THE AMERICAJN EEE JOURNAL. 



55 



the other stock, cage her in a mailing 

 cage, where she will be safe for a 

 week or so ; in two days I catch my 

 most valuable queen and drop her at 

 the entrance of the hive from which 

 the other was removed, providing the 

 weather is warm ; if it is cold, I drop 

 her in under the quilt, amongst the 

 bees. In two more days I take the 

 one from the mailing-cage and give 

 her in the same way to the other hive. 

 Of course care is required that neither 

 of the hives contain brood or eggs, 

 which can be noted when removing 

 the queens, which is not probable in 

 the fall ; but if they do, the combs 

 containing the brood or eggs must be 

 given to other hives in exchange for 

 brood or eggless ones. 



My first publication of this system 

 is in the British Bee Journal tor July 

 1, 1883, page S3; but bee-keepers do 

 not seem to have " grasped " the value 

 of the idea yet ; or perhaps I ex- 

 plained it too briefly for any one to 

 comprehend it. An ex-pupil of Mr. 

 D. A. Jones, of Beeton, Ont., paid me 

 a visit last fall, to see bees migrated 

 to the heather and returned, to whom 

 I showed its practical workings ; old 

 queens were removed, and any time 

 when convenient after 2 days, young 

 ones were allowed to run in at the 

 entrance or dropped in under the 

 quilts, and others exchanged. He ex- 

 pressed his astonishment and delight 

 with the process, which he said 

 "licked" all the plans of queen-in- 

 troduction that he had seen or heard 

 of in the New World. I call it " Hew- 

 itt's Direct System " of queen-intro- 

 duction—direct because the queen 

 alone is given direct and at once, 

 without any caging ; and strictly 

 speaking, it is the only direct system 

 extant. Reaumur's and Huber's are 

 direct in a degree, while Simmins" is 

 not direct in the least, as a comb of 

 brood and honey covered with bees 

 has to be given as well ; while the plan 

 is not even new, having long been used 

 in this country. 



The first system of queen-introduc- 

 tion was given by Reaumur 100 years 

 ago, his plan being to confine ttie bees 

 in a box and then after awhile give 

 them the strange queen ; almost 

 exactly as Mr. Doolittle does in mak- 

 ingand uniting nuclei. Huber, under 

 date of Aug. .30, 1791, criticises tliis 

 plan, and while he admits its truths 

 he maintains that the bees are not in 

 a natural condition. Just so ! the 

 bees are lost, with no queen or means 

 of rearing one, hence they will infalli- 

 bly accept another after 24 hours ; 

 which I am sure Mr. Doolittle will 

 have found to be so. Thus it will be 

 seen that Reaumur's plan is my system 

 in embryo ; but by the law I give, it 

 can be varied to suit all conditions 

 and circumstances. 



It will be seen that we have three in- 

 fallible ways of safely introducing 

 fertile queens, ( I do not in the slight- 

 est way allude in this article to intro- 

 ducing virgin queens), and if any fail- 

 ure results it will be on account of not 

 keeping to the rules. For instance : 

 Some direct caging queens 3 days or 

 more ; witti such advice the wonder 

 is that any are accepted— certainly 

 none will be with old bees ; if only 



young ones are in the hive, then 

 queen-cells are not usually started for 

 5 days, when it will act ; hence the 

 advice to move the stock to a fresh 

 stand, to draw off the old bees, under 

 the belief that they alone are danger- 

 ous ; while as a matter of fact the old 

 bees, if caught on broodless comb and 

 kept queenless, will after 30 hours in- 

 variably accept any fertile queen at 

 once, if given uncaged, when brood 

 can afterwards be added if wanted. 



I am notmakingthis public in haste, 

 as I have for years been testing this 

 great natural law that I have discov- 

 ered ; those who are inclined to doubt 

 its truth, should notice the commotion 

 and noise at the entrance of a stock 

 of bees that are queenless, and hav- 

 ing no means to rear another, which 

 noise and commotion I believe is 

 made to attract a strange queen to 

 them. Anyhow, I have had 2 colo- 

 nies re-queen themselves so, and a 

 friend of mine had one also. Every 

 bee-keeper should note the peculiar 

 hum they make when a fertile queen 

 is given them ; it is something like 

 the swarming-hiim, so near as I can 

 discribe it, but still it is distinct inits 

 peculiarity ; however, every bee seems 

 to know that a " mother has come," 

 and begins " clapping " its wings for 

 joy, or it may be to welcome her; 

 whatever it is, in my opinion it is the 

 most poetical phase of the natural 

 history of bees, and I want every bee- 

 keeper to test it for himself. 



Now, readers, you all at some time 

 or another want to change your 

 queens ; so carefully study this article 

 and you will find it worth all you have 

 ever paid or are likely to pay for the 

 American Bee Journal. If any- 

 thing is not sufficiently clear, I will 

 try and make it so. Tell all, next 

 winter, how you like it. 



Sheffield, England. 



[By request of Mr. Hewitt, we have 

 printed the word " stock " for " colo- 

 ny," where he had so written it. We 

 prefer the word colony, but defer to 

 the wishes of our correspondents 

 when they express a decided prefer- 

 ence, as does Mr. Hewitt ; lest we 

 should Newman-ize it, as one corres- 

 pondent expressed it, when mention- 

 ing our changing of his verbiage in 

 this respect. Having adopted a no- 

 menclature of terms in bee-keeping, 

 should we not always try to be con- 

 sistent therewith ? When a departure 

 is made from that, we make a note of 

 it.— Ed.] 



1^~ The Wisconsin State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will meet in the State Capitol at 

 Madison, Wis., on Feb. 4, 188Q, at 9 a.m. All 

 who are interested in hee-keeping are invi- 

 ted to attend. The meeting- will be held dur- 

 ing the sessions of the State Agricultural 

 Society, and bee-keepers who are also inter- 

 ested in topics relating to farming will have 

 an opportunity to hear them discussed. 

 Any hee-keeper having anything new in the 

 management of bees are requested to bring 

 it along for exhibition. Persons paying full 

 fare coming, may obtain a return ticket at 

 one-fifth of the regular rate. 



J. W. Vance, Sec. 



For tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Ttie Hibernation of Bees. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



Editor American Bee Journal : 



The accompanying article will ap- 

 pear in the February number of the 

 Rural Canadian. Will you kindly 

 make room for it in an early number 

 of the American Bee Journal, and 

 permit me to say that a multitude of 

 claims and calls forbids my noticing 

 the matter just now in a shape more 

 suitable tor your columns? By so 

 doing, you will greatly oblige, 



Wm. F. Clarke. 

 Guelph, Ont., Jan. 19, 1886. 



The able and unanswerable article 

 of Dr. Tinker on the hibernation of 

 bees cannot but produce a profound 

 sensation among intelligent bee-keep- 

 ers. In a private letter, which I take 

 the liberty of quoting, the Doctor 

 says : " You will notice that I do not 

 make use of the word ' quiet,' or 

 ' quietude,' because I think the con- 

 dition the bees pass into implies 

 something more than is expressed by 

 those terms. I shall be pleased, if, 

 after reading my article, you would 

 put in a disclaimer that you are not 

 satisfied with that word to express 

 the actual condition. In my opinion 

 only iheword hibernation is applicable." 



Many a time and often since this 

 controversy began (about 18 months 

 ago), Iha\e felt like making a clean 

 sweep of " quiet," " quietude," " qui- 

 escence," " torpor," " semi-hiberna- 

 tion," and all other words having any 

 ambiguity about them. From the 

 first I have felt as Galileo did about 

 the true theory of the solar system, 

 but, without access to a scientific 

 library, and with the most meagre 

 opportunities for experimenting, 

 modesty forbade assertiveness. The 

 only man in the bee-keeping fraternity 

 who made any pretensions to scientific 

 acquaintance with entomology,treated 

 the whole affair with contemptuous 

 dogmatism, and would not even in- 

 vestigate the theory. I broached it 

 with the simple and reasonable re- 

 quest that bee-keepers would experi- 

 ment in regard to it. So far as I 

 know. Dr. Tinker is the fust who has 

 done this with any thoroughness, and 

 it has been wholly of his own accord. 

 The result is, complete demonstration 

 of the correctness of my position. 

 There are more to follow. " They are 

 coming. Father Abraham, 300,000 

 strong !" 



I have no hesitation in accepting 

 Dr. Tinker's article in its entirety, 

 with the exception of what he says as 

 to "the weight of the argument being 

 against the chafi: hive," and 1 merely 

 " ask leave " to let that point rest in 

 abeyance until next spring discloses 

 the result of experiments now being 

 made. Meantime, our best thanks 

 are due and are hereby presented to 

 the worthy Doctor, and the disclaimer 

 he suggests is gladly made. Hence- 

 forth, " hibernation " is the word, 

 and none other, that we accept, for, 

 in truth, it is the only term known to 

 science, which is applicable to the 



