518 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



The Hibernation of Bees. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



Letters are pouring in upon me, 

 criticising and asking questions about 

 my recenily anuoiinced discovery, to 

 an extent quite beyond tlie possibility 

 of answernig tbeni all by private 

 correspondence; and as the subject 

 is one of general interest, tbere is no 

 better way of discussing it than in 

 the bee-publications. 



Apiculture is to me, and to many 

 otiier " dabblers," as Mr. Heddon 

 styles us, a most fascinating pursuit ; 

 but our life-work lies outside of it. 

 and we can only give to it the time 

 economized from other and more 

 pressing duties. Let no correspond- 

 ent, then, feel sliglited if a private 

 letter is unanswered. I will endeavor 

 to meet all the really important points 

 raised by tliese communications, thus 

 far, in the present article. 



MT " BASIC PKESfCIPLE. 



?) 



A much-esteemed friend, who was 

 the first to write me on the subject, 

 threw a cold, wet blanket over my 

 enthusiasm by saying, "Your basic 

 principle, that bees succeed better in 

 trees than elsewhere, is all wrong." 

 But let me say that is not my " basic 

 principle." Tlie fact that I liad never 

 met with, heard, or read of a colony 

 of bees being winter-killed in a hol- 

 low-tree, was what set me to thinking. 

 Very likely I put the thing too 

 strongly, but I put it as it appeared 

 to my own mind. It may be that 

 bees are sometimes winter-killed in 

 their tree-trunk homes, but it is quite 

 certain that thty usually do well in 

 such places. The question why this is 

 so, was what led to a course of flunk- 

 ing and investigation which resulted 

 in the conviction that bees, in a 

 normal condition, hibernate. That is 

 my "basic principle." 



" WHAT IS HIBERNATION ?" 



I have been surprised at receiving 

 this question from quarters whence I 

 hardly expected it. And yet there is 

 no great cause for surprise" when it is 

 considered how little has been said 

 about it in our bee-literature. I do 

 not own a complete set of the Bee 

 JouuNAL, (I wish I did!) but I have 

 searched in vain through all the back 

 volumes in my possession for any- 

 thing on the subject. If you will re- 

 fer to your file, Friend Newman, I 

 should "not wonder if you make the 

 discovery that this is the first article 

 headed " Hibernation," which has ap- 

 peared in all the XX volumes of its 

 history. 



All sorts of apicultural theories 

 have been discussed— some of them 

 fanciful enough— but this important 

 matter has been singularly overlooked. 

 The same is true of the bee-books. 

 Even Prof. Cook, eminent entomolo- 



gist as he is, omits all reference to it 

 in his valuable "Manual of the 

 Apiary." Yet. though ignored by 

 the bee-books, I find in as old a work 

 on " Entomology " as that of Kirby 

 and Spence, a" long chapter on the 

 "Hibernation of Insects;" several 

 pages of which are taken up witli a 

 special discussion on the hibernation 

 of bees. 



" Hibernation," says the Encyclo- 

 poedia Brittanica (last edition), "is 

 the term employed by natur;ilists to 

 denote the peculiar state of torpor in 

 which many animals, which inhabit 

 cold or temperate climates, pass the 

 winter." The article proceeds to 

 show that not animals merely, but 

 insects, pass the winter in this " pecu- 

 liar state of torpor." Hibernation 

 takes place in different degrees ; the 

 American black bear and the hedsre- 

 hog being the most perfect samples 

 of it. These creatures are torpid all 

 winter long, taking no food through 

 the entire season. Other animals, 

 and some insects, bees among the 

 rest, sink into a state of torpor or 

 semi-torpor for a briefer or longer 

 period, rousing up now-and-then, and 

 taking " a good, square meal." 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF HIBERNATION. 



I cannot state this better than in 

 the words of Kirby and Si>ence : "If 

 insects can boast of a greater variety 

 of food than many other tribes of 

 animals, this advantage seems, at first 

 sight, more than counterbalanced in 

 our climates by the temporary nature 

 of their supply. The graminivorous 

 quadrupeds, with few exceptions, 

 however scanty their bill of fare, and 

 their carnivorous brethren, as well as 

 the wiiole race of birds and fishes, can 

 at all seasons satisfy, in gitater or 

 less abundance, their demand for 

 food. But to the great majority of 

 insects, the earth, for nearly one-half 

 of the year, is a barren desert, afford- 

 ing no appropriate nutriment. * * 

 How is this dilficulty provided for? 

 In what mode has the Universal 

 Parent secured an uninterrupted suc- 

 cession of generations in a class of 

 animals, for the most part doomed to 

 a six months' deprivation of the food 

 which they ordinarily devour with so 

 much voracity V By a beautiful series 

 of provisions founded on the faculty, 

 common also to some of the larger 

 animals, of passing the winter in a 

 state of torpor— by ordaining that the 

 insect shall live through that period, 

 either in an incomplete state of its 

 existence, wlien its organs of nutri- 

 tion are undeveloped, or, if the active 

 epoch of its life has commenced, that 

 it shall seek out appropriate hybenm- 

 cida, or winter quarters, and in them 

 fall into a profound sleep, during 

 which a supply of food is equally un- 

 necessary." Let me lay it down as a 

 general "proposition, that all we have 

 to do for our colonies of bees, is to 

 provide them with" appropriate hyber- 

 nacida." 



If it be said that this is what we have 

 been trying to do all these years in our 

 plans for wintering bees, I answer, 

 " No ;" we have not provided " hyber- 

 nacula,'''' places in which bees could 

 follow their natural instincts and 



hibernate. Most of our winter ar- 

 rangements have been such that they 

 either could not go into their normal 

 (^ndition of torpor, or having gone 

 into it, could n<it get out of it suffi- 

 ciently to appease the claims of 

 hunger. 



\\Mien kept too warm, bees cannot 

 gooff into tlieir natural state of tor- 

 por. They become restless, get 

 hungry, eat freely, and must void 

 their excrement; if confined to the 

 hive, tliey befoul it, and then comes 

 diarrhoea, with death in its train. 

 The npposite extreme of temperature 

 has a like effect. They are too cold. 

 Hunger awakes them. Their food is 

 as cold as they are. What is the 

 usual effect of cold victuals on a cold 

 eater 'i We all know. 



Occasionally and by accident, we 

 hit the hibernating condition. Then 

 our bees consume but little food, and 

 divide their time biHween eating and 

 sleeping. They w;ike from their tor- 

 por to eat what nature requires, and, 

 ill tliat quiet state, but little _ is 

 needed. Digestion, we may well be- 

 lieve, is a verv slow process in a tor- 

 pid bee, and when completed, the re- 

 sult is a dry, powdery excrement, long 

 ago known by bee-keepers to be one 

 of the signs of healthy and success- 

 ful wintering. 



One of iiiv correspondents writes: 

 "Friend Clarke, I want you to re- 

 member that diarrhoea is the cause of 

 winter trouble ; that is well-known, 

 the point to get at is the cause of 

 di-iirhrea." Well, here it is : ?ion- 

 kibernaUon. If bees are fixed so they 

 can liibernate, they would not have 

 the diarrlioea. If they cannot hiber- 

 nate, from whatever cause, they will 

 have the diarrhoea. Why, hiberna- 

 tion is nature's c<intrivance to enable 

 tliem to stay in-doors and not get dis- 

 eased. Man savs : " Yes, you shall 

 stay indoors all right, my dear little 

 pets; but you shall h-dve one uniform 

 temptriiture.'^ That renders hiberna- 

 tion dithcult, if not impossible ; be- 

 cause it is, no doubt, the mild spells 

 thawing them out as it were, that 

 rouse them trom torpor, and give 

 them a chance to eat. If, like the 

 bear and liedgehog they took one long 

 sleep that lasted all winter, then we 

 would have only to find out the tem- 

 perature at which they could take 

 that single sleep most comfortably; 

 but we have a harder problem to 

 solve. We want to expose them suf- 

 ficiently to the temperature of the 

 outside world, so that they will be 

 affected by its changes, and yet not 

 freeze to death during a period of ex- 

 treme cold. This is the point on 

 which I desire liee keepers to experi- 

 ment. The principle is clear enough. 

 Bees must hibernal e, if they are to 

 winter natunilly. We must find out 

 how much exposure to the outer air 

 they need in order to follow ttie 

 hibernating instinct, and yet not be 

 in danger of fieezing to death. They 

 must feel the cold sufficiently to get 

 ! into a sleep out of which there is no 

 waking. 



SELF-REGULATING PROVISIONS. 



Every wliere we see arrangements to 

 guard against contingencies ; but 



