THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



153 



brick candy fever, and made some 30 

 2-lb. bricks. One batcii, of some 4 

 bricks, I made witli the addition of 

 flour, as directed in Gleanings. Tliese 

 4, togetlier with some of the pure 

 sugar- bricks, were left over. 



Soon after liousing tliese colonies, I 

 introduced to 3 of them 2 pure sugar- 

 bricks each. To the fourtli one, 1 pure 

 brick, and one mixed with tlour, "to 

 stimulate breeding." We gave it to 

 them to see if bees could eat it safely 

 in confinement. About 6 weeks after- 

 ward I took a peep. In each of the 4 

 ihives the bricks were as much as J4 

 to 1-3 gone. 



In hive No. 4, containing the flour- 

 brick, the bees were all dead, and the 

 bricks, frames, and bees fearfully 

 daubed with dysentery. So far as I 

 can see this is the only colony among 

 my 220 that shows any sign whatever 

 of the disease. I have not taken out 

 these 40 colonies, as I might have 

 done, and given them a flight, for I 

 want to keep them subjected to the 

 same degree of cold and confinement 

 that last winter's weather would have 

 done, in order to put to the test some 

 experiments I am. making, even to 

 the risk of possibly losing some of 

 them. 



I have just read Mr. Clarke's attack 

 on Professor Cook, with much interest 

 and instruction. I have re-read it, 

 and re-re-read it, and to save my life, I 

 can't see any argument in it. The in- 

 struction I gain is this, as near as I 

 can draw correct inferences : First, 

 he "trembles" a Uttle more before 

 Cook, than Ileddon; second, that as 

 long as he cries " more proofs," he 

 does not know that he is beaten ; third, 

 that he recognizes no answer to his 

 wordy sarcasms, in what I have said 

 in my rejily to his attack on the 

 "Pollen Theory." He hands out 

 ■proof to the Professor, in the line of 

 an assertion on the part of L. C. Root, 

 that certain undefined observations of 

 his and others, proves that bees dis- 

 charge dry pellets of excreta during 

 winter, but when I told him that I had 

 ■carefully examined several hundred 

 dysentery-killed colonies, and saw 

 CTidence that pollen-eating caused 

 the disease, that did not go down as 

 any evidence. I wonder if the above 

 expermient will convince Mr. Clarke 

 any ? 



At last he brings forward Dr. Don- 

 hoff's analysis of bees' excreta, which 

 goes far toprove that pollen-eating is 

 at the bottom of the mischief, and 

 then exultingly asks, " How does the 

 no-pollen theory square with it ? " 

 It squareswith itjustlike this : When 

 so scientific and extensive an observer 

 as Professor Cook has never seen the 

 dry pellets, it argues that if there is 

 such a thing, it is very rarely met 

 ■with, and that Dr. Donhoff's subject 

 for analysis was dysentery excreta, 

 and his liuding the " undigested 

 pollen " in it is just what I should 

 have expected. 



VVe vs. I. — Some In writing use 

 the "we"' and "our," while others 

 use " I " and " my." As I am among 

 the former, I will give my reasons 

 ■when 1 speak of "our bees," why I do 

 not say " my bees." These bees have 

 ibeen earned by a good woman and 



myself in a real partnership, if not a 

 legal one. They really belong to my 

 wife and myself together, and the 

 children are "really interested in them 

 also. When I speak of "our " pack- 

 ing for winter, I mean my help and 

 myself. "Our" opinion about the 

 best cellar for bees, is the opinion of 

 all of us. I hardly think the more 

 egotistic " I " and " my " sounds any 

 better. 

 Dowagiac,Mich. 



Translated from Bienenzeltung, by A. R. Kobnke. 



Temperature Required in Winter. 



DR. DZIEKZON. 



As in nature in general, so in a bee- 

 hive prevails absolute rest at present. 

 Half asleep they await patiently the 

 time when the morning rays of the 

 sun of approaching spring shall call 

 them again to renew their work. But 

 alas ! not every colony will then re- 

 spond to the roll-call. Many of them 

 have gone to sleep to awake no more. 

 Success depends mainly upon the bee- 

 keeper, whether or not he has done 

 his duty with understanding and care 

 to insure wintering without loss. 



Although bee-keepers are agreed as 

 to the most necessary requisites to ob- 

 tain the desired object, there is still a 

 great diversity of opinion as to the 

 temperature bees require during their 

 winter's rest. One claims, for in- 

 stance, that a bee-hive should be made 

 in such a manner that the tempera- 

 ture of the interior is never at or be- 

 low the freezing point, whilst another 

 says he is surprised to find that, 

 though bees are chilled at 9^' above 

 freezing outside the hive, they are 

 able to stand a much lower tempera- 

 ture when in the hive. Both are per- 

 haps of the erroneous opinion that the 

 whole interior of a hive is warmed by 

 bees, as a room by a stove. 



When the bees cover all the combs, 

 instead of clustering, the temperature 

 in a hive may perhaps be the same in 

 all its parts ; but when bees, on ac- 

 count of a low temperature, have 

 clustered in as small a space as possi- 

 ble, they will warm the hive no more 

 than a well covered person lying in 

 bed will warm a room, because in both 

 cases the heat of the warm body is 

 confined toavery limited space. After 

 a protracted cold spell of not more 

 than tP below freezing, I always found, 

 even in the best protected hives, the 

 combs and walls of the same covered 

 with hoary frost, when even those bees 

 on tlie outside of the cluster would 

 enjoy a temperature 10^ above freez- 

 ing ; otherwise they would certainly 

 have been chilled and died. 



To save honey and prevent exhaus- 

 tion, bees maintain no liigher tempera- 

 ture than is absolutely necessary to 

 their existence, but are just as well 

 off if nature or man provides a much 

 higher, as is proven by theii- well-be- 

 ing and doing in Brazil, where they 

 enjoy a temperature of .'W'^ above 

 freezing during the time of rest. When 

 we have done our day's work and re- 

 tired to enjoy our night's rest, we do 

 so no matter whether the temperature 

 is 20- above or below the freezing 



point; bees the same, their rest being 

 entirely independent of degrees of 

 temperature, but dependent on the 

 rest of nature and vegetation. Aiid 

 it makes no difference whether an ex- 

 traordinary degree of heat or cold 

 causes vegetation to stop growing. 



It is, therefore, a mistaken notion 

 to suppose bees must lie exposed to a 

 certain degree of cold to winter well. 

 Instinct (which may be called a habit 

 inherited) it is which teaches the bees 

 to abstain from useless flights, be- 

 cause there are no flowers, thus com- 

 pelling them to absolute rest. During 

 the season from 1833 to 1834 we had 

 no winter in the sense generally ac- 

 cepted ; on the coldest day, it being 

 the 6th of .January, 1834, we had but 

 60R. (180 Frthr. above zero) below 

 freezing. In that same month hazel- 

 nut bloomed ; in February goose- 

 berries ; and bees wintered excellent. 

 So also our last winter (1880 to 1881) 

 was not a very severe one and bees 

 wintered generally quite well. Has a 

 bee-keeper ever found cause to com- 

 plain of too mild a winter 'i* 



It is therefore beyond my compre- 

 hension and I find hardly words to ex- 

 press my surprise, to notice that as 

 sensible a man as Dr. Krasicki in his 

 paper the Bee-Keeper, published in 

 Poland, ascribes ourlosses during our 

 late severe winters to an excess of 

 high temperature. For after enumer- 

 ating the losses of which bee-keepers 

 complained in the different bee- 

 papers, he says: Such are the losses 

 of the German bee-keepers, who fol- 

 low the advice of their veteran bee- 

 master, who claims that bee-hives 

 can never be made to be too comfor- 

 table ; bees never generating more 

 heat than is necessary to their well- 

 being. But Dr. Krasicki says: " I 

 prefer 10- of cold to 1'^ of heat. The 

 bees with which Dr. K. has made his 

 observations must liave the nature of 

 a Polar bear, and the Polar region 

 must have been their native country, 

 if his observations and conclusions 

 are correct. Our German bee cannot 

 be classed with such ; these winter the 

 better the milder the temperature is 

 during that season, and the better the 

 more they are protected in a severe 

 one. 



Bees do not suffer in Syria, Africa, 

 and Brazil from heat, nor do they 

 here in hot summer and mild 

 autumns ; and they should be de- 

 stroyed by being too warm in severe 

 winter':" Wlio can comprehend such 

 inconsistencies V There are only two 

 cases imaginable : 1st, when the 

 whole atmosphere is heated to such a 

 degree that the comb begins to melt 

 and breaks down, which has been re- 

 ported to be sometimes the case in 

 regions about the Red Sea; 2d, when 

 the entrance of a strong colony is 

 closed withouthaving any other venti- 

 lation or opening. In such a case, 

 the temperature in the hive becomes 

 very liigh in a very short time, so as to 

 break down the comb. Many a bee- 

 keeper, furnishing strong colonies for 

 exhibition at conventions, has found 

 that to be a fact, as also the one who 

 closed the entrance to cause two 

 swarms, which were about to issue at 

 the same time, to fly together, the 



