1917 



AMERICAN BF.F, JOURNAT. 



337 



hasten the exit of the bees. Where 

 an ordinary I'ortcr escape is used in 

 the center of the usual board, strips 

 are nailed to the board, dividing the 

 board into four equal parts and cen- 

 tering at the escape in the middle. 

 This starts the bees at once to the 

 escape instead of leaving them free 

 to waste so much time hunting for 

 the exit. Where the ventilated board 

 is used, two escapes are used in op- 

 posite corners with a striii running 

 diagonally across. 



Frank France and his father both 

 make use of the same equipment, al- 

 though they maintain their bees 

 separately. At some yards each has 

 a considerable number of colonies, so 

 that it is impossible for a stranger 

 to separate the work of the father 

 from that of the son, when it comes 

 to honey production. Bees have been 

 kept in the home yard for fifty years, 

 and Frank is of the third generation. 

 The late Edwin France settled at 

 Platteville in an early day and bee- 

 keeping has been the principal de- 

 pendence of the family for half a 

 century. 



The bees are all wintered in the 

 cellar. Various plans of wintering 

 have been tried on an extensive scale 

 and the final judgment is that for 

 that latitude the cellar gives more 

 satisfactory results, with less labor. 

 The bees are wheeled into the cellar 

 in the fall, after being examined to 

 make sure that stores are ample and 

 that other conditions are right. They 

 receive no further attention until 

 time to remove them in the spring, 

 and they come out in good shape. 

 For a time tenement hives were used, 

 then later winter cases. If the cellar 

 \i properly built there is little trou- 



■JIIE FRANCE HOME YARD W 1 1 1 1; K i:l I S HAVE BEEN KEPT FOR 

 FIFTY YEARS 



ble to winter the bees successfully. 



Clover is the principal crop, with 

 basswood next. The general average 

 one year with another is 100 pounds 

 per colony of surplus. The man who 

 gets an average of 100 pounds is sel- 

 dom hunting for a better locality, 

 and he usually has developed meth- 

 ods of interest to others of his pro- 

 fession. 



WIRE CLOTH STRAINER. IN USE IT 

 SITS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE TANK 



Causes of the Heavy Losses of 

 Bees During the Winter of 

 1915-16 in British Columbia 



By W. J. Sheppard. 



IT has been estimated that at least 

 40 per cent of the bees in British 

 Columbia died during the winter 

 of 1915-16. Many enquiries have been 

 made as to the reasons for this and 

 whether it is preventable. The writer 

 can only answer for the Kootenays, 

 as he is not familiar with other parts 

 of the Province, where the conditions 

 may be different, although it woUld 

 appear that as the mortality was 

 heavy all over the country the same 

 reasons are accountable for it. In 

 this section the summer of 1915 was 

 an abnormal one. Rain and low tem- 

 peratures, with absence of sunshine, 

 prevailed during July and well into 

 August, so that the white and alsike 

 clovers, which are the principal 

 sources of honey production here, se- 

 creted very little, if any, nectar, and 

 the bloom was over much sooner 

 than usual. Later in August the 

 weather improved, but at that time 

 there was nothing much the bees 

 could gather except fruit juices and 

 honeydew. The writer's attention 

 was drawn to the very unusual and 

 peculiar appearance of the bees while 

 raspberries were in fruit. The abdo- 

 mens of the incoming bees were a 

 deep orange-red, which was found to 

 be caused by their honey-sacs being 

 laden with the juice from the rasp- 

 berries. The red color of the juice 

 showed up clearly through the yellow 

 segments of the Italians, but would 

 probably not have been noticeable in 

 black bees. Later on large quantities 



of honeydew were gathered, mostly 

 from the poplars, commonly known 

 as cottonwoods, and also from birch 

 trees. ( 



This being the case, it is little 

 wonder that the bees wintered badly, 

 especially as the winter following 

 was abnormally severe with longer 

 spells than usual below zero. Bees 

 well provided with wholesome nat- 

 ural stores, preferably of clover 

 honey, or thick sugar syrup, are able 

 to stand a considerable e.xtent of cold 

 weather, even if the hives are not 

 well protected. Cold causes the bees 

 to consume larger quantities of food 

 for the purpose of keeping up the 

 heat of the cluster. If they have an 

 ample supply of honey, or sugar syr- 

 up, in the hive, they can consume 

 comparatively large amounts of this 

 without its causing undue distension 

 of the abdomen, as there is very lit- 

 tle waste or refuse matter to these 

 foods. There is then little risk of 

 dysentery or diarrhoea occurring. 

 Fruit syrup and honeydew contain 

 larger proportions of starch and 

 other foreign matter, and moisture, 

 and considerably less sugar than 

 pure honey. Therefore, larger quan- 

 tities of these substances are re- 

 quired by the bees to keep up the 

 same proportion of animal heat. As 

 they contain more waste matter, dis- 

 tention of the abdomen, followed by 

 diarrhoea, occurs after a compara- 

 tively short period of confinement to 

 the hives, resulting in the death of 

 the bees. When they are able to fly 

 at intervals of two or three weeks 

 during the winter months the honey- 

 dew is not so harmful, as they are 

 then able to void all excrement, or 

 waste matter accumulated, which na- 

 ture impels them to do while on the 

 wing. Honeydew on the leaves of 

 trees collects dust and also becomes 

 foul with a black smut or fungus, and 

 it is very likely that this also has 

 an adverse effect on the bees by set- 

 ting up irritation in their intestines, 

 and thus causing dysentery. Every 

 year the bees gather more or less 

 honeydew in this portion of British 

 Columbia in the fall and beekeepers 

 need not be always on the watch for 

 it. 



