May 16, 1889. 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
407 
had plenty of stores ; the result of this being, few or no young 
bees for wintering. The old bees were fed and simply died of 
old age, between the combs. Had a few young bees been present to 
keep up the temperature they would have left the hive3 to die. 
Weak stocks are those whose queens continued to lay a few eggs, 
and thus they had a few young bees. A writer elsewhere says that 
where early feeding was followed the bees are all alive, but where 
neglected they are either very weak or dead, and reasons that late 
feeding accounted for the loss ; yet he admits being puzzled to 
account for some reports where late feeding was practised and the 
stocks are in splendid condition. If it is considered that early 
feeding meant a batch of young bees which obtained a healthy 
flight during the fine warm weather in October, and that the late- 
fed ones had been kept breeding all summer by means of feeding, 
everything will be clear. I contend that late feeding, if other con¬ 
ditions are right, has no detrimental effect. What those conditions 
are I will duly deal with. 
The mortality in bees has been very great, but the only 
defunct stock, where my advice and management was followed, is 
one in my own apiary, which was queenless early in December. Two 
bee-keepers close to me have lost twenty-six and twenty-nine hives 
respectively—all they had, the - result of insufficient feeding. I 
advised them to give 15 lbs. of sugar to each stock. The first said 
he could not afford to buy so much, so I told him to buy what he 
could and select as many of his best stocks as it would feed and brim¬ 
stone the rest. He objected to this as he wanted to get his stocks 
up to fifty, aDd to follow my plan he would be thrown back a year 
or two ; so he spent every penny he could raise, and gave about 
6 lbs. to each, which was of course not enough to save them from 
starving. It is said that skep stocks are dead, and frame hive 
stocks alive, and the plea set up is that the latter are the best for 
wintering. Such, however, is not the case, as all the skep stocks I 
have examined are ahead of frame hives. Where both have been 
managed alike I have been surprised to find several alive where their 
owners are indifferent about the bees’ welfare, and this has been 
my invariable experience for several years past; therefore, taking 
all in all, I am convinced that there is nothing to surpass a skep 
for wintering bees. 
THE CAUSE OE WINTER DYSENTERY. 
This, which has been talked and written about probably more 
than any other subject, has been the cause of the loss of many stocks 
in my own apiary in winters past. I think, however, it will cause me 
no more trouble. In America tw r o theories have been propounded, 
one called the “ Pollen Theory,” by Mr. James Heddon, the other 
called the “ Hybernation Theory,” by the Rev. W. F. Clarke. 
The first holds that if the bees are wholly deprived of pollen during 
winter, and fed on pure sugar stores in clean combs, there would 
be no dysentery, but he admits now that the trouble is too much to 
pay to practise. The latter contends that if bees sleep it makes no 
difference whether pollen is present or not, they are bound to come 
out healthy. There was a great discussion in America some four 
years ago, and no end of experiments, to prove one theory or the 
other, which I carefully read and studied. What struck me was 
that all those who admitted having suffered from dysentery, and 
favoured the pollen theory, reared their queens by modern methods; 
that is, in some way or other, they strove to rear them as cheaply 
and in as large numbers as possible ; while those who invariably 
wintered their bees without loss, let them rear their own queens 
as Nature dictated. This set me thinking, and I was soon conscious 
that all my losses from dysentery had been with stocks of bees 
whose mothers had been reared on modern methods. Consequently 
I conceived another theory—namely, that if pains were taken to 
breed the queens extra well, in a natural manner, their bees would 
invariably sleep in winter, no matter what kind of stores they 
might have, and come out in spring as strong as when packed up 
for winter. 
The first generation I reared convinced me that I was on the 
right road ; the second generation has just passed through the winter, 
and I will describe them. I fed them in October ; about a week 
after, as they seemed quiet, and the day warm and fine, I examined 
them all, to cut winter passages through the combs. The bees in 
two stocks were flying freely. I found nearly all had already 
begun to “ hybernate,” and though all the authorities in America 
deny that bees truly hybernate I was quite convinced that they do- 
when properly bred. When I pulled the combs asunder they 
dropped in the bottom of the hive as if they were dead, and could 
only just move their legs ; they soon came round quite lively, and 
afterwards were not disturbed until April 18th. In the mean¬ 
time I had several times turned up the corners of the quilts to see 
if they still lived ; when I did this I saw what hybernation in bees 
really was. In one stock, that contained about 12 lbs. of bees, I 
took off the quilt on the 7th of April, first to see if they had any 
stores left, and secondly to see if they were “ lively ” in the middle 
of the cluster, as it is contended that they always are in America- 
The bees were packed as closely as possible, and in every seam 
appeared to be dead ; but as I could see here and there a bee move 
its legs a little, particularly those that had stuck to the quilt, and 
some sealed stores where not covered with bees, I concluded they 
were all right, and quickly covered them again. The spring has 
been so bad that not till April 18th did we have a day warm and 
fine enough to safely open a hive, when I went through them, to* 
find, to my delight, all the stocks that had these carefully bred 
queens as strong in bees and with as much food as when packed for 
winter ; even the one with 12 lbs. of bees in it did not seem to have 
consumed any during the whole six months. The whole of the 
queens were laying, but not a particle of brood could I find. I 
examined some of them again on May 4th, when I found the 
strongest with 7 square feet of combs filled with brood and eggs, 
and others, in proportion to their strength, on the 18th ult. I have 
not used an ounce of food for my bees this spring, nor shall I 
require to give any. The only thing I have done lias been to let 
them alone. 
, If it is possible to practically winter our bees on nothing, and 
yet always have them in swarming strength, I think there are yet 
great possibilities in bee-keeping. I cannot in this article do full 
justice to the subject, therefore I shall have to take it up agaiu 
when I have more time. The matter is of the highest importance, 
and without “ hybernation ” it cannot work. My contention is 
that the so-called dysentery is Nature’s remedy to weed out in 
winter those bees that are constitutionally weak, and leave the 
fittest to survive and procreate themselves during the coming 
season, and that the complaint is more allied to dyspepsia than 
anything else.—-A Hallamsiiire Bee-keeper. 
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Muscat Grapes (Anxious ).—We do not think you have great 
cause for anxiety. Many gardeners would be proud of such Vines. 
