292 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Ape. 1 



moves from the original stock, and this would 

 be entirely avoided through our expert queen- 

 rearing station. 



This plan is in line with the division of la- 

 bor which at present is recognized as the most 

 effective way for accomplishing great results ; 

 and the question is, "Are the bee keepers rea- 

 dy for this advance in their methods of man- 

 agement ? " 



I will leave the question to you for solution, 

 believing that, if it is put into practice, the 

 honey-producing power of our apiaries will 

 be advanced many fold. 



BEES DYING OF OI.D AGE ; SO-CALLED MOLD 

 ON THE HIVES DURING WINTER ; IM- 

 PORTANCE OF HAVING HIVES 

 NEAR THE GROUND. 



A knock at the door ; and, opening it, I 

 fiad the mail brought by a neighbor, as I of len 

 send for it (a distance of nearly a mile to our 

 postoffice) when I am too tired or busy to go 

 myself. "' Many thanks " is what I say as the 

 neighbor passes on his way. In opening the 

 letters I find one from Maine, wishing me to 

 engage in conversation with him in Glean- 

 ings something after this fashion : 



"Can you tell me what ails my bees? I 

 find nearly a quart of dead ones under one 

 hive. This hive has plenty of honey in it, 

 but there appears to be a slight mold on the 

 combs." 



"From the description you give I should 

 say that there was nothing ailing ihem more 

 than is the common lot of all bees under like 

 conditions." 



" What do you mean by like onditions ? " 



" My idea is that the colony of which you 

 speak was composed largely of old bees last 

 October, which, as soon as the cold weather 

 of winter came on, died from lack of necessary 

 vigor for enduring such weather as we have 

 had during the past month of February, a 

 month in which it has not thawed a particle 

 in the shade during the whole of it, while 

 from zero to 12° has often been registered. 

 And, to make it more severe, we have had a 

 very high wind more than three fourths of 

 the time, with the air so filled with snow that 

 we have all the way from two to ten feet of 

 snow in our roads, which has obstructed travel 

 to that extent that we have had only two 

 mails during some of the weeks." 



" But, just think ! a whole quart from this 

 one colony." 



" A quart of baes is quite a large number to 

 die by the first of March ; but in cases where 

 there are no bees hatched after the first of 

 September, as is often the casein this locality, 

 especially after a dry summer as was the last, 

 a large mortality may be expected before the 

 bees have a chance at ' house-cleaning ' in 

 the spring." 



" Well, I did not suppose bees ever died like 

 that unless there was some disease that carried 

 them off." 



"Oh, )'es ! they frequently do, as all fa- 

 miliar with the bee-literature of the past well 

 know. But there is something here that you 

 have overlooked, which is that dead bees 

 make a much greater show than live ones, as 

 their legs and wings are rigid, causing them 

 to lie loosely in a measure or dish, or on the 

 bottom-board to the hive, thus leading the be- 

 holder to think there has been a very great 

 loss, when in reality it is not so great alter 

 all." 



" Well, I hope it is as you say, and that the 

 colony will pull through all right. But how 

 about the mold ? ' ' 



" Regarding this, from the idea I have 

 gained from your description I do not think 

 It will do any harm, even if you have not been 

 deceived in this matter, which I thiuk is very 

 likely to be the case ; for during winter, when 

 frost forms about the inside of the hive, the 

 vapor from the bees, together with the con- 

 gealing of it in the remote parts cf the hive, 

 gives a bluish-white appearance to the surttce 

 of the combs, which, by the inexperienced, is 

 often mistaken for mold." 



" I hardly think I could be mistaken in 

 this. Do you ? " 



"Well, perhaps not ; but I have had nov- 

 ices repeatedly come to me during the winter 

 season of the year, declaring that the combs 

 in their hives were ' all moldy,' and asking 

 what they should do. I told them that I did 

 not think their combs were moldy, but could 

 not convince them that they were not right 

 till I had taken them to the apiary and th^wn 

 them comVjs in my hives having the same ap- 

 pearance, which, after a close inspection, 

 showed no real mold. Yes, and some api- 

 arists who were not novices have had to be 

 convinced in this way, W. S. Pender, of Aus- 

 tralia, being one among this latter number 

 With him I even had to take the combs out of 

 the hive and let him rub them and smell 

 of them before he would be convinced." 



" You may be right here, and I will find out 

 for certain the next time I look at this colony, 

 even if I have to pursue the same course Mr. 

 Pender did. But I should have stated luat 

 the colony we have been talking about wa^ m 

 a rough bee-house, the hive being packed uith 

 buckwheat chaff. Is this right ? " 



" This is all right providing you have it so 

 arranged that the bees can fly should there 

 come warm days in winter. If no arrange- 

 ment has been made so that the colony can 

 thus fly, the putting-away of bees in this way 

 is faulty." 



" But bees in the cellar have no chance for 

 a flight." 



" I know^ they do not. But here the case is 

 very different. In the cellar the temperature 

 is kept some 12 to 15 degrees above the freez- 

 ing-point, so the bees consume very little of 

 their stores to use as fuel, consequently they 

 do not consume more honey than their bodies 

 can hold the excrement from while they so- 

 journ in the cellar. But left in an outdoor 

 bee house, no matter how wtll packed, they 



