THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



293 



Explanatory.— The figures before the 

 names indicate the number of years that the 

 person has kept bees. Those after, show 

 the number of colonies the writer had in the 

 previous spring- and fall, or fall and spring, 

 as the time of the year may require. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near the centre of the State named: 

 5 north of the centre ; 9 south ; 0+ east ; 

 ♦Owest; and this 6 northeast; ^northwest; 

 o^ southeast; and P southwest of the centre 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Hnm,' Sweet Hum. 



EUGENE SECOR. 



Thci'soft strains of music from palace may come, 

 Be it ever so charming, there's no sound like 



"hum." 

 The bees are so busy this briglit, sunny day, 

 There's joy in the air— bo happy are they. 



Hum, luim -sweet, sweet hum, 

 In .ill the bright spring-time, there's no sound like 



" hum." 



When prisoned at home during Winter's long 



reign, 

 How joyous to bask in the sunshine again ! 

 The birds singing gaily, the frog's cheery call- 

 Give me them— and the "bee-note," sweeter than 

 all. 



Hum. hum— sweet, sweet hum. 

 The "bee-man" can never dispense with their hum. 



To me there is nothing so sweet to the ear, 

 As the music that comes from the apiarv near. 

 No allurements abroad can entice me away 

 From the spot where the bees, tho' at work, seem 

 to say, 

 ■' Hum, hum— sweet, sweet hum. 

 No tabor is irksome to us when we hum." 



Toil on, little workers— evangels are ye 

 Of the sweets in this world to be garnered by me — 

 The sweets that from cheerful aotivitv cume ; 

 Then cease nul tn laliur, continue to Inmi. 



Hum. hum— swiM't, sweet hum. 

 There's no cartldy music like Tndnstry's lium. 

 Forest City, Iowa. 



For the American Boe Journal. 



Large Honey-YieMs, f intering, etc, 



W3I. F. CLARKE. 



I have been stronajly importuned to 

 write out in full tlie remnrlcs I made 

 on that red-letter day of the Detroit 

 Convention, which will be always 

 memorable to bee-keepers as the one 

 on which the winter problem was for- 

 ever solved, and the main difficulty 

 in the way of successful bee-keeping 

 removed. It is not easy to satisfy 

 this request, because what was said 

 was almost wholly spoken on the spur 

 of the moment, and under the in- 

 fluence of exciting circumstances that 

 cannot now be recalled. The Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal gave a very cor- 

 rect report of my remarks as follows : 



" Rev. W. F. Clarke said there were 

 three matters of great importance to 

 hini which had transpired to-day. 

 First, Mr. Hall had explained his 

 method of bee-keeping, and he was 

 much obliged to him for it. Second, 

 JSIr. Barber and Mr. Hall had sup- 

 plied confirmation of the hibernation 



theory. A year ago he did not un- 

 derstand Mr. Barber's method. Mr. 

 B. said at the Rochester Convention 

 that he (Mr. C's) method was a cold 

 system of wintering, and his (Mr. B's) 

 a warm one. This was a mistake. 

 Our systems are alike, only Mr. Bar- 

 ber secured the right temperature in 

 the whole cellar, and I secured it in 

 the single hive. But Mr. Barber's 

 bees qniesce in the fall ; if the hive is 

 too full of bees, a cluster will hang 

 outside; they remain in torpor until 

 the breeding instinct awakes, and 

 then they arouse to activity. Third, 

 the pollen theory has got its quietus 

 from Prof. Cook. He has told us in 

 scientific terms the nature of bee- 

 food, and the process of assimilation. 

 He has maintained that bees cannot 

 breed without pollen, and that they 

 cannot stand work without taking 

 nitrogenous food. If they take that 

 food it must be digested, and the 

 feces excreted. Well, Mr. Barber and 

 Mr. Hall have proved that bees breed 

 largely, i. e., work hard, and therefore 

 must eat and digest strong food. The 

 inferences are plain. The bees, if 

 they excrete, do it in dry feces. They 

 must excrete, thatis clear. Therefore, 

 there is no danger in having pollen in 

 the hive. On the contrary, it is 

 necessary." 



Taking the above as a text, I will 

 endeavor to explain and amplify upon 

 it for the information of those who 

 were not present. First, as to Mr. 

 Hall's method of bee-keeping : I had 

 long known that Mr. H. had been in 

 the habit of obtaining prodigious 

 yields of comb honey, one season 

 averaging as high as 250 pounds per 

 colony. Naturally, I had been trying 

 to find out how this was accomplished. 

 I will not say that Mr. Hall had wil- 

 fully tried to conceal his art, but con- 

 fess that I had been stupid enough 

 not to discover where the secret of 

 his success lay. The apparently sim- 

 ple questions of JSIr. Muth made the 

 mystery clear. They were as follows : 



" C. F. Muth asked if he understood 

 Mr. Hall correctly yesterday, that his 

 honey harvest closed about July 20, 

 and that last year he did not put his 

 bees out until May 2. If so, how did 



he obtain a sufficient force of bees to„iiad, they had fallen asleep with the 



get in the honey during so short a 

 harvest V 



"Mr. Hall replied that the secret lay 

 in the bees being kept so warm that 

 they bred early. He expected his 

 hives to have several combs with 

 brood in them by the time he put 

 them out in the spring. By May 20, 

 there would be not only brood in 6 or 

 7 combs, but that number full of 

 brood. He could not winter without 

 pollen, because if he did, he would 

 not have his bees bred early enough 

 in the spring to gather in the honey. 

 It they started without brood they 

 would not build up to strong colonies 

 until near winter." 



It was no new thing to be told that 

 we must have a numerous force of 

 workers in readiness to gather the 

 honey harvest. We have known that 

 from time immemorial. How to do 

 it, was the question ; how to multiply 

 bees in time for the brief season of 



ingathering. If they did not breed 

 until they came out of winter quar- 

 ters, there would not be time to rear 

 the force of workers needed. Mr. 

 Barber and Mr. Hall winter their 

 bees in such a way that they begin to 

 breed long before spring opens. They 

 house them in a temperature which 

 enables them to hil)ernate in early 

 winter, and then when the breeding 

 instinct rouses up, to generate warmth 

 sufficient to hatch out young brood. 



Messrs. Barber and Hall treat a 

 cellar as if it were one vast hive, and 

 regulate the temperature so that the 

 bees can control it at will. It is kept 

 at a point which favors hibernation 

 so long as the bees remain inactive, 

 but becomes warm enough for brood- 

 hatching whenever the bees begin to 

 bestir themselves, as they do about 

 mid-winter. The same phenomenon 

 happens in a hive so packed out-of- 

 doors that the temperature inside can 

 be regulated by the bees. They sink 

 into the hibernating condition on the 

 approach of Winter, and they arouse 

 to the work of brood-rearing on the 

 approach of spring. It is all a qiies- 

 tion of temperature. 



The third point is in reality antici- 

 pated. Bees cannot breed without 

 pollen. If there be none in the hive, 

 they must await the advent of spring 

 to start brood-rearing. That is too 

 late to provide the requisite working 

 force to gather in the honey harvest. 

 So the presence of pollen in a hive, 

 instead of being a source of danger 

 is absolutely necessary to the welfare 

 of a colony. In proving the indis- 

 pensableness of pollen on the resump- 

 tion of activities in a hive, Prof. Cook 

 extinguished the theory which makes 

 the absence of pollen a condition of 

 successful wintering. 



The light on these three points 

 shone so clearly and blended so 

 harmoniously that, to me, it was like 

 a new revelation. I seemed to see all 

 at a glance. It was like sunrise when 

 you are standing on the mountain- 

 top. The standpoint is such that 

 every object is illuminated at once. 

 Every one did not share my feeling 

 of ecstasy, because all had not climbed 

 by the same dark, rugged road as I 

 had to the mountain-top, or if they 



toil of the ascent, while I was wide- 

 awake, and eager for the expected 

 vision. So I beheld the sun-burst, 

 tliey did not; I was enthused, and 

 they were not. 



I see that Mr. Demaree, since the 

 convention, resolves the large yields 

 of honey gotten by Mr. Hall, into 

 "locality." This, I think, is a mis- 

 take. I do not doubt that Mr. Hall 

 could go to Christiansburg, Ky., and 

 get a much larger honey crop than 

 he does at Woodstock, Ont., for the 

 very reason that he would obtain it 

 from a slow, steady yield of nectar, 

 instead of having to prepare his bees 

 for a single brief " dash " at the honey 

 flow. If we can get our hives brimful 

 and running over with bees by the 

 time the first bloom comes in the 

 spring, we shall secure large yields of 

 honey in any average locality, be the 

 season a brief or a protracted one, 



Guelph, Ont. 



