42 



•gleani:n^gs IX bee culture. 



Feb. 



quite sure this causes dysentery, but it looks 

 very much as if it does, some seasons. A 

 syrup made of white, or whitish sugar, I be- 

 lieve is always wholesome, and when bees 

 are short of stores, it is probably the cheap- 

 est and safest of anythin?? we can feed late 

 in the fall. We have had one report of the 

 new grap3 sugar that seemed to indicate it 

 might be productive of dysentery, but it has 

 answered so nicely in our apiary, up to this 

 date, Jan. loth, 78, that I am inclined to 

 think the quality of the sugar was not quite 

 like that we use. 



I once wintered a colony, on sugar stores, 

 that came out so healthy in the spring, that 

 they did not even spot the white snow visi- 

 bly, when they voided their excrement at 

 their first flight in the spring. This, I be- 

 lieve we may consider perfect freedom from 

 any sign of dysentery. A friend who is an 

 old time box hive bee-keeper, says it is the 

 pollen that makes them spot the snow ; that 

 if they are wintered without pollen, they 

 will make no perceptible spot. I think there 

 may be some truth in this, for those wintei*- 

 ed without pollen, seem to spot the snow but 

 little. .Spotting the snow is not alw lys an 

 indication that we should be alarmed, espe- 

 cially if the bees seem to rise without troub- 

 le, and get back to the hive in safety; but 

 should they soil the entrance and inside of 

 their hives, and then fall around the en- 

 trance in considerable numbers, unable to 

 take wing, it is pretty safe to say without 

 very warm fine weather, they will soon be 

 demoralized and broken up. 



CURE FOR DYSENTERY. 



Summer weather seems to be a sure and 

 certain cure. One day of summer weather, 

 or a day warm enough for them all to fly 

 freely is, I believe, a cure usually; especial- 

 ly if they are provided with wholesome food 

 and tucked up warm, after they have had 

 this fly. 



The question now comes up, cannot we 

 give them this needed fly, by artificial 

 means. It has been done, many times vnth 

 success, by taking the hive into a warm 

 room, and fixing a square frame of thin 

 cloth or nettmg over it, in which they can 

 fly and empty themselves. This frame 

 should be about a yard square. The room 

 should be light and warm. After they are 

 througli, the temperature should be allowed 

 to fall, until tliey are driven buck into the 

 cluster on the frames. To avoid soiling the 

 liive and combs, papers may be spread over 

 them, except allo^ving an opening for the 

 bees to come up into the cage. This is a 



troublesome and disagreeable task, and I 

 think will hardly pay, imless it is with a few 

 hives, or to save a very valuable queen. A 

 beginner is very apt to be alarmed, when 

 there is no trouble at all, and I repeat, un- 

 less the bees are soiling the combs in the 

 hive, and getting themselves soiled, damp 

 and demoralized, I would let them alone 

 (after tucking them up with chaflC cushions) 

 to take their chances until there comes a 

 warm day. I know of a beginner who on 

 looking into his hive and flnding only a 

 small cluster away down in the combs, im- 

 agined they were nearly all dead, and hear- 

 mg through the Journals of giving them a 

 fly in a cage, took the innocent and unof- 

 fending bee ^ into the house, and warmed 

 them up. The little knot of bees began to 

 unfold under the influence of the warmth, 

 and turned out to be a good sized colony. 

 They had packed themselves do\\ii into a 

 little sphere, so small that an inexperienced 

 person would have been likely at first 

 glance, to call them only a good sized hand- 

 ful, but they were a good swarm, and were 

 in just the shape they should be to stand a 

 zero freeze, or rather, they had done the 

 very best they could in a winter brood nest 

 four or five times as large as they really 

 needed. 



If the trouble is caused by bad honey, and 

 this is many times the case, they should, af- 

 ter their flight, be removed from their 

 combs, and supplied with some you know, 

 or have reason to think, is good, well rip- 

 ened, wholesome honey. Evei-y bee-keeper 

 should have a stock of such combs on hand 

 for emergencies. They can be taken from 

 the hives during the yield from clover or 

 linden, in July or Aug. If you cannot get 

 these, I would give them candy, a small 

 lump at a time, just over the cluster, the 

 bees of course being on empty combs. 'Tis 

 rather risky I know, for after the bees have 

 become diseased as I have mentioned, they 

 seem to be discouraged, and to have lost all 

 heart to do anything. I have known them 

 to starve with candy or honey close to them, 

 at such a time. If you can stir up some am- 

 bition in them, and get them to clean off 

 their whigs and "plumage,"' and go to work, 

 there will be no trouble, but so long as they 

 preserve that listlessness and indifference, 

 there is but little hope for them ; they will 

 probably swaiin out on the first warm day, 

 if you do "tinker them up." If the season is 

 pretty well along, say April or May, you can 

 often stir up their ambition, by giving them 

 1 a little unsealed brood from another colony. 



