THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Explanatory.— Tbe fl^urea defoiik tho 

 names Indicate the number of years tliat I lie 

 person has kept bees. Those aftkk, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous H|)rin(r and lull, or fall and spriufr, 

 as tlie time of tlie year may require. 



This marlt © indicates that the aiiiarist is 

 located near tli(^ centre of the State luimed: 

 i north of the centre ; 9 south ; O* east ; 

 •Owest; and this 6 northeast; ^northwest; 

 o^southcast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Hoe Journal. 



The Hiljcniatiou of Bees, 



DK. O. L. TINKER. 



During December I have made nu- 

 merous observations on this subject, 

 and I conclude that tliose wliosay tliat 

 "bees never liibernate," have over- 

 looked some of ttie most interesting 

 and important facts iiearing on tlie 

 wintering problem. When the Rev. 

 W. F. (Harke first gave iis his tlieory 

 of liiliernation, it seemedto excite tiie 

 amusement of bee-keepers rattier ttian 

 to cause H sotier conviction that it in- 

 volved any truth worth thinkingabout. 

 I am now abh^ to say that if we ever 

 expect to winter l)ees scientifically— 

 perfectly— we must jirovide tliem with 

 conditions and snri-oundings that they 

 may liibernate from tlie beginning of 

 winter to the tim^ when instinct 

 prompts them to begin iireeding ; then 

 hibernation must necessarily cease. 



My bees begin to breed in February, 

 after the first good flight; sometimes 

 they begin as early as Fefiruary I , and 

 again, not until the last of the month. 

 Jiees in-doors, or where they aie un- 

 able to take flight, may not begin 

 breeding till late in March. Early 

 breeding is, therefore, a nominal cir- 

 cumstance, but one wliich may be de- 

 layed indefinitely by taking all bee- 

 bread from tlie bees. Experience, how- 

 ever, lias shown that it is not wise to 

 do this if we expect to get enough bees 

 to secure an early harvest. In this, as 

 in many/)ther things, the chances are 

 that it is the early bird that gets the 

 worm. The correct policy would seem 

 to be to favor early breeding as much 

 as possible, even if we get a great 

 many bees that we shall be obliged to 

 feed foi' a few days before tlie ex- 

 pected honey-flow. I have never yet 

 liad too many bees in my hives by 

 .June ], and I never expect to have. 



To promote early breeding, reason 

 would dictate, and experience has 

 shown, that the bees should be placed 

 in such conditions that we may raise 

 the temperature about them to o(P, 

 and possibly higher, wittiout permit- 

 ting it to fall back to a low temperature 

 until the bees have become strong in 

 numbers. Whether we can best 

 secure these conditions in a cellfjr, 

 bee-house, or chafl: hive, is still an 



open (luestioD, with the weight of 

 argument against the chaiT hive. 



I'robably few have mmsidered the 

 close relation thai exists between vig- 

 orous and healthy colonies at the be- 

 ginning of spring breeding, and the 

 strong colonies that w(! want on .luue 

 1. My belief is, that we shall not be 

 able t() winter bees perfectly until w(( 

 shall master the problem of hiberna- 

 tion—until we shall secuic lo them that 

 perfect rest in early winter which is 

 conservative of their vital foi'ces, up 

 to the time when they should begin to 

 breed. If they are exhausted in any 

 way before this time, our hopes of 

 strong colonies and tons of honey will 

 be defeated to the extent of that ex- 

 htiustion. 



I believe that I was the (irst to point 

 out the fact in the columns of the 

 Amkuican Hbe .louitNAi-, that rest- 

 less bees in winter conlineinent suffer 

 a waste of tissue, and require not 

 only bee-biead, but honey in large 

 amount. With the restlessness and 

 active waste, tlif" bees are weakeiuid 

 and worn out, only too often, before it 

 is time to commence breeding, when, 

 if they had been able to hibernate up 

 to this period, and subsequently had 

 been iimperly wttrmed up to aid them 

 in lii-ood-rearing, they would have 

 survivi'd for active service! until late 

 in May and .June. I have known old 

 bees to survive and do good service 

 until .Iiine b"). 



What hibernation is, and how it can 

 be secured, will appear from the 

 following : 



On the morning of Dec. 7, the tem- 

 perature in this locality fell to h'^ 

 below zero. During the day I carried 

 17 colonies in single-walled hives into 

 the cellar, which is 2.")XP,.")X8 feet, has 

 no ventilation, and is perfectly dark. 

 The thermometer registered 41^ above 

 zero. About 10 p. m. I went down 

 into the cellar with a lamp to see what 

 they were about. The entrances 

 being large (%-incli deeii), I could see 

 the bees clustered on the bottom of 

 the combs in every hive, and the 

 cluster extended to the bottom-board. 

 They liad not a ))article of top venti- 

 lation and were contr.u-ted on from 4 

 to 7 frames, being mostly on '> Victor 

 frames. The ligtit was turned up to 

 burn very brightly so that I could see, 

 if possible, their respiial ions. To niy 

 surprise, they all appeared as if dead; 

 they were enlirtly motionlenH, and the 

 closest examination showed no per- 

 ceptible respiration. After a few 

 minutes, now and then one would 

 draw its abdomen forward as if 

 disturbed by the ligtit, and then 

 straighten out again ; then all was 

 motionless as before. Thus I con- 

 tinued to examine each colony of bees 

 for several minutes, but f<juntl after 

 about 10 minutes, with the light 

 shining close and full upon them, that 

 they began to move about, and to 

 respire once or twice at long intervals. 



From this time on, I frequently 

 examined ttiem and at all times of 

 the day and nigtit. So long as the 

 temperature remained at 40'^ to 42' 

 they remained thus undisturlied by 

 the light; but when the temuerature 

 was above or below ttiis point, ttiey 

 did not bear the light well, and almost 



instantly began to move about, and 

 occasionally one would come out of 

 the liive. At 'AH'^ and ;!7 ' the liees 

 were restless under the light; at 41'^ 

 they were least so. 1 tlKsri inarle up 

 my mind that this was the point of 

 temoeratun! at which they most 

 pei'fectly hitiernated. 



For a wider range of observations I 

 now went to the colonies out ofdoors; 

 10 of them were on (iailup franiesand 

 weie clustered up so high that 1 could 

 not see tbein. Ttie balance were on 

 shallow frames and among them were 

 tliree contracted on 4 and •') frames in 

 wtiicli I had an unobstructed view. 

 None had upward ventilation. On 

 these, the observations were all mtidf 

 after night, using for the purpose a 

 small lantern furnishing a light as 

 bright as the lamp. The weather 

 being variable, I was aide to make all 

 needed observations. I found that 

 when the mercury stood at 40'^ to 42% 

 the bees were all hibernating iind 

 acted the same in all n^spects as did 

 tliose in the cellar. At J-iif^ they were 

 impatient of ttie light"; at 20^ they 

 were uneasy and many respiring ; ami 

 at !P they were restless and moving 

 alioiit lively, as well as respiring. 

 Below 20'^ all signs of tiibernation 

 ajiparently had ceased. How it was 

 in the double-walled hives I ilo not 

 know, as I could not see the bees, but 

 I believe that it would take a much 

 lower temperature to interrupt hiber- 

 nation than in these three single- 

 walled hives. 



When the temperature went above 

 V'P the bees began to show signs of 

 activity ; at 'liP tli(;y had ceased to 

 hibernate and began to respire ; and 

 at the approach of the light they 

 moved about freely. 



My observations ttiree years since 

 were made late— in I'^ibruary— and I 

 now think that the bees were then 

 Iireeding, as on every occasion tliev 

 were seen to be ri^spiring, but most of 

 them very slowly. The teni|)eratiire 

 of the cluster was higher -about 0(P — 

 ascertained by a nurnlier of tests witti a 

 good thermometer. The temperature 

 in ttie hives now in my cellar. I found 

 to be 54^" among the bees at tlie lower 

 part of the cluster, wtien the temper- 

 ature of the cellar was at 40^ Ttie 

 center of ttie cluster could not have 

 been very miuti higtier than ttiis, so 

 they could not liave been Iireeding. I 

 therefore believe that ttie ttiermometer 

 will prove a relitible guide in deter- 

 mining wbettier tlie bees are hiber- 

 nating or breeding at any given time. 



Some are inclined to think that the 

 temperature of the liee cellar should 

 be high— aliout .'lO — all winter. Mr. 

 Dooliltle has said ttiiit lie would 

 consiiler it a great acquisition if he 

 had a bee-cellar that he could keep 

 at .W- without arlilicial tieat. Now, 

 as a matter of fa(;t, I think that few 

 bee cellars can be kept above 4!P 

 wilhoutartilicial heat; luit as a certain 

 degree of cold is essential to liitjer- 

 nation, and that about 41'^, what more 

 can we askV Sometiow, I am b<-com- 

 ing impressed with tlie idea that a 

 great part of our wintering tronljles 

 comes from upward ventilation in 

 liives. The great success of Mr. Ira 

 Barber, in wintering, may be due to 



