lEl}t '^u-'^tti^tts J^iJtoitt. 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF HONEY PRODUCERS 



^1.00 A fpar 



E. B. TYRRELL, Editorand Publisher 

 Office OF Publication - - - 2 30 NA/oodlan d Aven u e 



VOL. XXIV. 



DETROIT, MICHIGAN, OCTOBER 1, 1911. 



No. 10. 



Essentials in Outdoor Wintering. 



RALPH BENTON. 



OVER and over again there have 

 been borne in upon the writer a 

 iew cardinal points to be ob- 

 served in the successful wintering of 

 bees in the open. These points have 

 been raised and tested under different 

 conditions and they always fundamen- 

 tally remain the same. In his early 

 bee-keeping experience under the 

 changeable and trying winter climatic 

 conditions of Maryland and the District 

 pf Columbia the writer has abundant 

 opportunity to observe the effects of 

 different modes of wintering and cer- 

 tain features were settled upon as of 

 important practical bearing in the win- 

 tering problem. Later a series of varied 

 and elaborate experiments with the 

 same end in view were prosecuted 

 through several seasons under the 

 northern rigors of Montana winter 

 weather, where the mercury not infre- 

 quently falls from 30° to 40° below the 

 zero point (Fahrenheit), and where a 

 dry cold prevails, with approximately 

 the same results. And finally, during 



the past four or five years in the mild- 

 er, but damp, foggy, penetrating and 

 not entirely agreeable winter weather 

 of California, much evidence through 

 personal experience has been accumu- 

 lated pointing to the university of 

 many truths and features indispensable 

 to successful winter practice. 



Of late there has been much interest 

 manifested in determining just how 

 much cold the individual bee will stand 

 and for what duration of time low tem- 

 peratures will be stood. The writer has 

 always held that bees could stand al- 

 most any amount of cold for varying 

 periods of time provided certain other 

 factors of humidity, nutrition, etc., re- 

 main favorable and constant. The sim- 

 ple experiment of picking up bees that 

 have lain out over night on the snow 

 crust in the dead of winter, and which 

 from all appearances are dead, and by 

 the application of dry heat bringing 

 them back to activity, of itself demon- 

 strates the extreme^ resistence of the 

 honey bee to cold. This condition 



