1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



17 



to good colonies early in the season, in spite 

 of our unfavorable and wet spring-. While 

 Editor Root was reporting his bees uneasy 

 and roaring, only as the doors were open- 

 ed, my bees were as quiet as they were in 

 December, and the loss of bees on the cellar 

 bottom was scarcely more than six quarts 

 during their whole stay in the cellar. No, 

 no, gentlemen; until you give abetter report 

 than you have done I can not afford to put 

 in one of those great 16-inch-square venti- 

 lators — no, not even for the sake of testing 

 the matter. But I do not have the least ob- 

 jection to Mr. Bingham, Editor Root, and 

 all others who are so inclined, shutting 

 their ventilators entirely for a week or two, 

 or putting their repositories in a condition 

 where an even temperature of 45 degrees is 

 maintained, for "the sake of testing the 

 matter;" for by so doing they may see their 

 way clear not to advocate a backward 

 movement as they did the first half of 1902. 

 In closing I wish to notice a little argu- 

 ment of E. R. Root's which is based on a 

 fallacy. It is found on page 375. The ar- 

 gument is based on the mistaken idea that 

 during winter "the temperature of their 

 (bees) bodies is about the same as ours or 

 any warm-blooded animal." I think, now 

 that I call his attention to the matter, Mr. 

 Root will remember that, in the experiments 

 which I conducted several years ago, dur- 

 ing two winters, with a self- registering 

 thermometer, conclusive proof was given 

 that, at all times when in winter quarters, 

 when the bees were in a state of quietude 

 so conducive to good wintering, and when 

 no brood was being reared, the temperature 

 inside the cluster was only from 63 to 65 

 degrees; while when in uneasiness, or when 

 brood was being reared, the temperature 

 of the center of the cluster went up to from 

 95 to 98 degrees, or to about the temperature 

 of the human body. This shows the reason 

 of the great consumption of stores where 

 bees are uneasy and go to brood-rearing, 

 in that they have to "burn" honey to raise 

 the temperature of the cluster from 63 to 65, 

 up to 95 to 98. And with this extra con- 

 sumption of stores usually comes out of 

 season brood-rearing, rapid wearing-out of 

 vitality, bee diarrhea, spring dwindling or 

 death, or both. It is a very rare thing that 

 any brood is found in any of my colonies 

 when first set from the cellar, but during 

 the next three weeks the hive sare filled 

 with brood to an extent never obtained by 

 those which have become uneasy and brood- 

 ed out of season. And as the bees which 

 may survive from this out-of-season brood- 

 ing are practically of no use it is far better 

 that the bees keep quiet, with no brood till 

 spring is fully open, and then go to brood- 

 rearing with a will, using their stores and 

 vitality in perfecting bees which, when 

 coming on the stage of action, count from 

 the start toward a prosperous season. 

 Think the matter over, brethren. If I am 

 at fault, don't follow me. If right, I shall 

 have added my mite to the sum total of the 

 knowledge gained thus far in our pursuit. 



And these winter months are just the time 

 to do lots of hard thinking along apicultu- 

 ral lines. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



[Mr. Doolittle has one condition that 

 most of us do not and can not have; and that 

 is, absolute control of the temperature of 

 his bee-cellar; for he says he has a varia- 

 tion of only half a degree, notwithstanding 

 the outside temperature varied from away 

 below zero to a warm atmosphere and green 

 grass. Absolutely uniform temperature like 

 this was impossible in our machine-shop 

 cellar, which varied all the way from 38 up 

 to 55 and even 60. 



But Mr. Doolittle is laboring under a se- 

 rious misapprehension if he supposes our 

 cellared bees consumed 20 lbs. of honey per 

 colony. The consumption of honey was be- 

 tween 5 and 8 lbs., notwithstanding the 

 fact that heavy machinery was rumbling 

 over them during the day. The bees did 

 not have more than 10 or 12 lbs. per colony 

 to start with; yet very many of them had 

 half that amount of stores left, and came 

 out in the spring in good condition. 



If Mr. Doolittle were to have a variable 

 temperature I am strongly of the opinion 

 that he would have to have copious ventila- 

 tion at night. When I suggested more ven- 

 tilation for his cellar I was not aware that 

 he was able to keep so exactly an ideal 

 temperature — 45 Fahrenheit. It is not to 

 be supposed that he would get any better 

 results than he now does, if his consump- 

 tion is only about 6 lbs., and the bees keep 

 perfectly quiet. 



Our bees in the machine-shop were per- 

 fectly quiet so long as they had ventilation 

 at night, no matter if the temperature did 

 not go up as high as 55 Fahr. They would 

 lie in dormant clusters, thus contracting 

 according to the temperature of the room. 



The great mass of bee-keepers do not 

 have conditions that are ideal; and I there- 

 fore think my advice to give plenty of ven- 

 tilation, especially where the temperature 

 is variable, would mean better wintering — 

 much better — than if that same cellar were 

 shut up tight. For example, the bees at" 

 our outyard cellar were shut up practically 

 tight all winter, and yet they had dysente- 

 ry, and wintered badly. 



Then, too, it is important to give flights 

 toward spring— one or two — with just such 

 cellars. 



I am not able to speak in regard to the 

 conditions that exist in the case of Mr. 

 Bingham and his cellar, and he will doubt- 

 less speak for himself. 



With regard to the temperature of the 

 earth, my own experiments about 20 years 

 ago, of letting a thermometer down into va- 

 rious wells all over Medina, the thermome- 

 ter being drawn up in a bucket of water, 

 showed that the temperature of the water 

 10 or 15 feet below the surface of the ground 

 was about 45. Assuming that the air from 

 the surface would warm up the water to 

 some extent, it was reasonable to conclude 



