THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



197 



ripened honey. The presence of acid 

 is a prevention of granulation. — 

 James Heddon. 



1. If one lias in stock frames of 

 honey it is the cheapest, because most 

 handy. Honey diluted one-half with 

 pure water is prohably as cheap as 

 anything ; for while it may cost a 

 trifle more than sugar, a gain will be 

 found to more than compensate in 

 the larger amount of brood reared 

 therefrom ; at least this is my own 

 experience. I am not an advocate, 

 iiowever, of early stimulative feeding. 

 Like a two-edged sword, it is liable to 

 cut both ways. — J. E. Pond, Jr. 



Are tlie Drones Pure ? 



Query, No. 230.— Will tbe drone progeny 

 be pure from a pure Italian queen, If she is 

 fertilized by a black drone ?— C. T. 



Yes.— H. D. Cutting. 

 i'es.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 

 Practically so.— G. M. Doolittle. 

 I think so. — A. J. Cook. 



According to parthenogenesis they 

 will be pure. This is doubted by 

 some. When breeding queens I al- 

 ways avail myself of the doubt and 

 reject such drones.— J. P. H. Brown. 



Yes. Some will tell you that the 

 mating stains the queen as it stains 

 the hen, but queens cannot be com- 

 pared to hens ; since in the hen the 

 eggs are fertilized before they are full 

 grown ; and in the queen they are not 

 fertilized till they pass by the sperm- 

 sac on their way out. The contents 

 of the sperm -sac cannot stain the 

 queen, since there is no exchange of 

 Mood between the egg and the mother 

 after the fertilization of the egg. — 

 Dadant & Son. 



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For tbe American Bee JoomaL 



Tlie Hilieruation of Bees. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



At last Prof. Cook has spoken ! 

 Goaded by the imputation of " con- 

 temptuous dogmatism," he can keep 

 silence no longer. The Professor 

 begins by ladling out considerable 

 taffy, an article in which I do not 

 deal. My forte, if I have any, is plain 

 English. In the present case, it 

 seems to have been too plain. I have 

 comniitted the unusual bhmder of 

 calling a spade a spade. Is it not 

 •' dogmatism " to assert unqualifiedly 

 that bees do not hibernate, and is it 

 not " contemptuous " dogmatism to do 

 this without any condescension to 

 proof or even investigation y 



I do not see tlie point of the ox 

 story, and think it was a bull to tell 

 it. Dr. Tinker speaks positively, but 

 he has facts behind him, which gore 

 without mercy. An ox cannot gore 

 without sharp facts to act as horns. 



The Professor's article may be 

 briefly summed up in two words. He 

 admits the condition, but wants 

 another term than hibernation to ex- 

 press it. I do not see how he can be 

 accommodated until another English 

 word is coined having precisely the 

 same meaning. The compound phrase 

 " winter torpor " might do, but why 

 use two words when one will suffice ? 



The only semblance of proof that 

 bees do not hibernate is furnished in 

 the assertion that they do not act ex- 

 actly like wasps. But do wasps hiber- 

 nate V The Professor assumes that 

 they do, and I shall not deny it. In 

 this state they are quiet. There is 

 '■ profound coma." Is not the same 

 true of bees V Outward signs of life 

 there are none, but on being subjected 

 to warmth, a slight movement takes 

 place, and there are signs of returning 

 activity. In a winter cluster the bees 

 are constantly changing places with 

 each other. This is a sign of life 

 surely. Motion indicates life. The 

 bees breathe and move, a very little. 

 But the Professor thinks that bees do 

 not hibernate because exposure to 

 greater degrees of cold arouses them, 

 while it only makes the slumber of 

 the wasp more profound. The reason 

 for the difference is obvious. The 

 wasp has no stores with which to get 

 up a glow of heat, while the bee only 



needs to consume honey, and its 

 warmth at once increases. 



It is not necessary to withdraw food 

 altogether to prove hibernation, for it 

 is not contended that in this state 

 they fast wholly, but only that they 

 eat sparingly, and at intervals of con- 

 siderable length. The Professor tells 

 us that a hibernating wasp will not 

 sting, while a hibernating bee will. 

 Even a dead bee will sting. The 

 slightest pressure sets the deadly 

 machinery a-going, and woe betide 

 the hand that is near it ! 



The Professor only desires that we 

 will not persist in using the word 

 hibernation, when winter quiet or 

 quiescence is just as good — he thinks 

 far better. But hibernation is more 

 than quietude, it is partial suspension 

 of the vital processes ; " the minimum 

 of functional activity," as the Profes- 

 sor himself has phrased it. It is a 

 state peculiar to the winter season. 

 Bees are often quiet in summer, but 

 they do not hibernate then. The sea- 

 sou of the year forbids their doing so. 

 The Professor wishes the term hiber- 

 nation to be reserved for "another 

 phenomenon more startling and won- 

 derful." What is it. pray '? On ana- 

 lysis it will be found to be. in all its 

 essential features, one and the same 

 with that witnessed in the case of the 

 bees. Sleep cannot properly be termed 

 hibernation any more tlian trance can 

 be called sleep, because the faculties 

 are all awake, though in a state of 

 inaction and repose, both during 

 hibernation and trance. The subject 

 of both these phenomena is quite con- 

 scious, knows all that is going on, has 

 the full use of the senses, and needs 

 only to have the strange embargo on 

 its activity removed, to be up and 

 doing as busily as ever. Trance might 

 do as a substitute for hibernation, 

 only it does not express tlie winter 

 idea, for trances are as common in 

 summer as in winter. I see nothing 

 for it but that the Professor will have 

 to get his throat capacity enlarged so 

 as to swallow this word of four sylla- 

 bles, without making any wry faces 

 over it. 



Guelph, Out. 



For tlie American Bee JournaL 



Managing Bees in tlie Spring, 



C. W. DAYTON. 



When I first began keeping bees I 

 did as some others do, viz : let the 

 bees go it in hives the full size. While 

 practicing this plan it was not very 

 unusual that colonies swarmed out in 

 the spring, especially when they were 

 a little weak or diseased. After 

 awhile I came to the c(mclusion that 

 the contraction of the brood-chamber 

 was at least a partial preventive. 

 With this conclusion I have found 

 nothing that appeared to be at vari- 

 ance, so I continue (as I have done for 

 the last two years) contracting the 

 brood-chambers as fast as the colo- 

 nies are brought from the cellar to the 

 number of combs that contain brood, 

 which is generally two, and never 

 more than three. In this way the 

 colonies are kept contracted until 



