()62 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



WINTERING BEES OUT OF DOORS. 



./. C. Bergen, before Humboldt County Farmers' Institute. 



In order to successfully winter bees, you must love the little bee and 

 enjoy caring for them, as we always have better success when we work 

 in the spirit of love for the work, or the object itself. 



To winter bees successfully do not take all of their stores from them 

 in the fall and expect them to gather sufficient to keep them alive through 

 the winter after frost comes. One who cares for his bees in this way will 

 find that many of them have ceased their gentle hum for they will have 

 all died long before the robins come in the spring. 



I was asked to write a paper on wintering bees out of doors. I sup- 

 pose one could write of as many ways as there are apiarists, and every one 

 is perhaps partial to his own plan and is more or less successful with it 

 in their vicinity. 



About the first of September we remove all surplus honey, either comb 

 or extracted; then after this is cared for we go through each colony and in- 

 spect the amount of honey and bees in the brood chamber. If we find a 

 colony with more bees than we think is necessary to winter well (as we 

 do not want too many bees to go into winter quarters with and would pre- 

 fer a colony that covers six frames full rather than one that covers eight 

 frames). We change places with all weaker ones, to the stand of stronger 

 and in that way even them up as to the number of bees in each colony. We 

 then feed all colonies that need it, and you will find most all need it. 



We find it more profitable to take honey away from them and then 

 feed sugar syrup. The profit comes from two sources. We feed from 

 ten to fifteen pounds of granulated sugar with the same weight of water, 

 making a total of sugar and water fed to each colony twenty to thirty 

 pounds at a cost of from fifty to seventy-five cents per colony for their 

 winter feed bill. Now this same amount in honey would only buy four 

 to six sections of honey and all beekeepers know that that amount of 

 honey or even two or three times that, would not keep the colony through 

 the winter. You would hardly dare begin on less than twenty sections 

 of honey or even two or three times that, would not keep the colony 

 through the winter. You would hardly dare begin on less than twenty sec- 

 tions of honey to winter a colony, and that at twelve and a half cents per 

 section, which is an average price in this vicinity would make the cost two 

 dollars and fifty cents for winter stores per colony. Then again the bees 

 winter better, there are fewer dead bees in hive in spring and the colony 

 is stronger in bees than those wintered on all honey. 



After feeding is through contract the entrance with blocks, to about 

 three inches long by three inches wide. We then pack the supper, first 

 using the Miller device or tops from peach baskets. We like the last better 

 as they are higher, placing two of the tops side by side they cover the 

 ten frame hives nicely and give about one inch bee space above brood 

 frames, we then put on a thick layer of woolen covering. We then fill 

 the balance of the supper with old newspapers, layed in nicely to fit into 



