186 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



11(1 iil:iii'(l on the summer stands. 



There was another disturbing factor, the 

 furnace. It was in the outside room, into 

 which the outside door entered, the bee-room 

 adjoining, the door between the two rooms 

 being open practically all the time. It will 

 be easily understood that the hotter the fur- 

 nace the warmer the bee-room. Really that 

 is as it should be, for the colder the weather 

 the more need of heat in the furnace-room 

 to keep the bee-room from being too cold. 



With February came colder weather, 

 going one day down to 14 below, although 

 that is not so very cold for this locality. 



Feb. 18 I swept up the dead bees for the 

 first time, after the bees had been in 102 

 days. I think I never let them go so long 

 before, and do not commend it as a practice. 

 The bees swept up weighed 12 pounds and 

 9I/2 ounces. I had brought from Washing- 

 ton, the gift of my son, a superb pair of 

 scales, so delicate as to weigh a milligram, 

 or a thirty-thousandth of an ounce. I took 

 15 dead bees, and they weighed 620 milli- 

 gi-ams. According to that there were about 

 138,000 boos swept up, making a mortality 

 of about 1366 per colony. 



I am sorry to say I do not put entire 

 reliance on those tignires. According to 

 them there should be about 10,000 bees in a 

 pound, while the ABC and X Y Z tells 

 us there are 4500. It should be explained 

 that the bees swept up were not entire bees, 

 but merely tlie remains of what the mice had 

 been banqueting upon foj- more than three 

 months. That would still leave the figures 

 reliable provided the remains were uniform. 



Unfortunately they were not. Most of them, 

 to be sure, were. The heads were eaten oft" 

 and the insides scooped out. But there were 

 a few with scarcely any thing but the wings 

 left, and of course a very few not yet 

 touched by the mice. Added to that was 

 the fact that the bees were not all swept up 

 clean, for some would be under and between 

 the piles. I suspect that the 15 I weighed 

 were heavier than the average; but if 1 

 might be allowed to guess I should say that 

 a mortality of 1500 per colony would be 

 nearer the truth. 



While sweeping up the bees it was by no 

 means a pleasant surprise to notice that 

 No. 78 had starved to death. I say "notice," 

 for you don't need to examine carefully in 

 such a case, but can tell by the first glance 

 at the bees outside. It would be hard to 

 describe in words, but is the easiest kind of 

 a thing to recognize by the peculiar appear- 

 ance of the dead bees at and about the 

 entrance when a colony dies of starvation 

 in a cellar. No. 78 was one of the biggest 

 and best colonies; and when a colony has 

 filled a big lot of sections it is generally 

 needless to examine whether it has looked 

 out for itself. But No. 78 had stored in 

 extracting-combs, and I suppose I've got to 

 learn that sucli a colony is not as safe for 

 winter as one that works on sections. 



TROUBLE FROM WARM WEATHER. 



March 14 came a very warm day. At 1 

 p. M. it was 56 degrees outdoors and 53 in 

 the cellar. At 3 P. m, it was 60 outdoors 



