THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



8i 



ject to the weallier vveij^h more than dry- 

 hives do that are liable to he taken from 

 the store-room; colonies of bees differ 

 very much as to size and weij^ht; old 

 combs weij^h double that of new ones; 

 combs from a colony whirh wasqueenloss 

 for some time during; the summer will of- 

 ten contain pollen to one half of the 

 amoimt allowed for cellar-wintering; 

 hence these and other factors make that 

 method of procedure little better than 

 guesswork. " 



I agree with him in his subsequent 

 statement that ' the amount named is 

 too little by far. " I have known colonies 

 wintered indoors, which did not winter 

 very well, on account of the inferior qual- 

 ities of their stores, use 15 pounds and 

 more before they were taken out in the 

 spring; so the amount named w'ould not 

 always be enough to carry them over the 

 winter; much less, to supply them with 

 the abundance so necessary to their well- 

 being in the spring when brood rearing 

 should be pushing with the greatest fer- 

 vor. There is no economy in allowing 

 the bees just enough stores to last them 

 over the winter; much less is there 

 economy in putting one's self to a large 

 amount of disagreeable labor to secure 

 the provision of a bare sufficiency. 



.\s a rule, for wintering purposes, bees 

 should be allowed not less than twice 

 enough to carry them safely over an or- 

 dinarily trying winter. Xo doubt Doolit- 

 tle would assent to this proposition, for 

 he teaches that each colony should be 

 provided with 25 i)ounds of honey. 

 Though I had, one winter, a few colonies 

 each consume 15 pounds or more of stores 

 — about 18 pounds being the greatest I 

 have known in a single case — yet 25 lb. is 

 considerably more than twice the average 

 consumption of my colonies up to the 

 time of removal from the cellar. It fol- 

 lows from these rules that there is abso- 

 lutely no call for anv close calculation 

 in order to determine the amount to be 

 provided each colony. Sufficient is too 

 little — there must be enough. Deter- 

 mining the amount to the fraction of a 



pound involves the tearing up of every 

 brood nest in the apiary — an operation, 

 the question of the labor neces.sary, aside, 

 whicli is not to be encouraged. In the 

 hands of a Doolitlle the damage might he 

 little or none, but on account of a proba- 

 ble ill-arrangement of combs, and delay 

 till an unseasonable time, there would 

 not, in many cases be any security against 

 ill results. There is nothing in the vary- 

 ing weights of hives and combs to prevent 

 the giving ( f enough to each colony with- 

 out either the breaking up of brood nests 

 or tile allowing of an injuriously great 

 quantity of stores. By this course, / c, 

 the weighing of colonies instead of combs, 

 the examination of the brood combs may 

 be deferred until spring, with the greatest 

 certainty of safety, so far as the amount 

 of stores is concerned, when the ordinary 

 examinations that must be made in any 

 event will determine the colonies requir- 

 ing additional stores. 



Evidently Doolittle appreciates, to some 

 extent, the magnitude of the work he 

 lays out for his pupils, for he "hears 

 some one say ' It would be a fearful job to 

 shake the bees off from every- comb in a 

 colony and weigh each comb separate- 

 ly, ' " and grants that it would be if done 

 with each colony; a course which he never- 

 theless thinks would pay in the long run; 

 but goes on to make the concession that 

 " you will have to do this with only- tw-o 

 or three till you get the right conception 

 of just how much honey there is in each 

 frame by simply lifting it from the hive 

 and looking at it, when you can count off 

 the num.ber of pounds almost to a certainty 

 and do it as rapidly as you can handle the 

 frames," till I begin to wonder whether 

 the guesswork he employs is better than 

 the guesswork he condemns. With the 

 majority of persons I should prefer that 

 which he condemns. Again, I fear he es- 

 timates the'feaiful job " by his own 

 measure. There are other conditions 

 that make a difference besides locality. 

 Not every one can endure 15 hours of 

 hard labor a day. Some that could, deem 

 it unwise to do so; and some that could 



