WINTERING. 



499 



WINTERING. 



row of hives. The Colorado bee-keepers are 

 troubled with sandstorms and nerce piercing 

 winds; while the temperature may go down 

 Ijelow zero, it is not likely to remain so for 

 more than a few hours, when one extreme 

 will change to a temperature of 60 or 70 

 r., and the bees flying. For such conditions 

 double-walled hives and an excess of pack- 

 ing-material have been found to be not at 

 all necessary. 



DO BEES HIBEBNATEf 



In the foregoing pages, under the general 

 subject of Wintering we have spoken of 

 the quiescent state or sleep into which bees 

 enter when the wintering conditions are 



been lowered ; and this state is somewhat 

 analogous to the torpor experienced by some 

 animals in a state of true hibernation, dur- 

 ing which no food is taken, and resjiiration 

 is considerably reduced. Dr. Marshall Hall 

 has stated that "respiration is inversely as 

 the degree of irritability of the muscular 

 fiber." If the respiration is reduced with 

 out this irritability being increased, death re- 

 sults from asphyxia. Hibernation is usual- 

 ly induced by cold; and the animal under its 

 influence attains nearly the temperature of 

 the surrounding atmosphere, yet can not re- 

 sist any amount of cold, although its ca- 

 pacity for doing so varies according to 

 the animal. Some animals bury themselves 



VIEW OH SUTJVENiK POSTAL, CAKD SENT OUl BY F. J. jMILLEK, OF LONDON, ONT., CAN. 



ideal. In this period of semi hibernation 

 the bees seem merely to exist. With no ac- 

 tivity the consumption of stores is very light. 

 As the reader may wish to pursue this sub- 

 ject a little further we have thought best to 

 take it up to help solve some of the winter- 

 ing problems, and, perhaps, lead to some 

 good results from an economic point of view. 

 Hibernation was exploited about 20 years 

 ago,when it was generally decided, and right- 

 ly, too, that bees do not hibernate in the 

 ordinary sense of the term (see American 

 Bee Journal for 1885). But they do enter a 

 quiescent state when the temperature has 



in holes, like snakes and frogs ; others, like 

 the bear, crawl under a pile of leaves and 

 brush where they are still further covered 

 with snow. Thus buried they will go all 

 winter without food or water ; but there is a 

 waste of tissue. Fish may be encased in ice 

 and still live, it is said. A lively frog may 

 be dropped into a pail of water four or five 

 inches deep, and exposed to a freezing tem- 

 perature. Indeed, there may be a thin coat- 

 ing of ice formed over the animal. The 

 next morning, that frog, though stiff and 

 cold, can be warmed up into activity, but to 

 freeze solidly will kill the creature. 



