Because if but few bees, they cannot 

 keep up the desired warmth without 

 consuming an undue quantity of food, 

 thus thwarting our object ; and if old 

 bees, they will die of old age before the 

 young ones in sufficient numbers hatch 

 the next spring. 



Those looking toward a success are 

 these : That those on summer stands 

 have a fly once in 6 or 8 weeks ; that 

 each hive contains an abundance of 

 bees and good sealed honey, or sugar 

 syrup made of "A" coffee sugar, a good 

 queen, a hive so that the bees can cluster 

 compactly, &c. Why? Because all 

 these things have a tendency toward 

 accomplishing our object of keeping the 

 bees in such a state of quietude that 

 they can contain their fa:ces for a great 

 length of time, for upon this hangs all 

 the secret ot successful wintering. 

 " But," says one, '' our bees died more 

 rapidly last spring, from the middle of 

 March till fruit bloom, with purifying 

 flights from once in two weeks to every 

 day, and that when fed on good capped 

 honey, than they did at any time during 

 the winter." Admitted; so did ours. 

 The reason was this : Their vitality was 

 so impaired by the strain brought to 

 bear on them consequent upon holding 

 their excrement for nearly 5 months, 

 that they spring dwindled, or, in other 

 words, died of premature old age. 

 Don't you think that the person spoken 

 of at the beginning of this article would 

 have been sick and his constitution 

 somewhat worn, if he had been com- 

 pelled to contain all he ate for two-thirds 

 of his natural life, as the bees had to 

 last winter? Another says : " Can you 

 tell me why bees now die in spring of 

 old age more than they did years ago ?" 

 I can tell you what I think the reason 

 is ; it is this : Our timber land has 

 been so cleared off to meet the demand 

 for nice houses and costly furniture, that 

 the wind sweeps the country almost un- 

 obstructed, making the State of New 

 York nearly as bleak as the western 

 prairies. This causes two things : 1st. 

 A greater amount of food to be con- 

 sumed to keep the desired temperature ; 

 2d. We have many days when it is warm 

 enough for bees to fly, that the high 

 winds prevent, while, if in a sheltered 

 nook, with a wind-break 100 feet high, 

 they could fly nicely, and we go to bed 

 at night feeling that the bees are in fine 

 condition to stand another cold pull, in- 

 stead of knowing that the bees must 

 perish if a warm day does not soon 

 come without wind. We had two days 

 last winter, prior to the 10th of March, 

 that bees could have flown nicely had it 

 not been for the wind. To illustrate, 

 when friend Betsinger lived at Marcel- 



lus Falls, he was in a narrow valley, 

 with hills rising each side, upwards or 

 100 feet. On one side the N. Y. C. B,. K. 

 threw up an embankment nearly as 

 high as the hills, and on the other 

 there was a point of rocks that jutted 

 out half-way into the valley. In this 

 place his bees could fly when mine were 

 kept in by high winds. In 1872, when 

 we had our former disastrous winter, 

 friend Betsinger lost scarcely a swarm, 

 nor did he lose any to speak of while 

 there, but since he has moved to a higher 

 altitude, where the wind rakes, as it does 

 in most places, the country over, his 

 losses are equal to those sustained by 

 any of us. 



Kind reader, I have now fulfilled my 

 promise, made a year ago, to give you 

 an article in eacii number of the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal for 1879. I have 

 tried to give you articles of practical 

 value, and those that would be of use to 

 you. How I have succeeded is best 

 known to yourselves. I now say good- 

 bye for 1879, and promise, if Providence 

 spares my life and health, to again write 

 12 articles for the good old American 

 Bee Journal, for 1880. 



Borodino, N. Y., Nov., 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Sting of the Worker Bee. 



PROF. A. J. COOK. 



The worker bees possess an organ of 

 defense, which they are quick to use. 

 if occasion demands. This organ is 

 straight, not curved as is the sting of the 

 queen. The poison, which is emitted in 

 stinging and which causes the severe 

 pain, is an acid fluid, which is secreted 

 by a double gland, and stored in a mus- 

 cular sack (fig. c), which is about the 

 size of a flax-seed. This sack is connect- 

 ed by a tube (fig. m) with the reservoir 

 of the sting. The sting is a triple organ 

 consisting of three sharp hollow spears, 

 which are very smooth and of exquisite 

 polish. If we magnify the most beau- 

 tifully wrought steel instrument, it looks 

 rough and unfinished ; while the parts 

 of the sting, however highly magnified, 

 are smooth and perfect. The true rela- 

 tion of the three parts of the sting was 

 accurately described by Mr. J. R. Bled- 

 soe, in the American Bee Journal,, 

 vol. 6, p. 29. The action in stinging and 

 the method of extruding the poison is 

 well described in a beautifully illustra- 

 ted article by Mr. J. D. Hyatt, in Vol. I, 

 No. 1, of "American Quarterly Micro- 

 scopical Journal." The larger of the 

 three awls (fig. a), usually, though in- 

 correctly, styled the sheath, has a large 



