THE AMERICA]^ BEE JUURWAL. 



231 



nothing more than the temperature in 

 which bees will remain quiet in the 

 event of a suddenly appearing lif^lit. 

 If the temperature is raised, the bees 

 will continue to be quiet the same as 

 before, until the light appears ; 41 or 

 44"^^ is a temperature suHiciently warm 

 for bees to be comfortable without 

 activity, and yet be cold enough to 

 hold them in the cluster in the pres- 

 ence of the light ; though a foul 

 atmosphere, moisture in the hives or 

 need of a cleansing flight, may some- 

 times have so strong au influence that 

 it is impossible to find a quieting tem- 

 perature. In a general sense. 41'-' or 

 44° is the turning point between the 

 quietness of bees and the activity to 

 which bees resort when exposed to 

 low temperature. It is the lowest 

 point at which bees may be quiet 

 (hibernate), but not the highest, by 

 any means. I do not douljt but that 

 Mr. Ira Barber's bees maintained 

 quiescence (mistaken hibernation), in 

 a temperature of 00-. but remember 

 that he did not show them the light. 

 To an ordinary philosopher it may be 

 seen that the hibernation theory, 

 based upon torpor alone, must fail. 



But this is not all. Without regard 

 to temperature, and notwithstanding 

 the greatest quiescence which live 

 bees are able to ent^r into, when I 

 hold my ear close to the tops of the 

 hives, without an exception, there is a 

 considerable buzzing, as of wings, to 

 be heard at any and all times, that can- 

 not be heard from the bottom of the 

 hives. Now where there is noise 

 there must be activity. It is absurd 

 to consider a man to be more than 

 quiet while be continues to be noisy. 

 (The idea has been entertained that 

 live bees may become more than what 

 is understood by the terms •• quiet " 

 and " quietude.") How this buzzing 

 sound is produced I am. as yet. unable 

 to tell, but I am confident that it will 

 not be met with very successful oppo- 

 sition. I call it tlie snoring of the 

 bees during their nap. and ask all 

 interested bee keepers to direct their 

 observations with the hope of ascer- 

 taining if this is not true. This last 

 may well illustrate the fineness of the 

 points on which the substantiation of 

 the hil)ernation theory turns. 



Bradford. (^lowa. 



For ttoe American Bee .linirnnl. 



"Feefling Sugar— ReyersMe Hives,' 



CnAS. DADANT. 



The article of Mr. Hutchinson, un- 

 der the above heading, on page lo2. 

 has greatly astonished me. especially 

 where he says : " Mr. Ileddon does 

 not claim to have originated the idea 

 of tiering uji hives, but of tiering up 

 brood-chambers. He does claim that, 

 whether prior as an inventor of this 

 process or not, he was the first to 

 make it public." And further : 

 " Everybody knows that whoever 

 used, or did not use a two-story brood- 

 chamber. Mr. Heddon was the first to 

 place the idea before the public." 



If Mr. Hutchinson will turn to the 

 Bee JorrmAL for isfil. page 149. and 



the same for 18(iH, page 71. he will see 

 that these horizcmtal sections, or 

 cases, were described in this country 

 2-') years ago. In his Feminine Mon- 

 urchi/. published in 1034, 2.52 years ago. 

 Butler shows hives in 4 sections piled 

 one above the other ; Bevan, in his 

 Honeji-Bee, in London, 1S38, says that 

 storifiiiny hives were described in 

 England by John Geddes in IGVS. I 

 have a book, published in Paris in 

 17.34. in which the author, after de- 

 scribing the horizontal, sectional hives, 

 adds that these hives are commonly 

 used in Poitou and Limousin, where 

 sometimes these sections are piled 5 

 feet high. I have another book by 

 J. Simon, printed in 1740, praising 

 also the ruches a hausses (Eke hives). 



I do not think that it woulAlje difli- 

 cult to find 100 bee-writers. Knglish, 

 French, Italian, German or Danish, 

 describing such hives. Nearly all 

 these bee-keepers of old used a wire 

 drawn between the sections, to cut 

 the combs, before separating the sec- 

 tions. 



Palteau, in 17-50, in his Nouvelles 

 constructions de niclies utiles (new build- 

 ing of useful hives), advises the use 

 of a perforated top for every section. 

 Later, in 1S21, Radouan, in his Man- 

 uel, advised the use of triangular 

 bars, under which bees could build 

 their combs. 



But the bee-writer, who came the 

 nearest to the Ileddon dividing hive, 

 was C. Soria. who, in 1S45. published 

 his Notice sur Id i-uche a espacements. 

 (iS^otice on the !<}Kice hive). In this 

 hive every story, about oj^ inches 

 high, had triangular bars at top and 

 bottom. These bars were fixed so as 

 to leave a small space between the 

 stories which could be separated, 

 reversed, etc.. without any cutting of 

 comb. VVbat do you think of the 

 newness of the. gnindest of all the grand 

 features of the Ileddon hive, Mr. 

 Hutchinson ? This hive did not give 

 as good results as was anticipated, 

 the dividing of the brood hindering 

 the laying of the queen. I tried these 

 .space hives 23 years ago. 



The reversing of hives (culhutage) 

 has been practiced in France, in the 

 province of the Gutinais for an im- 

 memorial time. Now it is every year 

 more and more abandoned on account 

 of the necessity of feeding back to 

 the bees, which are deprived of all 

 their stores. Not only this feeding 

 back decreases the profits, but. if 

 made sparingly, the net result is a 

 clear loss, iiesides. if made during 

 a deartli of honey, it incites robbing, 

 and it takes time, and time is money. 



FEKDINO SUGAR TO IJEES. 



Messrs. Hutchinson and Ileddon 

 will reply that sugar syrup is better 

 than honey for winter. Is Mr. Heddon 

 right in thinking that he was the 

 first to proclaim that " practical suc- 

 cess in wintering bees depends upon 

 proper food and temperature ?" Per- 

 haps this notion is as old as the one 

 of the divisible brood-chamber. I 

 have given my views on this subject, 

 in an article read at the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Convention held at Lexing- 

 I ton. Ky.. on Oct. 5. 1881, under the 

 ' heading. " Influence of Honey on 



VVintering." pjige 32.5 of the Ainmti- 

 CAN Bke Jouunal for IKSI. Mr. 

 Newman would oblige me. and help 

 the solving of the question of winter- 

 ing, by reproducing it. Five years 

 have elapsed since I wrote that arti- 

 cle, and I think that the varied win- 

 ters that we have experienced since 

 1881, have but proved the correctness 

 or rny views.* 



Had Messrs. Heddon and Hutchin- 

 son followed the rules which I gave 

 in the above-mentioned article, their 

 losses of last winter would not have 

 been half so heavy. It is not when 

 the winter stores are of first (juality. 

 as they were this year, that we need 

 to use sugar syrup ; but when the 

 honey is unwholesome for bees. It is 

 easy for the bee-keeper to foresee his 

 chances of wintering without taking 

 the unnecessary trouble of replacing, 

 every year, the provisions of his bees, 

 with sugar syrup ; for such replacing 

 costs time and money. 



IIamilton,*o Ills. 



[*We will republish the article re- 

 ferred to, as soon as space will per- 

 mit.— Ed.] 



For tue American B^ra JouroaL 



Olisemtions in Bee-Ciiltiire, 



H. O. KRUSCHKE. 



In reading the • Observations upon 

 Drones." by Rev. L. L. Langstroth, 

 on page 614 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1885, 1 was forcibly re- 

 minded of what I experienced in 1883. 

 It was my desire to increase my stock 

 of bees as much as possible, and I 

 wanted drones as early as I could get 

 them. On May 10 I inserted a frame 

 of all-drone comb into the hive of my 

 strongest colony. I fed the colony 

 liberally, and two days afterward 

 two-thirds of the frame was filled 

 with eggs, the weather having been 

 fine and warm. I congratulated my- 

 self upon my success. The weather 

 soon changed to cold and cloudy. The 

 eggs in the frame remained just as 

 laid, and not until May 26 could I find 

 any larvae, and then oiily a very few. 

 The eggs were still there, and batched 

 gradually as circumstances became 

 favorable, or not until the bees were 

 furnished food. Now, I think with 

 such facts before us, it is not proper 

 to say that eggs will hatch in so many 

 days after being laid, but rather in 

 so many days after they are changed 

 from eggs to larvie. or have been 

 furnished with food. 1 do not doubt 

 but what some eggs were there a 

 month before they underwent any 

 change. 



Another observation : On .luly 7, 

 1884. 1 found that my bees were with- 

 out stores, and I feared that they 

 would starve. A few of my choicest 

 colonies I fed. In most of the hives 

 not a cell full of honey could be 

 found.' The bees flew quite freely, 

 and from outward appearances they 

 were doing well. Under these cir- 

 cumstances I expected that breeding 

 would be light, if not suspended en- 

 tirely. But such was not the case ; 

 the brood continued to spread, and 



