Oct. 4, 1906 



American Bee Journal 



but the difference varies greally. Dubost also observed that 

 the center of the cluster is often warmer in very cold 

 weather than in more moderate temperature. This could 

 be expected. Referring to our comparison of a room and a 

 stove, the colder the weather the hotter the stove must be. 

 The temperature of individual bees on the wing is given by 

 Maurice Girard at 9 to 13 degrees above the surrounding 

 air. The temperature of the thorax is always higher than 

 that of the abdomen. 



Doolittle's observations, given in some of the back 

 numbers of this paper, do not exactly agree with the above. 

 But the conditions were very likely not the same. The 

 winters of France and England are considerably milder 

 than those of New York. And not only milder, but more 

 uniform, the temperature varying but little from day to 

 day. The style of hives, and size of the colonies, should be 

 taken into consideration. The method of observations was 

 not the same. Dubost had several thermometers inserted 

 in the hive, the stems coming out at the top. Glass on the 

 sides of the hives enabled him to see the position of the 

 bees relatively to that of the thermometers. Doolittle, as 

 stated in his writings, used a maximum and minimum 

 thermometer. , 



I accidentally found the following from Dr. Miller, in 

 the American Bee Journal for April 28, 1898, page 266 : 



"The bee is a warmblooded insect. According to some the tem- 

 perature of a bee's body under normal conditions is 81.5 degrees; ac- 

 cording to others, 95 degrees. Some bees that were torpid in a tem- 

 perature of 4S degrees, but brought back to life in a temperature of 

 59 degrees, showed a body temperature of 77 degrees. The cluster in 

 winter is kept up to 50 to 53 degrees at its outer part. When the sur- 

 rounding atmosphere goes down to zero, or lower, the bees in the 

 center of the cluster run the heat up to 86 degrees or more, by means 

 of eating and exercising. This increased heat in the center of the 

 cluster is necessary, so that the outer part of the cluster may not go 

 below 50 degrees, and explains how it is that breeding is commenced 

 in colonies out-of-doors, but not in cellared colonies. The center of 

 the cluster in the cellar is too cold for breeding, for it doesn't need to 

 be heated to keep the outer bees warm enough." 



Mr. Devauchelle gives a description of the position of 

 the bees in the cluster during the winter. In the colonies 

 examined, the cluster was entirely on the part of the combs 

 that was empty of honey. In each cell was a bee, her head 

 turned toward the bottom of the cell, except, however, near 

 the center where a little brood was found. Between the 

 combs the bees are loosely grouped except at the outside of 

 the cluster, where they form a compact covering. Each 

 bee has her head and thorax under the abdomen of the one 

 above her, the abdomen turned outside. At the top their 

 position is nearly horizontal, and more and more inclined 

 in going toward the bottom. The colonies examined — 4 in 

 number — were in double hives. In each one the cluster was 

 found in the corner, between the front wall and the parti- 

 tion. The outside of the cluster, that is, the part not 

 against the wall and partition, was about the shape of a 

 sphere cut in 4. The examination was made on Dec. 26, by 

 an outside temperature about the freezing point. 



In another examination, made in October, he found a 

 little honey in the bottom of some of the cells inside the 

 cluster near the center. Whether these cells were also 

 occupied by tees he could not tell, because, the weather be- 

 ing warmer, the bees got out of the cells too quick to ob- 

 serve very closely. The full account of it is in the Apicul- 

 teur for October, 1904, page 400. 



In connection with the form of the cluster, I might here 

 give the description of a swarm hanging under a limb and 

 working in the open air, as found in Mr. DeLayens' works 

 on bee-keeping. The shape of the cluster was about as 

 usual, and remained so. The outside bees were placed as 

 described above, shingle-like fashion, abdomens turned out, 

 very close together. At the bottom an opening is left by 

 which the worker bees go in and out. The outside bees 

 make a rain-proof cover. Inside, the bees are loosely 

 placed. A comb is commenced. When it is the size of a 

 man's hand, two more are started, one on each side. As 

 the bees increase in number, the cluster enlarges and the 

 combs are extended, and more added. The shape remains 

 the same. 



Pollen. 



In a recent communication, Mr. Doolittle made a re- 

 mark which I consider of the highest importance. He says 

 that in the spring of the year, whenever a spell of bad 

 weather occurs and lasts several days, brood-rearing ceases 

 completely, or nearly so, even when the colony has plenty 



of honey available. He adds that the cause of it is a lack 

 of pollen. We all know what a large amount of honey is 

 consumed during the height of brood-rearing, and there is 

 nodoubtthata correspondingly large amount of pollen is 

 also required. What is left in the hive since the preceding 

 fall can not go very far. 



Giving flour outside is a very poor help, as the bad 

 weather will interfere with its taking up, as well as with 

 the gathering of pollen. Another inconvenience is that 

 the bees, when they know where the flour is, will come after 

 it when the weather is not quite warm enough, get chilled, 

 and are lost. 



A large number of them are lost every spring by going 

 after water when the weather is too cold. If some kind of 

 arrangement could be devised by which the bees could be 

 fed the flour and water needed during the early spring, in- 

 side of the hive, and without having to open it, it would be 

 a considerable saving of bees, and an equally valuable in- 

 crease of early brood. 



Very likely many unlucky queens have been decapitated 

 on account of unprolificness, when the trouble was a lack 

 of pollen or some other adverse conditions. 



B. Taylor was in the habit of replacing, every year, 

 those of his queens that were defective in some way or 

 other. One year, a quite inferior queen was not replaced ; 

 the following year that queen proved to be one of the best 

 in the apiary. 



Apicultural Associations. 



Some questions have recently arisen among the bee- 

 keeping fraternity about the best way to manage bee-keep- 

 ers' associations. One poitit raised is whether the honey 

 dealers and supply dealers should be admitted or not. The 

 European associations do not admit them. I think that is 

 right. The interest of the bee-keeper is to sell his honey as 

 high as possible. The interest of the honey dealer is to 

 buy as cheap as possible. The interest of the supply dealer 

 is to sell the supplies as high as possible ; that of the bee- 

 keeper to buy as cheap as possible. An association of 

 clashing interests is an anomaly, and a failure. Just think 

 of the United Miners' Union admitting Baer, Cassatt and 

 other coal and railroad magnates in their union, and elect- 

 ing them to the highest offices ! 



My ideas are those of the European bee-keepers, each 

 association covering only a moderate territory, having as 

 nearly as possible the same markets, the same conditions — 

 in a word, as many points in common as possible, close 

 enough together to see each other often, and having to go 

 only a reasonable distance to attend the meetings. 



If the honey dealers and supply dealers should be ex- 

 cluded from the local associations, I think they should be 

 admitted in the National. That seems contradictory, but it 

 is not. If there are conflicting interests, there are also 

 common interests. Supply and honey dealers' prosperity 

 depends, after all, upon ours. There are a great many 

 questions that require numbers and influence, such as 

 transportation, railroad rates, legislation on bee-keeping, 

 legislation against adulteration, experiments on bee-keep- 

 ing, subsidies from the States for Apicultural Divisions in 

 the Agricultural Stations, etc. All these, to be prosecuted 

 successfully, require numbers, money, and influence. And 

 for such the co-operation of dealers, supply manufacturers, 

 bee-paper editors, etc., is exceedingly valuable. 



Knoxville, Tenn. 



m 



How Conscientious D. Catches the Queen 



BY BARON M. LIEAWFUL 



It has been a long time, my children, since I have writ- 

 ten to you, the last time being the occasion I had of writing 

 about the pupa-skinnacastoffica of the embryo queen, and 

 of my 3-year-old worker-bees. The truth is that I have 

 been so busy of late years caring for the progeny of that 

 wonderful queen into whose bowels, through the wonderful 

 agency of the pupa-skinna-castoffica (umbilical cord), I had 

 injected the lives of 499 sister virgins, that I have had little 

 time for writing. 



But now that my grand old queen is dead, and all my 

 efforts towards replacing her have failed, I have thought 

 that my only easy way out of the loss was to practise the 

 bee-keeping of Mr. Conscientious D. Like the rest of you I 

 was puzzled to know why he should keep the secret from us, 



