1878. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



41 



count for the rare instances in which queens 

 hatched witli imperfect wings, lay eggs that 

 produce worker brood. We know that 

 aphides and some other insects, reproduce 

 their species without any agency of the 

 male, for several generations. It is of no 

 use to say we do not believe it, for the evi- 

 dence is indisputable. How wondrous are ! 

 thy works, O Lord. j 



B'S'SSZS'Q^tll.'S'. When you see your 

 bees covering the door-steps and entrances 

 to their hives with a yellowish disagreeable 

 looking excrement, you may say they have 

 the dysentery, or what is usually known as 

 such. If the weather becomes very warm 

 and pleasant, they will usually get over it, 

 after they have had a full flight. If, on the 

 contrary, the symptoms show themselves 

 before warm weather, and no opportunity is 

 given them to fly, they may get so bad as to 

 cover their combs with this substance, and 

 finally die in a damp filthy looking mass. 



CAUSE or DYSENTERY. 



I believe the most common cause, is bad 

 food, coupled with an open, cold hive, with 

 a small, or insufficient cluster of bees. I can 

 hardly think any food alone would produce 

 the disease, because we rarely, if ever, find 

 the bees suffering from anything they will 

 gather, in warm summer weather. Honey 

 gathered from rotten fruit, if we may call it 

 honey, is very prodvictive of this complaint, 

 and cider from cider mills, is almost sm-e to 

 kill bees at the approach of cold weather. 

 See CIDER. I knew a lady who boiled up a 

 mash of sweet apples and fed to the bees, be- 

 cause they were short of stores, and she 

 could not afford to buy sugar for them. 

 They all died of dysentery, long before 

 spring. Where dampness accumulates from 

 their breath, and settles on the combs, dilu- 

 ting the honey, it is very apt to cause these 

 symptoms. Sorghum syrup, ha^ brought on 

 a very aggravated form, and burnt candy or 

 sugar is almost sure poison to bees, although 

 it may be fed them with impunity in the 

 middle of the sixmmer. Tlie burnt sugar, or 

 caramel, attracts moisture from the air very 

 rapidly in damp weather, and I am inclined 

 to think it is this moisture that produces 

 the disease. 



While it is very certain that no such symp- 

 to^ns are found in warm weather, it is also 

 certain that a strong colony in a hive with 

 so(ft warm dry porous walls, will stand an 

 amount of bad food, that a weak one, or one 

 exposed to drafts of cold air, will not. I 

 have known bees having considerable stores 

 of cider, to winter very well, if the colony 



were strong enough to keep the whole in- 

 terior of the hive, dry and warm. A power- 

 ful colony, if left with their hive uncovered 

 during a rain storm, will soon dry them- 

 selves, and while they are doing this, they 

 I'emind one of a sturdy cart liorse, as he 

 shakes the water oif his hide and dries him- 

 self by his internal animal heat. While they 

 have the health and nmnbers to repel mois- 

 ture in this way, they are safe against al- 

 most anything. But to help them to keep 

 this internal strength, they should have 

 close and comfox"table quarters, very much 

 such as you would need my friend, to enable 

 you to pass a severe winter's night, in health 

 and comfort. The hives often used, are so 

 large and bani-like, in respect of the win- 

 ter's brood nest, that comfort is almost out 

 of the question, for it does little if any good 

 to pile straw corn-fodder &c., over the out- 

 sides of the hives, while the cluster within 

 has no sort of protection at all. If they were 

 in a hollow tree, the diameter of Miiich was 

 so small that they could fill it completely, 

 they would be in a much better place, espe- 

 cially, if the sides were lined with soft dry 

 rotten wood. I have seen icicles nearly as 

 large as my arm, in box hives that were 

 tight and large ; these had all formed from 

 the condensation of the breath of the bees. 

 Now, should they melt during a thaw, in 

 such a way that this water would nin down 

 on the bees and their unsealed stores, it 

 would be very apt to produce unhealthiness, 

 to say nothing farther. 



PREVENTION OF DYSENTERY'. 



From what I have said, you will probably, 

 infer that I would make the swarm larger, 

 or the hive smaller, during the winter sea- 

 son. If we add, and have the walls of the 

 hive of some wann porous material that will 

 absorb moisture and afterward dry out read- 

 ily, you have the idea so far. Perhaps the 

 chaff cushions and division boards are the 

 readiest means at our command of accom- 

 plishing this. 



While they may get along on almost any 

 kind of food when thus prepared, I would 

 by no means fail to give them good whole- 

 some stores, as far as possible. Honey gath- 

 i ered in the middle of the season, is generally 

 , wholesome, for it is, by the time winter 

 comes, thoroughly ripened, by the same dry- 

 ing out iwwer I have spoken of. Honey 

 gathered in the fall, if sealed up, is generally 

 goo<l, but some of the fall flowers produce a 

 honey that seems to separate into a thin 

 J M'atery liquid, and a granular substance, 

 . sometl.ung like candied honey. I am not 



