October, 1914. 



American Hee Joarn al J 



business man, but also personally as an 

 individual. 



May your retirement, Mr. Pouder, 

 give the beekeeping world the chance 

 to learn of your rapid improvement. 

 May our loss be your gain. 



The business of Mr. Pouder has been 

 disposed of, and for the present at 

 least will be run under the same name 

 as formerly. 



Winteriiigr— Absorbents Over the 

 Brood-Chamber 



There is some opposition, among 

 our writers, to the use of moisture ab- 

 sorbents over the brood-combs in cold 

 weather. Several arguments are used 

 which may appear plausible at first 

 sight. The first one is that, in a state 

 of nature, bees usually have the open- 

 ing of their tree-trunk or gum below 

 the colony, and that they carefully close 

 up with propolis and render impervi- 

 ous to moisture all the walls of their 

 abode. 



This is only circumstantial evidence. 

 The bees take the tree hollows as they 

 find them, and must necessarily close 

 them against all enemies, except in 

 such part as they can easily defend. 

 To accept for granted that it is impos- 

 sible to improve upon nature in any 

 case would be to agree that the wild 

 creatures such as deer, bufifalos, grouse 

 and quails are safe in the wildest and 

 deepest snow storms. Yet we all know 

 that there are times when thousands 

 of these creatures are killed by the 

 rigors of winter and deep snow. 



We are also told that a cushion of 

 absorbents over the cluster of the col- 

 ony acts as a ventilator, and is there- 

 fore injurious by creating a current of 

 air. By the same token the man who 

 sleeps under a woolen blanket would 

 be also injured by theporous condition 

 of his covering. Yet we all know that 

 a woolen cover, porous though it be, is 

 much preferable to an impervious 

 cover such as a rubber-lined blanket. 



To pass judgment upon the compara- 

 tive advantage of different modes of 

 wintering, it is necessary to bring the 

 bees through very severe weather. 

 Almost any kind of management will 

 do in mild winters. The winter of 

 1884 5, which was one of the most 

 severe that we have ever seen, owing 

 to its great duration, its low tempera- 

 ture and the extreme violence of its 

 polar winds, gave us an opportunity to 

 test, comparatively and upon a large 

 scale, the different ways of wintering 

 out-of-doors. 



We had at that time some 80 c'laflf 

 hives distributed in four apiaries, with 

 a few double-wall hives without chatT 



and a number of single-wall hives with 

 but little protection. We did not then 

 bel'eve in absorbents, but as we used 

 oil cloths over the frames, we placed 

 cushions filled with chaff over the 

 brood-chamber, to keep the heat from 

 escaping through the impervious oil 

 cloth. However, some of our cloths 

 liad been damaged by the bees and had 

 holes in them. We had neglected to 

 make any changes in them, and this is 

 what gave us the occasion to make a 

 comparative test, without foresight or 

 intention on our part. 



At the end of a long period of exces- 

 sive cold which carried us far into the 

 month of March, we made an examina- 

 tion of the colonies. Most of those 

 which had impervious ceilings had died 

 from the excess of moisture which had 

 condensed over and around them, even 

 in the chafT hives. Each of those which 

 had room for the escape of moisture 

 through the holes in the cloths into 

 the mats above was safe, except in a 

 few cases of single-wall hives. The 

 greater the space through which the 

 moisture could escape, the safer and 

 healthier the colony was. This was 

 conclusive. It was not an experiment 

 on two or three colonies, but on sev- 

 eral hundred. 



It is true that a large amount of ven- 

 tilation below does help to carry away 

 the moisture, but it is at the expense 

 of warmth and a much greater amount 

 of stores has to be used. We have 

 seen colonies winter without ^ny bot- 

 tom-board at all in box-hives and 

 gums, the entire space belowthe combs 

 being open. But for economical win- 

 tering, a reasonable amount of lower 

 ventilation and a heavy cushion of ab- 

 sorbents, preventing drafts, but allow- 

 ing the escape of moisture, as does a 

 woolen blanket over a man's body, 

 give the best results. It is true that in 

 most winters the chaff hive will pro- 

 tect a strong colony so that no freez- 

 ing temperature will surround the clus- 

 ter. But it is well to be ready for the 

 worst, and in the worst winters the 

 best chaff hives are not proof against 

 freezing temperature. 



As a matter of course, moisture ab- 

 sorbents are not the only requirement 

 for safe wintering. The food supply 

 must be ample and of good quality. No 

 amount of protection will save a col- 

 ony supplied, in a long winter without 

 flights, with grape or apple juice or 

 honey-dew as stores. Our people tested 

 this to our sorrow. In boththe winters 

 of lOlit-ll and that of 1911-12 our bees 

 had honey-dew. In preparing for the 

 first of those winters, my sons re- 

 moved most of the honey-dew and 



replaced it with sugar syrup or honey 

 The winter was very mild, and the bees 

 that were left with the honey-dew 

 stores came through about as well as 

 the others. This encouraged them to 

 save all the trouble of extracting and 

 feeding back the following winter. But 

 it was a hard winter and the loss was 

 tremendous. We live and learn. 



Winteriug Bees in Iowa 



On our desk is another bulletin by 

 the indefatigable President of the Iowa 

 State Beekeepers' Association, our 

 friend Pellett. It bears the above title 

 and gives very good methods of win- 

 tering, quoting some of the best au- 

 thorities in the State. However, we 

 must criticize the opinion emitted in 

 in this bulletin by our old friend Dr. 

 Bonney, who does not believe in the 

 " absorbent cushion " over the brood- 

 combs, when using chaff hives. Had 

 Dr. Bonney been with us when we ex- 

 perimented with 80 chaff hives in the 

 rigorous winter of 1884-5, he would 

 alter some of his arguments. 



The bulletin is finely illustrated, and 

 contains 20 pages. It is known as No. 

 22 of the Agricultuial Extension De- 

 partment of Ames, Iowa. Let the good 

 work go on. 



Feeding- With Sugar Syrup 



In the September number, follow- 

 ing a contribution by Mr. Mciiinnon, 

 we gave Doctor Miller's views and 

 promised our readers a study of this 

 matter and the expression of former 

 writers. For this we have gone back 

 into the Journals as far as 1879 and 

 have examined different works on 

 modern apiculture. 



Quinby, one of the oldest and prac- 

 tical authors in modern beekeeping, 

 said: "If no money is at hand, sugar 

 may be used instead; add a little 

 water, boil until near the consistency 

 of honey, and skim it; when cool 

 enough, use the same as honey." In 

 his later work, "New Beekeeping," he 

 wrote: "Add one quart of water to 

 3 pounds of sugar, bring to a boil 

 and skim." This is IVz to 1. 



Heddon used 3 pounds of water to 

 10 pounds of sugar with a teaspoonful 

 of tartaric acid. This is 3, 3 to 1. 



N. P. Allen, in 1880, advised using 

 2 pounds to 1, adding a little cream 

 of tartar or a little vinegar. At dif- 

 ferent times, both before and after, 

 dozens of others recommended the 

 same thing. 



G. H. Ashby, in the American Bee 



