THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



85 



Cossible ; but until it is possible to 

 ring eeach colony to exactly the same 

 coHdition, no exact rule of tempera- 

 ture can be given. I have found a 

 variance of 10° between different col- 

 onies with the same external temper- 

 ature. Keep the bees as nearly quiet 

 as possible, is the best rule to adopt." 



Prof. A. J. Cook remarks thus : 

 " Bees never hibernate. I think that 

 45° is the best for cellar-wintering." 



James IIeddon replies thus: "If 

 hibernating is going to be twisted to 

 mean getting quiet, then experience 

 proves that a temperature of about 

 4(P Fahr. is what you wish. If it 

 means going into that torpid state 

 into which ants, wasps, black and 

 gray squirrels go, then, if such a state 

 was possible with the bees, which I 

 disbelieve, they woitld require a low 

 temperature as first claimed by Mr. 

 W. F. Clarke; but that, experience 

 proves, is a cause of uneasiness or 

 physical exertion." 



H. R. BoARDMAN remarks as fol- 

 lows : " Temperature has nothing to 

 do with the bees hibernating. It is 

 instinctive, and always occurs when 

 bees are quietly clustered for any 

 considerable time in perfect idleness, 

 whether in the hive or out of it— at 

 any time of the year— quite early in 

 fall, even during quite warm weather, 

 after the honey gathering has ceased 

 and all the brood is hatched in the 

 hives. The bees go into a dormant 

 state of rest and remain in this con- 

 dition in any temperature varying 

 from 60^ above to 40 J below zero, un- 

 til interrupted by some disturbance 

 or aroused to activity by the com- 

 mencement of brood-rearing, which 

 occurs in a well regulated bee-house 

 about Feb. 1. More or less uneasiness 

 will prevail from this lime until they 

 have the benefit of warm weather and 

 frequent flights. A uniform tempera- 

 ture is most congenial throughout, 

 at least avoiding the disturbance of 

 sudden changes ; and a mild tempera- 

 ture in preserving animal vitality is 

 also to be desired. I have best suc- 

 ceeded with a temperature of about 

 4©^ until near J'eb. l,or until there 

 are evident signs of brood-rearing, 

 and then a much higher temperature— 

 50O or .55°, or even higher, gives a bet- 

 ter result." 



t^ Between the clapboards of his 

 house, A. Billings, of Le Roy, Minn., 

 found ll-i pounds of honey. One piece 

 of comb was 5 feet 9 inches long and 

 23 inches wide. So says the Inter- 

 Ocean of Sunday, January 25, 188-5. 



i^Wild buckwheat is still in bloom, 

 the goldenrod yielding honey, the 

 Acacia furnishing pollen, and the 

 blue-gum just pushing out its creamy, 

 white, cushiony bloom, rich in nectar, 

 giving employment every shining hour 

 to the busy bee, and very soon the 

 willow will furnish the inspiration for 

 swarming.— CaK/brnza Paper. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Hibernation, Bee-Diarrhea, etc. 



E. li. SOUTHWICK. 



Hibernation is a word which has a 

 meaning of its own, but that mean- 

 ing has no connection with what 

 scientists have appropriated it; but 

 we must bow to these tyrants in 

 science, and use the word as they 

 have elected that it should be used. 



Bees never hibernate. Coons, por- 

 cupines, bats, and the like, enter into 

 a winter sleep (as German scientists 

 call it) and remain four or five months 

 without food, and come out all right. 

 But if bees should go into any state 

 in which they would be without food 

 for thirty days, I think that they 

 would be dead bees, or of no value 

 when they come out of it. Bees go 

 into a state of " dormant vitality " 

 produced by chilling, but if they re- 

 main long in it, they are sure to die 

 when they come out of it. 



I have been asked what bees do in 

 winter. They cluster on their combs 

 where the honey is the lowest, and 

 crowd as close together as possible. 

 The bees inside take a full meal of 

 honey and then come outside, the 

 next inside do the same, and so on 

 until the outside ones are crowded in, 

 warmed and get their fill, and come 

 outside in turn to cluster over the 

 rest. They continue doing so while 

 cold weather lasts, if they have plenty 

 of honey in the cluster or right above 

 it, and if they have a good, comfort- 

 able hive. 



In this condition they will stand a 

 long, cold winter. But if some of the 

 bees, after eating the honey off of the 

 bee-bread, eat the bee -bread, it will 

 stimulate them to secrete the food 

 that is fed to the young bees, and this 

 they feed to the queen, which stimu- 

 lates her to laying, and this is the 

 commencement of our winter troubles. 

 But if few bees get to eating pollen, 

 and most of them move up to where 

 there is honey, there will be but little 

 damage done. On the contrary, if 

 many bees get to eating pollen, there 

 will be much brood, and the inside 

 bees, instead of going outside and 

 crowding the others in to get their 

 fill of honey, remain inside to secrete 

 food and nurse the young bees. The 

 outside bees being in a state of semi- 

 dormant vitality, cannot get at the 

 honey, and consequently starve and 

 drop down or stick to the combs. At 

 this time, if there comes a warm spell, 

 the nearly dead bees crawl over the 

 combs, discharge their feces and die ; 

 others, a little better, will fly out and 

 die on the ground, and others, still 

 better, after dropping their feces, 

 will be able to get back to the hive. 

 Those which remain are alile to get 

 back to their own feed, and are all 

 right again ; and if they have plenty 

 of honey, they may come out quite 

 fair. 



Again, if the colony has not enough 

 honey to live on where they can get at 

 it, or, in other words, covered by the 

 cluster or directly above it, they will 

 in the same way consume what they 

 have and then starve. If the weather 

 remains so they cannot move until 

 they are dead, they will show no signs 

 of diarrhea; but if life is not all gone 

 when they warm up, they crawl over 

 the combs and discharge their feces, 

 and in either case, on pressing the 

 abdomen, we will find it to contain 

 the fluid such as is dropped on the 

 comlts and hive in case of bee- 

 diarrhea. 



I have thought that much honey in- 

 duced breeding, so I intended to put 

 in about what they would need until 

 I could supply them in the spring, but 

 as bees are so variable in the amount 

 they consume, in some I have not put 

 in enough, and in others so much that 

 I thought it caused breeding, and in 

 either case the bees would be dead 

 and frequently show signs of diarrhea. 



I think that pollen is never used as 

 food, but is taken into the stomach to 

 excite a secretion of bee-feed which 

 causes the great amount of honey 

 used when breeding. Bees will secrete 

 a small amount of this feed without 

 pollen. 



Since writing the above I have re- 

 ceived No. 3 of the Bee Journal, in 

 which the foregoing is pronounced 

 folly. It is not the farst time that my 

 opinions have been thus spoken of, 

 but the facts are the same. I did npt 

 intend to give any reason in this, for 

 I considered it an answer to questions; 

 but I will digress a little. 



Food is something that is taken 

 into the stomach, it is digested and 

 nourishes the system. Pollen is re- 

 ported as having been found in the 

 intestines in so perfect a state that 

 learned men have decided that they 

 could tell from what flowers it was 

 taken. Does this indicate that it is 

 digested and assimilated in the sys- 

 tem ? The natural excretions of per- 

 fectly healthy bees, when fed on 

 honey alone, will be in a nearly dry 

 state, and the greater part of it will 

 be wax. This was proven by an ex- 

 periment by Prof. Cook ; although he 

 drew different conclusions, the proof 

 is there just the same. 



Mr. Hutchinson says that he sup- 

 posed that a flight was the cure for 

 bee-diarrhea. Did it ever enter his 

 mind that possibly the " square meal " 

 of honey they got at this time was the 

 cure V 



Concerning query No. 4, I should 

 say that the bees did not have the 

 diarrhea, but a kind of summer com- 

 plaint caused by their flying out in 

 cool, damp weather. I have noticed 

 the same thing in the North in the 

 spring, and many bees die. It is one 

 form of spring dwindling, and the 

 remedy is : Fair, warm weather or 

 so cold that they cannot fly. Tlie 

 querist asks whether they will come 

 through the winter by rearing brood 

 plentifully. No; the more breeding 

 the more activity outside, more bees 

 die, and the first cold spell will chill 

 the brood and all will die. 



Many bee-keepers are deploring the 

 low price of honey. I think that they 



