772 
SPRING DWINDLING 
members die off until the original bunch of 
bees is reduced to a few dozens. This deci- 
imation may be due to a low vitality on the 
part of the old bees that are inclined to 
die off anyway before spring, or it may be 
due to dysentery. (See Dysentery.) If it 
is caused by the first mentioned, it shows 
that the colony went into winter quarters 
with almost no young bees; that is to say, 
the great force representing the colony was 
made up of old bees whose length of days 
would naturally expire at the beginning of 
the spring, even under good or the best 
conditions; when, therefore, the conditions 
are not favorable, naturally these old bees 
die off much the sooner. 
On the other hand, if spring dwindling 
is due to dysentery, the condition of the 
colony in the fall previous, if it could be 
known, would probably show an insufficient 
protection, or a cluster too weak in the first 
place to stand even an ordinary winter, to 
say nothing of one that is exceptionally 
cold. Under Dysentery it is shown that 
this disease or malady, rather, is the result 
of overfeeding. Overfeeding is caused by 
an attempt on the part of the bees to keep 
themselves warm. A cluster too small, or a 
normal cluster in a single-walled hive, in a 
cold climate, will overeat; and as the bees 
have no opportunity for flight, their intes¬ 
tines become overcharged, resulting finally 
in purging, and this purging fouls up the 
whole hive. An examination down in the 
brood-nest at about this stage in the spring 
shows a small weakened cluster, bees un¬ 
easy and somewhat scattered, and combs 
emitting an ill-smelling odor of excrement. 
The bees have greatly distended abdomens, 
showing that they are overloaded with fecal 
matter, as explained under Dysentery. A 
normal colony should show a compact quiet 
cluster of bees. See Temperature. 
A good flight in warm weather will en¬ 
able diseased bees to cleanse themselves 
and make a new start. In fact, continuous 
warm weather is a relief for spring dwin¬ 
dling. But, unfortunately, in many locali¬ 
ties there will come a week or two of warm 
weather at which time bees will start 
brood-rearing. When a cold spell comes 
on, the already greatly attenuated force 
attempts to hover its brood, with the result 
that both brood and bees die. A change¬ 
able condition of weather, therefore, is 
hard on nuclei that are suffering from 
spring dwindling. 
In this connection, spring dwindling 
caused by dysentery may be due to bad 
food; but in most cases it is caused by 
insufficient housing—that is, a lack of 
proper packing. See Spring Manage¬ 
ment. 
There is a form of spring dwindling, or 
perhaps more properly speaking winter 
dwindling, that occurs in semi-tropical cli¬ 
mates, particularly in California. It is 
similar to the kind of spring dwindling 
that one encounters in the northern States 
of the East. In California, Virginia and 
many of the southern States the bees can 
fly nearly every day in the year. The 
sources that furnish nectar and pollen en¬ 
tice the old bees out of the hive, some of 
which never get back on account of a sud¬ 
den chilling of the atmosphere. These pollen 
sources also start breeding. It very often 
occurs that the emerging of the young bees 
does not keep pace with the old bees dying 
in the fields, with the result that the colonies 
become weaker and weaker, until a ten- 
frame colony will get down to about three 
frames of bees and little brood about the 
time that the first real honey flow comes on. 
In some localities in California the euca¬ 
lyptus, furnishing both nectar and pollen, 
is thought by some to do more harm than 
good, in that it starts brood-rearing during 
midwinter and forces the old bees into the 
fields, many never returning as explained. 
In most parts of California there is a se¬ 
vere change of temperature during mid¬ 
winter from the middle hours of the day 
to two or three o’clock in the morning be¬ 
fore daylight. These sudden drops in tem¬ 
perature cause a great deal of the brood 
to chill and at the same time hold back the 
queen. 
Much of the winter in the semi-tropical 
States is similar to spring weather in the 
northern and eastern States. In general 
characteristics the winter dwindling in 
these States is almost precisely the same as 
spring dwindling, with this difference, that 
there is never any dysentery. 
There is another kind of winter dwin¬ 
dling that is due to an entire lack of pollen 
both in the hives and in the fields. When 
that condition occurs, in semi-tropical cli- 
