26 



TH® MMEKICMlf WMM JO^lURlSfMEr. 



necessary to sustain life, and diarrhea 

 is the result ? Do their assumptions 

 comjjort with scientific investigations ? 

 That theory is fallacious, and has no 

 foundation in fact, so far as my obsei'- 

 vation has extended ; for wc have oc- 

 cupied a room above the bee-cellar for 

 four winters, and cannot subscribe to 

 that hj-pothesis. 



By repeated trials I have satisfied 

 myself in regard to degrees of heat 

 engendered by a large colony. For 

 instance, when the temperature of the 

 cellar 3 feet from the hive is 32°, in- 

 side (not among the cluster), a ther- 

 mometer laid lengthwise on top of the 

 brood-frames registers 78°, a difl'erence 

 of 460, with the hive raised from the 

 bottom-board a bee-space, and burlap 

 on the hive slightly raised. If the 

 same rule applied to a higher (outside) 

 temperature, it would be as follows : 

 At 35° on the outside, inside of the 

 hive it would be 81° ; 40° outside, 86° 

 inside ; 45° outside, 91° inside ; 48° 

 outside, 94° inside ; and 52° outside, 

 98° inside the hive. 



My bees on the summer stands, 

 whenever the mercury reaches 90° in 

 the shade, either loaf idly around the 

 throne (bee-throne) or hang outside 

 the hives, and I feel like following 

 their example. If the degrees of heat 

 was maintained in proportion to the 

 scale above given, the heat inside the 

 hives would be unendurable, but at 41° 

 outside, the bees begin to break clus- 

 ter, and at 45° the cluster is broken 

 up, and the}' manifest a very restless 

 disposition, traveling swiftly to and 

 fro, trying to get out of the hives, and 

 on such occasions the loudest " roar- 

 ing " is heard. This fact cannot be 

 gainsaid, for inside of the experimental 

 hive the thermometer registered but 

 76°, proving conclusively to me, that 

 the bees endeavor to keep the tempera- 

 ture at from 76° to 78°, the projDer con- 

 dition for successful wintering. 



High temperature, in my oisinion, is 

 the cause of bee-diarrhea, not im- 

 proper stores, as my weak colonies 

 have never shown symptoms of that 

 disease. Again, hives packed full of 

 bees, as many of mine are, with the 

 mercurj' ranging from 45° to 50°,sweat 

 profusely, and the combs in conse- 

 quence soon become moldy, the honey 

 unfit for use, the entire colony perish, 

 and in the spring, when the hives are 

 opened, to our astonishment we find a 

 putrid mess . of bees, and the cause is 

 attributed to pollen, honey-dew, or 

 poor honey, jumping at conclusions. 

 While it is a fact that our stronger col- 

 onies cannot be wintered successfully 

 in a cellar wherein the temperature 

 rises so high as to cause the trouble 

 indicated, weak colonies will remain 

 perfectly quiet, and winter well in an 



atmosphere deterious to the majority 

 of large colonies. 



As all colonies are not of uniform 

 .size, we must make the conditions alike 

 for both large and small ones, which 

 can be done by dividing the larger, 

 and contracting the smaller colonies, 

 by using division-boards, thereby com- 

 pelling them to cluster as desired. I 

 prefer medium-sized colonies, but 

 " men and mice go oft agley," men es- 

 pecially, if as in my case the elements 

 combine to frustrate all our well-laid 

 plans. 



In this article I have been actuated 

 by a desire to help solve the problem 

 of wintering bees," under the ground;" 

 and as an " ounce of preventive is 

 worth a pound of cure," so is one prac- 

 tical scientific /a ei of more value than 

 volumes of theoretical asseverations. I 

 have been careful not to submit " posi- 

 tive assumptions upon the tottering 

 platform of unverified theories." 



Madison,? Nebr., Dec. 16, 1887. 



SPECIALISTS. 



Can a Specialist produce Honey 



elieaper and in better shape 



tliaii otiicrs i If 80, tvliy t 



Read at the Ontario Bee^Keepers^ Convention, 

 BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



By specialist, in this case, I suppose is 

 meant one who keeps a number of colo- 

 nies and makes bee-keeping at least a 

 principal part of his business. Just 

 where is the dividing line between one 

 who is, and who is not a specialist may 

 not be so easily determined. I suppose 

 all would agree that a man who keeps 

 a thousand colonies and devotes his 

 whole time and thought to bee-keeping 

 is a specialist, and one who owns a sin- 

 gle colony which is left to take care of 

 itself without the owner's knowing 

 whether the king or the drones lay the 

 eggs, is not a specialist. Somewhere 

 between these two lies a ground where 

 it might be hard to tell whether a man 

 were a specialist or not. Without any 

 hair-splitting, however, we may all 

 agree that the specalist in bee-keeping 

 devotes a considerable portion of his 

 time and thought to the care of his bees, 

 and has enough colonies so that their 

 failure or success maj' be a matter of 

 serious concern to him. 



I may as well frankly avow mjself as a 

 believer in specialties, but it is well to 

 look at both sides. The general ten- 

 dency is toward specializing in all de- 

 partments. Our great grandmothers 

 cut the wool from the sheep's backs, and 

 without passing from their hands the 

 wool was fashioned into stockings or 

 coats. Now all that is changed. At 

 least half a dozen persons take the place 



of the one gi-eat gi'audmother, each one 

 pursuing his specialty, and so it is 

 everj'where. 



In an age so keen to the pursuit of 

 wealth, there is no evading the coucIut 

 sion that there must be money in set- 

 tling down into specialists, or it would 

 not be done. There are, however, ex- 

 ceptions to general rules. Take the 

 two cases we have supposed, one man 

 with a thousand colonies, another with 

 one. The l.OOO-colonies %ian cannot 

 produce honey for nothing, that is clear. 

 He must have something to buy his 

 bread. The 1-colony man attaches 

 little or no value to his bees, They cost 

 him nothing, and in the event of a fail- 

 ure of the honey crop, he counts upon 

 no loss for he has bestowed no labor on 

 his bees, no study or thought. If they 

 give him a crop, it is so much clear gain. 

 He divides with his neighbor, or takes 

 his honey in a pail to the nearest store, 

 and accepts whatever price is offered, 

 as he is not particular what he gets for 

 that which has cost him nothing. He 

 counts it about the same as the wild 

 grapes which grow in his fence-rows, 

 and which any one can have for the 

 gathering. Looking at it in this light, 

 as between the man with 1,000 colonies 

 and the man with one, does it not look 

 as if the latter has the best of it in point 

 of cheapness ? Looking at it no further 

 than this, I do not wonder that some 

 hold the view that every one should be 

 encouraged to keep bees, and that to 

 have honey plenty and cheap, all that is 

 necessary is to have a bee-hive at every 

 man's door. 



But let us see what is tlie result of this 

 happy-go-lucky state of affaii'S. Has 

 not this system been tried ? I think 

 that close observation will bear me out 

 in saj-ing that before the daj's of special- 

 ists iii bee-keeping, when honey " cost 

 nothing," not one family had hone}' to 

 eat where three now have it. Please 

 do not forget that the plan of having 

 bees kept 1 or 10 colonies in a place, is 

 exactly the .system that was in vogue 50 

 years ago, and is no new thing. Is the 

 system practiced as much now as then? 

 Look around you and see. People are 

 not apt to give up that which is profit- 

 able. If the man -ttath one colony can 

 produce honey for nothing, does he fol- 

 low it up year after year ? Very seldom. 

 The fact is, take a series of years and he 

 cannot produce his honey as cheaply as 

 he can buy it of the specialist, and the 

 strongest proof is his own actions. 



I have just been looking over a list 

 of bee-keepers of ten years ago, and of 

 those who were specialists not one in 

 ten has left the ranks. On the other 

 hand I recall to mind those who were 

 non-specialists living about me ten 

 years ago, and not one in ten of them 

 to-day owns a bee, although some of 

 them had as many as 20 colonies. Put- 



