1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



311 



68. — Brood, about 14 days old 



43.0 deg. 



69. — Brood, about 14 days old 



(40.0 deg. F.) 



6. April 29. Section bees. Outer 

 temperature 14 C. Brood all nymphs 

 with white eyes. 



70.— 43.1 deg. 



71. — 40.0 deg. 



72.-^0.9 deg. 



73.— 38.0 deg 



74.-39.3 deg 



75. — 41.1 deg, 



76.- 41 .4 deg. 



77.— 40.0 deg 



78.-39.8 deg 



79.-39.7 deg 



80.— 42.9 deg 



The 



other warmed 

 side of combs. 

 81. — 42.2 deg. The other warmed 

 side of combs. 



82. — Drone on comb 35.4 deg. 



83. — Drone on comb 40.8 d£g. 



84. — Drone on comb 45.0 deg. 



(113 deg. F.) 



7. May 3 — Outer temperature 18 



deg. (64 deg. F.) 



85.— Flving bee 39.5 deg. 



86.— Flving bee 40.0 deg. 



87.— Flying bee 33.9 deg. 



89. — Flying drone, breast 48.6 deg. 



(119 deg. F.) 



— Through abdomen 35.3 deg. 



Through head 36.7 deg. 



Brood — Freshly capped worms. 

 Nymphs with brown eyes. 

 90.— 44.4 deg. 

 91.— 43.7 deg. 

 92.— 45.0 deg. 

 93. — 42.5 deg. 

 94.— 40.9 deg. 

 95.^40.8 deg. 

 96.— 42.0 deg. 

 97.--40.8 deg. 

 98.-43.7 deg. 

 99.-42.6 deg. 

 100. — 43.2 deg. 



8. May 7 — Outer temperature 18 

 degrees C. (64 deg. F.) 



101. — Queen, gray, with white 



wings, taken out of cell 38.6 deg. 



102. — Queen, white, the cell 



opened 40.5 deg. 



103.— Drone 40.7 deg. 



104.— Drone 45.9 deg. 



105.— Drone 38.2 deg. 



Brood — Nymphs with white eyes, 

 W; nymphs with brown eyes, B. 



106.— 38.9 deg. W. 



107.— 40.5 deg. W. 



108—42.1 deg. B. 



109.— 44.2 deg. B. 



110.— 39.8 deg. B. 



111.— 30.5 deg. W. (The brood begins 

 to cool.) 



112.— 37.5 deg. W. 



113.— 36.9 deg. W. 



114.— 37.4 deg. W. 



115.— 35.5 deg. W. 



There is no great difference be- 

 tween fanning, or flying bees. Un- 

 happily, I could not take brood bees, 

 because the disturbance of the few 

 bees was too great to distinguish 

 them exactly. Also, there was not a 

 great difference if the outer tem- 

 perature was 7 deg. or 18 deg. On 

 account of extrinsical circumstances, 

 I had not the possibility to make the 

 experiments, as they ought, i. e., in 

 the very apiary, where I could oper- 

 ate with strong, normal colonies, 1 



suppose I should have goften, espe- 

 cially for the brood, higher figures. 

 But I hope that the same experiment 

 shall be made by others with larger 

 means, with finer instruments. It 

 would be necessary to operate with 

 thinner and shorter needles and with 

 much more sensitive galvanometers. 

 At all events, these measurings are 

 possible and give interesting results. 



My highest temperature for bees 

 was 40 deg. C. (104 deg. F.), but I 

 suppose this temperature should be 

 still higher in time of the fullest de- 

 velopment of a good colony. How- 

 ever, the temperature of bees is not 

 constant and, may vary about 10 deg. 

 C. (18 deg. F.) I observed that the 

 temperature of a caged bee, especially 

 if it is chilled, sinks rapidly. A bee 

 which at 7 deg. C. outer temperature 

 was caged for 15 minutes, showed 

 then only an inner temperature of 9 

 deg. C. 



The maximum of the temperature 



of drones is very high— 48.6 deg C. 

 (119 deg. F.), although all my drones 

 were still young ones, and not very 

 robust. 



The- temperature of the brood is 

 most interesting, the maximum of a 

 white nymph with brown eyes was 

 45.0 deg C. (113 deg. F.) and it proves 

 that the brood is indeed producing 

 warmth. It is at the same time giv- 

 ing and taking. For in a tempera- 

 ture rather beneath 37 deg. the brood 

 cannot thrive, but when the sur- 

 rounding temperature is brought by 

 the brood-bees up to 37 deg. C, then 

 the little worms and nymphs repre- 

 sent little stoves themselves, and as 

 such also produce warmth. 



It would be a grateful task to con- 

 tinue those experiments on a larger 

 scale than what in default of the 

 means I unhappily must resign, but I 

 hope that others who have the possi- 

 bility will do so. 



Reuchenette, Switzerland. 



Bee- Keeping <M For Women 



Conducted by Miss Emma M. Wilson, Marengo. 111. 



War Beekeeping for Women 



It is highly gratifying to see how 

 beekeeping is appealing to women as 

 "war work," and I would like to give 

 my happy experience as a beginner 

 for the encouragement of other 

 housewives wishful of obtaining 

 honey for their families, but who 

 doubt their ability to make a success 

 of an apiary. 



I started with a swarm of hybrids 

 in a W. B. C. hive on May 28 of last 

 year. It gave me over 50 pounds of 

 delicious clover honey and a fine nu- 

 cleus as well, which is now strong on 

 eight frames. In June and July I ad- 

 ded two other swarms to our little 

 apiary. 



These four stocks were fed up in 

 October on pink candy syrup, and 

 were tucked into bed for the winter 



They are now the pride of my life, 

 and as healthy and hard-working as 

 anyone could wish. They are so in- 

 teresting they almost make one for- 

 get there is a war going on, and I 

 confidently expect to take a splendid 

 surplus of honey before the end of 

 the summer. 



Some women say they would like 

 to keep bees if they were not afraid 

 of their children being stung. My 

 experience in this has been quite the 

 opposite. The children play all about 

 the hives, being much interested in 

 the busy workers, and only once 

 have they been stung. That was 

 when the little girl tried to push a 

 chilled bee into the entrance of the 

 wrong hive. One bee, only, seemed 

 to object, and risked her life to pro- 

 tect the hive. My little girl held her- 

 self still, however, and let the bee 

 pull out its own sting, which we hope 

 saved its life. 



No woman who has once known 

 the joy of seeing her own bees 



working her own cherished flowers, 

 fruit, marrow and bean blossoms will 

 ever enjoy gardening again without 

 them. Even dull darning may be 

 turned into sufficient excuse for tak- 

 ing an easy chair out by the hives 

 and watching the bees carry honey 

 for the household. And, say — it's a 

 proud moment when your admiring 

 family sits down to tea before your 

 first wonderful dish of honey! — G. C. 

 K. in The British Bee Journal. 



School Teachers as Beekeepers 



A school teacher says, in the Brit- 

 ish Bee Journal : 



A lady beekeeper, whom I often 

 assisted, sent for me one day. Her 

 garden was surrounded by large 

 trees, and a swarm had settled near 

 the top of one of them, overhanging 

 the road. The gardener, though not 

 a beekeeper, had offered to climb the 

 tree and cut the bough off, but the 

 lady feared to give her permission 

 without first consulting me, lest pas- 

 sersby should get stung by infuriated 

 bees in case anything went wrong. 

 Tree-climbing is not in my line, but 

 if the gardener was willing to make 

 the attempt, and fixed a rope to the 

 branch before cutting it off, I said I 

 saw no reason to fear any bad be- 

 haviour on the part of the bees. A 

 start was made at once, and before 

 long the swarm was being carefully 

 lowered, while I stood beneath, wait- 

 ing to deal with it as soon as the 

 bough came within my reach. In 

 the middle of the operation numbers 

 of boys began to troop by, on their 

 way from their houses to the school, 

 and the process of lowering the 

 branch naturally attracted their at- 

 tention. We warned them to stand 

 clear lest the bees should come down 

 with a rush. However, the lowering 



