18SG 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



267 



suspend themselves i'l-oin the top in a compact 

 form, appearing lilse an inverted cone, wliich, to all 

 appearances, is nearly motionless, so that it will ap- 

 pear fis it' the bees were idle; while the fact is, 

 that these apparently idle bees are really the hive 

 proper, and, inside this, active work is going- on, 

 building comb, etc. This is easily seen by passing 

 a wire suddenly through the cluster horizontally, 

 and letting the lower half drop. Outside this living- 

 hive, or crust of bees, the temperature is often not 

 more than .'^O", while just inside they are working 

 wax nicely with from 90 to 95°, as I found last June, 

 by careful tests with my thermometer. It would 

 be interesting to follow this living- hive further, as 

 it expands until it finally touches the hive; how the 

 combs inside grow, etc., but space forbids, so 1 will 

 simply note the fact that they will fill the hive un- 

 less it is very large, or the supply of honey fails too 

 early. Now, as cool weather comes on and storage 

 ceases, this living hive contracts, instead of expand- 

 ing, thus keeping the heat inside its walls to a suf- 

 ficient extent for the prosperitj- of the colony. As 

 it becomes extremely cold, the walls of the living 

 hive become more condensed, until the larger 

 part of the bees are engaged in forming this hive; 

 still, I have yet to see a colony which does not have 

 an active force of bees in the center of this living 

 hive, ready to push their way out for an attack, if 

 the box holding the clvister is roughly disturbed. 

 It takes some time for thcFC crust bees to get lively 

 enough to tly; but the inside force can do so in a 

 second, in any colony I ever experimented Avith, 

 thus showing that the material inclosing this living- 

 hive had little to do with the heat of the cluster, 

 that being controlled by the walls of the living hive. 

 This living hive is all the while throwing off mois- 

 ture; and if the box inclosing them is of such shape 

 that this moisture will not collect about the bees, 

 they remain dry, healthy, and nice. This is the 

 reason why all kinds of packing are employed 

 to advantage, in my opinion, and why it was that 

 A. I. Kcot propcsed to winter bees in a felt hat 

 not manj' years ago. Instr.nces have been given 

 where colonies of bees have been wintered success- 

 fully in a large hive containing less than one-eighth 

 of the comb they should when filled; in fact, so lit- 

 tle comb that the bees covered all of said comb ex- 

 cept the outer edge all wint?r. But I will stop short, 

 and close, as this article is too long already. 

 Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



Friend D.. while J. A. Green and others 

 have argued strongly tliat bees will winter 

 all right when sealed up tight, even in a 

 glass bottle, jou are taking the ground 

 that they will winter all right without any 

 air-tight inclosuie about them at all, if I un- 

 derstand you correctly. Well, perhaps it is 

 a good idea to consider both extremes, and 

 both extremes have been defended in our 

 back volumes. I confess I have heen great- 

 ly puzzled to see bees so many times winter 

 splendidly when they were about as badly 

 tixed, according to the rules laid down in the 

 books, as they could be : and at other times 

 they do not winter at all, even when they 

 are fixed in the very best shape. I want to 

 take exception to one point you make; that 

 is, that there are always live bees ready to 

 make an attack when "the outer crust is 

 rudely broken. I have several times pulled 

 frames out of the hive, thinking the bees 

 were dead because they seemed so motion- 



less ; and if 1 recollect aright, they were all 

 tied up in hard knots, even to the very cen- 

 ter of tlie cluster, and it took them some 

 little time to wake up and get ready to sting. 

 Where brood-rearing is going on in the mid- 

 dle of the winter or spring, of course they 

 must be stirring actively. And while I 

 think of it, I belie^■e these'colonies so knot- 

 ted up in the spring had no brood, and possi- 

 bly their numbers were so small their only 

 resource to keep from freezing was to knot 

 themselves up in this manner until tlie 

 weather moderated. I have seen them thus 

 in the fall, in the winter, and in the spring ; 

 but I believe very strong colonies usually 

 have a warm place where bees can go on 

 with the housework, even during zero tem- 

 perature. 



FROM DIFFERENT FIELDS. 



HAVE THE BEES THE POWER TO CONVERT WORKER- 

 EGGS AND SMALL LARV« INTO DRONE- 

 LARV^? 



§OME time between the 15th and 30th of October 

 last I sold five queens. Two of them went 

 two days before the others. In due time I 

 looked for queen-cells, and, to my surprise, I 

 found drones capped over, and hundreds 

 more nearly ready to cap, these drones being mixed 

 all through the worker-brood and in worker-comb, 

 with a goodly number of queen-cells. Hive No. 3 was 

 examined, and found in the same condition; No. 3 

 the same; Nos. 4 and 5 the same. If the size of cell 

 has anything to do with the fertilitj' of the eggs, 

 how does it happen that, after removing the queen, 

 the bees should convert worker larvte and eggs into 

 drone-bees? The eggs and youngest larva> only 

 were drones. Now, this happened in five different 

 hives. The combs were built on fdn. bought of A. 

 I. Root. 1 fancj' I hear j-ou saying, " Drone-layer," 

 "fertile worker," or something of that sort; but I 

 wish to say, " Not so;" this brood was in the hives at 

 the time of removing the queens, and young work- 

 ers were hatching all around it. Her majesty 

 reigns supreme when present, I am willing to admit, 

 but it scf ms to me the bees have something to do 

 with it in her absence. Each colony reared a fine 

 queen; but whether they were fertilized, I can not 

 say; but I have lots of di-ones, anyway. I would 

 add, these drones are smaller than those reared in 

 natural cells. J. E. Hole. 



Kipleyville, Huron Co., Ohio. 



Friend II., if you will examine our back 

 volumes yon will find this matter has been 

 discussed a great deal. While many of the 

 friends declare positively they have absolute 

 proof that the worker-bees can thus change 

 the sex of eggs or small larva% Prof, ('ot)k 

 and othei's declare it to be an impossibility. 

 Prof. McLain, at the convention in Detroit, 

 last fall, remarked as follows in regard to it, 

 as nearly as I can recollect. He said that, 

 although he had not succeeded in proving it 

 to his satisfaction. Prof. Wylie said, wlien 

 the matter was referred to him, that he had 

 not a doubt but that the l)ees might do it. 

 This has nothing to do with the question 

 you refer to between Prof. Cook and friend 

 I)adant ; for the above was managed by 

 the bees after the queen was taken away. 



