476 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



long- as I dare. Now in reg^ard to the ben- 

 efit the bees derive from it: 



I find if there are any colonies that are 

 uneasy, after their flight they are quiet; 

 and should I have to leave them in until very 

 late in the spring- I feel sure that I shall 

 not have any trouble. But this spring- I 

 failed for the first time to set them out, for 

 the reason there was only one day that I 

 could do so; but I was called away from 

 home on business that day, which, if I mis- 

 take not, was about February 10 ; and I 

 watched closely for a day suitable during- 

 the rest of the month, but not any came. 

 On the 12th of March I set them out on 

 their summer stands and i)acked them thor- 

 oughly in forest leaves, which I had saved 

 for that purpose, and do so every 5^ear. I 

 alwaj's pack them; even if set out in April 

 they are packed as well as the colonies that 

 remain out. 



I always winter about half of the colo- 

 nies in the cellar and leave the other half 

 out, thoroughly packed in forest leaves. I 

 had fifty colonies in the cellar this winter. 

 The only detriment I find to this practice 

 is that, when the bees are set out on their 

 summer stands after they have had a flight 

 near the cellar-door, a g-reat number of 

 them return to where they were set out first; 

 and as it is too far to take them to their 

 summer stands (abovit 300 feet from the cel- 

 lar) and return them at nig-ht, I have to put 

 up with the loss. 



But I am satisfied that, in the long run, 

 it is my gain on account of the better win- 

 tering afterward. I was not aware, as I 

 said before, that this was something unusu- 

 al among bee-keepers who winter in con- 

 finement. Chauncey Reynolds. 



Fremont, O., May 12. 



[I believe that, as a rule, some of the vet- 

 erans, at least, have declared that it did not 

 pay to set the bees out in mid-winter, give 

 them a flight, and return them. But prac- 

 tices that were once regarded as orthodox 

 have again and again been set aside, and 

 what was once heresy may be now recog- 

 nized as the thing. Our own experience 

 last winter shows so conclusively, to us at 

 least, that a mid-winter flight is beneficial, 

 I think we shall practice it hereafter. It 

 may do no good with some colonies. It cer- 

 tainly does no harm if bees are put back on 

 their regular summer stands ; and with 

 many colonies there is a strong probability 

 that much good will be accomplished. 



Our hives are all numbered, and set out 

 to correspond with numbered stakes that 

 were driven just where the colonies are to 

 stand for the entire summer. Of course, 

 the bees have to be carried a little further ; 

 but the extra time of walking would not 

 consume more than one and possibly two 

 hours. At 20 cents an hour, this would be 

 only 40 cents. 



You do not say whether your cellared bees 

 fared any worse for not having a mid- 

 winter flight than formerly when they did 

 have it; but I judge, because you set them out 

 earlier, you packed them in leaves. — Ed.] 



AVERAGE ANNUAL CONSUMPTION OK HONEY 

 PER COLONY. 



Mr. Root: — You ask in Gleanings, May 

 15, where I base my figures for an annual 

 consumption of at least 200 lbs. of honey per 

 colony. These 200 lbs. cover the amount 

 needed to sustain the life of the bees, to 

 raise the brood, to produce the wax, and to 

 keep up the temperature inside the hive. 

 Hon. R. L. Taylor estimates that the brood 

 requires twice its weight of honey during 

 the time of its growth ; the production of 

 wax not less than twice and a half its 

 weight of honey, and, very likely, consider- 

 ably more. Then a certain quantity of 

 honey, sometimes quite large, is consumed, 

 merely to keep up the warmth of the interi- 

 or of the hive. 



The actual figure of 1>2 lbs. daily for all 

 these purposes was computed from the ex- 

 periments of R. L. Taylor, Demaree, and 

 others, made and published some years ago 

 in several of our bee papers, chiefly the 

 Reviciv. Taking into account the honey in 

 the brood-nest, the partially filled section 

 given, the honey fed, the honey taken off 

 and left in the brood-nest, and also the 

 number of days during which the experi- 

 ments lasted, it is found that the bees have 

 made away with about 1^2 lbs. of honey 

 per day for the above-named purposes dur- 

 ing the feeding-back period. 



Evidently the same amount must be used 

 during the whole period of brood-rearing, 

 and more or less nectar-gathering — that is, 

 from the beginning of fruit-blossom to the 

 end of the flow. 



During the remainder of the season, I 

 estimated only Yz lb. per day. If you take 

 into consideration that, even then, some 

 brood is raised, some wax secreted, that 

 the temperature of the colony must be main- 

 tained, and that, after all, Yz lb. constitutes 

 a very small daily ration for each of the 

 20,000 or 30,000 bees which constitute a col- 

 ony, you will readily conceive that these 

 figures are not very high. You can figure 

 the winter consumption yourself. 



I think the 1,52 lbs. consumed by the bees 

 experimented on can be considered as a 

 minimum. In the first place the colonies 

 were rather small, at least most of them. 

 Those of R. L. Taylor were sometimes two 

 and sometimes only one Heddon case. The 

 amounts calculated do not include whatever 

 honey may have been brought from the field. 

 This was necessarily consumed also, and 

 therefore increased the daily consumption 

 of that much above the figures given. 



I might add right here that Vz lb. of honey 

 for 20,000 or 30,000 bees would be just about 

 enough to fill their honey-sacs once. 



Adrian Getaz. 



Knoxville, Tenn., May 19. 



[As you have figured this matter over 

 very carefully, possibly you are right; but 

 somehow from cursory estimates that run in 

 my own mind I can not quite reconcile the 

 figures yet. Cellar-wintered bees, we will 

 say, will consume on an average about 12 



