254 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr 1. 



that the same camera took some months later, 

 when the weather had turned considerably 

 colder. 



I should like to tell you, if I could, some of 

 the remarkable records Harry has made in ex- 

 tracting honey ; but, as I have said of the rec- 

 ords in general, made at Mr. Coggshall's api- 

 aries, I have forgotten just what they were ; 

 and, even if I could tell you, you might think 

 I was telling you a " fish story." However, if 

 Mr. Coggshall will submit the series of records 

 made by himself, Harry, and some of his oth- 

 er men, I should be glad to publish them. 



DEAD BEES ON CELLAR BOTTOM. 



A Worked-out Proposition: Some Interesting Data 



on Indoor Wintering; Temperature of Cellar 



and Temperature of Cluster, etc. 



BY C. C. MILLER. 



You never spoke truer words, Mr. Editor, 

 than when, on page 141, you said it is hard to 

 tell how many bees should be swept from cel- 

 lar bottom where bees are kept. You said 75 

 colonies might give only a pint a month, and 

 they might give a bushel. You might have 

 added that the pint a month might be with 

 the better wintering, or it might be that the 

 bees were wintering better with the bushel. 

 For bees may be dying off rapidly in a hive, 

 and none of them come out of the hive. Prob- 

 ably it's better to have them on the cellar bot- 

 tom than on the floor of the hive. 



There's a difference in colonies. I've just 

 been down cellar ; and while I find the floor 

 of most hives comparatively clean, a few of 

 them have mounds of ^dead bees, in two or 

 three cases the mound rising two inches high 

 and touching the bottom-bars. In one case 

 the entrance was filled with bees almost en- 

 tirely, the upper half of the entrance, which is 

 two inches deep, being filled with live bees 

 and the lower half dead. The live and the 

 dead bees form one continuous mass. This is 

 a very unusual case, for generally no dead bees 

 are suffered near the cluster. 



Nov. 17, 1896, I cellared 260 colonies. After 

 110 days I swept what I roughly estimated at 

 48 quarts of dead bees ; 23 days later, about 22 

 quarts. That makes, during the first 1 10 days, 

 about 29.3 cubic inches per day ; during the 

 later 23 days, 64.3 cubic inches per day. 



Nov. 23, 1897, I cellared 295 colonies. After 

 70 days I swept out 23 qts. , carefully measur- 

 ed ; 29 days later, 35 qts. ; 22 cubic inches per 

 day in the first part, 81 cubic inches per day 

 in the last part. 



A much more marked difference would 

 probably be shown if the first ten days of the 

 winter should be compared with the last ten 

 days. Likely ten times as many dead bees 

 would be swept out the last ten days as in the 

 first ten days. 



TEMPERATURE OF BEES IN WINTER. 

 Not long ago I said something about the 

 temperature of the brood-nest in winter, giv- 

 ing a possible explanation for the fact that 

 outdoor colonies begin to breed in February, 



and cellared bees not till set out in April. 

 Hasty, commenting upon it in Rcvie'v, thinks 

 my explanation is perhaps "nearer to being 

 a well-reasoned-at proposition than a mere 

 chajice shot." Having gathered what data I 

 can from different sources I'd like to make it, 

 instead of a " well-reasoned^/, " at least a 

 tolerably well-reasoned out proposition. 



The bee is warm-blooded. vSeven bees taken 

 from a colony in cellar showed a temperature 

 of 81.5°. Some bees inclosed in a glass, warm- 

 ed to 104°, were all dead except one at the end 

 of 90 minutes, the temperature of the surviv- 

 ing bee being raised to 95°. Some bees that 

 were torpid in a temperature of 47.7°, but 

 brought to life in an atmosphere of 59°, show- 

 ed an interior heat of 77°. Results obtained 

 by M. Cisielsky were somewhat different, as 

 he obtained 95° as the normal temperature in 

 the body of a bee. 



The effort of the bees seems to be to keep 

 the temperature of the cluster from going be- 

 low 50 to 53° at any time. Notice that the 

 temperature of the cluster is a separate affair 

 from the temperature of the individual bee, 

 just as the temperature of the atmosphere of a 

 crowded room is not the same thing as the 

 temperature of the human bodies in the room. 

 Should the temperature of the cluster, that is, 

 of the air immediately surrounding each indi- 

 vidual bee, fall a little way below 50° for a 

 short time, torpor ensues, leading to death if 

 the temperature be continued. But the tem- 

 perature of the body of a bee can not be allow- 

 ed to sink to 50°. Torpor and death will come 

 with a temperature less or more continued 

 at 75°. 



How is it that, in a temperature of 50°, the 

 individual bee keeps up a temperature of 85 or 

 95° ? Just the same as a man in a zero tem- 

 perature keeps his blood something like a 

 hundred degrees higher by means of the fuel 

 burned up in his body. The man may help 

 the matter, too, by kicking his heels and fling- 

 ing his arms. vSo can the bee. Now, suppose 

 the heat of the cluster is found to be falling 

 below 50°. What's to be done? Why, there's 

 a stir in the camp ; possibly the outside bees, 

 feeling the cold, break for the middle of the 

 cluster ; the stir and exercise increase the 

 temperature, increased consumption keeping 

 pace with it. Only a little of this stir will be 

 needed if the temperature is only a little below 

 50°, increasing as the temperature sinks, mak- 

 ing it necessary to have the center of the clus- 

 ter a good deal above the 50° at which the 

 outer part of the cluster must be kept. 



The colder the winds blow about our dwell- 

 ings, the better we keep the fires in our stoves. 

 So it is in the bees' dwellings. In order to 

 have the outer part of the cluster keep up to 

 50° when the zero air about it is cooling it off 

 every minute, the fires must be boomed in the 

 center of the cluster. So when it gets cold 

 enough outside the cluster, the center will run 

 up to 86° or more, making it warm enough 

 for the queen to commence laying, as she is 

 likely to do in February if colonies are winter- 

 ed out. Then when breeding has commenced, 

 the proper temperature must be kept up con- 

 tinuousl}', more fuel must be used, the ashes 



