1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1427 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 

 DOOLITTLE 



SOME QUESTIONS ANSWERED. 



A correspondent asks me if I will answer some 

 questions through Gleanings. He says he is a 

 novice in bee-iceeping, and wishes me to simplify 

 my answers so that even a novice can understand, 

 taking it for granted that Gleanings has many 

 readers who are little if any further advanced than 

 he is. I think it best to answer his questions by 

 number rather than in the usual conversational 

 style. 



1. I have been thinking of putting my 32 col- 

 onies all together for wintering, setting the hives 

 so close together that the hives will all touch one 

 another except the entrance part, which will face 

 outward, packing underneath, on top and around 

 the whole with chaff or old carpet, so that the 

 heat of the whole will keep all warm and at an 

 even temperature. What do you think of the 

 plan.!' 



Ansiver. — My fear would be that, during some 

 warm spell in winter, they would become too 

 warm, go to breeding, and eventually die of diar- 

 rhea and exhausted vitality. Some years ago one 

 of our leading apiarists took fifty colonies out of 

 their original hives and placed them in boxes 

 made to contain four frames of sealed honey. On 

 either side of these boxes wire cloth was nailed, 

 and the whole fifty placed in one large box, which 

 box was set on a car and run into his underground 

 bee-cellar. The idea was the same as yours, that 

 each would help maintain a mutual warmth for 

 the whole, and thus save honey and promote 

 good wintering. After all were in the box, old 

 carpeting to the depth of four or five inches was 

 placed over them, and they were left undisturbed 

 for four or five weeks. The normal temperature 

 inside of the cluster of bees during winter, when 

 they are in really good condition, is from sixty 

 to seventy degrees. At the end of five weeks the 

 temperature inside the box was found to be above 

 90°, with the bees all in commotion, trying to 

 get out to escape such a degree of heat. The 

 car was run out the first mild day thereafter, and 

 thousands of bees came out and died. The re- 

 sult was that two-thirds of the colonies were dead 

 before the first of March, while on April 15 not 

 one of the fifty colonies was living. This would 

 go against your proposed experiment; but if you 

 so desired you could try eight or ten colonies, as 

 they might do better this way outdoors than in 

 the cellar. It is always well, when trying new 

 experiments, to use only a small part of our stock 

 for the trial, and thus not make a serious failure 

 by putting all our eggs in one basket. 



2. Is early pollen necessary to successful bee- 

 keeping.? 



Anjiuer. — From my point of view I should say 

 yes. The first pollen in spring in this locality 

 comes from skunk-cabbage, followed by pussy 

 willow, soft maple, and elm. This pollen stim- 

 ulates the bees to brood-rearing and great activi- 

 ty, upon which much of the profit of the season 

 depends. The next source of pollen comes from 

 the hard maple, this coming into bloom a few 

 days before the fruit-trees. This source gives an 

 abundant yield of pollen; but I have noticed 



many times that, where the first mentioned are 

 killed by frosts, the bees are not in nearly as good 

 shape at time of fruit-blooming, no matter how 

 favorable the weather between blooms may be, 

 as is the case where any one or all of the four 

 first named give the bees a chance to store from 

 them. In selecting a location a person should 

 know that someone of the early-pollen producers 

 are present if they are to expect the best possible 

 success. Artificial pollen, such as rye or oat 

 meal, can be substituted, but none of them can 

 ever take the place of natural pollen as a stimu- 

 lant for bec3 In years when the early pollen 

 was killed by frost I have fed the bees meal; and, 

 while it was a pretty sight to see thousands of 

 bees at work in the meal, and hovering over it 

 while it was being packed in the pollen-baskets, 

 yet a much smaller amount of brood would be 

 reared under precisely the same weather condi- 

 tions than when the bees: had access to natural 

 pollen. 



3. The past summer I saw a bee dragging out 

 a dead drone, and when she came to the edge of 

 the alighting-board she flew some ten or twelve 

 feet, carrying the dead drone vsith her. Does 

 this not show that a bee has strength greater in 

 proportion than man.? 



Arij-Tver. — Yes. Bees have a most marvelous 

 power when that power is compared with man or 

 even a horse. If the apiarist had even half the 

 strength in proportion to that which the bee has, 

 none of us would complain about lifting heavy 

 hives, or be experimenting with hive-lifting de- 

 vices. But, after all, man is much superior to 

 the bee in that he brings and makes all the 

 forces of nature subject to him. 



4. I wish you would tell the readers of Glean- 

 ings how to avoid being stung. A man who 

 once met you at a convention said you told him 

 that you did not now receive one sting to where 

 you did twenty when you first commenced to 

 keep bees. Is it the kind of bees you keep.? 



Ansn-ver. — Bees are cross sometimes, and cross 

 bees often sting. Some classes of stings are un- 

 avoidable. A bee may become so infuriated as 

 to strike without warning, and sting as it strikes. 

 However, bees must be badly provoked to do 

 this, and iteojer do so except as the object of their 

 disturbance is near their hive or home. The nov- 

 ice in apiculture is generally quite inclined to 

 think bees are roaming around, bent only on 

 stinging every thing far and near. This is not 

 so, for a bee seldom ventures an attack ten rods 

 from its hive, and very seldom then unless its 

 hive has been molested. Besides the unavoidable 

 class of stings caused as above, the novice, by 

 his way of provoking the bee, is apt to get many 

 more. If a bee having an inquiring mind comes 

 looking around the face or hands of such a per- 

 son, the first thing he does is to begin striking at 

 it, which only tends to irritate the bee. Every 

 move makes the matter worse. Shrieking, beat- 

 ing the air, and tearing insanely about, as very 

 many are apt to do, are only so many steps lead- 

 ing to a melancholy and almost certain result. 

 When such a bee comes near, instead of doing as 

 above, gently incline the rim of the hat toward 

 it; and if it still persists in buzzing about the 

 head, put the hands or arms up before the face 

 and walk quietly away from near the hive, when 

 the bee will soon leave you. If several attack 



