54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Jan. 15 



ing as the weather was too cold. On Jan. 4 

 a cold wave struck this locality and lasted 

 for about 10 days. About the 25th, bees 

 were flying from most of the hives; and on 

 the 27tn, smce a number were suspiciously 

 Quiet, they were examined and found to be 

 dead, absolutely without honey and pollen. 

 The others were glanced into, and found 

 mostly to be on the edge of starvation. Then 

 began a long weary fight with spring dwin- 

 dling. In this I learned something about 

 spring feeding in a cool climate. I tried feed- 

 ing syrup from below, and discovered that 

 the bees will not touch syrup so presented 

 unless the air temperature is above 50°. Then 

 I made candy, which was all right, and fed 

 many pounds on top of the frames; but the 

 quickest results I got was by giving soft 

 brown sugar, Demerara or Porto Rico, in a 

 frame affair set in the hive to one side of the 

 brood-nest. Had I had a Doolittle feeder I 

 would have tried it. But the bees needed 

 pollen as much as sugar, and this I could 

 not give them. For weeks the thermometer 

 never rose above 48°, and, though willow 

 blossoms were plentiful from Feb. 22, the 

 polLn famine continued until well into April. 

 Often I wished Dr. Miller or some other bee 

 genius would invent a method of feeding rye 

 four in the hive. 



Here is the mortality record for the various 

 styles of hives. Langstroth: Original num- 

 ber, 2; died of starvation, 0; spring dwindling, 

 1; per cent of loss, 50. 



Two division: Original number, 6; died of 

 starvation, 0; spring dwindling, 3; per cent 

 of loss, 50. One division: Original number, 

 12; died of starvation, 6; spring dwindling, 3; 

 per cent of loss, 75. 



All classes of hives, it will be seen, lost 

 heavily; but a little explanation will modify 

 these bald figures a little. The two Lang- 

 stroths had stores of honey, even at the end 

 of March. On March 18 one was in good 

 enough shape to tempt me to put a weak 

 hive on top, and a week later I found the 

 queen in the upper division had begun to 

 lay. April 2, flight looked very scanty, so I 

 examined the lower division and found a big 

 heap of dead bees on the bottom-board — no 

 bees on combs, and not a scrap of pollen in 

 frames; but there was about 2 lbs. of honey. 

 On combining by the Alexander method I 

 put wire netting above the excluder for two 

 days, and had fed above a pint of syrup ev- 

 ery night for a week. In other cases I had 

 found this method seemed to work all right. 



The story of No. 23, a double-division hive, 

 is worthy of record. It was rather familiar- 

 ly known as "skiddoo," and almost "skid- 

 dooed;" but now it is called rather profanely 

 "resurgam." Feb. 11, seeing no flying bees 

 I examined the hive and was astounded to 

 find a lot of apparently dead bees without a 

 scrap of stores, either honey or pollen. I 

 picked up frame after frame, each covered 

 with dead bees — not a tremor of leg or wing 

 being visible. A few fell into the nollow of 

 my hand, and, acting on impulse, I breathed 

 on them for a few minutes, then I saw a few 

 legs move a little. I hunted for the queen, 



and, finding her, tried the effect of breath- 

 ing on her majesty. I fancied one leg quiver- 

 ed a little, so I replaced the combs in the 

 hive, placing the queen with a loose handful 

 of apparently dead bees on top of the frames. 

 I put the hive on top of another colony with 

 wire netting between. Lastly I mixed hon- 

 ey with water, and trickled over the bees 

 and combs, then put some candy on the 

 frames. 



I was not hopeful of any good results, but 

 next day I was much astonished to find the 

 bees very much alive; and two days later the 

 hive was replaced on the old stand. It sim- 

 ply kept alive until March 27, when I found a 

 little brood; so I gave it a little sealed brood 

 to help along with young bees. April 7, 

 having bought some more hives I put it at 

 the top of one of them for three days, then 

 moved the old hive to a new stand. It ad- 

 vanced right along, and by the end of the 

 season no hive had more honey-dew in its 

 combs than that had. My notebook says 40 

 pounds. 



But for a happy thought. No. 23 would 

 have been among the dead, and the percent- 

 age of deaths of the two division hives would 

 have been 66 — that is, nearly equal to the 

 single-divison colonies. 



My friend Mr. Russell wintered his hives 

 pretty much as I did; and in comparing notes 

 we arrived at these general conclusions: 



The one-division hive was as successful as 

 the two-division one. 



A deep-rim bottom-board was as success- 

 ful as a shallow one. 



Since one of the oldest bee-keepers in this 

 locality has frequently wintered on 12 lbs. of 

 stores, and once on as little as 10, our 25 lbs. 

 per colony ought to have been sufficient. 



Our best results, but not numerous enough 

 to justify generalization without other evi- 

 dence, were with the hives that had not been 

 transferred. 



We could not blame the strain of bees; for 

 in my own case two out of three of the old 

 queens died, all the first importation of young 

 queens, and five out of the dozen of the sec- 

 ond lot. 



We believe there was no honey-dew in 

 our hives. I had fed an average of 15 lbs. of 

 sugar to each. 



The almost complete absence of pollen in 

 the frames, although much was carried in 

 during the fall months, led me for a long 

 time to think that the young queen in the 

 mild weather of November and December 

 had bred freely, and so used up the stores. 

 The bountiful supply of dead Dees on the 

 frames still further confirmed this suspicion. 

 But in the course of my reading I stumbled 

 on another idea which, the more I think of 

 it, appears to be the best explanation of my 

 failure in wintering. It is found in "A Mod- 

 ern Bee-farm, "by Simmins, who emphatical- 

 ly advises that only old brood-combs should 

 be used for wintering, insisting strongly 

 that the cocoons and other matter in the 

 combs prevent the conduction of heat, where- 

 as pure wax, as in new combs, permits the 

 heat to disperse rapidly, and the bees soon 



