1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



203 



might be able to stand a temperature of 40, 

 or slightly below that, for a number of days; 

 that if a warm spell does not come within a 

 ^week, or perhaps less, those bees in their 

 chilled condition will starve to death. But 

 if it warms up, the cluster will unfold and 

 the bees will take food, when they will be 

 ready for another ' ' freeze. ' ' I have repeat- 

 edly seen clusters of bees, after a prolonged 

 zero apell, lasting a couple of weeks, that 

 were stone <iead; but the honey had been 

 eaten from all around them within a radius 

 of an inch or more. If a zero spell of weath- 

 er continues more than a week or ten days, 

 we always find some of the weaker colonies 

 frozen to death in the spring. 



I have given a few facts for our readers 

 to consider. Understand, I do not claim 

 that bees hibernate, nor yet do I stand spon- 

 sor for the idea that they may assume a 

 state of semi-hibernation. In the language 

 of Dr. Miller, I "don't know." But there 

 are a few interesting phenomena in connec- 

 tion with chilled bees, their quiescent sleep, 

 their low respiration, their light consump- 

 tion of stores, that simulates a condition of 

 semi-hibemation. The bee in a chilled con- 

 dition can go only a few days without food, 

 while a bear, a true hibernator, may go all 

 winter. When the temperature of a bee- 

 cellar goes up to 50 or 60, the bees are active. 

 Their respiration is normal. They must 

 have ventilation, or die in large numbers. 

 If we can maintain a temperature down to 

 45, with slight variation, there is a state of 

 sleep where the respiration is very low, food 

 consumption slight, and consequently fresh 

 air is not needed, or no more than what will 

 percolate through the walls of the reposi- 

 tory. We know that, in true hibernation, 

 respiration is low and no food is taken. 

 Now, then, I ask the question. Is it possible 

 that bees assume a state of torpor that is 

 about midway between that of true hiberna- 

 tion and the sleep of ordinary warm-blooded 

 animals that are aroused at intervals of a 

 few hours to be fed? We are continuing 

 our experiments in freezing bees, and are 

 willing to sacrifice several colonies if we can 

 only learn something. 



There is a practical side to this matter; for 

 if we can induce semi-hibernation or torpor 

 we cut down the consumption of stores. 

 Doolittle's cellar comes pretty near giving 

 us a condition where no ventilation is needed 

 and the stores consumed are slight. 



MRS. H. G. ACKLIN; SEE FRONT COVER. 



One of the most successful lady bee- 

 keepers is Mrs. Helen G. Acklin, of St. Paul, 

 Minnesota, whose picture appears on the 

 front cover page of this issue. She is well 

 known in Wisconsin, for she attends the 

 conventions; in fact, she finds she can not 

 afford to miss them. 



Mrs. Acklin is a native of New York, but 

 removed with her parents to Wisconsin too 

 early in life to have any clear recollection of 

 the Empire State. She attended country 

 Bchool, and later a village school, fitting 



herself for a teacher. The honey-bee al- 

 ways attracted her, and she fully resolved, 

 when in her teens, to own some bees sooner 

 or later. That time came soon after her 

 marriage; for before the house was finished 

 some bees were on the lot, Mr. Acklin hav- 

 ing rnade her a present of seventeen colo- 

 nies in American hives. Those bees should 

 have had three crosses before their signa- 

 ture, and the frames were literally glued to 

 the hives and to each other. It took a 

 strong man to pull them loose, and one can 

 imagine the consequences. Nevertheless, 

 with Mr. Acklin's assistance they were soon 

 transferred to Root hives. A woman with 

 less perseverance and less love for the busy 

 bee would have given up the adventure in 

 despair; but Mrs. Acklin kept on, learning 

 something by experience and from the bee; 

 books, and from Mr. Acklin in the brief in- 

 tervals he was at home during the day. 

 Gradually the cross bees were replaced by 

 gentle stock, and life became, once more, 

 worth living. Even then, disaster some- 

 times came. Water overflowed the apiary, 

 running sand into the hive-entrances and 

 smothering the bees. The cellar filled with 

 water, and each colony was enjoying a ride 

 when rescued by men with rubber boots and 

 long poles. But as progress is the watch- 

 word everywhere, so it is with Mrs. Acklin 

 and her bees. From that small beginning 

 have come hundreds of colonies and several 

 out-apiaries. Mrs. Acklin has charge of a 

 large queen-rearing apiary located at her 

 home, and finds time for her class of girls 

 in Sunday-school and various other church 

 interests, as well as the bee-keepers' asso- 

 ciations. 



A NEW IDEA ON BEES AS POLLINATORS. 



While Secretary Hunt and myself were 

 eating dinner at the hotel in Jackson during 

 the Michigan convention, a gentleman came 

 m and sat down at the same table, and, after 

 listening for a few minutes, he remarked, 

 "You are bee-keepers, I judge." To this 

 we assented. He then said, "I want to tell 

 you something that perhaps you did not 

 know before. Did you know that bees would 

 actually change the flavor of fruit? For ex- 

 ample, I never dare raise pumpkins near a 

 large watermelon-patch, because the bees, 

 you see, mix the pollen of the pumpkins and 

 of the melons so that the melons will taste 

 like pumpkins and the pumpkins like 

 melons. ' ' 



Mr. Hunt's eyes beg'j.n to dance. 



"Oh! now you needn't smile. These are 

 facts. Why," he continued in all soberness, 

 "if I want to raise good melons I always 

 scatter a lot of sweet-clover seed around the 

 outside of the patch. Well, the bees stop 

 on the sweet clover, then go into the patch 

 and mix the pollen of the sweet clover with 

 that of the melons; and the result is I get 

 the finest melons anywhere in the country. 

 They have an actual honey flavor." 



This pumpkin yam would make a first- 

 class story for "boiler-plate" newspaper 



