58 WINTERING BEES 



BO BEES HIBEBNATEf 



We have spoken of the quiescent state or sleep into which 

 bees enter when the wintering conditions are ideal. In this 

 period of semi-hibernation the bees seem merely to exist. 

 With no activity the consuniption of stores is very light. 

 As the reader may wish to pursue this subject a little fur- 

 ther we have thought best to take it up to help solve some 

 of the wintering problems, and, perhaps, lead to some good 

 results from an economic point of view. 



Hibernation was exploited about 30 years ago, when it 

 was generally decided, and rightly, too, that bees do not 

 hibernate in the ordinary sense of the term (see American 

 Bee Journal for 1885). But they do enter a quiescent state 

 when the temperature has been lowered; and this state is 

 somewhat analogous to the torpor experienced by some ani- 

 mals in a state of true hibernation, ' during which no. food 

 is taken, and respiration js considerably reduced. Dr. Mar- 

 shall Hall has stated that " respiration is inversely as the 

 degree of irritability of the muscular fiber." If the respira- 

 tion is reduced without this irritability being increased, 

 death results from asphyxia. Hibernation is usually indue- , 

 ed by cold, and the animal under its influence attains nearly 

 the temperature of the surrounding atmposhere, yet can not 

 resist any amount of cold, although its capacity for doing 

 so varies according to the animal Some animals bury them- 

 selves in holes, like snakes and frogs ; others, like the bear, 

 crawl under a pile of leaves and brush where they are still 

 further covered with snow. Thus buried they will go all 

 winter without food or water; but there is a waste of tissue. 

 Fish may be encased in ice and still live, it is said. A lively 

 frog may be dropped into a pail of water four or five inches 

 deep, and exposed to a freezing temperature. Indeed, there 

 may be a thin coating of ice formed over the animal. The 

 next morning, that frog, though stiff and cold, can be warm- 

 ed up into activity, but to freeze solid will kill the creature. 



riies, as is well known, will secrete themselves in window- 

 frames and other hiding places, subject to cold atmosphere, 



