July. iai4. 



American ^ee Journal 



flight. Probably most beekeepers in 

 New Jersey winter out-of-doors, but I 

 have a feeling that with an increase in 

 the number of professional beekeepers 

 we shall see more cellar wintering. In 

 any event, the following considerations 

 are pertinent. It is dilTicult to con- 

 ceive of a colony sutTering in the fall 

 because it is packed too soon, of a col- 

 ony having too much honey in winter, 

 or of a colony being injured by leaving 

 the protection on too long in the 

 spring. Similarly can we conceive of 

 a colony injured by excessive packing? 

 The whole series of confessions and 

 observations recorded by beekeepers 

 points to the facts that they usually 

 delay packing too long ; they too often 

 provide the minimum of stores, and 

 they not unfrequently unpack and ma- 

 nipulate too early in the spring. 



We read of feeding colonies in the 

 winter to save them, and of opening 

 colonies when snow is on the ground 

 to see if they are short of stores. 

 These things are within the range of 

 possibilities, but they should be con- 

 sidered only as a last e.xpedient in case 

 of dire and unexcusable emergency. 

 There is full justification for calling 

 such manipulations bad practice. I can 

 conceive of no condition when a prop- 

 erly wintered colony can be helped by 

 any manipulation from the beekeeper 

 between Dec. 1 and .^pril 1, and except 

 for fearof being considered eccentric, I 

 should move the first date up a full 

 month, and often put the final date a 

 month later. 



These statements apply to out-of-door 

 wintering. We cannot speak so defi 

 nitely of the cellar. There is a ten-- 

 dency in these days to keep cellars 

 warmer than formerly, probably due in 

 large part to the influence of Dr. Miller, 

 and we can at any rate say definitely 

 that a damp cold cellar is bad. There 

 is also a tendency to put the colonies 

 in the cellar earlier. The air should 

 be dry enough so that condensed mois- 

 ture will not appear on the bottom- 

 boards. 



After the long fight with cold is over 

 the colony must begin another almost 

 as severe. Brood rearing may be said 

 not to occur normally until toward the 

 end of the winter, and, in general, the 



longer it can be avoided the better, up 

 to the time that the days are warm 

 enou;h to permit frequent flights. 

 When it does begin it necessitates the 

 production of heat sufticient to keep 

 the brood chamber at a high tempera- 

 ture, and this means increased con- 

 sumption of stores. Then the bees 

 must have an abundance of honey, and 

 they should have frequent flights. They 

 should have every opportunity to con- 

 serve the heat generated, which means 

 that they should not be manipulated 

 except when absolutely necessary. We 

 come now to the much discussed ques- 

 tion of spring manipulations to induce 

 brood-rearing, such as stimulative 

 feeding and spreading of the brood. 

 Can any better stimulation be con- 

 ceived than .50 pounds of honey avail- 

 able for consumption ? This is so 

 much better than a pint of thin syrup 

 occasionally or perhaps daily that one 

 wonders why there is any discussion 

 about it. As to spreading brood, it is 

 avowedly dangerous, and with a good 

 queen and bees that have wintered 

 well we may expect the bees to rear 

 about all the brood they can cover. 

 Can we ask more of them? If a col- 

 ony has plenty of stores and plenty of 

 room in a well protected hive, they 

 will provide the bees necessary later. 



By these methods the increase of the 

 brood occurs in a manner which we 

 can describe as rational, not by fits and 

 starts. It results in a balanced colony 

 which is of great consideration. 



The beekeeper cannot over empha- 

 size the necessity for plenty of bees, and 

 when we seethemiserablyweakcolones 

 that are often found in the North, one 

 may well understand why such poor 

 financial returns are often received. 

 The small hives, lack of protection and 

 shortage of stores are reasons enough 

 for this condition. Have you ever seen 

 colonies wintered in two hive-bodies 

 well supplied with honey and well 

 packed come out in the spring ? It 

 does one's heart good just as it is 

 painful to see a colony exposed in a 

 single Danzenbaker or 8-frame hive- 

 budy, short of storesand weak in num- 

 bers just when strength is the one es- 

 sential. Bees are capable of withstand- 

 ing great hardship, but it is all at the 



'Mi^. 



expense of the crop of the next year. 



If 10,000 bees will gather 10 pounds 

 of surplus honey, arithmetic alone 

 might indicate that 70,1)00 bees will 

 gather 70 pounds of surplus. But 10,000 

 bees will probably almost go hungry 

 while the 70,000 are piling up a nice 

 surplus for their owner. However, the 

 70,000 must be on time, for if they ar- 

 rive a few weeks too late they are con- 

 sumers and not producers. Further- 

 more, a weak colony in spring ma V often 

 be almost starving while its strong 

 neighbor colony will not only be in 

 better shape for the future, but it is 

 often gathering from some mysterious 

 sources enough to live on. Strong col- 

 onies in the spring are actually less 

 expense to maintain than weak ones. 



Geo. H. ElskaniD. of Maurice. Iowa, looking for a aueen: his son looking on. 



tiEO. H. Elskamp. of Iowa, in the Act of 

 Caging a Queen. 



And when the time comes to put on 

 comb-honey supers the strongest colo- 

 nies do not delay in getting started in 

 the supers as do the weaker ones. They 

 may need to be encouraged with bait 

 sections, but the chief difficulty in this 

 regard is in persuading colonies to 

 work in sections when they are too 

 weak to do it economically. 



II. Keeping the Bee.s in Proper 

 Condition. — In all the work that is 

 done in the spring to get colonies 

 strong before the honey-flow, the bee- 

 keeper is usually laying up trouble for 

 the future, for the stronger colonies 

 are those most likely to swarm. The 

 old conception of success in beekeep- 

 ing was a large number of swarms; 

 the present ideal is none at all. To re- 

 vert to our text: Dr. Miller's increase 

 in 191.3 was 2 colonies, and I dare say he 

 would have been satisfied with none at 

 all. It is no longer necessary to prove 

 that colonies which are preparing to 

 swarm, or which do swarm gather less 

 surplus than those of equal strength 

 which make no efforts along that line. 

 This is proven repeatedly, and may be 

 considered almost a.xiomatic. 



Mr. Demuth, in his bulletin on 



