190 



(JLKAXtXfJS IN' IlKK CULTUllK. 



Map.. 



ment, I have found letter than to have any differ- 

 ent number or style of frames for the upper story. 



Bro. Garwood (page ITO) suggests a change in my 

 reversible frame. One year ago I made 80C0 of them. 

 Please figure the dififerenee in cost, when his " hoop 

 iron" and "screws" are added. I used about sev- 

 en dollars' worth of wire nails, two to hinge each 

 frame. I also figured on screws, and they were go- 

 ing to cost about *25.oa. 



I will close by returning thanks to you for what 

 you said about the honey I sent you. It is bringing 

 me lots of orders. 1 thought it good, and ;;ico?it to 

 give " big weight." Also to Prof. Cook for lu's sen- 

 tence on page IT!), both for the words of praise for 

 ihe, and sound logic and morals in a general sense. 



Dowagiac, Mich. Ja.mks Hkddon. 



It seems to me you have made a little mis- 

 taKe in figuring on screws, t'liend 11. Hix- 

 teen'thousand .'.-inch screws will cost onlv 

 about SS.OO instead of .S2.1.U0. In fact, we 

 can ftunisli them for that, and 1 think I 

 should prefer screws for reversible frames to 

 wire nails. The idea is, that the hoop iron 

 Avill permit us to use the frames we are al- 

 ready using, while your arrangement does 

 not. A top-bar made of a strip of folded 

 tin would also fix the depth pretty nearly 

 right; but after figuring on it. I decided it 

 would get bent or doubled up. I suppose 

 the wooden bars for tlie frame to turn on 

 will be a little cheaper than the hoop iron, 

 l)ut the labor of attaching the hoop iron to 

 the top-bar wcuild be more than the value of 

 the materials M> exitcritnce agrees with 

 yoius in the width of top-bars. 



BEES -TEMPERATURE INSIDE CLUS- 

 TER. 



DO CEKS HIBERNATE? 



TN talking over W. F. Clarke's hibernating theory 

 11^ some three months ago, a friend remarked: 

 ^l "Would you not like to know just the tompcr- 

 ''■^ ature maintained in the ijiside of a cluster of 

 bees of sufficient strength to occupy five or 

 more spaces between the combs'/" 1 replied, that I 

 did not believe that bees ever hibernate, according 

 to the general meaning of that word; for Quinby 

 tells us, in his "Mysteries of Bee-keeping," that the 

 bees in the inside of the cluster in cold weather, are 

 us lively as in summer, while those ou the outside 

 are somewhat stittened with the cold, which I had 

 found to be so; hence the temperature in the cen- 

 ter of a cluster of bees must be about the same as 

 our summer temperature. 



yoon after this I noticed those wo)-ds in the 

 American A pi(ultini»t: "Not one of this class can 

 tell US any thing reliable about the winter tenipei-a- 

 ture of the l)ec' hive," the "this class" referring to 

 entomologists. 1 thought, if no one knew what the 

 inside temperature of the lieehive was, that it was 

 time we did. 1 therefore instituted a search through 

 all the volumes of Gi.EAXiNns, by means of its 

 copious index, only to find these words in Vol. ]V., 

 page 10: "Now, when bees are massed together in 

 a cluster they keep up an animal heat that keeps 

 the whole cluster above freezing." If there is any 

 thing else in all of the 13 volumes, bearing on the 

 subject, I failed to find it. Having u desire to 

 know, now kindled into enthusiasm. I i)rocured, at 

 a high price, the best self-registering spirit ther- 



mometer possible, and soon had it in the center of a 

 good colony of bees which occupied a sphere of 

 about 8 inches in diameter. As I could not get the 

 case holding the thermometer between the combs, ^ 

 I slipped the graduated part with the spirit glasses 

 from the case, and, by means of a rubber band and 

 a bent wire, fl.\ed it so I could suspend it where I 

 wished. I found that even now I must spread the 

 frames in the hive, in order that this graduated 

 part might go in the hive, for there must be a space 

 of u inch between combs for it to slide down into. 



As zero weather has been the order of the day for 

 the past si.x; weeks, I disliked to disturb the bees; 

 but I soon saw that this zero weather was just the 

 time for the test, if I would have it reliable. I hesi- 

 tated no longer, but pried apart the frames, which, 

 in the cold, went apart with a snap, which soon 

 caused a fuss to be made; and in spite of all I 

 could do (I had no smoker with me) many bees were 

 lost by darting out as the center of the cluster-T\'as 

 disturbed, which showed that they were far from 

 hibernating; although half a minute before, the 

 colony hardly give signs of life. This thermometer 

 registers cold as well as heat, by having two spirit 

 balls and two steel bars, or registers. These regis- 

 ters, when placed in the hive, were set where the 

 temperature stood in my coat-pocket in which I 

 carried the thermometer, which was about 4')°. 

 when it was placed in the hive at 4 o'clock p.m. 

 Upon taking it out the next morning (again losing 

 bees which were drawn out by the thermometer) I 

 I found I had only a satisfactory register of the heat 

 I the colony had attained in the disturbance (which 

 was S',"}; for as soon as I drew it out of the cluster, 

 and before I could brush the bees off from it, the 

 mercury was forced down on the cold side sevferal 

 degrees. I now took it to the stove and left it till 

 the heat side showed 100°, with a corresponding 

 degree noted on the cold side. I now drew down 

 the steel register on the cold side by means of a 

 magnet provided with each thermometer, and then 

 wrapped it in a warmed cloth, when, as soon as 

 possible, it was again placed in the same colony. 

 During the afternoon the weather became severe, 

 and continued so for five days, during which time 

 the mercury outside went as low as IC^ below zero. 

 When the storm abated, the thermometer was taken 

 out, when 1 found that the coldest point reached in 

 the cluster during those five severe days was fi&° 

 above zero. In like manner I kept experimenting 

 on several colonies until I found that the average 

 temperature of a good colony of bees in the middle 

 of the cluster is 64° when the mercury is at zero 

 outside the hive, and that, for every l:"*" of change 

 (outside) from this point, the change in the cluster 

 is one degree. Thus: 1C° below zero, Ki"; zero 

 gave (i4° ; 15"' above gave (.">', and '^S° above (the high- 

 est it lias been during my experiments) gave (56^ in 

 cluster. All the colonies were in chaff-packed hives, 

 with sawdust cushion 4 inches thick over top of hive, 

 and nearly covering the chatf on all sides. Some of 

 the colonies had honey as stores, and some sugar 

 syrup; but I could see no diflerence in heat in favor 

 of either one. 



1 next placed this thermometer within half an 

 inch of the oiUside of the cluster, both at the top 

 and at the sides, and foiuid that the temiieraturo 

 varied liere from 40' to 52°, according to place and 

 coldness of the weather. At one time it touched 

 45°, thus showing that, just outside of the stiffened, 

 or hibernating^ bees, as Mr. Clarke would call thetn, 



