July, 1910. 



[American l^ee Journal 



Some Experiences in Wintering Bees 



I would like to call your attention to some- 

 thing that has come to my notice this spring 

 which I consider of interest. It is this: 



Last year, in our vicinity, a party had a 

 swarm of bees come off the 3d day of Julv. 

 and on the nth the colony sent off another. 

 These were hived in a lo-frame hive on 

 empty combs, and on the top of this was 

 placed another loframe hive-body filled with 

 sheets of foundation; on top of this was oil- 

 cloth and a thin honey-board, and above that 

 a loose storm-cover. The hive was set up 

 about 2 feet from the ground on a southwest 

 exposure, and the entrance, which was a 

 wide one. over !2 inch, extended the entire 

 width of the lo-frame hive and remained 

 open all winter. They did not net much 

 stores, as you are aware w did not get 

 much honey after that time last > jar: but. in 

 the fall, the boy in charge gave them 2 quarts 

 of feed with one entrance feeder, and threw 

 2 or 3 thicknesses; if canvas over the top. 

 sides and back of the hive, but the front was 

 generally exposed, and in this way they 

 passed through our 100 days of unbroken 

 winter. 



I examined them March ^ith. and found 

 them clean and bright, not the least sign of 

 spotting. They seemed to have as many 

 bees as when they were put in last summer, 

 had brood started as large as my hand, and 

 had a good leather-colored queen. Now the 

 surprise about this is that so small and late 

 swarm could live through so severe a winter 

 in such a large, empty space. Just think of 

 it. 2 big lo-frame hives with nothing in but a 

 little swarm of bees with meager stores, in a 

 single-walled hive! It could not be possible 

 that they could have in any way kept that 

 great cavern warmed up. .Some of those 

 cold mornings it must have been down- 

 well, to zero, and it must be possible for the 

 bees to form a crust on the outside of the 

 cluster, as Mr. Doolittle says they can. so 

 that they can maintain the heat of the clus- 

 ter inside away up. even when it is away 

 down outside of the cluster. 



Now-, if it is possible for bees to go through 

 such a winter in this big box so exposed in 

 single walls, have we not been going to a 

 great deal of labor and expense which has 

 been worse than useless in packing and put- 

 ting our bees in double-walled hives f I 

 really believe we have, as the evidence 

 seems to be all against us. I believe that 10 

 times out of 20 our bees die from being, or 

 getting, stopped up and getting too warm, 

 and. consequently damp, than from being 

 dry and cold. The great mass of our bees 

 have been dying from starvation in our shal- 

 low hives— about nine-tenths is the opinion 

 of our best judges— and we have been attrib- 

 uting the loss to the hives instead of the 

 quantity of honey above the bees for them 

 to eat up. sufficient for the long winter and 

 spring if it is a bad one. 



Three years ago I bought, in the fall. 4 

 large, deep hives of bees. They had cases 

 on that were not removed. They had only a 

 thin cover over them, a loose cover above 

 and little other covering, and the large en- 

 trance was wide open; to my surprise they 

 came through all right, and strong, and did 

 far better in every way than the tucked-up 

 bees about them and elsewhere. 



Some years ago Mr. Frank Covey told me 

 he bought 5 colonies of bees in tall box- 

 hives that were set on the edges of wide 

 boards, and they had built their combs down 

 below the hives, as there were no bottoms on 

 the hives, and. in this way. they went 

 through that worst winter of the 70's and 

 they did better the next year than any other 

 bees he had. 



.My brother told me of a swarm of his that 

 had taken possessionof a deserted corn-crib 

 near liradley. Mich,, and had filled it with 

 comb from toii to bottom for a space of 10 to 

 12 feet, and these bees must have passed 

 these winters of the 70's in that way. 



I have in mind what was told in one of our 

 bee-books of a lady in lower Canada who 

 had a large box-hive up on a stump with 

 great holes under it and the hive had been 

 made of green lumber, and had splitopen. 

 and the bees wintered fine in it in a temper- 

 ature of lower than 40 degrees below zero. 



Therefore, with these evidences before us 

 we must conclude that bees are great cold- 

 resistersif they can be kept dry, that it is 

 next to impossible to freeze them to death, 

 and I think it is also apparent that we have 

 been spending thousands of dollars and 

 enormous labor in constructingdouble liives 

 and packing, as all of the above instances 

 were in single hives, or had nothing in many 

 places between them and the elements. I 

 think we must also conclude that we have 

 noi been careful enough at all times to keep 

 the openings to the hives open, but have 



allowed them to become clogged within with 

 dead bees, or without with snow and ice. 

 We will have to improvise some way to 

 keep the openings open at all times, so the 

 moisture can escape if we expect to be rid 

 of winter losses; and if we shall expect to 

 have not so many colonies starve we will 

 surely have to leave, in some way. a thicker 

 crust of honey above them to tide them 

 through any season which may come, no 

 matter how severe. J. A. Pearce. 



Grand Rapids. Mich.. April 10. 



Colorado's Honey Crop 



The prospects for a honey crop in this 

 locality are certainly very discouraging, 

 while part of the State will have some kind 

 of a crop, the chances are that this locality 

 will have but a very small part. 



Denver. Colo., July 6. F. RAi^riiFrss. 



Drouth and the Fall Honey-Flow 



Bees have done fine on white clover this 

 year, which has never been more plentiful; 

 but owing to the drouth we are having, it is 

 drying up. and unless we get rain soon the 

 fall flow will be short. Our fall flow comes 

 mostly from heartsease and goldenrod. 



Jacob -WiRTH. 



Prophetstown. Ills. July 3. 



Prospects for a Fair Crop 



Bees are doing good work on red raspber- 

 ries at present, bringing in about a ton of 

 nectar every day. The prospects are for a 

 fair, average crop if the weather holds out 

 for about two weeks yet. 



Ellis E. Pressler. 



Williamsport. Pa.. June 21. 



Hot and Dry Weather 



It is hot here, and fearfully dry. We have 

 had no rain in 3 weeks, but the bees have 

 done fairly well the past 15 days, in view of 

 the fewness in numbers caused by their 

 broodless condition during the extreme cold 

 month of May. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino. N. Y.. July 2. 



Another Shot at the Hornets 



I see on page 104 some remarks bv Mr. W. 

 A. Pryal about hornets. I found it impossi- 

 ble in the foothills years ago to mate, or 

 hatch queens in some nuclei, on account of 

 that pestiferous insect. In some localities 

 they are very bad. Tolerate them not. 



Oak Park. Cal., June 18. F. Jay Lewis. 



Something About Banat Bees 



In reply to the questions of " Virginia "and 

 dozens of others in regard to the Banat bees. 



1 will give a description of them for the 

 benefit of all interested in these most excel- 

 lent bees. 



The Banats are a close cousin to the Car- 

 niolans. which they very much resemble, 

 and. like the Carniolans, they are prolific 

 and early breeders. They are usually about 



2 weeks ahead of the average Italians in get- 

 ting into the supers in the spring, thus get- 

 ting a good start made in the supers before 

 the Italians and blacks have begun work. 



Where there is an early flow this earlv 

 breeding is worth much, and costs nothing. 

 The same is true of the Carniolans; but 

 after they are well started in the supers the 

 swarming fever usually sets in. and trouble 

 begins, as they are the worst bees we have 

 to swarm. The Banats are not excessive 

 swarmers. and. like the Italians, are easily 

 controlled, and will stand more crowding 

 than the average Italian. 



As to color the Banats are what I would 

 call steel-gray, and every bee the same color. 

 There should be no yellow on them except 

 the queens, which are all shades of color 

 from a black to an orange yellow, but the 

 majority of the queens are dark, and very 

 quiet under manipul.ition. and usually goon 

 with their duties as if there is no time to 

 spare in romping around over the comb. 



The Banats are fine comb-builders, and. 

 like the blacks, are white cappers, and put 

 up the choicest grade of comb honey. 



All who have handled the Italians know 

 that they are inclined to fill up the brood- 

 combs with honey, which crowds the queens 

 up into the supers, where no excluders are 

 used, or so reduces the brood that the colo- 

 nies are weakened and unable to gather 



much honey later in the season, and go into 

 the winter with few young bees, while the 

 Banats keep up their strength well, and 

 have plenty of young bees for the winter, 

 which means lots of nurse-bees in spring, 

 which is very necessary in producing a 

 strong colony in early spring. 



The Banats are long rangers, and to prove 

 this I went down the Arroyo Colorado 

 w'hich is an arm of the Gulf of Mexico , and 

 made frequent landings to see how far the 

 Banats were working, and found them quite 

 plentiful at 2 miles from home, and at 3 

 miles there were also quite a number, and 

 at 3!4 miles I found very few. There are no 

 other bees in this range, and there were as 

 many blooms near home as there were 

 farther away. 



As to temperament, the Banats are the 

 quietest and the easiest handled of all bees. 

 I use smoke only to drive them down out of 

 my way or off the combs. No veil is needed. 

 I have handled Banats 4 years, and during 

 that time I have had Italians. Carniolans. 

 Caucasians. Goldens. and Blacks, all in 

 yards by themselves, and after testing them 

 all together. I have settled on the Banats as 

 the best all-around bees for both business 

 and pleasure. However. I am now stocking 

 an Italian yard to supply the heavy demand 

 for the Italian queens, as many will have no 

 other. 



Well, some will say. "He has an ax to 

 grind." I will admit that is true, and I will 

 keep on grinding it until I get it good and 

 sharp, and will chop out this thorny brush 

 and locate more Banat apiaries until I have 

 this wilderness well stocked with the little 

 gray pets 



As the readers of the bee-papers know. I 

 am an old queen-breeder, and have a big 

 trade in Banat queens, but I am not the 

 only one. I have letters stating that the 

 Banats we bought of Mr. So-and-So, are the 

 best bees I have ever had. and want to try 

 some of yours. So. there are other men 

 who sell good Banats. 



Yes. the Banats are all right, and I believe 

 all who try the pure stock like them, and 

 recommend them toothers. 



Grant Anderson, 



June 20. T/ic Texas Banat Bee-Crank. 



Sealed Stores for Winter — Black Bees vs. 

 Italians — A Queen-Fight 



When I read Mr. Byer's experience in 

 using sealed stores .see Canadian Beedom. 

 February issue), I felt very much as though 

 I would like to be near enough to shake 

 hands with him. Not so much because I 

 agreed with him in the matter of having an 

 abundance of sealed stores in the hive when 

 spring opened, if possible ithough in itself 

 this is one of the best factors of success in 

 this locality), but because he had the cour- 

 age of his convictions thus to come out 

 openly in the face of all the odds against 

 him. and announce his experience. " that for 

 good wintering and tor brood-rearing in the 

 spring, under adverse conditions, the Ital- 

 ians are simply ' not in it.' " 



I wonder how much difference locality 

 really makes in arriving at opinions regard- 

 ing the best bee to keep for profit. Now 

 away up here, just south of the North Pole, 

 or, at least, just south of the 47th parallel of 

 latitude, my experience with Italians coin- 

 cides very nearly with Mr. Byer's. I have 

 tried the Italians in a limited way. having 

 had queens from Texas. Ohio. Pennsylvania 

 and also the non-swarming, non-stinging 

 Golden Adels from Massachusetts, and I 

 found these great swarmers the most vicious 

 to sting of any Italians 1 had anything to do 

 with, and no better than any of the others 

 for the production of comb honey. 



Nly native bees, no doubt nearly pure 

 black before introducing Italian blood, were 

 gentle to handle, good comb-builders, and in 

 honey-gathering qualities were certainly not 

 inferior to any Italians I ever had. 



I have no experience with Carniolans. but 

 I do wish some man who may be situated so 

 he can. would undertake to improve our na- 

 tive bees. When the same time and labor 

 has been spent with them that has been 

 spent with Italians I think we. in the cold 

 latitudes, will all want them. 



Bee-keeping with me is only a part of my 

 farming, and I have nearly always had to 

 neglect the bees for other work, and still, 

 with my careless methods. I have had several 

 colonies of blacks that have stored more 

 than too pounds of comb honey in i-pound 

 sections, the largest yield being 120 pounds. 

 This, remember, is in a locality where 

 almost no honey is stored in sections before 

 clover bloom, and rarely any afterward. 

 This makes a very short surplus season. I 

 believe the average yield could be greatly 



