American Hee JonrnaJj 



hem. The feeder being inverted over 

 he hole in the paper, the blocks around 

 he edges hold it up a bee-space off the 

 op-bars so the bees can get at all the 

 perforations instead of just those that 

 happen to come between the top-bars. 

 The important point, however, is that 

 the feeder and the paper hold all the 

 heat down where it is needed, and the 

 bees don't have to keep the super 

 warm. If the blocks are fitted up to 

 one another, the bees won't gnaw the 

 paper, and none can get up to crawl 

 over the feeder (and zip up on to the 

 him who feeds!); tip the pepper-bo.x, 

 puff down some smoke, take it off and 

 put a full one on, are all very little 

 trouble. 



North Platte, Nebr. 



Let-AIone Plan of Stimulating 

 Bees in Spring 



BY F. H. CVRENIUS. 



For a great many years many bee- 

 keepers have advised some form of 

 spring stimulating, and I have practiced 

 it for many years myself. Of late years, 

 however, I have abandoned the plan, 

 believing it does more harm than good, 

 especially in early spring. If the bees 

 at this time have plenty of honey they 

 will have all the brood thev can care 

 for. 



Now, to stimulate means more 

 activity; they are induced to fly more 

 in cold, windy weather, when they 

 would be better off in the hive. 



There is no question but there are 

 times when it will pay to stimulate. 

 Just before fruit-bloom would be as 

 early as I would think advisable, and 

 just after fruit-bloom we can not afford 

 to allow any colonies to get low on 

 stores, and stimulating at just this time 

 until June 10th would result in profit. 



Where a fall flow is expected, stimu- 

 lating from July 10th or l-5th to Aug. 

 1st, would be a profitable investment. 

 As a rule, the bees <hat have an abun- 

 dance of honey will outstrip the so- 

 called stimulated colony every time. 



It must also be remembered that 

 the bees are at the height of breeding, 

 they consume their stores very fast, 

 and the first we know they are curtail- 

 ing breeding because their stores are 

 being exhausted. Keep them booming 

 until the flow comes, then the less egg- 

 laying the more honey. 



Oswego, N. Y. 



■ I ■ 



Bees Covered Witli Snow in 

 Winter 



BY C. M. DOOLITTLE. 



"I have moved to a new location. Near 

 the house is a low piece of ground which I 

 am told fills with snow every winter, and 

 ^stays thus till the elms and soft maple 

 bloom. Would this not be a good place to 

 put my bees for winter i" Why would it not 

 be as good as a celUir ? A reply through the 

 American Bee Journal would obliye." — A 



COBRESI'ONDKNT. 



Occasionally, down through the 40 

 odd years of my bee-keeping life, this 

 subject has been brought up through 

 the bee-papers and at conventions, not 

 a few arguing in favor of wintering 

 bees under the snow, and some have 

 even advocated putting up a partial 

 wind-break, so that the hives contain- 



ing bees might be drifted under, such 

 claiming that the more snow over the 

 hives the better ; but after my many ex- 

 periences along this line, I can not 

 help but think, for Central New York, 

 at least, this is a mistaken idea. 



My experience has been, where hives 

 are covered with snow, the bees inhab- 

 iting them did not winter well. In fact, 



1 am led to believe that the bees do not 

 come out nearly so well in spring 

 where the hives are thus covered as they 

 do where there is no snow about any 

 part of the hive during the whole win- 

 ter. But where the snow can come up 

 to the top of the brood-chamber, and 

 no higher, it may possibly be a little 

 help during a long cold spell, where 

 the mercury stays below zero for sev- 

 eral weeks at a time ; but even then I 

 would about as soon risk their safe 

 wintering with no snow about them. 



For the first few winters after com- 

 mencing to keep bees, I wintered all I 

 had in the cellar under the house, as 

 the man from whom I bought my first 



2 colonies wintered his bees in this 

 way. As there was only a small cellar 

 under the house, and this mostly oc- 

 cupied with vegetables and things 

 needed by the average family, it be- 

 came crowded as the bees increased, 

 so I decided to winter on the summer 

 stands thereafter, all that the cellar 

 would not hold. 



During the winter, when the first 

 " overflow " were left out, I became ac- 

 quainted with a man who had lately 

 moved about 10 miles away from me, 

 and upon going to his bee-yard I found 

 his hives nearly covered with snow 

 which lay up around them in little 

 heaps, so that the hives and snow made 

 little cone-like pyramids all through 

 the yard. Upon asking, he told me 

 that he swept the snow up about each 

 hive every time there was a snow-fall, 

 till he had them covered nearly to the 

 top, as I saw them, but after the top 

 was nearly reached he allowed them to 

 remain, as he wished the cracks about 

 the top of the hive left open so as to 

 carry off the moisture which came from 

 the bees up through the packing he 

 had over them into the outside air, so 

 the packing and the bees would be 

 kept dry. 



I asked him if this sweeping of snow 

 about the hives was not a job to be 

 dreaded. He said, " No, it is good ex- 

 ercise for a bee-keeper during winter, 

 and much cheaper than to build a cel- 

 lar purposely for the bees." I was 

 quite taken with the idea, and as we 

 soon had a heavy fall of snow, I went 

 to sweeping, and in a week or so had 

 the hives on the summer stands nearly 

 covered from sight. Even now, by 

 memory, I can see those pyramids of 

 white snow all over that part of the 

 apiary where bees were left, which 

 made a picturesque view that was quite 

 enchanting. 



At the end of a few weeks there came 

 a thaw, and when I went out to look at 

 the hives I found that the warmth from 

 the bees had so thawed the snow about 

 the brood-chamber that a small dog 

 could go all around between the hives 

 and the snow. To say I was pleased 

 would hardly express my delight, and 

 it appeared that this was a much more 

 preferable way to winter bees than 

 even ' the cellar. But a few minutes 



later I had my doubts in the matter, for 

 upon examination I found that the 

 bees were very uneasy, so much so that 

 they were ready to fly out and perish 

 on the snow as soon as one corner of 

 the quilt under the packing was raised 

 a little, instead of being quiet, as all 

 bees are when wintered well, when it is 

 not warm enough for them to fly. 



After this we had very little snow the 

 rest of the winter, and when spring 

 had fairly opened, I had only three- 

 fifths alive of those left out, and these 

 colonies which were alive were very 

 weak in bees. But I thought that, had 

 the snow continued all winter the loss 

 would not have occurred, and so the 

 next winter found me anxious to try 

 the matter again, which I did to its 

 fullest extent, as we had snow so the 

 hives were kept covered from the mid- 

 dle of December to nearly April. After 

 the snow went off I found I had few 

 bees left, as the most of the colonies 

 were dead, and the few colonies that 

 were left were very weak in bees, with 

 the combs foul with excrement and 

 nearly destitute of honey, so I had 

 nearly a total loss except the hives and 

 combs. Since then I hav never again 

 swept snow around the hives, but at 

 different times had colonies drifted un- 

 der so that the hives were out of sight 

 for a month or two, and at all such 

 times more or less injury to the colo- 

 nies proved to be the case. 



In one case (the winter of our deep 

 snow with extreme high winds), there 

 was snow to the depth of from 5 to 8 

 feet over some of the hives, so that I 

 lost track of a few of them altogether. 

 Of these colonies, not a single one was 

 alive on the first day of May. 



The difficulty seems to be, in this 

 locality, that as soon as the hives are 

 covered with snow the pure air is cut 

 off to a certain extent, which combined 

 with the warmth from the ground, the 

 snow not allowing that and the warmth 

 from the bees to escape, bring about 

 conditions so unusual that the bees be- 

 come uneasy, breaking the cluster 

 which otherwise would remain com- 

 pact, go to breeding, consume an un- 

 due amount of stores, and die of diar- 

 rhea and exhausted vitality before any 

 of the brood, or a sufficient amount of 

 the same, emerges from the cells to 

 take the place of the old bees which 

 are prematurely dying off under these 

 conditions. In some of these hives 

 nearly a quart of fuzzy young bees, to- 

 gether with the queen, were found 

 dead in a cluster together, thus show- 

 ing that they did not have the vigor to 

 carry on things in cold weather that 

 they do in the summer season. 



For these reasons I would advise all 

 who are not sure of their ground, to go 

 slow about putting bees where they are 

 liable to be covered with snow for any 

 great length of time, until they kiiozv 

 what the result will be in their locality. 

 Some tell me that they succeed admir- 

 ably in thus wintering, and I am bound 

 to believe them. Therefore, to know 

 what the results will be with any par- 

 ticular individual, and in any particular 

 locality, without any great loss, I 

 would try 2 or 3 colonies for a winter 

 or two. If they winter well you can 

 safely try more; otherwise you might 

 be obliged to chronicle the loss of 

 nearly the whole apiary. 



