THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



313 



methods and practice all that tlieir 

 judgment commends. Wisdom dic- 

 tates to those lacking in experience, 

 the adoption of metliods, devices and 

 practice whicli have been tried and 

 approved, as the only safe coarse. 

 Experiments with new devices or in 

 new methods should form no part in 

 the curriculum of those just matric- 

 ulated. 



This prescription written by the 

 Doctor, for bee-keepers, he assures 

 us he lias tested in his " own experi- 

 ence," and surely he must be a good 

 doctor who takes his own medicine. 



U. S. Apicultural Sta., Aurora, Ills. 



For tlie American Bee JournaL 



Quietiiiie, Semi-Hilieriiation, etc, 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



I read somewhere lately about a 

 certain family, old-fashioned enough 

 to have a lot of children in it. The 

 children were making a great noise, 

 when a big brother said : " Let there 

 be pertic silunks !" which was obeyed 

 instanter! Our Editor has shut down 

 " all of a suddint " on " hibernation " 

 and " reversible hives." An excep- 

 tion is made in regard to explanations 

 called for by previous articles pub- 

 lished. 



I have nothing written on either of 

 these topics, but under the exception 

 allowed, there is only one thing I wish 

 to say about hibernation. I have 

 said it before, but no attention seems 

 to be paid to it by several writers on 

 the subject. It is that hibernation 

 is not one certain, fixed, unalterable 

 state, but admits of and exists in 

 various degrees. For the truth of 

 this statement I have cited the great- 

 est entomologist of the age. Prof. 

 Kirby, and once more calling atten- 

 tion to it, I am conteut to let the 

 subject hibernate. 



But I ask as a special favor the 

 publication of the following letter. 

 which is altogether too good to be 

 condemned to hibernation in one of 

 my pigeon-holes : 



Mr. yi. F. Clarke :— On page 2.32 of the 

 American Bee Journal. Mr. W. Z. Hutch- 

 inson appeal's to think that it' bees hiber- 

 nate at all, it must be in a state identical 

 with that of ants, etc. 



We know that some insects may freeze 

 solid and yet live, but if a bear, or Mr. 

 Malone's g-'roiind-sfiuirrel, should once 

 freeze, I do not believe they would ever 

 move again. If bees do really hibernate I 

 think it must be another one of the many 

 dilfoj^ent binds of hiljernation. If bees are 

 only quiet during the long periods, then they 

 are the greatest exceptions known — entirely 

 too great. If bees are only quiet, I tuink 

 that either of the terms, quiet, quiescence, 

 or quietude, is no name for it. It is neither 

 usual quietness no ordinary hibernation. 



Mr. Taylor's cattle and poultry under the 

 barn were quiet ; almost any thing may be 

 quiet for a short time, i. e,, practice qui- 

 escence, and it may properly be called 

 quietude ; but it is very ditferent from the 

 (luiet condition entered into by the bees. 

 This is a separate condition, and should not 

 be loaded upon its neighbors. I believe that 

 . the quietude of the cattle was as far from 

 the quietude of the bees as was the quietude 

 of the bees from torpor. 



It would be better to coin a new word 

 than spoil a good, useful, and respectable 

 word in making a " catqh-all." We have the 

 condition ; we are sure of that ; but we 



ought not to call it what it cannot be proven 

 to tie. I would be satisfied to call It simply 

 hibernation— not so profound as to embrace 

 torpor. ^ 



Mr. Heddon, then, may say— Use my 

 se,mi-hihi:r nation ; butwecannot do this very 

 well as there are so many varying degrees 

 between the conditions of the frozen ant 

 and of the raccoon (or perhaps the bees) that 

 a correct classiflcation might need to be 

 carried out to sixteenths or thirty-seconds, 

 instead of halves and quarters ; there would 

 need to be a fixed zero point, and undoubt- 

 edly the condition of bees would best 

 represent it. 



On the whole, the hibernation theory, 

 though it be ever so true, is too new, too 

 shocking ; it may work better when a little 

 older; ordinaries could not swallow it at 

 this time if it were ever so palatable. 'Its 

 agin natur." " It takes years to accomplish 

 a great object." So much of truth as your 

 theory contains must come uppermost.— C. 

 W. Davton, Bradford, Iowa. 



Many thanks, Mr. Dayton, for the 

 foregoing communication. The hiber- 

 nation theory has made wonderful 

 progress considering the shortness of 

 the time it has been in existence, the 

 bungling manner in which it was 

 broached, and the opposition it has 

 met in certain influential quarters. I 

 calmly leave it to the test of time :— 



" Time, that doth nil things else impair. 

 But makes truth flourish, fresh and tair. 



Guelph, Ont. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



All Early Swariii, WinteriiiE, etc. 



C. W. DAYTON. 



In consequence of a powerful col- 

 ony of bees in the fall, and sur- 

 rounded by 18 inches of forest leaves 

 on the summer stand, I am enabled 

 to report the tirst natural swarm as 

 issuing on May 8— one month and 8 

 days earlier than in any other year. 

 I think it must be the earliest swarm 

 north of the 43rd parallel. I did not 

 examine my bees this spring as often 

 as usual, and I was not aware that 

 there was such a colony in the yard. 

 Its hive contained (i combs of brood, 

 and as that was all there was room 

 for in the hive, they had found it too 

 small, and artificial feeding in the 

 open air, followed by a day or two of 

 gathering from fruit-blossoms, led 

 them to seek a new home. 



It is usually the case that a colony 

 must fill 10 or 12 combs with brood, or 

 spare brviod to help other colonies 

 along, before their hive becomes too 

 small to contain them. This colony 

 wintered on a westerly slope in the 

 most exposed part of ttie bee-yard, 

 whicli is in no way protected from 

 the cold winds of winter. I have 

 wintered several colonies in the same 

 position, and with the same prepara- 

 tion for several winters ; m fact there 

 has not been a colony lost in winter- 

 ing on the summer stands, and that 

 method of wintering I have practiced 

 (0 a considerable extent. It may have 

 been because they were prepared for 

 safety, instead of experiment. 



Here I might say to those who 

 favor large hives:. Provided (that 

 word needs emphasis as it is likely to 

 be lost sight of) the honey harvest 

 lasted just 37 days from the time that 

 colony had its hive filled with brood, 

 I would there have been an advantage 



in the honey gathered, to have spread 

 the brood and inserted empty combs 

 to be filled with brood V On page 00 

 Mr. Dadant says that I seem to be of 

 the opinion that breeding should be 

 decreased 37 days before the end of 

 the honey harvest. This cannot be 

 exactly my opinion, as I would not 

 destroy brood or practice hive con- 

 traction ; but that the brood-rearing 

 space should not be increased later 

 than 37 days before the end of the 

 harvest, in my opinion, provided the 

 harvest lasted not more than that 

 length of time. 



In the article to which Mr. Dadant 

 referred, I did not occupy space to 

 say that honey harvests may vary 

 from 1.5 to 42 days, and that I work 

 on the outside of the average of 37 

 days. In a former article it was 

 stated that it sometimes takes until 

 the honey harvest is half over to get 

 the colonies built up to their greatest 

 capacity ; this would be 18 days added 

 to 37, equaling 55 days, the length of 

 honey harvest required that the last 

 laid eggs might produce useful bees. 

 Again, on page 105, Mr. Green has 

 it as discouraging brood-rearing 15 or 

 20 days before the harvest. It seems 

 that the word " provided " was insuffi- 

 cient to show that the time was given 

 as an illustration ; and to the ordinary 

 reader who has not made the contents 

 of the Bee Jouknal a study, it would 

 be made to appear that I had given 

 candid advice to the effect. To help 

 me out of the dilemma, Mr. Dadant 

 and Mr. Green warn the readers 

 against accepting my illustrations as 

 actual facts applicable to uncertain- 

 ties. While their warnings may have 

 been given in good faith, I hardly be- 

 lieve that it was much the best for 

 the reader after all. There are 

 amongst the readers of the Bee 

 Journal two kinds of readers— the 

 experienced and the inexperienced; 

 and it is the beginners who follow 

 the teachings of the others. Now it 

 has always been my belief that any 

 reader who would accept an illustra- 

 tion for a fact, ought not to be cor- 

 rected, but be allowed to follow it 

 that he may stumble and get the right 

 kind of experience while he is yet 

 young in the business ; for being 

 guided and prompted along without 

 exertion of his own, he is sure to meet 

 obstacles, and great failures when he 

 is older and has more to lose. Bee- 

 keeping cannot be learned without 

 self -experience, and if it were not for 

 the failures,our knowledge of it would 

 be vastly more limited. 



My favorite plan for wintering bees 

 on the summer stands, is to fill a hive 

 holding 5 or 6 combs solidly with 

 capped honey, and then raise it 6 

 inches from the bottom-board to 

 afford a clustering space, and sur- 

 round the whole outfit with a foot or 

 more of tightly-packed forest leaves. 

 Thus arranged the bees of the colony 

 on the approach of winter begin a 

 march for the top of the hive, taking 

 the honev as they go. 



Another excellent plan is to con- 

 tract the brood-chamber as much as 

 possible, and then cover the hive with 

 as many leaves as can be afforded, 

 after which cover all with earth, the 



