188.5 



(jLEANtNr;s IN HKE CULTURE. 



511 



ed with this disease. Yet for all these drawbacks 

 I would not take, as a gift, and attempt to keep 

 bees, if one would give me the best apiary in the 

 most favorable locality, east of the Kockics. The 

 greatest trouble that I see is your cold winters. 

 I do not believe it possible to winter bees success- 

 fully every time in such a cold locality, as bees will 

 not live in confinement so long- and be healthy. 

 Duartc, Cal., April 13, 18(:5. W. W. Boss. 



HIBERNATION. 



DO DEES HIBERNATE, OH IM) THEV NOT? 



SEAR MR. EDITOR:— Doubtless you have no- 

 ticed the just llagellation which I receive 

 from our good friend Clarke, in A.B.J., Apr. 

 8. Of course, ] ought to have said, "In my 

 judgment, bees never hibernate." Let me 

 add right here, that T do not plead guilty to all the 

 harsh sayings I am credited with. I mean ahcayts 

 to be courteous. Repoi-ters at conventions must 

 be brief, and so they often give our assertions a 

 sharp twang that we are not responsible for. 



Hibernation, I understand, to be like sleep, only 

 far more profound and persistent. In this state, 

 respiration is greatly reduced, the temperature 

 falls nearly or quite to that of the surrounding air, 

 the heart beats vei-j' feebly, and has power, through 

 heightened irritability, to circulate impure or ve- 

 nous blood. The animal, when hibernating,-,takes 

 no food; is torpid, and hard to arouse. In re»l hi- 

 bernation there is no emission of fecal matter. 

 Was not the fecal mass you saw in Mammoth rave 

 the droi)i)ings of bats in summer? Most insects do 

 hibernate; indeed, so i)rofoiindly that all res|)ira- 

 tion and circulation are held in abeyance. Indeed, 

 to answer your question in last (Jleaninhs, T 

 have had cateri)illars frozen to the condition of an 

 icicle, and yet, with warmth, revi\-e and seem all 

 right. De Geer, Reaumur, and^ Kirby, all record 

 the same startling fact. 



Now, how is it with our hive-bees? The organs of 

 the mammals, in hibernation, are as cold, often, as 

 the surrounding air. I have found, by i)utting a 

 thei'mometer into the cluster, that in the case of 

 bees the temperature will always range from 3(i° F. 

 to 30° F. above the outside cold in winter. In se- 

 vere weather there may be a difference of from 60° 

 to 80°. We thus see that the vital action of bees 

 does not fade out, and, of course, the maiusyirings 

 of this action, the heart and respiratory organs, do 

 not greatly lessen, or, much less, fade away. Bees 

 also take food, are constantly changing their posi- 

 tion, and are easily aroused. I do not believe that 

 bees can be taken at any time, unless fatally or se- 

 riously chilled, and the cluster be broken, in a warm 

 room, and they not show full activity. Therefore I 

 repeat, I do not think that our bees hibernate. 

 The great Kirby, of England, is in accord with this. 

 He says liees do not hibernate (see Kncy. lirit.. Vol. 

 II., p. 787). 



1J.\CTERIA, ETC. 



Please allow me to correct a statement in Mr. 

 Heddou's excellent article, Api-il 15, p. 370. " Prof. 

 Cook thinks it (nitrogen) may be taken by con- 

 sumption of bacteria by the bees." As will be seen 

 by my own article, this is not my view at all. 

 Either my hasty composition, or poor writing mis- 

 led Mr. Heddon. There is no ground for such a be- 



lief. The presence of bacteria makes the presence 

 of nitrogen probable, if not absolutelj- certain. In 

 this disease, diarrhwa, the bacteria seem always 

 present, whether as a cause or simplj- as an attend- 

 ant, I know not. The spores (bacterial seeds) are 

 ever present. With the right conditions they ger- 

 minate, and the bacteria and consequent putrefac- 

 tion occur. Perhaps the bacteria cause all the 

 trouble. Perhaps they find a suitable feeding- 

 ground or breeding-place in the diarrhcetie matter 

 of the intestines. A. J. Cook. 



Lansing, Mich., April 18, 1885. 



Friend Cook, if you will excuse my frank- 

 ness, I do think you sometimes omit the 

 pluase. ■' In my judgment,'' or •' According 

 to my experience.'" At the convention in 

 Michigan I felt like protesting a little be- 

 cause you so flatly disputed friend Doolittle. 

 although the proof you gave seemed satis- 

 factory to me that' he was wrong and you 

 were riglit. In thinking of the matter since 

 then, I have wondered wliether the circum- 

 stances were not sometimes such tlKit we 

 are excusable for making positive state- 

 ments. Some time ago a man came to see 

 me, who liad a patent on a liive. and the 

 hive did not eveu embrace movable combs. 

 lie made some statements that were so very 

 far out of the way that I (hitly contradicted 

 him, in tiie presence of many others. lie 

 suggested tliat <hat icas iin/ frpinion. I told 

 liiin there was no opinion about it; that 

 wliat he had been telling was untrue, but 

 that I did not know whetlier he uttered the 

 untruth through (lurpose or through ig- 

 norance. 1 felt a little sorry I had spoken 

 so, but the case seemed very aggravating. 

 A few days afterward I was" told that the 

 man was" crazi/. Now, we who have been 

 discussing this hibernation theory are none 

 of us crazy ; at least I think- we are not (you 

 see I am iearning already to beware of be- 

 ing too positives I have" always felt sure, 

 friend Cook, that you intended to imply 

 '' in your judgment,'" even though you neg- 

 lected to say it.— Permit me to thank you 

 for your explanation in regard to the drop- 

 l)ings of the bats. It was a puz/.le to me at 

 once to see how they could accumulate gua- 

 no, and hanging there a])i)areiitly lifeless 

 (until one took hold of l hem i for so many 

 months in the year. I suggested that per- 

 haps they were iii full llesli wiien they go in 

 in the fall ; but your solution is doubtless 

 the correct one. 



15y the way. can a thermometer l)e intro- 

 duced into a cluster of bees without raising 

 the temi)eratur(' so as to spoil the experi- 

 ment? I think 1 have broken clusters of 

 bees, where they were not seriously chilled— 

 in fact, mit chilled at all to harm them— 

 when they acted as if they were dead for as 

 much as— 1 was going to "say live minutes ; 

 but as I did not think tonote'the time at all, 

 may be it was a much smaller portion of 

 time. As 1 said before, they were tied up 

 together in a hard knot, and it seemed as if 

 it would i)ull their bodies to pieces to break 

 this knot open before they were warmed up 

 so that they could untangle themselves ((f 

 their own accord. I should be inclined to 

 think with friend Clarke, that l)ees some- 

 times go into a state that is about half 

 hibernation. 



