rHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



357 



^oxxzspoxxAtnct. 



This mark Ibdicates that the apiarist la 

 located near tne center of the State named ; 

 5 north of the center; 9 south; O* east; 

 ♦O west; and this 6 northeast ; ^^ northwest: 

 o« southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



war tne American Bee Joumat 



Perfect System of Winterins; Bees. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



On page 312 1 stated that at another 

 time I would say more concerning: the 

 subject then treated of, and also ex- 

 plain some of the other points in 

 which I differ from my friend Clarke 

 in his review of my book, on page 229. 



To the ordinary honey-producer, I 

 feel certain that no advantages would 

 accrue from forcing early brood-rear- 

 ing by means of artificial heat, even 

 if it should be made successful. The 

 comparison of market gardeners forc- 

 ing early vegetables well illustrates 

 the idea that Mr. Clarke desires to 

 express, but is not analogous so far as 

 results are concerned. Early-raised 

 vegetables sell at high prices ; bees 

 that are hatched " too previous " are 

 simply " boarders." 



Some have asserted that, " they 

 never saw a colony too populous at 

 any time of the year." I have. Of 

 what use is a horde of workers when 

 there is no honey to gather V I un- 

 derstand, of course, that there must 

 be sufficient bees to keep up the re- 

 quisite heat during the winter, but 

 further than this, bees are simply 

 "consumers." The fewer bees we 

 can have, except during the honey 

 harvest, the greater our profits. (Mr. 

 Doolittle has given us some most ex- 

 cellent articles upon this subject, and 

 all holding different views would do 

 well to look over the back volumes of 

 the Bee Journal and read them.) 

 The cellar wintering of bees enables 

 us to reduce their numbers to the 

 minimum during the non-producing 

 season ; while spring protection helps 

 us to secure the maximum of workers 

 in time for the harvest. Bees nat- 

 urally generate sufficient heat to en- 

 able them to rear all the brood they 

 can care for, provided they are so 

 protected that all the heat is saved ; 

 and there is plenty of time, from the 

 beginning of the brood-rearing until 

 the harvest opens, for the bees to fill 

 the hives with workers and the combs 

 with brood. 



By a perfect system of wintering, I 

 mean one that will invariably produce 

 the same results. One in which the 

 conditions are likely to be different 

 each year, can never be a perfect sys- 

 tem. We can, of course, have uni- 

 formity of stores when wintering bees 

 in the open air, but the severity and 

 irregularities of the weather are be- 

 yond our control. One winter may 

 be " open," and in the next the cold 

 may be severe and long-continued. In 

 a good cellar we can control the tem- 



perature, the ventilation, the mois- 

 ture, etc., and we can have the condi- 

 tions the same every year. In a re- 

 cent article in Okanings, Prof. Cook 

 expressed my views exactly when he 

 said : " Now, why I prefer a cellar is 

 this : If the cellar is right, we are 

 always safe, providing we look out for 

 food. With chaff hives we are not 

 safe ; at least it so seems to me, even 

 in the latitude of central Ohio. Occa- 

 sionally a long, severe uninterrupted 

 winter comes, and the bees are swept 

 away, when those in the cellar are as 

 safe as ever. Of course the cellar 

 mixst be right, but that can be secured 

 with ease and certainty." 

 Kogersville, (^ Mich. 



flee-Keepera' Magazine. 



Simerstitions Of Bee-Culture. 



REV. J. W. SHEARER. 



It is amusing to note the supersti- 

 tions and fancies concerning bees, 

 which have existed at different times, 

 some of which still have their faithful 

 adherents in rural places. 



There is iu Lincolnshire, Essex and 

 Cornwall in England, a superstition 

 that bees desert a hive on the occasion 

 of a death in a family, unless in- 

 formed of it by rapping on the hive. 

 The belief that hives should be wrap- 

 ped in mourning is current in Lin- 

 colnshire. 



In Northampton the entrance of a 

 bee into a cottage is deemed a certain 

 sign of death, and if a swarm of bees 

 alight on a dead tree or a dead branch 

 of a tree, there will be death within a 

 year. 



In Yorkshire there is a custom of 

 inviting bees to the funeral. These 

 were doubtless originated from an 

 observation of the fact that bees are 

 attracted by the scent of fresh 

 varnish, working on superstitious 

 minds. 



It is said by some that bees will 

 never live in a quarrelsome family. 

 What a blessing if among bee-keepers 

 such an idea would quell all rising 

 feelings of difference in the family. 



Some think they will not thrive if 

 stolen, whilst in otherplaces it is con- 

 sidered unlucky to purchase bees ; 

 that the only way to get them is to 

 have them given, catch a wild swarm, 

 or to steal them. 



Acting on this silly superstition we 

 have known good people to go to a 

 neighbor's house, take a hive of bees 

 without his knowledge, and leave in 

 payment some other goods, thinking 

 that " ill luck "' would follow them if 

 money be paid. In this superstition 

 there is a shade of truth. Among 

 such people bees are got from their 

 nearest neighbors' in summer when 

 bees are flying freely and carried 

 quietly home. Of course the old bees 

 return to the old stand the next day. 

 and the removed hive is " unlucky " 

 because weak iu bees for some time 

 until it can recuperate. If the colony 

 has already swarmed, as is often the 

 case, the remaining bees are too few 

 to build it up in a good swarm that 

 season. The observation of results 



without a knowledge of the cause, or 

 the method of preventing it, gave rise 

 to the superstition in minds already 

 inclined thereto. 



The Georgics of Virgil contain 

 some of the common superstitious at 

 that early period. This writer, with 

 others, attributes the virtue of " tang- 

 ing," to attract bees, to qualities im- 

 planted iu them by Jupiter that dis- 

 tinguish them from solitary bees and 

 other insects. 



This fable is grandly recorded in 

 the mythological belief of this period. 

 Kronos, " the harvest God," having 

 succeeded his father Uranos on the 

 throne of the gods, married his sister 

 Rhea, who bore him several children, 

 among whom was Zeus or Jupiter. 

 To prevent the fulfilment of an old 

 prophecy that his first born should 

 succeed him on the throne, Kronos 

 swallowed his first five children soon 

 after they were born. When the 

 sixth child Zeus appeared Rhea de- 

 termined to deceive the husband, and 

 gave him a stone carved in the shape 

 of an infant, which he swallowed, and 

 believed himself freed from danger. 

 Meantime Jupiter, the new-born 

 child, was conveyed to the island of 

 Crete, and concealed in a cave on 

 Mount Ida. The nymphs Adrastea 

 and Ida tended and nursed him, the 

 great Amalthea supplied him with 

 milk. Lest the infantile cries should 

 reach the ears of Krouos, the Kuretes 

 or Corybantes (the priestesses of 

 Rhea) were stationed at the mouth of 

 the cave to keep up a continual din 

 by clashing of their cymbals. This 

 attracted a swarm of bees, which set- 

 tled in the cave, and furnished honey 

 for Jupiter. 



This statement was received by the 

 early Greeks as gospel. From the 

 statement they accepted the fact that 

 bees are attracted by such noises and 

 applied it in practice to settle runa- 

 way swarms. Hence the origin of 

 "tanging." 



Is it now time that people should 

 abandon this foolish superstition, 

 which originated in old Grecian my- 

 thology ? The question answers it- 

 self. This superstition also points 

 towards the probability of superior 

 knowledge of bee-culture among the 

 Greeks from whom the late modes of 

 management were derived, as indi- 

 cated by the presence of this super- 

 stition which originated in their my- 

 thology. It must have originated 

 when men believed and acted on their 

 belief in mythology. 



There is a curious superstition con- 

 cerning the origin of bees from putrid 

 cacasses. This was the general be- 

 lief of the ancient. Virgil's recipe 

 for the production of bees in his 

 fourth Georgics is so striking that we 

 quote a few lines of Dryden's transla- 

 tion : 



A steer of twi) years old they take whose head 

 Now lirst with burnished horns begin to spread ; 

 They stop iiis nostrils while he strives in vain 

 To breathe free air. and stuagles with his pain. 

 Knoelte'l down he dies j his bnwels brnisej within 

 Betray no wound on his unbrolien skin. 



The tainted l>Iood in this close prison pent, 

 BeKins to boii and through the bones ferment : 

 Tljen wonrirtnis to behold, new creatures rise, 

 A niovine mass at Hrst. and imped with wings 

 The trrub prncee'l to bees with pointed stings ; 

 And more and more aflectlng air. they try 

 Their tender pinions and begin to fly. 



