GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January, 1919 



743. I wonder, Miss Fowls, if we are talk- 

 ing about the same thing. I suspect you are 

 talking about your bees under your man- 

 agement, in which case I agree with all 

 you say, including your conclusion that 

 ' ' good colonies, if suitably packed, will win- 

 ter on even seven frames," and I should 

 hardly quarrel with you if you made it six 

 frames, always supposing they were six 

 heavy frames of honey. But when I am 

 asked, "Is a ten-frame hive better than an 

 eight-frame hive? it is not an experienced 

 beekeeper like you who asks the question, 

 but a beginner who is likely to leave the 

 bees to their own devices in making prepara- 

 tion for winter. Suppose he has 50 colonies 

 in ten-frame hives and 50 in eight-frame 

 hives. It is pretty safe to assume that at 

 the approach of winter each of the larger 

 hives will have two frames of honey more 

 than the smaller ones. In the larger hives 

 the bees may become stranded at one side 

 of the hive and starve, with plenty of stores 

 a|t the other side. There is much less dan- 

 ger of this with the smaller hives. In the 

 smaller hives the total amount of stores may 

 not be enough to prevent starA-ation. There 

 is much less danger of this with the larger 

 hives. When a good colony dies in a ten- 

 frame hive, leaving stores out of reach, I 

 think it is the exception and not the rule. 

 When a colony in an eight-frame hive has 

 insufficient total stores, it is the rule with- 

 out exception that it dies. When I had ten- 

 frame hives it was a rare thing that a colony 

 starved leaving honey in the hive. With 

 eight-frame hives I have had seasons when, 

 without any attention on my part, every 

 hive was so well filled that not a colony was 

 in any danger of starvation; and I have had 

 so poor seasons, especially so poor in fall 

 flow, that three-fourths of the colonies 

 would have starved but for my interference. 

 So taking the average beekeeper with 50 

 hives of each kind, in the average season, 

 don't you believe that for every colony 

 starving with honey in the larger hives two 

 would starve in the smaller hives? I don't 

 know, and will be glad to change my belief 

 if you give me sufficient ground for the 

 change. [If it is true that the average bee- 

 keeper does not see that his colonies are 

 provided with sufficient stores for winter, 

 then you are quite right in saying such 

 colonies will winter better in the larger 

 hive.— I. F.] 



* * » 



That ' ' very exceptional wintering inci- 

 dent, ' ' as the editor calls it, is given by Eva 

 A. Brown, page 722. My first impression on 

 reading it was that the air in the cellar was 

 below the freezing point all winter long, and 

 bees wintered well there. It may not have 

 been so bad as that. With the door from 

 kitchen to cellar open most of the time, it 

 may be that the air was above the freezing 

 point without thawing the vegetables. Still 

 it could not have been much above freezing. 

 Well, if those bees had been on their sum- 

 mer stands, with a uniform temperature of 



about 32 degrees, we would have considered 

 the conditions quite favorable for good win- 

 tering. Why not in the cellar? Two reasons: 

 the first being that the confinement in cel- 

 lar was much longer than on summer stands, 

 altho we don 't know how much longer. The 

 second reason why bees stand a temperature 

 on their summer stands that they will not 

 stand in the cellar is that the air is purer 

 outdoors. In this case, with the door open 

 between cellar and kitchen, the air could 

 hardly have been very bad at any time, es- 

 pecially as we are told that the air could be 

 be felt moving in the cellar when the wind 

 blew. So, barring the chance for flight on 

 summer stands, why shouldn 't these bees 

 winter well? No doubt the editor is right 

 in calling th« case "very exceptional," and 

 I suspect it is so because it is very excep- 

 tional to have air in cellar about as pure as 

 outdoors. 



In her interesting discussion of cellar 

 temperatures, page 718, Belva M. Demuth 

 springs something new — at least it's new to 

 me — when she tells us that the temperature 

 of the cellar should be lower toward spring 

 than earlier, because the imeasiness of the 

 bees at the later time makes them raise the 

 temperature of the brood-nest. No doubt 

 she 's right, and it complicates things. She 

 doesn 't say just how many degrees warmer, 

 and I don 't suppose there is any definite 

 figure that will apply to all cases. Anyway, 

 it will be a varying factor, gradually getting 

 lower the longer the confinement continues; 

 and, I suppose, if we keep the bees under 

 the very best conditions the difference be- 

 tween the beginning and the end of winter 

 need be but a few degrees, while it may be 

 very much more if conditions are bad and 

 the bees become very uneasy. 



Will there ever be agreement as to best 

 temperature for bees in the cellar? Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal and Gleanings say 40 to 45 

 (altho the former thinks it might reach 50 

 in the middle of the cellar or between hive- 

 rows) ; Mrs. Demuth thinks somewhere be- 

 tween 45 and 55; and Dr. Phillips says 50. 

 Even if you knew exactly the right point, 

 don 't forget that thermometers vary a good 

 deal. Fin<i out at what temperature bees 

 are quietest by your thermometer in your 

 cellar, and then try to hold it there, keeping 

 in mind that Mrs. Demuth says a lower tem- 

 perature is needed toward spring. 



I keep a thermometer in the cellar just 

 inside the door that enters the bee-room, at 

 a convenient height for ready reading. I've 

 just been down cellar, and at that point the 

 temperature was 54 degrees. In the middle 

 of the bee-room, at the floor it was 55, and 

 58 at the ceiling. It makes a difference 

 whereabouts your thermometer is in the cel- 

 lar. 



