188? 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



497 



their gills, ami thus f urnisbes the life-giving- oxy- 

 gen, and then iS forced violently out, which sends 

 the insect rapidly forward. Thus this arrangement 

 serves both for respirsUion and locomotion. 



The imago, or mature dragon-llies, live for weeks, 

 and may ho seen mating on the wing, and flying 

 over water, depositing their eggs, either by gluing 

 them to aquatic plants, or dropping them into the 

 water. 



There seems to be no way to protect against these 

 savage marauders except to capture them by the 

 use of a long-handled net. This has been practiced 

 with considerable satisfaction in several Southern 

 apiaries. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., June 16, 1887. 



DANIEL McFADDEN, AND HIS PLAN 

 OF W^INTBRING BEES. 



IS IT A HO.\X 



fOK some weeks past I have been unable to 

 give much attention to bee-literature. The 

 death of ff dear brother and sister, within 

 less ihan a month of each other— the first 

 break, so far as brothers and sisters ai"e con- 

 cerned. In a family circle of nine that has been un- 

 broken for over sixty years, have been events that, 

 with their attendant and consequent duties, have 

 fully occupied both mind and time. On reading up 

 the bee-,iournals awaiting i)erusal, I find, among 

 other matters calculated to awaken the cacoctlics 

 scribcndi, that extraordinary letter signed Daniel 

 McFaddcn, which appeared in Gi^banixgs for 

 May 1. Not the letter itself merely, but the sub- 

 heading and foot-note are extraordinary. The sub- 

 heading announces, " W. F. Clarke's Hibernation 

 Theory Established on a firm Basis." Now, I most 

 emphatically demur tc this. The letter does not 

 affect my theory, or in any way whatever relate to 

 it, nearly or remotely. It is hard for me not to think 

 that, whoever prefixed that sub-heading, " A. I." or 

 '• E. R.," or somebody else about the office, must 

 have known, quite as well as I do, that ray theory 

 is not involved in the absurd story about " winter- 

 ing bees up toward the north pole without any 

 stores whatever." It may have been meant as a 

 joke at my expense, and Gi.eanings does appear 

 to be getting somewhat Jocose; witness the "P. 

 Benson " letters; but I confess I do not like jokes 

 that are cracked at the expense of truth and fact. 

 Such jokes do harm. We have a conspicuous ex- 

 ample of this in the Wiley joke about artificial 

 comb manufacture. I have an abhorrence of 

 lying, even in jest. What too many people are in 

 the habit of calling " fooling" I honestly believe 

 to be as truly telling lies as any other form of that 

 crying and common sin. 



But in view of the extraordinary foot-note, I am 

 not sure that Gleanixgs regards the narative as a 

 hoax at all. It is discussed as though it were sober 

 earnest, and matter of fact. I have read some- 

 where that the onlj- way to get into a Scotchman's 

 head the perception of a joke, is by the aid of a 

 mallet and chisel; and I am inclined to think there 

 are others besides Scotch people of whom that is 

 true. You have written to George Watson; but 

 although two issues of Gleanings have appeared 

 since the McFadden letter was published, there 

 appears to be no response. I doubt if there ever 

 will be; and if there is, it is most likely it will come 



from a fictitious party who is one of the ring of 

 impostors- which is trying to palm off a method of 

 wintering on the bee-keeping public, which is " too- 

 too " absurd and ridiculous for any thing. 



1 have never dreamed, and consequently never 

 argued, that bees could be wintered in a " frozen 

 stiff " condition, and " wholly without food." One 

 of my articles on this subject was headed "Chilled 

 Bees not Hibernating Bees," and I have invariably 

 contended that bees, in order to sink into that state 

 of repose which I believe to be essentially hiberna- 

 tion, must be in a temperature which makes them 

 feel comfortable. Excess, either of cold or heat, 

 breaks up the hibernating condition. The effect of 

 extreme cold is first to rouse an abnormal activity, 

 then to induce an enormous consumption of food, 

 and finally to bring on diarrhea, which is fatal to 

 the very existence of the colony. 



A common mistake in discussing this matter is 

 that of supposing that there is only one kind of 

 hibernation. Of this, the bear is usually taken as 

 the only admissible type or example. But the bear 

 is not " frozen stiff;" and though he consumes no 

 food in winter when in the hibernating state, there 

 are stores of adipose matter packed away in his 

 carcass, by drawing on which, life is sustained dur- 

 ing his long sleep. Other hibernating creatures 

 — sqviirrels for instance— do not sleep all winter 

 long, but wake at intervals, take a good square 

 meal, and then go to sleep again. We know that 

 bees can not lay up stores of fat in their little bod- 

 ies, like the bear, and that they must feed, at least 

 semi-occasionally. In a thoroughly normal winter 

 temperature, favorable to a snug and profound 

 repose, bees consume very little honey; there is 

 but slight waste of tissue, and they come out of 

 winter quarters refreshed and rejuvenated by a 

 long season of rest and quiet. 



The foot-note says: "Bees have over and over 

 again been wintered with so small an amount of 

 stores, that more than one of the bee-friends have 

 been almost persuaded that bees could live for 

 months without any food at all; but yet all experi- 

 ments made directly to prove this have somehow 

 failed, and most of us have settled down to the 

 belief with Professor Cook, that bees do not hiber- 

 nate." There are some queer statements in this 

 sentence, on which more light is needed. Who 

 among the "bee-friends" ever became "almost 

 persuaded " that " bees could live for months with- 

 out any food at all"? I fail to recall one; but the 

 foot-note asserts this of "more than one." 



Wm. F. Clarke. 



Guelph, Out., Can., June 4, 188T. 



My good friend Clarke, we may have been 

 thoughtless, and we may have taken liber^ 

 ties in speaking of your hibernation theory. 

 If so, we beg pardon. But I am sure you 

 are getting just a little uncharitable. George 

 Watson"s letter in this same issue, I think, 

 shows it. Mr. Watson is certainly a good 

 straightforward man, although he may be 

 mistaken, like the rest of us. You will 

 notice, by the date of his letter, that it was 

 not published immediately on receipt, on 

 accoimt of the press of other matter. Friend 

 C., it was myself who put on the heading, 

 and who wrote the foot-note ; and it was 

 myself, also, who gave a report, years ago, 

 in regard to a colony of bees that was win- 

 tered in the cellar Avith so very little stores 



