142 AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE BULLETINS. 



POINTS TO BE CONSIDERED. 



Bees are natives of a warm clitnate, which would lead to the conclusion that 

 in rigorous climates they would need protection, especially at times of i^reat 

 cold. The fact that winter losses are never heard of in California and the 

 south strengthens the argument, which seems almost demonstrated by the fact 

 that our losses in the north always occur in winters of great and long contin- 

 ued cold. 



Again, bees are very neat, and in confinement hold their fecal excreta, or 

 try to, till they can fly. If kept very quiet, they eat very little — we have had 

 single colonies of bees pass four and five months in the cellar without consuming 

 more than four or five lbs. of honey— and the food they do eat when thus ((uiet 

 is large] V, if not wholly, of honey, and so there is very little waste. Thus, 

 when quiet, bees need not fly to discharge their feces and so bear confinement 

 for months with no harm. The best condition to maintain this needed quiet 

 is uniform temperature, which experience has demonstrated should be about 

 45° F. I prefer the temperature about the hive to be kept at from 40'^ F. to 

 45° F. In a surrounding temperature much higher or lower, the bees are dis- 

 turbed-, exercise much, eat more and become diarrhetic. 



From years of experience and observation, it seems pretty well demonstrated 

 that with enough good, wholesome food — 30 lbs. of good honey or cane sugar 

 syrup— and a uniform temperature as suggested above, our bees will winter 

 invariably without loss. 



DAMPNESS AND VENTILATION. 



It would seem that a damp atmosphere, which, as we all know, is favorable 

 to the growth and development of fungi, and inimical to healtli in higher ani- 

 mals, would be harmful to bees. It has been found, however, that in many 

 cases, even during terribly disastrous winters like the past one, bees have win- 

 tered remarkably well in very damp cellars. Tlius while we may presume 

 that a very dain(» atmosphere is not the best, yet we may safely assert, other 

 things being all favorable, that it of itself -will not carry the seeds of mortality 

 with it. 



Ventilation has also been much discussed, and various theories have been 

 ofl'ered. Yet the physiologist, and especially the physio-entomologist, will not 

 be easily persuaded that insects whose functional activity is so slight, that a 

 minimum of food supplies their wants stand in need of much air. One year at 

 the college I sealed a large colony of bees with ice frozen solid at the entrance 

 of the hive, and yet the colony wintered exceptionally well. This colony 

 remained for more than three months entombed in a snow bank. As the hive 

 was glued or propolized at the top we can see that the ventilation was slight 

 indeed. Thus physiology and experience both show that under the best con- 

 ditions litle heed need be "iven to ventilation. While bees do not hibernate in 

 the sense of becoming totally inactive, yet they may and should have their vital 

 activity kept at the minimum else they will need air and quite ample ventila- 

 tion. As we have already seen, cold or heat — that is a temperature much 

 below or above 45° F. — arouses bees, excites nutrition, and of course would 

 necessitate more food and oxygen, and so more ventilation. Unless we can 

 keep the bees then in just the condition to enforce quiet, we must arrange for 

 ample ventilation. 



It goes without saying, that the temperature inside a hive, in which bees are 

 wintering, must generally be warnicr than that outside the same. The fact 



