380 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



If I had the conditions of outdoor wintering- as 

 clearly demonstrated as they are for cellar winter- 

 ing, I should rejoice. But there are still some 

 points that are dubious to my mind. These, how- 

 ever, I will reserve for discussion some other time. 



Wm. p. Clarke. 



Guelph, Ont., Can., May 3. 1887. 



Very good, friend C. The only difficulty 

 in the way of a perfect understanding iii 

 the matter of hibernation is the dehnition of 

 terms. It does not seem as if we ought to 

 Ciill tlie case mentioned above, strictly hi- 

 bernation. The Indian story, liowever, on 

 page ;:^4H. I supi^ose might be called hiberna- 

 tion and nothing else, for the bees were, in 

 that case, stiffened by cold until they were 

 apparently lifeless. They were then put in- 

 to the cave and kept in this stiffened, mo- 

 tionless condition through many months of 

 winter, to be waked up again when the 

 flowers bloomed. We are glad to get the 

 good report in regard to sub-earth ventila- 

 tion. 



UNSEALED CELLS IN SECTIONS. 



IS W. F. CLARKE'S BEE-STING THEORY OF THE NEW 

 USE OF A STING SUPPORTED BY FACTS? 



TN reply to friend Doolittle (Gleanings, p. 123), if 

 ||F houey is always cared for as he directs, it may 

 ^t be just as well to have some cells left unsealed 



"*■ in sections, providing the honey has the same 

 care afterward. But after he has ripened 

 these unsealed cells till there is no danger of their 

 running-, if those sections are left in a store or in 

 some purchaser's pantry, will not these unsealed 

 cells attract moisture much more rapidly than the 

 sealed ones? T think I feel safer to have all un- 

 sealed cells emptied. 



USING PARTLY FILLED SECTIONS. 



In this connection I want to caution the inexperi- 

 enced against following to too great an extent the 

 advice of Mr. Frank A.Eaton, Gleanings, page 131. 

 A year ago I think I would have given just the 

 same advice. In fact, in my book, "A Year Among 

 the Bees," I speak of saving partly filled sections to 

 use again. I have made considerable use of them, 

 and I think generally to good advantage; but after 

 last year's experience 1 shall not use them again 

 unless it be a single one in a super. 1 had quite a 

 number of sections partly filled, left over, and 

 among them were some containing candied honey. 

 These sections were filled, as friend Eaton suggests, 

 very promptly, and when taken off 1 thought 1 had 

 done a nice thing; out very soon they began leak- 

 ing through the scaling, although kept in a good 

 place, and none that commenced leaking could be 

 sold as first-class honey. Contrai-y to friend Eaton's 

 experience, and 1 think to my own previous experi- 

 ence, the honey in some of these sections was can- 

 died. This year I shall put on many sections that 

 wei-e partly filled, but the honey was all extracted 

 last fall. I formerly put these partly built sections 

 in the outer rows of the super, but further experi- 

 ence makes me prefer to put tjiem in the center. 



THE STING-TKOWEL THEOKV. 



Not long ago 1 saw an item in a newspaper to the 

 effect that "Naturalist Clarke" had discovered that 

 the sting of the bee is used as a trowel, etc. This 

 yrt^s stated ia all sefiousness ; and if it js t9 pass 



into general currency as a fact, and if it is not a 

 fact, the sooner it is contradicted the better. When 

 I first read the statement in friend Clarke's book 1 

 was somewhat startled, and didn't know whether to 

 think there was some joke about it or whether a 

 practice of the bees of thousands of years' continu- 

 ance had just come to light. Just why the proof for 

 any such behef has not been challenged before the 

 communication of friend Savaged think he is the 

 first), I can not say. Possibly respect for the 

 source whence it emanated. I hereby tender my 

 apologies to friend Clarke for my silence hitherto, a 

 silence of which I am by no means proud, as 1 do 

 not know whether to attribute it more to cowardice 

 or laziness. I don't believe there is any proof that 

 bees ever work wax with their stings. On page 144 

 of Gleanings friend Clarke occupies about a page 

 in reply to friend Savage's communication, yet I 

 fail to find any thing in it to establish a belief that 

 the sting is used as a trowel. If such a thing is 

 true, has any one ever seen the operation? Surely 

 many have watched bees in the operation of wax- 

 working. During- the honey harvest, bees are con- 

 stantly working wax, and I have seen them at it 

 many a time, but never with the sting. Thousands 

 have probably seen the same thing, but 1 think no 

 one has ever seen the sting used as a trowel. If 

 they have, I think it has never appeared in print. 

 This, it is true, is only negative proof against the 

 theory; but in the absence of any positive proof on 

 the other side, I think it counts for much. 



In his article, friend Clarke makes use of Ernest's 

 silence as so much testimony in favor of the sting- 

 trowel theory. If Ernest has any shadow of proof 

 of the truth of the theor}% will he please let us 

 have it? At any rate, will he please say whether he 

 has or has not any evidence that bees work wax 

 with their stings? C. C. Miller. 



Marengo, 111., May, 1887. 



On page 20, in reply to D. F. Savage, after 

 speaking of the mechanical structure of the 

 sting, I said, " As to the office of the sting 

 curing honey or x-apping the cells, I have 

 nothing to say, either pro or con."' Friend 

 M., this was, in fact, all I could say. I had 

 never made any observations at the hive, to 

 determine this question, aside from my mi- 

 croscopical observations, and was unable to 

 find any literature bearing directly on the 

 point. The only argument I can use in ref- 

 utation of Clai-kes theory of the bee-sting as 

 a trowel is, tliat its mechanical construction 

 (if my observations with the microscope are 

 correct) would make it almost impossible. I 

 once spent my whole vacation, of a week's 

 time, in dissecting, studying, and mounting 

 bee stings. I us< d a Bausch i"c Lomb micro- 

 scope, with American lenses. I had at my 

 disposal not only all the necessary dissect- 

 ing-tools, but a l-inch, ^-inch, i-inc"h. i-hich, 

 and a ^-inch objective, and I am prepared to 

 say that the bee-sting is in no respect like a 

 trowel ; and by watching its pumping mo- 

 tion under the microscope 1 could discover 

 nothing in the working of the muscles that 

 would lead me to believe that a bee could 

 use it as a trowel. There is. however, noth- 

 ing in the construction of the sting that 

 would preclude the bees from puncturing 

 the cells ; and those who liave had experi- 

 ence with the '* business end " of a bee would 

 not say that this is impossible. If our read- 



