AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



47 



Topics dI Interest. 



How the Bees are Winterini. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



Some may be interested in my report 

 from nortli latitude 42, that our bees 

 were flying lively on Dec. 23. Tliere is 

 no snow on the ground, and bee-men 

 around about here are happy. I am 

 wintering about 350 colonies, some 60 

 of which are in the cellar, and all the 

 rest out-doors ; these are securely packed 

 in dark red wintering boxes. 



The Winter now so well advanced, 

 having been so mild, I think the out-door 

 bees will come out ahead. However, the 

 60 colonies in the cellar, which have 

 been in about a month, are at this time 

 exceedingly quiet. 



Many of the older readers of the 

 American Bee Joitrnal will remember 

 about the " Heddon pollen-theory," and 

 the radical opposition to it, which seemed 

 to come, more than anything else, from 

 jealousy as to who would be the first to 

 discover the cause of bee diarrhea. There 

 are now many younger bee-keepers and 

 new subscribers who have heard very 

 little regarding this theory, which I 

 think I may say, is now a practical, 

 settled science. 



In consideration of the foregoing, it 

 may not be out of place for me to say a 

 few words regarding the consumption of 

 pollen during Winter confinement as 

 being the sole and direct cause of bee 

 diarrhea, compared with which all other 

 causes of Winter losses amount to 

 nothing. To begin with, the excreta, 

 every time it is analyzed, proves to be 

 almost wholly and clearly undigested 

 pollen. 



It is also well known that bees, not 

 only winter better, but much safer, when 

 not one drop of pollen is in the hive. It 

 is also a fact that a large portion of 

 honey gathered in some seasons, is well 

 filled with floating pollen, very thin, but 

 still visible to the naked eye. This year 

 there seems to be plenty of bee-bread in 

 the hives, but the honey appears quite 

 clear and free from floating pollen. 



Now, if we keep our bees in such con- 

 dition, that no special temptation to 

 pollen-consumption is present, I believe 

 they will winter well. It is well known 

 that a low temperature is the prime cause 

 of bees consuming pollen ; the cold 

 stimulating them to exercise, which 

 results in a waste of animal tissue, and 



this waste quickly prompts the bees to 

 make it up by the consumption of nitrog- 

 enous food (pollen), which clogs the 

 intestines and produce diseases where 

 long confinement follows. At this time, 

 we have a right to hope tliat neither one 

 of these conditions will be experienced 

 with our bees, wintered either out-doors 

 or in special repositories. 



I desire to impress upon the younger 

 readers of the Bee Journal, the fact 

 that Prof. A. J. Cook, in connection with 

 the Michigan State Chemist, Professor 

 Kedzie, has several times analyzed the 

 excreta, and found it pollen first, and 

 pollen last. I saw, years ago, and I 

 will here say that everything coming 

 under my observation since that time 

 lias only gone to confirm the theory (nay, 

 the truth) that this pollen-consumption 

 is tlie one and only great cause of the 

 Winter malady, which has decimated the 

 bees in the Northern States, year after 

 year, as well as the pocket-books of our 

 most enterprising bee-keepers all over 

 the country. 



One of the greatest evils from which 

 honey-producers suffer, in the way of 

 heavy losses of bees in Winter, or light 

 crops in Summer, or both combined is, 

 that honey being a luxury, the price will 

 not go above a certain point, let the 

 scarcity be what it may. Our success 

 demands plenty of bees, good crops and 

 low prices, it seems to me. 



Would it not be well for bee-keepers 

 all over the United States to commence 

 to report regarding the present con- 

 dition of bees, the kind of weather they 

 have been having, that we may begin to 

 estimate what the results of wintering 

 will be throughout the country ? 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



f lien anil Why do tie Bees Die ? 



rev. dr. JOHN DZIERZON, 



Every one knows that during the time 

 when the fields are full of flowers young 

 bees are hatched in all healthy and pop- 

 ulous colonies daily, not by hundreds, but 

 by thousands ; every parent colony, as a 

 rule, giving off the first swarm, and one 

 or more second swarms, in which the 

 work of increasing the population is 

 carried on in a similar way as in the 

 parent colony. If this went on con- 

 tinually, the hives would soon be incap- 

 able of holding the large number of bees 

 forming the colonies, and the country 

 would in a short time be unable to sup- 

 port the number of colonies of bees in 

 the different districts. 



