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DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO BEES -A.3STE) HONEY. 



Vol. II. 



JANUARY 1, 1874. 



No. 1. 



HOW TO CONDUCT AN APIARY. 



A a 



FTER wishing our readers all both old 

 nd new, a "Happy New Year," we would 

 remark that we should be very happy indeed to 

 be able to tell them the best way to conduct an 

 Apiary during this month, if we could, but per- 

 haps it may be as well to be frank about it and 

 say in the beginning "we dout know." If colo- 

 nies are all strong and the weather is cold per- 

 haps the best advice we could give would be 

 to say "let 'em alone." They might be given 

 randy even now if any were in danger of starv- 

 ing but we hope none of our readers have been 

 so improvident. Should your Bee House con- 

 lain a large number of very strong stocks, dur- 

 ing mild weather they may get too warm and 

 become uneasy, or should the room feel close 

 and have an unpleasant smell we would open the 

 doors after dark and then close them again 

 next morning before light. A caution is proper 

 here, however, for 'tis to be remembered that 

 our thick sawdust walls are as much to keep 

 the inside cool at times as to keep the bees warn}, 

 and so we would never open the doors so long as a 

 thermometer showed a lower temperature in- 

 side than that of the out door air. Many times 

 we can keep the temperature at 40 degrees in- 

 side when it may be GO or more at midday out- 

 side. Bees wintered out doors need no atten- 

 tion when they are healthy, unless it be to 

 shade the hive, when they would get lost in a 

 very light snow as has been so often recommend- 

 ed. To be frank again we have of late had almost 

 as little experience with out door wintering as 

 with Box Honey, yet we are always glad to get 

 reports from its advocates. 'Twould be rather 

 easier to stop here and not consider colonies 

 that were not healthy and prosperous, for we 

 really know of nothing we could recommend 

 to be done for bees with the Bee Malady at this 

 season, with much hope of success. Actual ex- 

 periments so far as we know, such as taking the 

 bees into warm rooms and feeding sugar syrup 

 in clean comb, etc., at this season, do not seem 

 to have been very successful. At the present 

 time of writing Dec. 12, from reports we have 

 been able to collect we should prefer to risk 

 them at a temperature of 40 or 45 degrees, 

 rather than 50 or (iO, and if any change were to 

 be made in the food we should if possible give 

 them sugar syrup that was sealed np in the 

 fall or summer; if this could not be had then 

 candy. We believe Feb. or even March have 

 been the worst months, and cannot help think- 

 ing that commencing brood rearing has some- 



thing to do with the matter. See problem in 

 this No. We strongly suspect that problems 

 12, 18, and 16 also, will be found to have a close 

 connection with the matter. In looking for 

 facts to guide us in the matter we glean from 

 the back numbers of the various Journals as 

 follows: Bee Keeper''* Magazine. Vol. 1, pages 73 

 and 74. 



"Will bees breed and rear young bees with- 

 out being permitted to fly for a length of time ?" 



"Will the flour that is put in the sugar-candy 

 recommended for winter feeding, supply to 

 some extent the want of pollen '?" 



As the Editor gives no other answer except 

 the ;brief monosyllable "Yes" to both inquiries 

 he has helped us but little. The second query 

 however suggests an idea that may be valuable. 

 Mr Wilkin stated he had made some such ex- 

 periments, but nothing definite had resulted. 



In .4. B. J. Vol. IX pages 137 and 138, we find 

 something that agrees much with our experi- 

 ence, viz: that bees when confined to the hive 

 during brood rearing, become rapidly depopu- 

 lated, and to use Berlepschs' own words, "The 

 death rate increases from day to day, the most 

 of the bees becoming weak and enervated." 



We presume this refers to a condition of things 

 where pollen is absent from the hive. 



Langstroth's Book gives us more information 

 on the subject than all other sources combined, 

 see pages 81 and 82, and he also mentions hav- 

 ing succeeded in inducing them to use rye 

 flour in the hive but this was during the month 

 of Sept. To sum it all up it appears that brood 

 rearing cannot certainly go on to any great ex- 

 tent withont pollen, but we do know that brood 

 is reared in strong colonies to some extent dur- 

 ing Jan. and Feb. even when confined to the 

 hive by cold weather. Should these same colo- 

 nies be kept in a room warmed up to 50 or (50 

 degrees and confined to the hive, more brood 

 might be reared if the supply of pollen was 

 kept up, yet we have had no direct experiment 

 to show that the health of the colony would 

 not be seriously injured by such confinement; 

 and as to building up weak colonies by supply- 

 ing artiflcal heat, it seems that to do this they 

 must fly out or have some such exercise. 

 Whether this exercise can be given them in a 

 way to answer the purpose and still prevent 

 their being lost remains to be seen. There is 

 one thing we can all do safely, and that is to 

 provide a quantity of Rye and Oats ground 

 together very fine for them to use as soon as 

 spring opens. We would advise providing 

 about one bushel for every ten stocks. 



