1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



371 



However, since there are many in- 

 sects in which parthenogenesis is 

 carried even farther than in the 

 claims of Hewitt, Onions and Jack, 

 this peculiarity is possible, though 

 undoubtedly not with any variety of 

 European bees. 



Wintering the Bees 

 Successfully 



The great majority of our readers 

 live in localities where the question 

 of wintering is a problem. But there 

 are a few essentials which, if they 

 are fulfilled, make the average win- 

 ter a safe one. 



Bees need a sufficiency of good 

 food, not less than 25 pounds. Thir- 

 ty-five is better. There must be 

 neither fruit juice nor honeydew in 

 the combs. Sugar syrup is much bet- 

 ter for them than inferior honey. 



The hives should be sheltered from 

 strong winds. If there are flying 

 days, 3 or 4 weeks apart, the bees 

 should be so located that they may 

 take advantage of those flying days. 

 By flying days, we mean days when 

 the thermometer rises to 40 or SO de- 

 grees in the shade. 



In localities where there are 2 or 

 3 months when the bees cannot get 

 a flight, it is usually better to win- 

 ter in the cellar or in some reposi- 

 tory where the aeration will be am- 

 ple without lowering the tempera- 

 ture of the room below 40 degrees. 

 We have ascertained long ago. that 

 bees are quietest at from 40 to 45 de- 

 grees. If you are located north of 

 the 42d degree it may be best to 

 winter your bees in such a place. Put 

 them into it at the first severe cold 

 spell and do not remove them till 

 warm days in March or April. 1 ho 

 blooming of the first maples is a 

 good indicator. 



Be sure and keep a good ther- 

 mometer in your bee cellar. Watch 

 the temperature at which they are 

 the quietest. Then keep it at that. 



Do not attempt to winter weak 

 colonies. It does not pay. Better 

 unite 2 or 3 weak ones into a good 

 colony. 



Queen Excluders Unnecessary 



How do the Dadants run for ex- 

 tracted honey without using queen- 

 excluders? If I could get along with- 

 out them, I would have just that 

 much more to spend for hives and 

 supers. F. P., Millbrook, N. Y. 



Queen-excluders are needed only 

 when the queen does not have 

 enough room to breed below, or 

 when she seeks for drone-cells and 



cannot find them below. Our hives 

 are of the same depth as what is 

 called the Jumbo, 2]/ & inches deeper 

 than the Standard Langstroth. With 

 9 or 10 frames of that size, a queen 

 usually has sufficient room for all her 

 brood. By repeated tests, we nave 

 ascertained that if we put extracting 

 supers full of combs on Langstroth 

 hives, in over half of the cases the 

 queens will lay in the super, unless 

 we use excluders. With the deeper 

 frames in the same number, the 

 queen has enough laying space, so 

 that not over 3 or 4 per cent will as- 

 cend into the supers, and these are 

 usually in the hope of finding drr.nc- 

 cells in which to lay. and not lor 

 want of room. 



So we have been in the habit of us- 

 ing altogether worker combs in ;ne 

 supers, as it discourages the queens 

 from going up into them. 



If the queens have ample room, the 

 colony is less apt to swarm. The 

 first honey harvested is placed in the 

 first super. After that, other supers 

 are added above the first, as there is 

 then some distance between the 

 brood chamber and the empty cells, 

 and that space is occupied with 

 honey, there is very little danger of 

 the queen subsequently leaving the 

 brood-chamber. 



In our own practice, we have con- 

 sidered the queen-excluder as little 

 better than a nuisance, though we 

 are free to say that the wire ex- 

 cluder is much less objectionable 

 than the old perforated zinc. But if 

 we used the regular Langstroth 

 frame, we would probably need ex- 

 cluders, like the majority of bee- 

 keepers. 



The Great Intelligence of Bees 



Are bees capable of reasoning? 

 We already know that when we give 

 flour to bees, in boxes, out-of-doors, in 

 early spring, to be used in lieu of 

 pollen, they bring honey from the 

 hive to dilute this flour and knead it 

 into a soft paste that may be loaded 

 in their pollen baskets. But they 

 might do this without previous rea- 

 soning. However, here is a state- 

 ment from Professor Gaston Bonnier 

 of Paris, the author of "Les Nec- 

 taires" and president of the "Societe 

 Centrale DApiculture" of France. 

 We translate from LApiculteur : 



"The railroad line of Paris to Lyon 

 passes by my Vegetable Laboratory 

 of Biology, and the Georges De Lay- 

 ens apiary is very close to the rail- 

 road tracks. A few nights ago a 

 freight train suffered a collision and 



a car, loaded with crystalized sugar 

 in coarse grains, being broken in 

 two, all the sugar was scattered on 

 the ballast. 



"The following morning the field 

 workers were not slow in discovering 

 it, and its presence was signalled to 

 the divers colonies. Swarming of bees 

 hastened to the open barrels used for 

 sprinkling and to the little basins in 

 which aquatic plants are grown; 

 from thence to the sugar that was 

 spread upon the railroad track. 



"From that time on, there was gen- 

 eral traffic, from the hives to the 

 water, from the water to the sugar, 

 and from the sugar back to the hives. 

 What a godsend ! especially this 

 year, after the failure of the locust 

 bloom and the shortage of nectar in 

 the sweet clover and other wild 

 honey plants. But it was some work 

 to convert this mass of sugar into 

 syrup and to store it in the hives. 

 However, at the end of four days 

 there was not a trace of sugar left, 

 the entire carload had been stored 

 away. 



"We must say that the workers dis- 

 played extraordinary activity and got 

 up earlier and went to bed later than 

 usual. 



'We must say, also, that quite a 

 portion of the sugar was taken away 

 by bipeds, but the latter often de- 

 sisted in the fear of stings from their 

 competitors, the bees; for many did 

 not know that in such an occurrence 

 the bees do not sting. 



"Finally, the latter secured the 

 greater part of the booty, and this 

 unexpected harvest will enable them 

 to keep up their colonies till the 

 blooming of the heather, which is 

 just commencing in the Forest of 

 Fontainebleau." 



Isle of Wight Disease 



The British Board of Agriculture 

 and Fisheries has appointed a com- 

 mittee to study the life habits of the 

 honey bee with the object of im- 

 proving the conditions under which 

 beekeeping is carried on in England 

 and Wales, and to investigate the 

 epidemic diseases of the bee, more 

 especially the disease or group of 

 diseases which pass under the name 

 of "Isle of Wight" disease. The 

 committee consists of: The Master 

 of Christ's College, Cambridge (Dr. 

 A. E. Shipley, F. R. S.) ; Professor 

 Punnett, F. R. S. professor of genet- 

 ics, Cambridge) ; Dr. G. S. Graham 

 Smith, M. D. ; Professor G. C. 

 Bourne, F. R. S., D. Sc. (professor of 

 zoology and comparative anatomy, 

 Oxford) ; Professor W. Somerville 

 (professor of rural economy, Ox- 

 ford) ; Mr. T. W. Cowan (chairman 

 of the British Beekeepers' Associa- 

 tion) ; Mr. G. W. Bullamore ; Mr. J. 

 C. Bee Mason, and Mr. A. G. L. Rog- 

 ers (head of the Horticulture Branch, 

 Board of Agriculture and Fisheries). 

 Mr. R. H. Adie will act as secretary. 

 It is proposed to undertake the study 

 of healthy bees at Cambridge and 

 the investigation on Isle of Wight 

 disease at Oxford. The committee 

 would be glad to receive specimens 

 of bees suspected of suffering from 

 "Isle of Wight" disease for examina- 

 tion and experiment. 



