THE AMERICA_N BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



like the year 1S80, when the late- 

 gathered honey is very bad, we will 

 have to extract and feed suRar, or 

 lose our bees ; but such seasons do 

 not cooie very often. 



RJy number of colonies is 32, in 

 chaff hives, one being in the cellar ; 

 number last spring, 17 ; number of 

 pounds of comb honey in one-pound 

 boxes, 1,200; number of pounds of 

 extracted honey, 250. I sold all of my 

 honey at home. By the way, I think 

 that I have the best and most con- 

 venient chaff hive made. 



Union City,oInd. 



For tTie American Bee Journal. 



Tlie Oneiila County Couveiition, 



A number of the most enterprising 

 bee-keepers of Oneida County, N. Y., 

 met at Rome, N. i'., on Nov. 21, 1885, 

 and organized under the name of 

 " The Oneida County Bee-Keepers' 

 Association," adopted a constitution 

 and by-laws, and elected the follow- 

 ing as officers for the ensuing year : 

 President, R. Bacon, of Verona ; Vice- 

 President, W. E. Clark, of Oriskany; 

 Secretary, O. J. Evans, of Camroden ; 

 and Treasurer, J. M. Resequie, of 

 Verona. Seventeen bee-keepers be- 

 came members of the Association, 

 and if the weather had been favor- 

 able, many more would have been 

 present. 



After the usual amount of routine 

 work, which is indispensable in set- 

 ting a new society on a solid footing, 

 the subject of " "Wintering bees" was 

 discussed as follows : 



Pres. Bacon— Much depends upon 

 locality and hives, and the winters 

 have something to do with it. Bees 

 may be treated in the same manner 

 two winters — the first winter perhaps 

 they will do well, and the next very 

 poorly. We should strike the middle 

 line after getting all available infor- 

 mation. Bees should be prepared for 

 the winter, dry and carefully ; they 

 must not be shaken up. Some cellars 

 will do for wintering bees, while in 

 other cellars they will not do well. I 

 cannot keep mine in my cellar. I have 

 a frost- proof bee-house which is made 

 double-walled, the studding being 

 about S inches, boarded outside and 

 inside, and the space of 8 inches filled 

 with dry earth. On the outside of 

 this again is nailed studding 2 inches 

 thick, on which are nailed matched 

 siding, thus leaving a dead-air space 

 of 2 inches between the siding and 

 the inner wall, and the top is covered 

 with dry sawdust. I prefer to keep 

 the temperature of my bee-house 

 about 4o°. My colonies do not con- 

 sume more than from .5 to 10 pounds 

 of honey each, in winter. My bee -house 

 more than pays for itself every season. 

 On pleasant winter days I give my 

 bees a flight, and I find that they 

 come out better in the spring than 

 when they are not allowed to have 

 flights. 



W. E. Clark— I copied my bee-house 

 after Mr. Bacon's, but got it so as to 

 be a little too warm in the spring. I 

 do not wish to put my bees out till the 

 soft maple blossoms in tlie spring. I 



therefore sunk my bee-house about 4 

 feet into the ground, and found that 

 the bees would remain more quiet in 

 the spring. I had no ventilation at 

 the bottom of the bee-house last win- 

 ter, and my bees never wintered 

 better. If a bee-house has damp 

 air in it, it should be ventilated. I 

 elevate the lower tier of hives about 

 an inch from the bottom-board. This 

 arrangement, by admitting a free cir- 

 culation of air through the hive, 

 prevents the accumulation of mold in 

 the hive and on the bottom-board, 

 which would otherwise occur. The 

 next tier is elevated about half an 

 inch, while the upper ones need no 

 more ventilation than the ordinary 

 entrance. As to absorbents on the 

 top of the hive, I use old quilts which 

 are cut to the right size and laid on 

 the top of the hives. Last winter I 

 put 10 colonies in with just the honey- 

 board on top, and those wintered as 

 well as any. I have also packed some 

 with dry sawdust on the top a la Mr. 

 Bacon ;" but so far as packing on the 

 top of the hive is concerned, I find 

 but very little if any difference. I 

 have never tested chaff' hives, but 

 bees cannot winter as well in them as 

 in a bee-house. I keep the tempera- 

 ture in my bee-house from 4.5" to 48°. 

 The great object is to keep the tem- 

 perature even. 



The convention adjourned to meet 

 at Stanwix Hall, in Rome, N. Y., on 

 Feb. 24, 1886, at 10 a.m. 



O. J. Evans, Sec. 



For the American Bee JourDal. | 



Tie Hiliernation of Bees. 



PKOF. A. J. COOK. 



I did not intend to say more on this 

 topic, but the well being of science, 

 and our industry as well, makes it the 

 duty of some one to speak ; and as no 

 other one may find time, I again take 

 my pen. 



Brother Clarke amuses me. All 

 will remember the old story of the 

 shrewd farmer who said to his neigh- 

 bor lawyer: "Friend, my bull has 

 razed your fence and gored your ox to 

 death. What ought to be doneV" 

 "Why," said the lawyer, " the case 

 is plain — you must pay for the ox." 

 "Oh!" said the farmer, "my inex- 

 perienced, clumsy tongue has blun- 

 dered. It was your bull that gored, 

 and my ox is dead. " Oh !" said the 

 lawyer, " that alters the case ma- 

 terially." 



I pronounced against Bro. Clarke's 

 theory which he first built wholly, if 

 I mistake not, upon the statement 

 that bees in trees m the forest do not 

 die— which, by the way, is not at all 

 true in Michigan. I have received a 

 pretty severe blast of adjectives— in 

 truth, as severe a word-flagellation as 

 a kind-hearted, orthodox clergyman 

 in good and regular standing would 

 dare to give. Dr. Tinker speaks for 

 the Dominie's pet, and as positively 

 as I ever did, and there is no such 

 words as" contemptuous dogmatism," I 

 but that same gust of rapturous en- 

 thusiasm which always wells forth 



when Bro. Clarke speaks, and which 

 took the Detroit assembly fairly off 

 its feet. This time the other "ox is 

 gored." Well, it is all right; we all 

 enjoy Bro. Clarke's enthusiasm and 

 his charming periods, if we do not 

 always respect as fully his opinions 

 and theories. 



More than once I have gone over 

 the same ground that Dr. Tinker has, 

 and have no fault to find with his 

 admirable experiments, nor the facts 

 which he draws from them — they are 

 substantially the same that I have 

 obtained. But when this winter- 

 quiet of bees is termed "hiberna- 

 tion," then I do object, and I think 

 with excellent reasons. I believe 

 that if the Doctor will experiment 

 with other insects, and observe his 

 bees longer, he will also agree with 

 me that another word than hiberna- 

 tion must be used. 



We find a wasp in winter, when it 

 is very cold. The wasp hibernates. 

 We pick it up — it does not move nor 

 does it sting us. We watch it for 

 hours — there is no movement. We 

 put it where it is colder — still there is 

 no movement. The wasp is not dead, 

 it hibernates. Possibly it may, while 

 in this profound coma, take some 

 oxygen, though I doubt it; certainly 

 it eats nothing. Now, Doctor, is this 

 analogous to the condition of the bees 

 in their winter quiet ? If not, and 

 the bees hibernate, what shall we call 

 thisV 



Next, let us examine the bees. They 

 are also very quiet when the tempera- 

 ture is somewhere from 40° to .50° 

 Fahr. I find that the temperature for 

 this most quiet condition varies, prob- 

 ably due somewhat to the size of the 

 colony, and very likely to the mois- 

 ture in the air. The bees are not 

 quiet like the wasp. I have marked 

 the form of the cluster, when for 

 some minutes I could not see the 

 least signs of life. In an hour or two, 

 examination showed that the form of 

 the cluster had changed ; indeed I 

 found, by watching long enough, that 

 we could see the outer bees push into 

 the cluster. This, of course, is less 

 satisfactory than leaving them and 

 coming again to note the form of the 

 cluster, for we might say the light 

 irritated them. Y^'et the very fact 

 that motion is induced, makes hiber- 

 nation an inappropriate term to use. 



I went into a large cellar the other 

 day, with 50 colonies of bees in it. The 

 temperature was 44'^ Fahr. My 

 brother was with me. There was 

 almost no sound, and no bees came 

 out of the hives. If we would tap on 

 any hive, we at once got the response 

 in a gentle murmur, " All right.'' In 

 another cellar at 41° Fahr., with a 

 few less colonies, the bees were more 

 noisy. As soon as we had a light in 

 the cellar, the bees commenced flying 

 out. Now, I ask Dr. Tinker if either 

 of these were good examples of hiber- 

 nation. Again Dr. Tinker says, and 

 it is always true, that the centre of 

 the cluster of bees was warmer than 

 the outside. Now, if the bees are 

 dormant — if they are fully hibernat- 

 ing—whence this warmth V Of course 

 the heat is radiating all the time, and 

 of course the bees are active, must be. 



