THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



233 



Prof. Cook classes all larval insects 

 alike, which is simply erroneous, and 

 on page 63 of his Manual, he says : 

 " The larvie of insects are voracious 

 eaters— indeed, their only work seems 

 to be to eat and grow fat. As the en- 

 tire growth occurs at this stage, their 

 gormandizing habits are the more ex- 

 cusable. I have often been aston- 

 ished at the amount of food that the 

 insects in many breeding cases would 

 consume." 



Now, such a statement is very mis- 

 leading, because there is not the least 

 similarity between the larva of the 

 honey-bee and the larva of the cab- 

 bage butterfly, silkworm, etc. The 

 larva of the honey-bee never voids, 

 never consumes any raw material, 

 and lives sparingly and exclusively 

 on a milk diet, and pollen is only con- 

 sumed by the bees in a perfect state. 

 Now the larva of the cabbage butter- 

 fly is just. the reverse. It lives ex- 

 clusively on the raw material, eats 

 twice its weight every day, and voids 

 freely, as every lover of that vegetable 

 knows ; but in a perfect state it eats 

 no raw material, and lives exclusively 

 upon the sweets gathered from the 

 flowers, and only makes its appear- 

 ance on tlie cabbage leaves, and de- 

 posits its eggs. Again, the Professor 

 says : " The food is composed of pol- 

 len and honey— certainly of pollen, 

 for I have repeatedly proved that 

 without pollen no brood will be 

 reared." And again : " The functions 

 of bee-bread is to help furnish the 

 brood with proper food ; in fact, brood- 

 rearing would be impossible without 

 it." 



Now, while we must acknowledge 

 our indebtedness to Prof. Cook, for 

 the many points and incentives he 

 has given us, and the interest which 

 he has taken in bee-culture generally, 

 merits an enviable position ; and 

 while 1 acknowledge his power and 

 influence among tne bee-keepers of 

 America, I must, in honor to the 

 truth of which we are all in search, 

 call the above quotation in question. 

 It is quite evident tliat the Professor 

 has written from fancy or precon- 

 ceived notions of old-time bee-keep- 

 ers, instead of personal observation, 

 for he has fallen into the natural 

 blunder of supposing the food of the 

 larva to be simply bee-bread, because 

 great quantities are consumed during 

 brood-rearing, and consequently it 

 must be fed to the bees in the larval 

 state, as he says he has repeatedly 



Eroven, without pollen no brood will 

 e reared. Such an assertion is hardly 

 circumstantial evidence. 



One may as well say, -and with as 

 much truth, that because the cow con- 

 sumes great quantities of hay, tur- 

 nips, etc., during her gestation, that 

 her young must be fed on the same 

 raw materials. Now, we all know 

 that the cow produces milk from the 

 raw material to supply her young 

 with the necessary food, and that ber 

 young lives exclusively on milk. So 

 the mature bee consumes pollen, 

 honey and water to produce milk for 

 the larval bee. This food contains, as 

 I have already shown, flbrine, al- 

 bumen, caseine, sugar and salt, which 

 is identical with the milk of other 



animals ; and I may also state, that 

 milk is the only single article of 

 natural food that serves to support 

 the animal body. The food of the 

 larva is purely an animal secretion, 

 and cannot possibly contain pollen in 

 any sense of the word, as the change 

 is perfect from the raw material to 

 the life-giving fluid. 

 Scrauton,ot Pa. 



For the American Bee JoumsL 



Wintering Bees. 



J, W. BAYARD. 



While the honey-bee was created to 

 live and propagate in a warm and 

 genial clime, civilization and com- 

 merce has forced it into higher lati- 

 tudes where it comes in contact with 

 frost, snow and ice. Its physical 

 make-up is so fiercely assailed that it 

 becomes a marvel even in the hands 

 of our most profound experts. Trans- 

 pose, if you please, the Esquimau 

 with the Hottentot, and each will 

 sigh for his native land, and speedily 

 succumb to climatic influences. Na- 

 ture has been warped ; the normal 

 conditions of the bee have been vio- 

 lated, and now we are seeking for a 

 remedy for our manifold troubles. 



The winter of 1855-56 will long be 

 remembered by old settlers, as a 

 period in the history of the honey- 

 bee. Peach trees were all killed, and 

 many cherry trees burst open with 

 the frost. No flight was possible for 

 the bees for more than 12 weeks ; out- 

 door wintering then being the order 

 of the day. At that time! had 7 col- 

 onies in box-hives, conditioned as 

 follows : Six were placed on a wide, 

 thick plank (called a " bee-bench ") 

 close together, and protected only on 

 the west by a tight board fence. All 

 the practical ventilation was 3 or 4 

 V-shaped openings called " fly-holes." 

 When the first thaw of spring came 

 inviting the bees to take a flight, not 

 one bee responded to the invitation. 

 Upon examination, I found them 

 largely piled on the bottom-board. 

 The walls of the hive were dripping 

 with water, and the combs were all 

 wet and moldy— all indicating the 

 worst possible phase of bee-diarrhea, 

 being the result of excessive cold, 

 long confinement and bad ventilation. 



Now, we will notice colony No. 7, 

 as I had but that one left. It was sus- 

 pended upon a rack by cleats screwed 

 to the sides of the hive. The bottom 

 of the hive was cut slanting with the 

 bottom-board suspended on wires, 

 leaving a full ineli space all around 

 for ventilation, and rolling off dead 

 bees and chippings from tlie body of 

 the hive. This principle was once 

 patented, and has one very important 

 feature— that of copious ventdation. 

 No disease ever invaded this colony 

 to decimate its ranks or destroy its 

 vigor. During 19 years of consecu- 

 tive bee-life, it sent forth 17 prime 

 swarms and produced 16 boxes of 

 honey of 26 pounds each. This 

 amount of honey is insignificant when 

 compared with modern methods of 

 obtaining surplus, but in those days 

 we never worked our bees for profit. 



In 18.58 I adopted the Langstroth 

 liive for my own use, and I found 

 many advantages in its copious en- 

 trance, 10x% inches, in the way of 

 expelling impurities, keeping the 

 combs and cluster dry, and permitting 

 the foul gases to escape without up- 

 ward ventilation. In truth, I am al- 

 most in full sympathy with Mr. 

 Clarke's theory of downward ventila- 

 tion, but not so with his hibernation 

 theory, which I consider entirely 

 mythical. No cluster of bees ever 

 hibernated, and never will, according 

 to his own definition of " complete or 

 partial torpor." When bees cluster 

 for winter, they not only obey the 

 laws of nature, but accomplish the 

 imperative duty of self-preservation. 

 In cold weather, all stores consumed 

 by a colony is carried or kept in the cen- 

 tre of the cluster where it is not only 

 kept warm, but convenient for imme- 

 diate use. When the mercury vibrates 

 below zero, great activity prevails 

 within the cluster, and larger quanti- 

 ties of honey are consumed to keep up 

 the animal heat, and to raise the tem- 

 perature in the hive. This is why 

 more honey is required for out-door 

 than in-door wintering ; and this is 

 why there is so much non- activity 

 among bees that are contending 

 against the element, than those en- 

 joying a temperature of 45-' beyond 

 the reach of frost and snow. 



If Mr. Clarke desires to make his 

 hibernation theory a success, he 

 should be careful, after manipulat- 

 ing the honey-bee into a state of pro- 

 found torpor ; as on page 760 of "the 

 Bee Journal for 1884, he requires 

 the same honey-bee to rise upon its 

 tip-toes in the cluster and fan out the 

 cold air in the hive as they fan it in 

 in the summer, thereby regulating 

 the temperature. This may do very 

 well for kite flying, but it will cause 

 a visible smile on the face of every 

 practical bee-man in the land. 



Athens, o- Ohio. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Hibernation or Quietude, Which ? 



JAMES m'NEILL, (110—320). 



I am glad to leani tlirougli the article en- 

 titled " A WouUl-be Critic," on page 148, 

 that the purpose which I had in view, in 

 my ai-ticle on page 39, lias been at least 

 partially accomplislied. In tlie first place 

 1 felt that tlie dignity of reading bee-keep- 

 ers demanded that a protest be made 

 faiust the mental pabulum with wliicli 

 r. Clarke was feeding us. In tlie second 

 place, it appeared to me tliat I would be 

 doing Mr. Clarke, no less than bee-keepers 

 generally, a service if I should present tlie 

 subject ill sucli a light as would lead liim 

 to take a more rational view of the impor- 

 tance of his discovery ; and to this end I 

 endeavored to hold the mirror up before 

 him, that tlie prayer of Burns might be an- 

 swered in liis l)ehalf : 



" Oh wad some power the glf tie gle us 

 To see oursel's as others see us ! 

 It wad t'rae monie a blunder free us, 

 And foolish notion." 



As Mr. Clarke concedes that it would 

 have been " cliust as weel," if he had an- 

 nounced his assumed discovery in a less 

 excited inamier, 1 take it that he has seen 

 liiniself, in a degree at lea.st, as others see 

 liim, and has profited by tlie reflection. 



