374 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 26, 1904. 



thaw. The bees that are put in the cellar can easily be kept 

 quiet and content by regulating the temperature with more 

 or less ventilation, as the occasion may require. When the 

 thaw comes, and the bees are put out, there is but little dan- 

 ger of a change for the worse, and they usually go to breed- 

 ing without interruption. So I have advised all living in 

 the North to practice cellar-wintering. Here, if we could 

 know beforehand whether the winter will be warm or cold, 

 there would be but little trouble, and the bees would do well 

 almost invariably, by being put in the cellar during cold 

 winters and left out-of-doors in warm ones. 



The past winter has given a very good lesson for all 

 those who are willing to learn and heed the teachings of 

 practical experience. 



In many spots bee-keepers have lost heavily in outdoor 

 wintering, while their neighbors wintered their bees safely. 



The danger in wintering out-of-doors can be laid to 

 three or four causes. As a matter of course we all know 

 that it is necessary to have strong colonies. This is the A B 

 C of the art, and the first thing that a beginner should be 

 taught. Better go through the winter with 10 strong colo- 

 nies than with 20 weak ones. 



The quality of the honey is the next requirement. In 

 Europe, as well as here, it is now universally recognized 

 that the bees must have good, mature, heavy honey. Fruit- 

 juices, honey-dew, dark honey of all sorts, are injurious be- 

 cause they contain many foreign substances which load the 

 intestines of the bees and compel them to leave the cluster 

 in order to discharge the contents of their abdomens, during 

 cold days. An occasional bright and warm day, during 

 which the bees can have a few hours of flight, relieves 

 them ; but a colony is certainly better off with good honey 

 during a six weeks' confinement than it would be with a 

 low grade of food during a three weeks' stay in the hive. 



Warm and dry quarters are indispensable. If the hive 

 is very populous, the bees will stand an extraordinary 

 amount of cold, and will come out with but little loss, but 

 the high polar winds of our plains are injurious, because 

 they penetrate into the crevices or the entrance and reach 

 the edge of the cluster, and a cold, still temperature is pref- 

 erable to a windy exposure. Dryness is needed, and more 

 important than many imagine. That is why so many of us 

 use absorbents in the upper story — chaff, forest leaves, saw- 

 dust, woolen rags. etc. These materials do not allow any 

 of the heat to pass off, but absorb the moisture and prevent 

 it from condensing over the combs and forming frost, which 

 in damp days will thaw and wet the bees. The damage done 

 by an excess of moisture is rare, but I have seen dozens of 

 colonies destroyed by it in very severe winters. 



We used to keep an impervious enamel cloth over the 

 top of the combs during the winter, as we do in summer, 

 but during one winter we lost a large number of colonies, 

 and in nearly every case the bees were literally drenched 

 by the moisture that had been produced by condensation 

 and subsequent thaw. The colonies that came out safely 

 were those in which the enamel cloth was imperfect — had 

 been gnawed by the bees so as to allow the moist air to dis- 

 charge its moisture into the warm covers of chaff or leaves 

 placed over the cluster. In every case where the cloth had 

 remained impervious to the moisture the bees had suffered, 

 while in almost every case where the moisture had been 

 able to pass up into the upper siory the hive was in a 

 healthy condition at the end of the cold weather. So, since 

 that time we have made it a practice to remove the imper- 

 vious ceiling and replace it by straw, or wool, or leaves. In 

 the winter just past I have been informed of several cases 

 of failure, where the bees had been destroyed by too great a 

 condensation, which, in thawing during the first milder 

 weather, had dampened the combs so that the bees had died. 



It is also very important that a large portion of the 

 winter's supply of honey be within reach of the bees, just 

 above the cluster. When the weather is very cold, and the 

 bees are not within reach of a sufficient amount of food just 

 above them, they may starve even with honey on the same 

 comb, but too much to the side. This is one very clear 

 defect of the shallow hives. The colony which has depth 

 of combs instead of width will have a greater amount of 

 stores over the cluster, and will live through, while the col- 

 ony in shallow combs will die-with plenty of stores in other 

 parts of the hive. I believe this accident has happened this 

 winter to most of those who have lost bees. The honey was 

 good, the colonies were strong, but, the winter having been 

 severe, the consumption was greater than usual, and many 

 good colonies have died with honey in their combs, but out 

 of their reach. Hancock Co., 111. 



Are Queens Mated More Than Once? 



BV DR. G. BOHKEK. 



ON page 317, P. H. Harbeck asks the question: Are queens 

 fertilized more than once ? He further says that under 

 no conditions can a queen be mated more than once. It 

 seems that he regards mating and fertilizing as one and 

 the same thing. While mating is one thing, fertilization 

 is entirely another. A queen may be mated and not become 

 fertile as a result. He also calls attention to a case of twice 

 mating reported last year, by a bee-keeper, and guesses at 

 what happened instead of twice mating. Please permit me 

 to state that I am that bee-keeper. And let me assure him 

 that he has it entirely different from what the situation 

 really was. 



The queen in question was reared by a large nucleus 

 which was entirely without the means of rearing more than 

 one queen, and I gave them a finished Italian queen-cell, 

 from which the queen emerged inside of a week after it had 

 been inserted, or they never could have reared a queen. She 

 was the largest queen I ever saw, and one of the most beau- 

 tiful. On the seventh day after hatching, at about 3 p.m., 

 I sat down near the entrance of the hive, and in a short 

 time saw her leave the hive, and on her return she bore 

 white fragments of the genital organs of the drone. The 

 next afternoon I was trapping and destroyed a lot of drones 

 as they came out of this hive, there being more than I 

 wanted, the queen, as I supposed, being fertilized. In a 

 short time this same queen flew down upon the alighting- 

 board as on the day before, and bearing the same evidences 

 of having been mated that she did on the previous day. 



I had read the works of Mr. Langstrotli, Quinby, King, 

 Cook, Miller and Root, and had been one of the first readers 

 of the American Bee Journal. I bought my first Italian 

 queen from Mr. Langstroth in 1864, and began rearing 

 queens in Indiana that year, and sold many queens between 

 that date and 1873, when I left Indiana; and in all my read- 

 ing and experience I had never had an intimation that a 

 queen had ever been known to mate more than one time. 

 This case was a new one to me, and I reported it to Dr. Mil- 

 ler, he having an extensive experience. He stated that he 

 had never known a case of the kind in this country, but that 

 he had heard of cases in the old world, but said this case 

 was interesting on account of its rarity. He reported it 

 through the American Bee Journal, but omitted my name. 



This queen might have proved to be fertile had she 

 left the hive but once, but that the same cause that prompted 

 her to make her first bridal trip, doubtless led her to make 

 the second. As all agree, I think that a queen never leaves 

 the hive excepting for two purposes — the one to meet the 

 drones, and the other in company with a swarm ; but all I 

 have got out of this discovery is, that I will not in the 

 future destroy drones until after a queen begins to lay eggs. 

 More than one mating may be of more frequent occurrence 

 than is generally known. Rice Co., Kan. 



[ Convention Proceedings j 



The Elgin County, Ont, Convention. 



The Elgin Co., Ont., Bee-Keepers' Association met in 

 annual session at St. Thomas, April 30. Among those 

 present were, R. F. Holtermann, W. J. Craig, F. A. Gem- 

 mill, R. H. Smith, W. J. Robb, Morley Pettit, Alex. Mc- 

 Lellan, Wallace Smith, Wm.Gibbs, James McFarlane, Wm. 

 Martin, and Messrs. Glenn and McKenny. 



After the reading of the minutes by Secretary Robb, 

 the members present reported their successes and failures 

 in wintering bees. Losses owing to the severe winter have 

 been generally heavy, but clover is reported to be in fair 

 condition. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



In his opening address, Pres. Morley Pettit said : 

 " We meet to relate our experiences and help one 

 another solve the diiBcult problems of our profession. 

 Dependent as it is upon soil and climate conditions, as are 

 all industries, directly or indirectly, our business is a pre- 

 carious one, and requires close attention and careful 



