THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



181 



G. M. DooLiTTLK says : " After 

 losing every colony without an ex- 

 ception, which were drifted luider the 

 snow for a period of ;i weeks or more, 

 I now shovel down to the entrance of 

 each hive so covered, once a week, so 

 as to let the cold air on the front of 

 the hive. With me, the bees always 

 get too warm under the snow, and 

 start a large amount of brood, which 

 is certain to produce disease unless 

 frequent flights occur." 



Introducing^ Queens. 



<ltiei*y. No. 41 — T wish to introduce a 

 number of Italian queens into new colonies, 

 next season. Can this be done safely V>y re- 

 moving the olcl ijiieen and allowing the Ital- 

 ian queen to enter tlie hive with the bees? 

 Can I return the ol<l i|U(<'n to the parent col- 

 ony, and by g-iviii^- the liees more room, pre- 

 vent after-swarms ?— Rockdale, Iowa. 



James Heddon remarks thus: "To 

 the flrst question I answer, no ; not 

 witli any certainty. To the last ques- 

 tion, yes, as a rule, in most locations 

 and seasons." 



Prof. A. J. Cook answers tlius : 

 "It is not invariably successful. I 

 prefer to cage the queen for 36 liouis. 

 The last part of the question is in- 

 definite; I can only answer no, as I 

 understand it." 



W. Z. Hutchinson says : " To 

 both of these questions I say 'yes.'" 



Dr. C. C. Miller replies thus : 

 " To both questions I would reply, 

 uncertain." 



Dr. G. L. Tinker answers as fol- 

 lows : " Wlien nectar is coming in 

 freely, it is quite safe to remove the 

 queen of a colony at mid-day, and let 

 another queen run in at the entrance 

 after all other bees have ceased flying, 

 just at dusk, using a little smoke im- 

 mediately after tlie queen goes in. 

 This is Mr. Pond's method, but when 

 there is a scarcity of nectar, I know of 

 no safe plan, that I have tried, to in- 

 troduce queens to full colonies, but to 

 remove the old queen, and in days 

 remove all queen-cells. Cage the queen 

 on the frames, feeding freely ; on the 

 evening of the second day. proceed as 

 above. To the latter question, no." 



G. W. Demaree says : "It would 

 depend much on the time the work 

 was done. If done right in the Ijest of 

 the honey season, there is less risk. 

 But, according to my ideas of ' safe ' 

 introducing, sucii a method can never 

 be depended upon. I prefer to cage 

 the queen, using a cage so arranged 

 that I can release the queen without 

 disturbing the bees, relying on my 

 own judgment as to the time to re- 

 lease her. To the last question, I an- 

 swer no.'' 



^" We often get a number of 

 notices and advertisements on Mon- 

 days, intended for the next Bee 

 Journal. As we close the forms on 

 Saturdays, all such notices must be liere 

 on Saturday morning, -or cannot ap- 

 pear until the following week. 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 6 north of the centre ; 9 south ; O* east ; 

 K3west; and this 6 northeast; ^ northwest; 

 o- southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



Temperature of Bees in Winter- 

 16— G. M. doolittle, (40—80). 



If the readers will turn to page 533 

 of the Bee Journal for 1884, they 

 will there see that I found that the 

 temperature at which bees live the 

 longest while caged, was about 04' '. 

 From the interest I took in the ex- 

 periments then given, and for other 

 reasons, I became desirous of know- 

 ing the temperature maintained in 

 the centre of a healthy, quiet colony 

 of bees. As I had often tried to get 

 the temperature of a colony of bees 

 in the summer with a common mer- 

 cury thermometer, I knew that noth- 

 ing' reliable could be obtained with 

 such an one in cold weather, for the 

 reason that it would change so rapidly 

 in withdrawing from the hive that 

 nothing accurate could be obtained. 



I next thought of a physician's 

 self-registering thermometer, and 

 partly bargained for one, but upon 

 seeing it, I found tliat while some- 

 thing accurate might be obtained by 

 it in the • hottest days in summer, it 

 would be of no use in winter, as it 

 would register no lower than 92^. 

 After some corresponding and search- 

 ing, I finally found a spirit thermome- 

 ter which would accurately register 

 both heat and cold. This I purctiased 

 about the middle of last January, and 

 was only deterred from experimenting 

 at once by the extreme coldness of 

 the weather, for I disliked to disturb 

 my bees in very cold weather, which I 

 must do in order to get the thermome- 

 ter between the combs. 



The space required for the instru- 

 ment was % of an inch, while the 

 most of my combs gave only a half- 

 inch space between them. After 

 waiting in vain a week or more for it 

 to come warm so I could move the 

 frames when the bees, wliich would 

 naturally fly out, could return, I con- 

 cluded that the cold weather was a 

 golden opportunity for my experi- 

 ments. Putting the thermometer in 

 my coat pocket, I went to one of my 

 chaff-packed hives which contained 

 one of ray best colonies of bees, care- 

 fully lifted the cover and sawdust 

 cushion, which is 4 inches thick; I 

 now quickly removed the quilt and 

 pried the frames apart by shoving the 

 lirst two farthest from the cluster of 



bees close togetlier, and the others 

 so as to leave a bee-space between 

 them. In less than j| minute the 

 centre of the cluster was reached, and 

 the tliermometer inserted, having 

 previously Ijeen set at about 4.5'-', 

 which was the temperature in my 

 coat pocket. 



When I lifted the quilt, the cluster 

 of bees was as quiet as any colony I 

 ever saw, yet in less than j^ minute 

 the bees were flying from the centre 

 of the cluster, and dying in the zero 

 air. (I wish to call i\Ir. Clarke's iit- 

 tention to this, and ask him if lliey 

 could be said to be hibernating), Tlie 

 hive was closed as quickly as possi- 

 ble, notwithstanding which many 

 bees lay deid about in spite of my 

 best efforts to not lose any. This was 

 at 4 p. m., while a mercury thermome- 

 ter on a post near by marked zero. 

 The next morning, at S a. m., the 

 mercury stood at 6^3 below zero, when 

 I went to the hive to get tlie tempera- 

 ture, but before I could get the ther- 

 mometer out, and the bees off from it, 

 1 found it sinking so "rapidly that I 

 really only obtained the heat the col- 

 ony had attained, resulting from the 

 couimotion caused by my disturbing 

 them. Tills heat registered 87", with 

 a temperature below zero outside. 



I now saw that I must work my 

 thermometer the other way, so I 

 placed it near the stove until 100'^ 

 above zero was marked on the cold 

 side, when I set it, wrapped it in a 

 warm cloth, and took it to the hive. 

 The weather now became severe 'and 

 blustering, so the hive was left un- 

 disturbed for 5 days. During this 

 time the mercury went as low as 16° 

 below zero, but in the afternoon of 

 the fifth day, it stood at 18° above. I 

 now took out the thermometer, hav- 

 ing a hot cloth ready to put it into as 

 soon as taken from the hive. It was 

 immediately taken to a warm room, 

 when I had a perfect register of 6.3° 

 as the lowest point reached during 

 the five days of extreme cold. In this 

 way I have kept on experimenting for 

 the past five weeks with several colo- 

 nies until I have arrived at the fol- 

 lowing, vi-hich I think perfectly ac- 

 curate when a colony is in perfect 

 quietude : 



When tlie mercury stands at zero 

 outside, the temperature in the cen- 

 tre of the cluster is 64°, and for every 

 15'^ of cliaiige from this point (out- 

 side), the change in the cluster is one 

 degree. Thus, 16° below, gave 63°; 

 zero, gave 64^ ; 15° above, 6.5° ; while 

 28° above (the highest it has been 

 during my experiments), gave 66° in 

 the cluster. All experiments were 

 conducted in chaff-packed hives, as 

 the first described. After this, I 

 placed the thermometer within % 

 inch of the cluster, at the side and on 

 top, and found that the temperature 

 was from 46° to .52°, according to the 

 temperature outside, and the place 

 where put, it being the warmest above 

 the cluster. Some of the colonies ex- 

 perimented with had only stores of 

 sugar syrup with no pollen, while 

 others had honey with plenty of pol- 

 len, but I could see no difference re- 

 garding the temperature in favor of 

 either. 



