400 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



May 



while in winter quarters. One item I have not 

 transferred from my record, and that is the " Pollen 

 Theory," for I may want to put that on my black- 

 board in the spring- for " Rambler " to look at. 



The record from which this is taken is of 42 colo- 

 nies, and 1 have given some of the footings to show 

 how I do it. The figures given are for pounds and 

 ounces; as, in first left-hand column, to the right of 

 colony No. 1 the 38-4 means 38 lbs. 4 oz. In the 

 sixth column from the right can be seen -1, -1-4, 



1-, which means that colony No. 1 lost, or was 

 minus, 1 lb.; No. 26 lost, or was minus, 1 lb. and 4 

 oz. ; and No. 35 gained, or was plus, 1 lb. In the 

 second column from the right is shown that colony 

 No. 1 had as many bees when taken out March 30 as 

 when put in Nov. 13. Not but that there was a loss 

 of bees from the hive in winter quarters, for there 

 was, but there had been enough raised to supply 

 the loss, for they were breeding nicely when set out. 

 No. 26 was - (minus) 4 lbs. of bees and 20 lbs. of hon- 

 ey; had a slight touch of diarrhea, and brood dead 

 in the cells before hatching. No. 35 was (minus) 8 

 oz. of bees. My hives are the eight-frame Lang- 

 stroth size, and 11 of them were put in winter quar- 

 ters with 9 frames in each, aud had bees in all 

 the spaces. 



Eleven had s frames in each, and bees in all the spaces. 



Seven had 7 " " " " 



Seven had 6 



Four had 5 



One had 4 



One had 3 " " " " 



So you will see that they were not small colonies 

 by any means. 



Now, if your illustration of the two stoves saving 

 all the wood will apply in wintering bees, so that, if 

 one cellar saves half the feed, two will save it all, 

 just send me another cellar, and send on your bees, 

 and T'll winter them for you; and if you'll remove 

 all the "bee bread " (sometimes called pollen) they 

 sha'n't have diarrhea either. It seems the height 

 of folly to winter outdoors when it takes, as you 

 say, 30 to 40 lbs., and it takes from 6 to 15 lbs. to win- 

 ter in a cellar or specially prepared repository- 

 Look at our friend H. R. Board man, whom you call 

 "the man who winters his bees without loss," and 

 justly too. He's got too much sense to winter his 

 hundreds of colonies outdoors. And there is the 

 Hon. R. L. Taylor, too, with his hundreds of colo- 

 nies, who has too much of that same desirable 

 commodity to practice outdoor wintering. And I 

 might name scores of large and small bee-keepers 

 who winter in the same way as do Messrs. Board- 

 man and Taylor, and with equal success; and in 

 this connection don't forget to include your hum- 

 ble servant. 



I want to explain why I sometimes have so little 

 stores in hives for wintering. It is enough to carry 

 the bees through, and saves feeding sugar syr- 

 up, or good honey, and the honey I have on hand 

 I don't like to risk to winter on; but as soon as set 

 out in spring, the honey of poor quality can be fed 

 in abundance. 



Another thing: I believe it is pretty generally 

 conceded, that an abundance of stores— that is. 

 more than will in all probability be needed, con- 

 duces to breeding; and a goodly majority who have 

 expressed themselves don't want their bees to com- 

 mence rearing brood till set out of winter quarters. 

 I have not been in the habit of putting bees in win- 

 ter quarters before about Nov. 10, and have taken 

 them out usually in March, or the first of April, so 

 Messrs. J. Nebel & Son are right when, on page 127, 



they say that I " may be correct also; likely not, 

 from October to May." 



I don't just exactly like your way of putting your 

 question in your closing remarks on Question 102. 

 You say, "Another question arises— Which is the 

 more profitable— colonies that require from 20 to 25 

 lbs. to carry them through, or those that will get 

 along on from 5 to 10 lbs.? Why not say, "Or those 

 that require from 5 to 10 lbs.," etc., instead of " that 

 will get along on 5 to 10 lbs." ? I have had some ex- 

 perience in this matter, and am satisfied, that, with 

 me, it is not the amount of stores consumed that 

 tells how profitable a colony will prove to be. Colo- 

 ny No. 22, whose record is in the table, a part of 

 which is given above, was a good average colony, 

 and consumed only 5 lbs. of stores, and was as good 

 a colony as I had in 1887. No. 13 was equally strong, 

 and had b l / 2 lbs. more in stores, and consumed 15 

 lbs. of stores, and was one of the poorest colonies I 

 had the following season, and I could give plenty of 

 such contrasts from the same table. J. Nebel & 

 Son, above referred to, give about the same aver- 

 age I did, and add, " We think those numbers would 

 be very near an average for ours. Only one colony 

 consumed less than 6 lbs., and that one consumed 

 only 3 lbs., and was a strong colony. Said colony 

 did as well as any that season, 1886." 



Now, friend Root, if there is any thing else you 

 want me to "stand up" for, just "give me the 

 wink " and I'll be on my feet as soon as possible. 



Auburndale, Ohio. A. B. Mason. 



There, there, doctor, I will own up and 

 apologize, and take back every thing I said. 

 I supposed that you were going to leave me 

 at least a little bit of a corner wherein to 

 defend myself, and argue the point. Your 

 array of figures, however, covering several 

 years as they do, reminds me of the witness, 

 who, when asked how far he stood from the 

 fight, replied, " Just 14 feet 11 inches.' 1 

 There was a smile at his intense accuracy ; 

 and when asked how he came to be able to 

 give the figures just to an inch, he replied 

 that he expected that some blundering fool 

 of a lawyer might ask that very question, 

 therefore he took out his rule and measured 

 it. To get right down to the real facts, we 

 are exceedingly obliged to you ; and I do 

 not know but that we shall have to admit 

 that there is certainly a great saving in # 

 stores by wintering in a repository, whether 

 there is a saving of bees or not. It takes 

 some pains and care to accomplish this sav- 

 ing in stores, it is true. Then the question 

 arises, "How many of us are there who 

 are willing to take this pains?" or, per- 

 haps, '' How many can succeed as well as 

 you and friend Boardman do?" At present 

 1 prefer to have our bees on their summer 

 stands— at least where they winter as safe- 

 ly as they have been doing for years past. 

 Ernest may, however, conclude to adopt 

 some other way. He seems to have manag- 

 ed nicely with one colony during this past 

 winter, and it has been one of the mildest I 

 have ever known. We are glad to know, 

 too, that you have proved pretty conclusive- 

 ly that a good strong colony of bees may 

 winter on a very small amount of stores — 

 even so little as five pounds. Thank you, 

 doctor ; the " wink " will be forthcoming 

 before a great many days, you may be pret- 

 ty sure. 



