1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



853 



Whatever preparation is to be made by way of 

 feeding or handling should be made before the 

 approach of cold weather. This is not as im- 

 portant with indoor wintering, where the bees 

 are to he in a mild temperature, as In outdoor 

 wintering. 



The queen is the most important factor in 

 the future success of the colony. Young queens 

 will lay, and keep up brood-rearing later, and 

 begin earlier in the spring, than old ones, thus 

 furnishing young bees for winter, and also 

 building up earlier in the spring, with less 

 liability of queenless colonies; but colonies 

 with such queens will consume more stores. 

 Late queens have these characteristics to rec- 

 ommend them. 



I set my bees into the bee-house as near the 

 15th of November as circumstances will permit. 

 At about this time I watch for a cool day when 

 the temperature is below .32", and falling, as 

 the bees then handle much better than when 

 the temperature is rising. This may seem a 

 small matter; but it is quite important, and is 

 well worth attending to. 



I have a system of locating that enables me 

 to put each colony back upon the stand from 

 which it was taken, when they are set out 

 again, with very little trouble. 



It is a system entirely my own. and one I 

 have used in all my work with bees almost ever 

 since I began my experience in bee-keeping. 

 It does away with tags or numbers or marks on 

 the hive except when the hive is removed from 

 the stand. My hives are arranged in rows. 

 The roivs are lettered in alphabetical order. 

 The stands, and not the hives, are numbered 

 in the rows. When I am all ready to set the 

 bees into the bee-house, with a piece of white 

 chalk I mark each hive to correspond with the 

 stand upon which it rests; thus: 



Al 



B 1 



CI 



C2 



A3 



B3 



C3 



A4 



B4 



C4 



A5 



B5 



C5 



and so on through the yard. I think the ad- 

 vantages of my system of locating will be com- 

 prehended without further comment. 



My system of securing abundant lower ven- 

 tilation has been described and illustrated so 

 many times that I will only call attention to it 

 briefly. It is very simple. I first place a row 

 of covers 5 or 6 inches apart; then pick the 

 hives up in the yard, from the bottom-board, 

 and bring or wheel into the bee-house, on a 

 hive-cart, and set them over the open space on 

 the covers. This will bring the hives about 

 the same distance apart that the covers 

 are. Set another tier of hives on top of 

 these in the same way, leaving the open space 

 below directly under the hive, and so on as 

 high as desired. After putting my bees in in 



this manner, if at any time during the winter 

 I should want to refer to any particular colony, 

 or should want to set one or more out on the 

 summer stands, which often happens with me, 

 I should know just where they belonged. 



After the bees are all in the bee-house I leave 

 the doors and windows open, giving abundant 

 ventilation and the full light of day until the 

 weather becomes quite cold. By this means 

 the temperature is kept well down, say below 

 40°. I prefer that the temperature should not 

 be much above this until there are pretty evi- 

 dent signs of brood -rearing toward spring, 

 which will be shown by increased activity of 

 the bees. 



After brood-rearing has commenced it is very 

 important that the temperature be kept pretty 

 well up, say .50° to 55°. A low temperature at 

 this time, if long continued, is almost certain 

 to produce unfavorable results. It is at this 

 time that artificial heat plays an important 

 part in regulating the temperature of the bee- 

 house, which is a factor in wintering bees that 

 I could not think of dispensing with; in fact, 

 it grows in favor with me each year, and I 

 would not think of constructing a bee-house 

 without arrangements for this purpose. I 

 never use artificial heat directly in the bee- 

 room, but in a room adjoining. This makes 

 the warming so gradual in the bee-rooms that 

 the changes of temperature are almost imper- 

 ceptible to the bees, and causes no disturb- 

 ance. 



I want the bee-repository as free from mois- 

 ture as possible during the entire winter — so 

 perfect in this respect that the stores in the 

 hives will be kept perfectly, without mold or 

 fermentation. This I consider important. 

 Stores demoralized by a moist condition will 

 surely result in an unfavorable condition of the 

 colony in spring, which will continue to affect 

 the bees long after they are set out. 



While upon this subject I wish to call atten- 

 tion to the fact that bee-keepers who last win- 

 ter advocated moisture as a favorable condition 

 in the bee-house have been slow to come for- 

 ward with a report of their bees after being set 

 out. to substantiate their arguments. 



After the bees have been perfectly wintered 

 it is of great importance that they be set out on 

 their summer stands on a warm day when they 

 can at once take a thorough flight. Very 

 serious damage will result from setting out 

 when the weather is cool enough to chill the 

 bees that fly out for the first time. 



In regard to winter stores. I consider sugar 

 much safer for that purpose than honey. 



UNITING. 



There is no time when colonies may be united 

 with so little trouble as when set out of the 

 bee-house in spring. It is unnecessary to give 

 any attention to the queens. I unite at this 

 time by placing one hive on top of another, 



