THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



147 



Apiarists in general, do not attach 

 enough importance to the necessity of 

 furnishing water to bees in cold springs, 

 in order that they may slav at home in 

 quiet. * '^ In March and April, the ra- 

 pidly-increasing amount of brood causes 

 an increased demand for water; and when 

 the thermometer is as low as 45°, bees 

 may be seen carrying it in at noon, even 

 on windy da\'s, although many are sure 

 to perish with cold. * During a pro- 

 tracted period of nnfavoral)le weather says 

 Berlepsch "we gave all our bees water, 

 ami they remained at liotiie in quiet, 

 whilst tliose of other apiarists were flying 

 luiskty in seare/i of water. At the begin- 

 ning of j\lay our hives xcere croivded zuit/i 

 dees: whilst the colonies of our neigh- 

 bors u'ere mostly weak. * * One hun- 

 dred colonies required eleven Berlin 

 quarts per week, to keep up brood rearing 

 uninterruptedly. " . . That bees can 

 not raise much brood without water, . 

 has been known from the times of Aris- 

 totle. 



Within a few days I have had the im- 

 portance of water for bees 1)rought to my 

 notice more forcibly than usual. On the 

 4th of April, as the day bid fair to be warm, 

 I took some of my bees from the cellar 

 and placed them on their summer stands; 

 but before they had a chance for a good 

 flight it turned suddenly cold. The hives 

 were packed in chaff, but the next day, 

 with the thermometer at 40°, the bees be- 

 gan to fly, and I won<lered why they were 

 in such a hurr} to get out. I soon found 

 out. The lawn in front of the hives has 

 been covered with manure during the 

 winter, and at this time was moist with 

 water from a light fall of snow the day 

 before, and I saw that nearly all the bees 

 that left the hives almost immediately 

 lighted on the manure and commenced 

 sucking up the water; which, being 

 almost icy cold, chilled the bees so 

 that only a few returned to their hives. 

 S])onges and cloths saturated with warm 

 water and placed at the, hive entrances at 

 once stopped their eagerness to leave 

 their hues. 



In removing the bees from the cellar I 

 noticed a goodly number of larvie lying 

 on top of the hive beneath the one re- 

 moved. They were somewhat shrunken 

 and rather drv. I have seen this same 



dry and .shrunken condition before, but 

 gave the matter no further thought. 

 Since noting what is quoted above, it 

 has occurred to me that perhaps this is 

 caused by a lack of water while the bees 

 in the cellar are actively engaged in brood 

 rearing; and, being a little curious to 

 know how they would act if furnished 

 with water, I stopped writing and took a 

 small sponge and saturated it with warm 

 water, and with a lamp I went to the cel- 

 lar and pinned the wet sponge to the 

 front of a hive, against the bees hanging 

 there. Well, it was just a picnic to see 

 the nice, clean little ladies turn almost 

 immediately, and without any buzzing or 

 bluster, put out their tongues and take a 

 drink. Occasionally a cranky one would 

 start out on the dead run, to see what was 

 going on, I suppose, but the instant she 

 found the sponge was wet she would stop 

 so quickly as to nearly set her on her head. 

 Each colony watered seemed to be equal- 

 ly anxious for a drink. 



About half an hour after I had placed 

 the sponges I again visited the cellar, and 

 not a bee was on a sponge, although fully 

 half the water had been taken from them, 

 and I found the sponges quite cold, but 

 on again saturating them with warm wa- 

 ter the bees were ready for another drink, 

 but not so anxious for it at first. 



Toledo, Ohio, April 19, 1S99. 



Department of 



riticism 



CONDUCTED BY R. L. TAYLOR. 



Blame where you must, be cantlif! where you can, 

 And be each critic the (iood-natured Man. 



GOLDSMITH. 



WHY DOES MR. ROOT PUT ON A 

 SECOND STORY? 



Mr. Getazin the American Bee Journal, 

 146, in speaking of two-story brood-nests, 

 suggests that " E. R. Root wants to add 



