THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



519 



m.an is alwiivs putting in his meddle- 

 soine. cltimsV hand lo intn fere witti 

 these arranji'enieiits. This is wliat we 

 have heen lioinj; with our cellars. Iiee- 

 liouses, clamps and straw-packed 

 liivcs. We liave insisted upon iiiii- 

 forni temperature, uflward ventila- 

 tion, escape of moisture, ami framed 

 a variety of iron rules, all uncon 

 scions that nature is ahead of us, 

 and lias made far better (irovision 

 for contingencies tlian we can possi- 

 bly do. 



We are content to let the bees at- 

 tend to their own ventilation during 

 the summer, but they are not to be 

 trusted in winter. Oli, no! Dame 

 Nature forgot all about winter ! Did 

 she, though y There are great varia- 

 tions of temperature during the sum- 

 mer: cool ami even frosty nights in 

 June, and chilly weather in July, 

 alternating with extreme heat. But 

 the bees regulate things so that a 

 cool term does notchillthe brood, and 

 when it is very hot they convert their 

 wings into fans and get up a circula- 

 tion of air at the entrance of the hive, 

 or a lot of them cluster outside to 

 give those within more breathing 

 space. 



A. I. Root, in his " A B C of Bee 

 Culture." page 27(i. says : "Day be- 

 fore yesterday, while I was walking 

 near a hive, a bit of chaft Hew out of 

 the entrance, as if impelled liy a draft 

 of wind. ' Halloo !' said I, ' have you 

 really become so strong as to send'out 

 a current of air for ventilation T and 

 I approaclied and held the back of 

 my hand before tlie entrance. Sure 

 enough, there was a steady, strong 

 blast, and what astonished "me more, 

 it was so warm that it seemed almost 

 as if it must come from an oven." 



Huber found that a strong colony of 

 bees could get up the temperature 

 inside the hive to 86° or 88^ Fahr., 

 when it was several degrees below 

 zero in the open air; and that "in 

 the depth of winter they do not cease 

 to ventilate the hive by the singular 

 process of agitating their wings as be 

 fore described." For wintering, tlie 

 cardinn! principle. " keep all colonies 

 strong," only needs to be supi>le- 

 mented by the axiom, "plenty of pure, 

 still air." Tlie bees will do tlie rest 

 for themselves. Mr. Root, in bis A 

 B C book, page 273. gives a diagram 

 of arrows representing the course of 

 the currents of air in a hive. 



The bees make these currents as 

 they lind them necessary : but wlien 

 they have a meagre supply of air. or 

 there is a drought right through the 

 hive, they are helpless. If the great 

 pyramid of Egypt were hoisted on 

 pillars 10 or 20 feet high, and a colony 

 of liees were established in a cavitv 

 at its base, they would fix the air all 

 right in the cavity by means of the 

 ventilating and heating apparatus 

 with which nature has furnished 

 them. Our uniform-temperature con- 

 trivances, and our moisture absorl)- 

 ents, are bungling interferences with 

 natural law. Give the bees a chance 

 to use their own faculties, and thev 

 will be all right. They will fan all 

 moisture out of the hive, and get up 

 the temperature that suits them. 



THE " SYMPTOMATOLOGY " OF IT. 



This is a big word, but it is acorrect 

 one, and is used liv a liighly-csteemed 

 correspixident, who says: "Please 

 detail to me the symptomatology and 

 exact condition tlie bees are in, how 

 long it may last, and how they act, 

 etc., when hibernating." Quietude, 

 torpor or semi-tor|ior, and total in- 

 activity constitute about all I know 

 of the" hibernating condition. How 

 many of the functions of life are sus- 

 pended, I will not pretend to say. 



One writer afiirins: "The insect 

 breathes no loimer, and has no need 

 of a supply of air : its nutritive secre- 

 tions cease ; no more food is required ; 

 and it has all the external symptoms 

 of death." This may be too strong a 

 statement ; but inasmuch as bees 

 form a very compact cluster when 

 they hibernate, there cannot be much 

 respiration even in the centre of the 

 cluster. I cannot say how long the 

 hibernating state lasts in the case of 

 the bees. I only know that it is 

 broken at intervals, when food is 

 taken. 



As to " how they act," it would 

 seem that thev do not "act" at all. 

 It is the only s"tale of complete repose 

 experienced by this insect, and hence, 

 though when active, it is sliort-lived, 

 this provision of nature lengthens out 

 " the brittle thread," and enables old 

 bees to survive until spring. 



Ori.TECTiONs. — " Since other hiber- 

 nating creatures pass the winter un- 

 der-ground, why are not cellars, and 

 clamps good places for bees V Chiefly 

 because they are impervious to 

 changes of temjierature. Bees must 

 feed occasionally in the course of the 

 winter, and mild weather gives tliem 

 the opportunity of doing so. More- 

 over, animals that hibernate in the 

 ground, have their home there all the 

 year round, but bees are denizens of 

 the upper air. 



" Your plan for hives and stands is 

 not practical for general honey-pro- 

 ducing." Why not V It is less costly 

 than bee-houses, and saves all the 

 trouble of carryins hives in and out 

 of winter receptacles ; but I have no 

 doubt a simpler and cheaper plmi than 

 mine will be devised. I lay no stress 

 on the plan. It is the principle I con- 

 tend for. I simply say : " Give bees 

 a chance to hibernate, and they will 

 winter well." To do this, I flrnily be- 

 lieve that we must get them up off of 

 the ground. Possibly removing the 

 bottom board, and raising them an 

 inch or so above the table-high stand 

 will answer every purpose, though I 

 doubt that will be " too much of a 

 good thing." Perhaps an inch open- 

 ing covered with line wire cloth will 

 be found to temper the air sufficiently 

 to render this method successful. 



I can think of several devices, be- 

 sides the particular one I have de- 

 scribed in the Bee Journal, and in- 

 tend to experiment with them. The 

 whole thing lies in a nut-shell. In 

 cold climates, it is the miture of bees 

 to hibernate. We must conform our 

 winter arrangements to this fixed 

 habit of theirs, or pay the penalty as 

 we have been doing. 



Speedside, Ont. 



For tbe American Bco Journal. 



Shall we Breed Hybrid Bees? 



J. O. SHEARMAN. 



On page 40!), Mr. Ileddon asks a 

 question which I fully expected would 

 certainly attract the attention of the 

 lovers of pure Italians; but as I have 

 failed to see anything concerning it 

 in the Bee Journal, I will answer 

 the question as if addressed to me. 

 Shall we breed hybrids V Yes ; in a 

 certain way and for certain luu-poses. 

 But call them hybrids, and not " new 

 strains," as some are apt to be of tbe 

 very best for business imrposes, while 

 others may not. To explain : I would 

 say. breed a choice strain of Italians 

 with a choice strainof black or brown 

 bees, then you are very likely to have 

 hybrids that cannot be beaten for 

 business, and not very cross either ; 

 but to breed hybrids together, will 

 produce naturally cross bees, however 

 they may be banded. 



I call them different degrees of 

 hybrids ; i. e., Italians and blacks 

 bred together are of the first degree; 

 then a queen from them would be of 

 the second degree, etc. After they 

 had reached the third degree. I do 

 not like them, nor they me. So I say, 

 do not breed hybrids indiscriminately. 

 I think the most experienced honey- 

 producers of to-day agree that good 

 hybrids are best as surplus honey 

 gatherers ; and I will add, they breed 

 faster, and are more liable to swarm 

 under the same treatment and condi- 

 tion than either race in its purity. 



I have noticed for several "years 

 past, that when I reared a quantity 

 of queens and kept account of them 

 afterwards, there would generally he 

 one that developed some peculiar 

 trait, or rather characteristic in a 

 marked degree. For instance: About 

 six years ago I had a young hybrid 

 queen reared from a prolilic hybrid 

 queen in the midst of the swarming 

 season, which seemed to be possessed 

 of a strong propensity for laying, and 

 through tlie fall bloom, too. "(Italians 

 seldom do that.) She kept her hive 

 so full of brood, that there was not 

 room enough to store the needful 

 supply for winter. 



Again, last spring I heard of a 

 farmer who had 8 colonies of bees 

 which had wintered through without 

 any care at all. Now, last winter 

 being uncommonly severe, this led 

 me, out of curiosity, to go over there 

 on purpose to investigate the causes, 

 if any, of their wintering safely on 

 the summer stands, and in single- 

 walled hives with no protection, i. e., 

 packing. I found them as stated, 

 and all but two were strong, and had 

 drones when clover first bloomed. 

 They were blacks, and mixed by 

 hybridizing with Italians, or rather 

 yellow hybrid drones. I was just 

 foolish (V) enough to possess them, 

 and so brought them home and let 

 their black drones fly in my yard, so 

 as to rear some hybrids with some of 

 my best Italian queens, and that, too, 

 when I had my apiary nearly Ital- 

 ianized. 



Now, the point is this : One of 

 those queens had kept three hives 



