354 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



Hoffmans. [My experience with the staple 

 spacer was a good deal the same as that of 

 Mr. Phillips. While I could handle en 

 masse two or three frames I had to be much 

 more careful, pressing the bunch of frames 

 together for fear that one would slip away. 

 With the Hoffman frames, propolis attach- 

 ments will hold them together without any 

 difficulty. It is right here that propolis is 

 an aid rather than a hindrance. — Ed.] 



" If a new empty super is put below one 

 nearly filled, the upper one is likely to be 

 left unfinished," p. 2yL I'd rather suspect 

 an error in Huber's notes than to believe an 

 unqualified statement of that kind should 

 pass unchallenged in a Michigan State con- 

 vention. I've done that thing thousands of 

 times, and the work went right on in the 

 upper super. If done when the flow is let- 

 ting up, it may discourage work above; but 

 even in that case I've known bees to keep 

 on with work above, leaving the foundation 

 untouched below. [While I believe that, 

 generally speaking, you are right, doctor, on 

 this point, yet I have had colonies do exact- 

 ly the thing reported in the quotation. Ev- 

 *-ry thing depends on how near we are to 

 the end of the honey-flow. Th'S is a matter 

 that hinges somewhat on locality. — Ed.] 



Ye editor thinks Mr. Stewart states the 

 exact position held by Editor Abbott with 

 regard to bees freezing and starving, p. 303. 

 Mr. Stewart holds that, when a single bee 

 freezes, it does not die from freezing, but if 

 not relieved soon enough it will die from 

 starvation while still in a frozen condition. 

 I think you are warranted, Mr. Editor, in 

 believing the two agree if you have not care- 

 fully noted Mr. Abbott's later and fuller 

 statement. He made a general statement 

 something like saying, " Bees never freeze 

 to death; they starve;" and that agrees 

 with Mr. Stewart's view; but recently he 

 has explained more fully, and. as I under- 

 stand him, he beUeves that a full colony of 

 bees never freezes to death, but a smaller 

 number may. I think Mr. Abbott is correct. 

 A full colony of bees in any climate where 

 bees are kept does not ix^eze to death— in- 

 deed, caw not so long as it has honey accessi- 

 ble, any more than a man can freeze to death 

 in a hou^e where he keeps stuffing fuel into 

 a fire. But when the number of bees is too 

 small, the fire can not be kept going, and 

 the bees freeze to death. 



"The shock of taking bees out of the 

 cellar is an objection to cellar- wintering," 

 p. 291. What does that mean ? If it means 

 the excitement of flight, don't outdoor bees 

 have the same shock? [Huber says his re- 

 port was very much condensed, and he 

 probably omitted some modifying condi- 

 tions. But there is a shock sometimes. A 

 warm day is not a favorable one for taking 

 all the bees out of the cellar. They get 

 mixed up in their flight, and the weak ones 

 are liable to be robbed if there are any out- 

 door bees prepared to pounce on them un- 

 prepared. In our experience it is the out- 

 door-wintered bees that are liable to give 



trouble to the indoor weak colonies just put 

 out. These latter for a short time scarcely 

 reahze that they are outdoors. In two cases 

 this spring we had some weak colonies that 

 were being badly robbed just because they 

 had not discovered they were outside, and 

 therefore needed to defend their entrance. 

 Of course, the veterans know that bees 

 should ordinarily be set out in the cool of the 

 morning or evening previous— better the lat- 

 ter— in order that they may adjust them- 

 selves to their new condition. —Ed.] 



The THEORY, page 303, that "bees freeze 

 first and then starve," if it proves true, 

 may be put to very profitable use. A bee 

 entirely motionless must take many times 

 as long to starve as when in an active condi- 

 tion. So put nuclei or even single queens 

 in cold storage, after being well fed, and 

 leave them till warm weather. [I am not 

 sure but this is one of your unlabeled jokes. 

 At all events, a good deal will depend on 

 how cold the storage was. I would not 

 think it practicable to go below 45, and then 

 we should have conditions exactly as in an 

 ordinary cellar. But it is not yet explained 

 as to how bees can be frozen so stiff as to 

 be crisp, and remain in that condition, no 

 one knows how many day.=, and still be re- 

 vived. Last summer we laid cages of bees 

 on cakes of ice 12, 24, 36, 48, and even 72 

 hours. While they were frozen stiff they 

 apparently showed no signs of life while 

 in that condition; but in each case the warm 

 sun would revive them so they would be as 

 lively as ever. The experiments were not 

 repeated; but this summer I hope to test 

 the matter for a longer freezing. But I be- 

 lieve there is a point that might vary with 

 different bees, when they will die from the 

 prolonged chilling or from want of food. 

 Whether it is starvation or cold that finally 

 kills remains to be proven. — Ed.] 



I'm AFRAID, Mr. Editor, that you would 

 desert the ground you occupy, p. 283, if you 

 should spend a few winters further north. 

 Bees need a flight when their intestines are 

 loaded, whether that loading be caused by 

 the uneasiness of a heightened temperature 

 or by long-protracted confinement in an even 

 temperature. You say when the tempera- 

 ture outside would not permit of flights from 

 fall to spring there is not much need of such 

 flights. " Remember that, in a place of that 

 kind, the confinement is longer, and it's the 

 long confinement that's chiefly responsible 

 for loaded intestines. If you had seen the 

 way my bees spotted the ground when taken 

 out in March, you'd hardly say "there is 

 not much need of such flights." The only 

 question is, whether the after-effects will 

 counterbalance the good. [I accept in part 

 your amendments. Now let me try again. 

 When the temperature outside will not per- 

 mit of flights from fall till spring, and the 

 temperature inside with a dry atmosphere 

 can be kept uniform, as in the case of Mr. 

 Doolittle's cellar, then there is not much 

 need of midwinter flights. There! does 

 that suit you better? If I remember cor- 



