lost from a weak col- 

 ony, and this loss must be made good by increased consump- 

 tion, but having these results in mind and selecting and com- 

 paring the colonies heaviest in stores with those lightest in 

 that respect, one would be apt to be somewhat surprised, for 

 the division appears to be upon much the same lines as in the 

 last two tables, since in many cases the heaviest colonies are 

 strongest, and the lightest weakest. I selected the 12 heavi- 

 est, one weighing without its bottom-board more than 60 

 pounds when put into the cellar, and I found their average 

 strength 7.75, average fall weight 63.46, average consump- 

 tion 14.33 lbs., and the consumption per unit of strength 

 1.85 lbs. The nine lighter ones had an average strength of 

 5.11, average fall weight of 41 lbs., and an average consump- 

 tion of 7.93 lbs., and the consumption per unit of strength 

 1.55 lbs., the consumption of the heaviest being in excess by 

 more than 19 per cent. These results suggest that a great 

 surplusage of stores causes unnecessary consumption, and it 

 might be suspected that there had been an overestimation of 

 the strength of the lighter colonies, but a careful comparison 

 with the results in tables G and H, where the suggestion 

 would be that the weaker ones had been underestimated, 

 would have a tendency to remove that suspicion. These re- 

 results and these tables in reality seem to emphasize — in fact 

 to prove each other." 



We appear to be still in the fog as to the means whereby 

 the consumption of stores can be reduced to a minimum with- 

 out weakening the colony. All bee-keepers of any consider- 

 able experience have occasionally been surprised at the small 

 quantity of stores on which a colony has wintered. If Mr. 

 Taylor could ascertain by a course of experimentation how to 

 winter bees on the smallest possible consumption of stores, he 

 would earn the warmest thanks of bee-keepers generally. 



The Viper's Bugloss. 



Since writing the article on " Summer Losses " I have 

 been ransacking ray somewhat limited library for information 

 about this plant, and find very little. The botanical species 

 to which it belongs is called Erhiuin from Echis, a viper, from 

 the resemblance of the seeds to a viper's head. What the 

 word "bugloss" imports, I have not been able to make out. 

 The kind that grows as a weed is known as Ec/tium iiuigare. 

 Zell's Cyclopedia says of it: "A rough plant, with large, 

 handsome, violet-colored flowers, found in fields and waste 

 grounds." It is deemed worthy of a place in the " Cottage 

 Gardeners' Dictionary," a valuable English publication, and 

 ranks among plants grown in hot-houses. " American Weeds 

 and Useful Plants " is very severe on it, not only stigmatizing 

 it as a " vile weed," but as a sad pest wherever it establishes 

 itself. I cannot for the life of me see anything execrable 

 about it. There is no difficulty in exterminating it, if one 

 desires to do so. It is evidently a very hardy plant, and has 

 the faculty of flourishing in barren soils and desolate places, 

 which is a great virtue if it is worth anything for bee-forage. 

 That is the kind of plant bee-keepers should encourage— one 

 that will clothe waste-places with verdure, and without taking 

 up land that may be devoted to valuable crops, make desert 

 places fruitful to some extent. I would like to ask whether 

 any reader of the American Bee Journal knows anything 

 about the value, or otherwise, of this plant for honey-produc- 

 tion. If it is worth anything to the bee-keeper, it is easy of 

 multiplication, as it will grow both from seeds and cuttings. 



