Mar. 1. 1912 



Sometimes the windbreak will check the 

 force of a winter's blast on one, two, or three 

 rows, but (lellect it on some other rows where 

 it does a lot of damage. For example, our 

 Harrington yard this year was moved about 

 a thousand feet to the south an<l east of its 

 previous location where the winter losses in 

 previous years were too high. The old spot 

 hati a bad wind exposure from cleared land 

 on all sides. This year the bees of this yard 

 were i)laccd in the center of an old orchard 

 with numerous brush heajis around the out- 

 side of the apiary. They looked unsightly, 

 but "handsome is that handsome does." We 

 are beginning to believe that a solid wind- 

 break, as a high board fence, is not as good 

 as one through which the air may nift and 

 spend its force. Notice how the railroad 

 comi)anies are now using open fences rather 

 tlian solid ones to keep snow off their tracks. 

 When a winter blast strikes a solid wind- 

 break like a tight board fence the force is 

 liable io glance and strike some other colo- 

 ny or colonies, doing considerable damage. 

 At our north yard, for example, there is one 

 row that seemed this year to sutler more 

 than the others. This has been observed 

 for several seasons. At our home apiary we 

 have discovered certain locations where col- 

 onies, no matter what the strain or strength, 

 seemed to suffer more than others. At the 

 Brunswick yard, owing to the conflicting 

 air currents, it was evident that the location 

 as a whole was very bad; for how else could 

 snow be driven into the entrances of many 

 of the hives so that it would be two or three 

 inches deep on the bottom of some of them? 

 These hives had contracted entrances, y%XS. 



CAN CLUSTERS MOVE DURING INIIDWINTBR? 



Another interesting thing we observed 

 was that, even during the very severe pro- 

 tracted zero weather, clusters of bees would 

 move from one part of the hive to the other. 

 Uy lifting the chaff tray we could easily tell 

 the location of a cluster by i)lacing the hand 

 on the super cover. In one particular case 

 one cluster of bees during the early part of 

 the zero si)ell moved from the front of the 

 hive to tlie rear, then over to one corner. An 

 examination on the IGth of February show- 

 ed that these bees, after all their shifting 

 about, were in fine shape. This would 

 seem to indicate that the old notion, that a 

 cluster can not move during zero weather, 

 is a mistake. Apjiarently the bees have 

 the power of increasing their temperature so 

 that they can move to "pastures new." On 

 the other hand, we have found clusters stone 

 dead with all their stores eaten away from 

 around them, yet with plenty of stores in 

 the hive. Why these clusters did not move 

 over to pastures new we can not say. Per- 

 haps you may ask howwe knew the clusters 

 moved. This we determined by the chang- 

 ing of the temi)erature as indicated by the 

 thermometer. For example, a thermometer 

 was put in the back end of one of the hives 

 while the cluster was in the extreme front. 

 The internal tem])erature of this hive varied 

 anywliere from 20 above zero to 75, while 

 the outside temjjerature was down to zero 



125 



and below. When the mercury went up to 

 75 we thought there must be some mistake, 

 because it was 7 below zero outside. We 

 came back late in the afternoon, and the 

 mercury outside had dropi)ed down to 10 be- 

 low; but the thermometer showed 75 as in 

 the morning. We were curious to know 

 why this was so, and finally lifted the cover 

 ofT the super. The bulb of the thermometer 

 had been right down in the center of the 

 cluster. Mind you, this temperature of 76 

 was taken without ilisturbing the cluster in 

 the least. This goes to show why that ball 

 of bees could move from one part of the hive 

 to the other. It had vHcdily. Now, then, 

 the cluster that remained stationary, and 

 starved, yet had stores within one or two 

 inches, must have lacked vitality or some- 

 thing. 



Some years ago Mr. G. M. Doolittle, if we 

 are correct, reported that the internal tem- 

 perature of a cluster of bees one winter was 

 up to 98. We have never found it to be 

 above 75. The apparent discrepancy may 

 be explained by the fact that Mr. Doolittle's 

 bees had probably started brood-rearing. 



SIZE OF ENTRANCES. 



There has been considerable discussion on 

 this point. It is our opinion that the mat- 

 ter of locality and wind exposure will have 

 to decide this very largely; but in most lo- 

 calities the consensus of opinion favors a 

 contracted entrance )^X8. A 1X2 inch is 

 liable to let in field mice, and these pests 

 play havoc with wintering colonies. In two 

 or three cases this winter we observed that, 

 where the entrances were wide open, yk by 

 the width of the hive, the bees were much 

 worse for the experience. We have observ- 

 ed the same thing year in and year out, and 

 yet we have no quarrel with one who says 

 he can get better results with a very large 

 entrance. Ills locality probably makes this 

 right for him. 



SEALED COVERS VERSUS ABSORBENTS. 



We are inclined to the opinion that a cov- 

 er board of thin wood laid on the top of the 

 brood nest, without sealing, is better than 

 where it is sealed down tight. While this 

 may be a concession to the upward-absorb- 

 ing-packing fellows, yet we are always open 

 to conviction, and we find that covers not 

 sealed down allow a certain amount of mois- 

 ture to escape through the cracks, and yet 

 not enough to make the packing above wet 

 or damp. This matter of absorbents versus 

 sealed covers is largely one of locality. In 

 very cold climates, if the ojunion of good 

 beekeepers is of any value, we would say, 

 use the absorbent plan; but the i)acking 

 material should be light and loose, so the 

 moisture can escape, but not enough of it so 

 that the heat may get away too. 



ENTRANCES FACING NORTH. 



We noticed in most cases where the colo- 

 nies faced the north that they were not in 

 quite as good condition as those facing east 

 or south. A few were dead outright. While 

 we do not think the north exi)osure was en- 

 tirely responsible for this, it contributed to 

 some extent to the result. 



