1910 



aLKAXIX(iS IX BEE CULTUIIK 



•2G1 



len in the cells — in this resi)ect lieing in 

 irreat contrast to the colonies where iMood- 

 raising had been started, for there the gold- 

 en-yellow pollen was conspicuous in areas 

 as large as one's palm. Two days later the 

 suspicious hives were gone through careful- 

 ly; but no brood being found or queens vis- 

 ible, the colonies were combined with others. 



By the middle of March the net result of 

 my first exi)erience in wintering with hon- 

 ey-dew in the hives was thus: Alive, 21; 

 dead of starvation, (i: queenless. S. The res- 

 urrected hive had. on Feb. 26, been combin- 

 eil with another whose queen was found ly- 

 ing outside. The comljined colony showed 

 brooil in a coujjle of frames on March 12, 

 but I noticed a slight dent in the'abdomen 

 of the queen. 



Once the returns are in. comes the interest- 

 ing work of nuiking percentages of the re- 

 sults; but. unfortunately, it is not always 

 easy to unravel the complications that nat- 

 urally arise. For instance. I have bees in 

 three' styles of hives — eight-frame Lang- 

 stroth, two division divisible, and one divi- 

 sion divisible.- Then I have at least three 

 strains of bees, one lieing the old stock I 

 b(Uight here: another I g(it from Kentucky 

 in lyus; the third from 'Texas in 1909. All 

 in all, the stores were fairly unifornr. as were 

 the entrances. 



I could not wait iiatiently for the final re- 

 turns, but began to estimate from the num- 

 ber of dead bees on the bottom-board when 

 I changed them on Feb. 15. One showed 

 less than loo. while in others the cori)ses 

 would have tilled easily a i)int measure — I 

 am tempted to say a quart. I roughly 

 groui)ed the hives into two classes of few 

 and many dead, then proceeded to work out 

 the results. First grouping by hives. I 

 found that fifty per cent of the Eangstroth 

 fell under the heading of '•many dead:"" 

 double division showed 16 per cent: single 

 division, (3 i)er cent. Let it V)e noted here 

 that, out of six Langstroth hives, five con- 

 tained the old strain of bees. This is impor- 

 tant, as later facts will show. On classify- 

 ing by strains of bees I found ;>(> i)er cent of 

 the old stock, 12 i)er cent of the Kentucky, 

 and 16 per cent of the Texas had ■•many 

 dead"" recorded against them. 



When the returns were comi)lete I consid- 

 ered the death of the ijueen as equivalent to 

 the death of the colony. Percenting V)y 

 hives first. I found one out of six Langstroths 

 had died, ecpial to 16 percent loss: three out 

 of seven double-division colonies were lost, 

 being 4;i per cent: ten out of twenty-two sin- 

 gle-division colonies died. l)eing 45 per cent 

 loss. 



Turning next to strains of bees. I found 

 half of eighteen old-stock colonies had l)e- 

 come extinct: loss. 50 per cent; three out of 

 eleven Kentucky stock; that is, 27 per cent: 

 two out of eight Texas stock, being 25 per 

 cent. 



I have already rei)orted in Olkaxing.s 

 great mortality among (jueens in this local- 

 ity, hazarding the oi)inion that it was due 

 to the lack of vigor in the stock, which, ow- 



ing to the isolation on an island, had prob- 

 ably become decidedly inbred, and theaboxe 

 figures would seem to conhrnr my previous 

 suspicions. This summer will probably see 

 the end of this strain in my apiary. How- 

 ever, it is but fair to say that all the old- 

 stock queens in Langstroth hives, five in 

 numl)er, survived the winter, and were show- 

 ing gootl results in egg-laying by the middle 

 of March. 



A year ago I was of the ojjinion that one 

 hive was as good as another for wintering 

 in; but this winter the Langstroth is easily 

 first. 8o I have still one more guess com- 

 ing: also a second, for a few days ago I cur- 

 sorily examined a few colonies belonging to 

 a man who had left the jirovince at tlie l)e- 

 ginning of winter. I found them in home- 

 made hives of not more tlian a foot in cubic 

 dimensions, with entrances galore, several 

 in the bottom just a bee-si)ace tleep, an inch 

 and a half long, and at least one in each 

 front about four inches from the top, this 

 being circular, of ^4 -inch diameter. As the 

 bees were jnling in pollen as busily as my 

 best hives, I considered the colonies in good 

 condition. 



One hive had no quilt of any description, 

 being merely covered by a plain board with 

 cleats on two ends, so all winter it must 

 have liad more tlian enough \entilation not 

 only through the upper entrance but through 

 the top of the frames. Rain, wind, and 

 frost had done their worst: but the bees were 

 as si)ry as could be. The owner goes off for 

 months at a time, and I could venture the 

 guess he did not feed them in the fall, and. 

 if not. they must have wintered on honey- 

 dew. Such propositions make one ask, 

 "What do we know about bees, any wav?" 



Victoria. B. C. 



REAR VENTILATION AT THE BOTTOM OF 

 THE HIVE. 



How it Stopped Swarming. 



BY S. F. PETEK."^ 



I was much interested in the article " \'en- 

 tilation of Hives during Summer," by J. 1*. 

 Blunk. page 229. April 15. 1909. I had two 

 colonies in Langstroth hives — one a new 

 May swarm, and one from the year before. 

 As soon as the weather grew warm I notice«l 

 a large numV>er of bees kept from work by 

 fanning, or ventilating hives by fanning; so 

 I tried Mr. Blunk's i)lan by putting a Cl- 

 inch stri]) under each side of the hive, leav- 

 ing a s-front oi)ening and a ^4 entrance in 

 the rear, full width of hive. Having only 

 two colonies near the house I cut a strij) of 

 the ))roper length and height to slip into the 

 rear entrance for cool days ami nights. By 

 reversing I could have a Hx4-incli or }i en- 

 trance, width of hive front. I watched my 

 hives closely, and luul entrances according 

 to weather. 



As soon as I nuide the double entrance all 

 fanning was stoj)])ed, and bees went to other 

 work. Sometimes the weather would get 



