712 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



A. A. Baldwin : I do not think that 

 clipping the queen's wing causes the 

 bees to supersede her. The past year, 

 with an apiary of 13o colonies, only 

 two queens were superseded, and they 

 through natural causes. 



The majority of those present 

 favored the ]>ractice. 



James D. Meador was appointed to 

 further prosecute the business with 

 the railroad companie.s.of endeavoring 

 to get a better scheduling of apiarian 

 products. 



The convention adjourned to meet 

 in Kansas City, Mo., next spring, at 

 the call of the executive committee. 

 F. Baldwin, tiec. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Bees Biting Flowers. 



C. M. WEED. 



It has for many years been well 

 known that flowers and their insect 

 visitors sustain a relation to each 

 other by whicli both are benefited ; 

 the former manufacturing in their 

 wonderful nectar-glands, a sweet 

 substance which is given tlie latter 

 that they may in going from blossom 

 to blossom carry the fertilizing pollen 

 which, acting on the sensitive pistils, 

 fertilizes the young seeds so that they 

 mature in perfect condition. 



Pre-eminent among the insects that 

 flowers thus lay themselves out to 

 attract, are tlie bees, and as one 

 studies the flowers that bees more 

 particularly visit, lie can easily 

 imagine some of them to say, in spirit 

 if not in words, "Here, O bee! I 

 have stored deep in my bosom some 

 sweet nectar Ht for the gods, which 

 you would much relish, and you may 

 have it if you will carry some of these 

 fine pollen-grains to my neighbor 

 yonder who will give you some nectar 

 to take home, and some pollen to carry 

 to the next one of our kind that you 

 visit."' Whether or not the proposition 

 is understood, we all know that it is 

 usually agreed to, though it is easy to 

 see that many plants, as if afraid to 

 trust the bees to fultil their part of 

 the agreement, have so arranged the 

 approach to their nectar-glands as to 

 compel them to carry off the pollen 

 whether they will or not, and if any 

 of the young readers of tlie Bee 

 JouKNAL will examine the blossoms 

 of some of our honey-plants, they 

 will tind many wonderful adaptations 

 of the parts of the flower, arranged for 

 this very purpose. 



But some kinds of bees, especially 

 the big bumble-bees, with which we 

 are all so familiar, instead of enter- 

 ing at the door, which the flower has 

 so kindly piovided, as any decent, 

 well-bred visitors would, have learned 

 that they can often get at the nectar- 

 glands in a quicker way, by simply 

 using their stout jaws to bite through 

 the thin flower leaves, as we may 

 properly call the calyx and corolla, 

 and boldly sipping tlie forbidden 

 sweet. And it is a fact noticed by 

 naturalists, that when a bumble-bee 

 once learns this method of plundering 

 the poor flowers that have taken such i 

 pains to dress up in iiay colors ex- 1 



pressly to attract his attention, he 

 seems to take the same enjoyment out 

 of it that a lot of school-boys do in 

 pilfering a neighbor's orchard, rather 

 than takins: fruit from their father's 

 farms in the orthodox fashion; for 

 after Sir Bombus once learns the 

 delights of stolen sweets, he seldom 

 goes back to the old way of entering 

 the corolla-tubes and soiling his 

 armor v/ith the great masses of pollen- 

 grains. 



A very good illustration of this kind 

 of plundering may be seen any day in 

 early summer in most of our ]\Iiddle 

 and Western States, by any one who 

 will examine the flower-spikes of the 

 common yellow lousewort (Pedicularis 

 Canadense). Usually over one-half of 

 the blossoms have had a great hole 

 taken out of the calyx by bumble- 

 bees, and if one will watch he will 

 find that many honey-bees have 

 learned that the honey is more easily 

 obtained through the holes thus made 

 by their larger cousins than through 

 the lon^ corolla-tubes, and act accord- 

 ingly. 



But I believe it is very seldom that 

 the honey-bees themselves thus bite 

 flowers in preference to entering them 

 as nature intended, though a few well 

 authenticated instances are on record. 

 One of the most trustworthy of these 

 was related by Thomas Meehan, the 

 eminent Philadelphia botanist and 

 florist, at a meeting of the Philadel- 

 phia Academy of Sciences. lie stated: 

 "Late one autumn, long after most 

 other flowers were gone, and with no 

 humble-bees about, scarlet sages 

 [Salvia splendtns], for nearly a week 

 together, received the sole attention 

 of the honey-bees, which worked 

 among the flowers in great numbers, 

 in all cases boring the corollas near 

 the base from the outside." 



This is an interesting subject, and 

 many readers of the Bee Journal 

 could doubtless shed some light upon 

 it by reporting observations similar to 

 the above, in which bees have been 

 known to thus bore the corollas. 



Champaign,o+ Ills. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Winter Temperature & Ventilation. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



I think that although Mr. Ileddon 

 and myself have come by different 

 routes of thought and investigation, 

 we have reached pretty much the 

 same point. I acceplhis " quiescence" 

 as the equivalent of my "hibernation." 

 His letter on page (iS4 hits the nail 

 squarely on the head, and suits me 

 exactly. On his part he has admitted 

 (see his last winter's report) that if 

 the temperature is right, bees will 

 not be apt to eat pollen to hurt them, 

 even if they can get at it. So I say, 

 get the temperature right, and never 

 mind the pollen. The bees will fix 

 the temperature, if they are given due 

 protection and ventilation. I am a 

 little afraid from the tone of some of 

 Mr. IPs late articles, that he is going 

 to stint the ventilation. I do not 

 think that bees want a great deal of 

 ventilation, though I believe they 



need more in winter than in summer, 

 but what they have must be uniform 

 and mfallibly safe from interruption or 

 stoppage. A few hours' derangement 

 or obstruction of the air-supply will 

 create uneasiness, over-eating, diar- 

 rhea. An excess of cold will have 

 practically the same effect, causing 

 exercise to get up warmtli, overfeed- 

 ing to supply waste of tissue, and 

 diarrhea. Of course,thecold may be so 

 intense as to cause freezing to death 

 without the preliminary process of 

 exercise, over-eating, and diarrhea, as 

 was the case with those colonies of 

 Mr. Heddon's that succumbed to cold 

 " pure and simple " last winter. 



To guard against these evils, is the 

 object of ray "hibernating hive- 

 stand," which has already been 

 described in the Bee Journal. I 

 want to temper the air-supply, and 

 yet maintain it in uniformity, while 

 not exposing the hive to incursions 

 of mice, etc. Two seasons' trial has 

 satisfied me that it is better to raise 

 hives 18 inches or 2 feet from the 

 ground. It is far more convenient 

 tor handling bees during the working 

 season, baffles the toads, and so far as 

 I can see, no bees are lost coming 

 home heavily-laden and falling in the 

 grass. I have watched mine pretty 

 closely, and I am sure that the loss 

 from bees missing the alighting-board 

 when " weary and heavy-laden," ism7. 



The only objection that I can think 

 of to raising the hives, is exposure to 

 winds, and liability to be blown over, 

 covers blown off, etc. But every 

 apiary should be protected with a 

 high board-fence ; and as for the 

 covers, if any one is like Mr. A. I. 

 Root, and does not like the big stones 

 (I do not like them), it is the simplest 

 thing in the world to use a couple of 

 hooks. To fasten and unfasten them 

 is but the work of a moment, and less 

 trouble than handling a big stone. 

 Let me here say, that, after a couple 

 of season's trial of the flat, single- 

 board covers, I have discarded all 

 others. Made of good lumber, with- 

 out cracks or knots, and well-cleated, 

 so as not to warp, they " fill the bill " 

 completely. Why do I lay so much 

 stress on a box-stand ? Because I 

 cannot get nature's plan of bottom 

 and vertical ventilation without con- 

 siderable space under the hive. 



The coming winter's experimenting, 

 will, I believe, settle the problem. I 

 want to find out the quantum suff. of 

 protection and air-supply tliat will 

 make my bees "7ia'e.see " (Ileddon) or 

 ''hibernate" (Clarke). We want to 

 find out the temperature at which 

 bees will be so quiet and contented 

 that they will not eat pollen if it is in 

 the hive, nor crave it if there is none 

 there. 



Mr. Heddon objected some time 

 ago that my box-stand was not 

 " practical." I think it is, and I 

 intend to bring a model to the Detroit 

 meeting, which, I hope, will convince 

 liim also that it is. What I claim for 

 it is, that it is less expensive and less 

 troublesome than any system of in- 

 door wintering that involves carrying 

 bees into and out of repositories of 

 any kind. Moreover, that it secures 

 the " quiescent " or " hibernating " 



