ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



57 



•certain that such winter brood-rearing 

 is highly injurious to the colony. 



Time for Unpacking. — If a colony has 

 a, good queen and plenty of stores and 

 is well packed, the bee-keeper rarely 

 has any reason for opening the hive 

 until spring is well advanced. If he is 

 not sure of the condition of the colony, 

 he may wish to examine it earlier, but 

 this first examination should be brief 

 and the packing may be partially re- 

 moved and replaced afterwards. If 

 there are any queenless colonies or any 

 colonies short of stores, these defects 

 should, of course, be promptly correct- 

 ed, after which the colony should re- 

 main undisturbed until, as the season 

 advances, frequent manipulations are 

 necessary. It is often best to leave the 

 insulation on until the colonies need 

 more room, which will probably be as 

 late as May 15 in the north. Colonies 

 which have wintered poorly need their 

 insulation longest, while colonies that 

 have been well insulated, either in a 

 cellar or outside, can, if necessary, 

 stand considerable exposure without 

 much damage, although the work of 

 Tieat-generation thereby reduces the 

 energy available for building up the 

 colony rapidly. 



The time for removing packing may 

 be still further delayed by wintering a 

 colony outside in two -hive bodies, the 

 upper one being well supplied with 

 Tioney. Since there is more space to 

 keep warm, such a hive should be more 

 thoroughlj- insulated. If this plan is 

 followed, the bee-keeper is sure that 

 sufficient stores are available and he 

 can probably locate any queenless col- 

 onies by a brief external examination. 

 Since wintering in two-hive bodies has 

 not been practiced evtens'vely. it sViould 

 be tried with caution, but reports of 

 this method should be available from 

 all parts of the country and bee-keepers 

 are urged to try it on an experimental 

 .scale. The p]$in has much to commend 

 it. 



Providing a Windbreak. — It is well 

 established \that a windbreak of ever- 

 greens is superior to a solid wind- 

 break, such as a house or solid fence. 

 The bee-keeper can readily determine 

 whether his bees are located in a place 

 where the wind rarelv or never blows 

 more than 5 miles an hour in winter. If 

 the apiary is not so located, it should be 

 moved during the summer to a place 

 in the woods, in a gully, or in some 



other sheltered place. Bees should 

 never be moved in winter. If it is not 

 practicable to move the apiary, a high 

 fence, perhaps S feet high, should be 

 constructed on the exposed sides. The 

 more compact the apiary, the easier it 

 is to construct a windbreak, which is 

 an argument for placing colonies in 

 groups of four. Evergreens are slow 

 growing, and a high fence may be used 

 until the permanent windbreak is suffi- 

 cient. If the apiary is practically sur- 

 rounded by buildings, this may be ade- 

 quate protection, but such a location is 

 usually not the most convenient for 

 the apiary. A southern exposure is 

 usually recommended as best for win- 

 ter, for it is claimed that the heat of 

 the sun is beneficial'. SiniSe the sun 

 shines onlj' a small fraction of the time 

 in winter in most localities, especially 

 in the east, where there is TmichT cloudy 

 weather, this feature should not be un- 

 duly emphasized. 



Providing Adequate Winter Stores. 



The amount of honey that a colony 

 will need from the time it is packed un- 

 til it is unpacked can not be closely 

 estimated. The aim of the bee-keeper 

 in winter should be to save bees rather 

 than honey, and he can make no more 

 profitable investment than to give his 

 bees more than they can possibly use. 

 Some bee-keepers claim that it is best 

 to have the old bees die soon, so as to 

 save stores. The actual consumption in 

 such badly wintered apiaries is prob- 

 ably not at all decreased. 



If the bees do not have sufficient 

 stores, they may be given_cornbs_x>f 

 honey, but these sIToura'^Iwaysbe giv- 

 en before cold weather, so that a- prop- 

 er clustering space may be formed by 

 the moving of honey, since bees always 

 cluster in empty cells of the comb ad- 

 jacent to stores. 



If honey in combs is not available, 

 the bees may be fed extracted honey, 

 but the usual practice is to feed a thick 

 sugar syrup made, of 2 or 2i/^ parts of 

 sugar to 1 part *of Avater by volume. To 

 this syrup 1 ounce of tartaric acid 

 should be added for each 40 to 60 

 pounds of sugar while the syrup is be- 

 ing heated to the boiling point to dis- 

 solve the sugar crystals. The syrup 

 should be boiled 15 minutes. The acid 

 helps to invert the cane sugar, thus 

 retarding its granulation in the combs. 

 If there is any question as to the qual- 

 ity of the stores, it is a good practice 



