THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



would naturally be looked for in so 

 near a relative to many forms of soli- 

 tary hibernating insects such as yellow 

 jackets, solitary bees and even the 

 semi-social bumble bees. It is a com- 

 mon practice in the shipping of live 

 bumble bees to send them in cold stor- 

 age, thus taking advantage of the na- 

 tive ability of the queen bumble bee to 

 survive extreme temperatures and re- 

 suscitate her active life when favorable 

 conditions again surround her. It is 

 this inability on the part of the individ- 

 ual honey bee to regain activity without 

 outside warmth other than her own 

 which ordinarily precludes her surviving 

 any great amount of cold. In colony 

 life, however, such outside warmth is 

 in a measure supplied the individual 

 bee, and the semi torpid winter cluster, 

 if unbroken, normally regains activity 

 even after subjection to low tempera- 

 tures for a time of comparatively long 

 duration. It is this fact which makes 

 the problem of wintering bees in the 

 open air a hopeful one; and the provis- 

 ion of a goodly and compact cluster of 

 comparatively young and vigorous bees 

 in each colony constitutes the first es- 

 sential of successful wintering out-of- 

 doors. 



LIFE CYCLE OF THE BEE. 



To make the full force of this prin- 

 ciple plain and to assist in making more 

 evident subsequent principles that we 

 are to discuss we present the accom- 

 panying graphical representation of the 

 colony's annual life cycle, in which the 

 curve ABC indicates the probable nor- 

 mal fluctuations of the average colony 

 of bees from one July to the next suc- 

 ceeding July. In following the course 

 of the curve it will be observed that the 

 even tenure of the colony life as it 

 runs along through July, August and 

 into September, begins to gradually fall 

 the latter part of September as brood 

 rearing activities slow down, and con- 

 tinues so to fall until about Februarv 



when the critical period of rapid death 

 rate is reached and the vitality of the 

 colony is put to it's utmost test. If the 

 colony rallies and succeeds in getting 

 brood rearing operations under way and 

 the rate of increase ahead of the rate 

 of decrease, the colony rapidly gains 

 during the last of March and through 

 April and Alay to the first of June 

 when the maximum turning point is 

 reached and the annual swarm is cast. 

 This event reduces the colony some- 

 what below" normal but by July first 

 equilibrium has again been established 

 and the year's cycle is complete. 



On the other hand should the colony 

 by reason of a lack of bees in sufficient 

 number to organize the brood nest, or 

 because of a defective queen, or even 

 because of the absence of sufficient food, 

 or because of any two or three of these 

 reasons, not surmount the critical 

 period it's course would be that of AD 

 resulting in it's dwindling to final death. 

 Should a marked lack of stores occur 

 this course would be hastened and the 

 existence of the colony terminated in 

 January or February as represented by 

 the curve AD. 



L.\TE BREEDING DESIRABLE. 



If the first principle of copious breed- 

 ing during the late summer and fall be 

 observed it will be noticed that the 

 colony does not begin to decrease in 

 numbers by drawing upon its reserve 

 strength until sometime late in Novem- 

 ber at about the point E, and, conse- 

 quently, the colony's course is more 

 nearly that of the curve AEFC. It 

 will be observed that in this instance 

 the colony not only does not begin to 

 diminish in strength until much later, 

 but never reaches quite so low and 

 dangerous a critical point as the type 

 of colony represented by the curve 

 ABC. Alore than this, the swarming 

 period of such a colony in view of its 

 more rapid recovery of colony activi- 

 ties in the spring of the year, reaches 



