'rmm mvmmmicKu mmm jqurnsx. 



375 



we know.it would certainly he. remark- 

 able if hur (Iroiie i^rosieny was not also 

 aftVctod, and if their virility is aileetetl, 

 they eaiinot be pure. Manj' experi- 

 ments have proved that the drones of 

 agamic queens do not possess virility. 

 2. No ; but their subsequent progeny 

 will. — G. L. Tinker. 



These questions involve propositions 

 and theories too profound for ordinary 

 persons. When the most learned pro- 

 fessors disagree on such theorii's. what 

 can be settled by the mere " conclu- 

 sions " of those who have not made it 

 a life-work to studj' the anatomy and 

 physiology of bees ? The whole tiling 

 is but speculation. But to answer the 

 question : 1. I think it is, if properly 

 developed. 2. No, so far as I have 

 been able to observe and form an 

 opinion. — The Editor. 



JUI\C: ROSES. 



O, sing of the roses. 



The beautiful roses. 

 Adorning the warm, pulsing bosom of June. 



Exult in their sweetness. 



Extol their corapleteneBS, 

 And only lament they must perish so soon. 



Then sins of the roses, 



The beautiful roses. 

 Or scentless, or filling the air witli perfume. 



They lessen our sadness. 



They bring to us gladness, 

 These roses that gem the fond bosocu of June. 

 — ficfc*« Magazine for June. 



EXPERIMENTS. 



Showing of Aviiat IVaturc''s Bee- 

 llivc§ Consist. 



Written for the American Dee Juumal 

 BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



By the re))lies to Query 525, I see it 

 is supposed that either a fool asked it, 

 or else some one had a practical object 

 in view. Well, in answering it I see 

 but one idea of the querist, and that 

 was to get at facts. 



Since answering it, I have been con- 

 ducting some experiments, as I had 

 also before, and I have arrived at the 

 conclusion that much of the teachings 

 of the past have been erroneous — in 

 part, at least. 



We have been taught that tlie bees 

 heat a hive on the same plan that a 

 fire in a stove heats a house. In which 

 case, all know that the room where 

 the fire is, is the vearmest at the top. 



Following out this thought, Mr. 

 Dadant. on page 24:7, tells us that "the 

 bees will be enabled to warm about b 

 inches in dei)th since the warmth al- 

 \vays rises," and by a process of rea- 

 soning, arrives at the conclusion that a 

 broail Hat-toped hive is not as good for 

 bees in early spring as a tall, narrow 

 one would be. 



Again, on page 107 we find Mr. 

 Heddon adopting the same line of 

 reasoning, to prove that by putting 

 one empty brood-case of his new hive 

 under one alreaily filled with brood, 

 that brood is in " the warmest part of 

 the hive." Now, if Mr. Hedtlon is cor- 

 rect in this part of the matter, he is 

 certainly incorrect in his reply to the 

 above query, for bees are most active 

 in the early sjiring where the heat is 

 the greatest ; yet he answers, " At the 

 bottom, usually." On page 107, he 

 tells us that " the direction which the 

 queen naturally breeds," is " down- 

 ward," which goes to prove that his 

 reply to the query was right, and his 

 conclusions on page 107 wrong. 



Without trying to decide for these 

 gentlemen which are right, or trying 

 to reconcile Mr. Heddon's statements, 

 I will give some (^f the things I have 

 found out by my experiments, and 

 leave the reader to follow out the 

 "pointers," and arrive at his own 

 conclusions. 



A few years ago Mr. Betsinger was 

 at my house, and he asked the same 

 question that the (juerist asked on page 

 182. I replied to it as did most of 

 those answering the query, that the 

 bees were the most active at the top of 

 the cluster, but Mr. Betsinger said I 

 was wrong. 



Accordingly, to prove my position, 

 the next morning, while there was 

 still a frost on tlie ground, I carefully 

 lifted the quilt from over the cluster of 

 a fair colony of Ijces, anil found that 

 they were vciy ((iiiet, stirring but little 

 more than they would have done had I 

 so looked at them in mid-winter. I 

 now carefully put back the quilt, and 

 raised the hive at the bottom, and 

 much to my surprise I found them at 

 this point ready to resent an intru.sion, 

 flying out at the least disturbance. 

 Thinking that 1 had aroused them, by 

 first lifting the i|uilt, I went to another 

 hive and raised this from the bottom 

 first, when I found them just as lively 

 there as the others liad been, and upon 

 lowering the hive and raising the quilt, 

 they were in the same sluggish state at 

 the top that those were in the first hive. 

 Without dwelling longer, except to 

 state that hundr(!(ls of trials have re- 

 sulted the same as the first, I am led 

 to believe that the warmest part of the 

 hive, as we reason from our fire-heated 

 rooms, has little if anything to do with 

 our bees. While the hive may help a 

 little along the line of keeping the bees 

 warm, yet the main reason for a hive 

 is to protect the bees from the storms 

 of wind, rain and snow which our 

 climate is subject to, for bees cannot 

 stand cold of any amount while wet. 



Bees are natives of a warm climate, 

 and in their native home they fre- 

 quently do not seek any hive at a'l. 



but build their combs on the limb of a 

 tree, or on the under side of some flat 

 surface, in wliich case the bees them- 

 selves form the hive,properlj- speaking. 

 To illustrate : If we hive a natural 

 swarm of bees in a large box, and 

 closely watch them work, we find that 

 they suspend themselv(\s fi-om the top 

 in a compact form, apijearing like an 

 inverted cone, which, to all appear- 

 ances, is nearly motionless, so that it 

 will appear as if the bees were idle, 

 while the fact is, that these apparently 

 idle bees are reall)' the hive proper, 

 and inside of this, active work is going 

 on, building comb, etc. This is easily 

 seen by passing a wire suddenly 

 through the cluster horizontally, and 

 letting the lower lialf drop. 



Outside this living hive or crust of 

 bees, the temperature is often not 

 more than 50"', while just inside they 

 are working wax nicely with from 90^ 

 to 95'^' of heat, as I have found by sev- 

 eral carefull}' conducted experiments 

 with a self-registering thermometer. 

 As the combs grow, this crust of bees 

 expand until they touch the hive, when 

 it gives awa}' at that jjoint to a large 

 extent, letting the hive there form the 

 crust, but were the hive not there the 

 crust of bees would still hold their 

 position, so that, as I said before, the 

 hive helps a little, but this only in the 

 heat of summer, where a' hive of the 

 size of 2,000 cubic inches is used ; for 

 as fall comes on, the bees contract and 

 f<n-ni the crust, or "nature's hive" 

 again, thus to remain until the next 

 summer, unless the hive is contracted 

 by man. 



But more closely to the point : In 

 1874 I had a colony of just 82 bees, 

 and the queen by actual count, on the 

 1st day of June, which was the rem- 

 nant of a once populous colony. These 

 few bees I decided to leave without 

 help to see what they could do. They 

 had a few cells of brood in the center 

 of one side of two combs, as they were 

 not strong enough to enclose one 

 comb. On cool mornings it was a 

 curious sight to peer down through 

 that range between the combs which 

 they occupied, and .see the points of 

 their abdomens all turned in an out- 

 ward direction, and closely packed to- 

 gether, so as to keep up the necessary 

 85° to 90' of heat for brood-rearing, 

 yet they did it through day after day 

 of weather too cool for bees to fly, 

 while at night it was nearly freezing 

 several times. 



Well, not to dwell longer on this 

 point, they increased their brood, so 

 that by July they had brood in three 

 combs, while so far they did not touch 

 the hive at any point, and, as I firmly 

 believe, kept the heat all in the cluster, 

 and not in the top of the hive. They 

 increased to a fine colony in the last 



