THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



549 



For the American Be© JoumaL 



The Hibernation Theory. 



.lAMES HEDDON. 



I wish to preface the statements 

 ■which I liave to offer upon this sub- 

 ject, by savins tliatlthink that the 

 above theory. Mr. Cornell's " humid- 

 ity theory "and the " pollen theory,"' 

 all of them, as they have been stren- 

 uously argued by their advocates and 

 admirers, liave done much toward 

 getting down to the bottom of this 

 unsolved problem of the cause of our 

 winter losses. 



To be sure, as is usually the result 

 in such cases, the zeal and earnest- 

 ness of the disputants have some- 

 times gone beyond their better judg- 

 ment, and unnecessary and unprofit- 

 able sharp sparring liiis grown out of 

 the discussion ; but after all, the re- 

 maining pith and point, together with 

 the facts the more eagerly sought for 

 and related, have made these articles, 

 as a class, the most profitable to me 

 of any style or class of essays that 

 the invaluable Bee Journal has 

 contained. If any think that I have, 

 in an undue eagerness for controver- 

 sial victory, overlooked or left un- 

 weighed the arguments of my oppo- 

 nents, in this they have been in error. 

 I am, at this time, acquainted with 

 many facts concerning the actions of 

 bees during their period of confine- 

 ment that look favorable to Mr. 

 Clarke's new theory (as he believes it 

 to be), or rather arguing in favor of 

 some of the conditions which he con- 

 siders favorable to safe wintering ; 

 but I am also a yearly observer of 

 facts which argue against the theory. 

 Jfow I will present such of them as 

 Mr. Clarke's article calls forth. It 

 will please us all to have Mr. Clarke, 

 or any one else, come out with the 

 flag of victory over his head, as it will 

 float over all our heads free of cost ; 

 but to the end that we know to a cer- 

 tainty that it is "the true Hag," we 

 all share the common disposition to 

 make him hold it up in the midst of 

 a shower of balls from the opposition, 

 as we know, surrounded by this cross 

 fire, only the rtag of the true theory 

 can remain in the air. 



Before we can intelligently discuss 

 Mr. Clarke's theory, we must all 

 adopt one definition of the ■word 

 •'hibernation." According to Web- 

 ster (all bee-keepers have long known 

 that bees always hibernate during a 

 Northern winter), he defines it thus : 

 "Hibernate, to winter; to pass the 

 season of winter in close quarters, or 

 in seclusion, as birds or beasts." ' In- 

 clination would lead me to hibernate 

 half the year in this uncomfortable 

 •climate of Great Britain.'— Souf/ie;/."' 



It seems that Mr, Clarke gives the 

 term a definition bordering upon tor- 

 por, and quotes good authority for it, 

 AVebster to the contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



I, too, have always used, and heard 

 used the word " hibernation "' as de- 

 fining that motioidess, senseless, 

 numb state of torpor that wasps and 

 ants assume during a cold winter. 

 Now, I do not know, but I do not be- 

 lieve that bees ever enter this torpid 

 state. I have many times made in- 

 vestigations, both in and out-of-doors, 

 opening colonies that were as still as 

 death, but never found anything 

 nearer "hibernation" or "torpor^" 

 than a seemingly perfect quietude, 

 one so light that the least jar or ad- 

 mission of light immediately aroused 

 them, showing their condition farther 

 from torpor than human sleep, or 

 even the sleep of a watch-dog. Pos- 

 sibly it may be proper to call the con- 

 dition which I have witnessed and 

 described, " semi-torpor " or " semi- 

 hibernation." Perhaps Mr. Clarke's 

 paragraph at the top of the middle 

 column, on page -^lO, means nothing 

 more ; if not, I wil' refer him to the 

 first page of the Kansas Bee- Keeper 

 for April 1884, where I used the term 

 semi-hibernatious,'' meaning to cover 

 the ground of this perfect quietude, 

 though I think that the term which I 

 then created is almost too strong, 

 technically defined ; but I then 

 thought, and still think, that it cor- 

 rectly conveyed the idea which I en- 

 tertained. Further than this quietude, 

 I know of no more senseless winter 

 sleep for bees, and I have neither 

 read nor heard of any. 



During the second or third year of 

 my bee-keeping, by report of mouth, 

 from not very reliable sources, I 

 heard that "they" had nailed up a 

 colony of filled bees in a tight box, 

 buried them deep under the ground 

 in autumn, and dug them up in first- 

 class condition in the following May. 

 That story gave me my first and last 

 suspicion of possible perfect hiberna- 

 tion of bees. Having at the time an 

 opportunity to inexpensively test the 

 matter, I tried it in several ways, by 

 putting the bees into the ground, V)oth 

 in an excited and a quiet condition ; 

 but all alike died, and I gave up the 

 project. 



One fall, just before placing some 

 to colonies in a double-walled, above- 

 ground repository, I weighed a part 

 of them with great care. For some 

 reason, then (if not now) unknown, 

 nearly every colony in that house 

 readily took on that "perfect quiescent 

 state, and the apiary wintered suc- 

 cessfully ; and when taken out in the 

 spring, and again weighed, the most 

 successful colony weighed but a 

 single pound less than when put 

 in, in the autumn. I might have 

 thought these figures due. or partially 

 due to some error in weighing, had it 

 not been that the others graduated 



all the way from 2^^ to .5 or 6 pounds 

 less in weight. There was no time, 

 however, when the least tap or jar 

 would not cause a response, putting 

 every bee at once upon his guard. 

 Will the reader please note that what 

 we know of the necessities of brood- 

 r ■ 



would be consumed ; as I imderstand 

 the term to be defined as torpor, total 

 inactivity or suspension of the func- 

 tions of life. Now, I do not myself 

 know, nor am I aware of any one else 

 who knows the combination of condi- 

 tions that prevailed in the case above 

 related, or that is necessary to get 

 bees into this quiescent state ; but I 

 do believe that if everytliing else was 

 right, the condition would be defeated, 

 provided the little food consumed was 

 of an irritating nature. I cannot but 

 attribute our troubles to the food, 

 because such a theory is the only one 

 by which I can account for the fact 

 that, while some colonies are doing so 

 nicely in this quiescent state, other 

 colonies in the same room, of the 

 same breed, and in the same style of 

 hive are noisy and sick with diarrhoea, 

 a condition which hundreds have 

 witnessed. 



A few days ago, while talking with 

 an expert, and very successful bee- 

 hunter, one who has cut his hundreds 

 of bee-trees, a man of tact and clear 

 perception, and the owner of 200 

 colonies, he assured me that the 

 fatality caused by the disease, diar- 

 rhoea, is shared to fully as great or 

 greater extent by bees which inhabit 

 trees as by those inhabiting the mod- 

 ern hives. 



Another point that Mr. Clarke 

 seems to overlook is, that bees in a 

 latitude vs'here long winter confine- 

 ment is necessary, are out of their 

 natural climate, surrounded by un- 

 natural conditions, and consequently 

 needing the right artificial treatment. 

 Mr. Clarke's ninth paragraph reads as 

 follows : " When kept too warm, 

 bees cannot go off into their natural 

 state of torpor. They become rest- 

 less, 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 opposite extreme of tem- 

 perature 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 vict- 

 uals on a cold eater V We all know." 



fearing, show us that this colony did 

 not breed during winter. 



I am not sure, but I do not believe 

 that any colony ever wintered without 

 any food. If they hibernate, no food 



Here I cannot help thinking that 

 Mr. Clarke, like others of my con- 

 troversialists, has both eyes so firmly 

 riveted upon his theory, that he can- 

 not see outside facts arguing posi- 

 tively to the contrary. If all who 

 read tliis controversy, and who have 

 known of colonies exposed to the 

 severest cold, yet coming tlirough the 

 winter entirely free from diarrhoea ; 

 and again, colonies kept in reposi- 

 tories with prevailing high tempera- 

 ture coming out equally healthy, 

 should all say " I," the next issue of 

 this paper would be composed en- 

 tirely of the pronoun I. No, this will 

 not do. Positive experience says, 

 " Look farther." 



It is my experience, and I believe 

 it to be the experience of others, that 

 bees can and sometimes do come 

 through the winter in very good con- 

 dition, making fine colonies for the 

 season following, without going into 

 any quiescent state, but being noisy 

 and restless all winter long. Farther, 

 that a uniform temperature is almost 

 or quite indispensable to the quies- 



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