Gleanings In Bee Culture 



Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio 



H. H. ROOT, Assistant Editor. 



A. 1. ROOT, Editor Home Department 



E. R. ROOT, Editor. 

 Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, Ohio, as Second-class Matter. 



A. L. BOYDEN, Advertising Manager. 

 J. T. CALVERT, Business Manager. 



VOL. XXXVII 



FEBRUARY 15, 1909 



NO. 4 



Editorial 



By E. R. Root. 



Particular attention is drawn to the article 

 by G. M. Doolittle, on p. 99 of this issue, dis- 

 cussing the proposition whether thedrouth of last 

 fall has so far killed out the clovers that there 

 will be no clover honey east of the Mississippi 

 for 1909. 



DO THE OUTDOOR-WINTERED BEES THAT FLY OUT 



ON WARM DAYS, AND LODGE ON THE GROUND 



IN A CHILLED CONDITION, FAIL TO 



RETURN ? 



A YEAR or more ago there was considerable 

 discussion over the problem of preventing out- 

 door-wintered bees from flying out on a day 

 when there was a bright sun, and the atmosphere 

 just warm enough to suggest the possibility of a 

 good cleansing flight. On such days it is often 

 too cold for bees to be out long, and they often 

 stay out longer than is good for them. They 

 will alight on various objects in the yard and on 

 the ground, and stay there, unable to take wing 

 again. If they lodge in the snow they immedi- 

 ately chill. Most of our readers who winter 

 outdoors, and who peruse these pages, will re- 

 member how these little patches of bees will be 

 scattered all over the yard to an extent that looks 

 frightful; because if there are other days accom- 

 panied by the same results, it would mean the 

 practical decimation of every colony in the yard 

 before spring. Nor is this winter dwindling a 

 mere fear. At times it is something real. At 

 other times these thousands and thousands of 

 chilled bees out on the ground, apparently life- 

 less, and chilled beyond recovery, will actually 

 go back into the hives should there be a warm 

 fly day following the one in which they came out. 



We had a practical demonstration of this a 

 few days ago. The air was very warm, the sun 

 shining brightly, and the temperature about 70. 

 The bees were having a gala time, and the spot- 

 ting on the ground and on the hives indicated 

 that they were having a very satisfactory cleans- 

 ing flight. But a cool wind started up about two 

 o'clock; the sun began to be hazy, and the tem- 

 perature dropped. About four o'clock we went 

 out into the yard, and saw thousands of bees 

 scattered over ihe ground between the hives. 

 What was more distressing was the fact that 

 these ^ere young bees, not the old superannuated 

 kind that their respective colonies might well 

 spare. These beautiful bright bees would aggre- 

 gate enough, if gathered together, to make sev- 

 eral good colonies. If these losses, we argued, 

 could be confined to a dozen or so hives, even if 

 it meant a total loss in each case, it would be se- 



rious enough; but to take half a pint or a pint 

 from each colony of the youngest and best blood, 

 if continued in the same ratio on other days, 

 would mean disaster to the whole yard before 

 spring. But, very fortunately, this warm day, 

 as is generally the case in our locality, was fol- 

 lowed by another one. The bees that had al- 

 ready had a cleansing flight did not come out; 

 but the apparently lifeless and chilled ones on 

 the ground warmed up, and every one of them, 

 so our Mr. Bain reports, went back into the 

 hives. This was followed by another warm day, 

 but very few bees came out. 



The day on which so many bees came out and 

 lodged on the ground was preceded by about a 

 week of severe cold, part of the time the mercury 

 going down below zero. After, say, ten days of 

 such weather we are likely to have a warm fly 

 day; and it is then that the bees come out in 

 countless thousands for a cleansing flight. 



CAN BEES BE CHILLED STIrF FOR SEVERAL DAYS 

 WITHOUT KILLING THEM .? 



But an interesting question comes up right 

 here regarding those bees that were chilled, and 

 which were apparently lifeless over night, and 

 yet which on the following day "came to life (.'')" 

 again. As some of our older readers will remem- 

 ber, we conducted some experiments some years 

 ago under the direction of Dr. E. F. Phillips, 

 now of the Bureau of Entomology, Washington, 

 D. C. We put a cage of bees on a cake of ice 

 in a refrigerator. In some cases the bees were 

 put between two cakes. This was done during 

 the summer. In every case the bees were chilled 

 in about four or five minutes, and would be ap- 

 parently lifeless. Wonderful to relate, these bees 

 would remain in this condition for a week, and 

 when brought into a warm room they would re- 

 vive and be as lively as before. In a few cases 

 we subjected queens to this chilling process, hop- 

 ing thereby to make drone-layers of them, for 

 that was precisely what Dr. Phillips desired for 

 some experiments he had in mind; but after this 

 week of freezing they were introduced, and be- 

 gan laying the same as before, apparently but 

 little the worse for their experience, although in 

 all probability such queens would be shorter- 

 lived, and, before the season was up, be super- 

 seded by the bees. On this point, however, we 

 have no data. 



These experiments show that nature has pro- 

 vided that bees may be chilled; for it is well 

 known that a wall of bees surrounding a cluster 

 of bees in outdoor-wintered hives will be prac- 

 tically lifeless, owing to the cold. If a spell of 

 warm weather comes on, these bees will "come 

 to life,"(.>) join their comrades, and then when 

 another cold spell comes on — well, we do not 

 know whether they form the aforesaid wall or 



