THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



G9 



For tlie Amencua Bee JoumaL 



Does a Colony of Bees ever Freeze? 



G. M. DOOLITTLE, (40—80). 



A few days ago a friend called in to 

 have a neighborly chat, and as we 

 talked of the recent severely cold 

 weather (the coldest known here for 

 over 15 years, the mercury being 28^ 

 below zero), he asked, '• Have not 

 some of your colonies of bees frozen 

 to death '?" I replied that " I thought 

 not, as I never knew a colony of bees, 

 while in a normal condition, to freeze 

 during any cold weather ever experi- 

 enced south of latitude 4o ; but," said 

 I, " we will go out and look, for pos- 

 sibly some of my little colonies may 

 have succumbed to the extreme cold.'' 

 Purposely I had prepared several 

 queen-rearing colonies for winter, by 

 way of experiment, some being so 

 small that last November they did 

 not contain a common bowl full of 

 bees, and occupied but two spaces be- 

 tween the combs, while others were 

 seen in only three spaces. A part of 

 these were placed in the cellar, and 

 the rest left on the summer stands. 

 Upon going to the bee-yard, we first 

 looked at a full colony, which we 

 found to be in splendid condition, the 

 bees being all clustered in seven 

 spaces between the combs, and so 

 quiet that scarcely a bee moved, al- 

 though the mercury at this time stood 

 at 3-50 above zero. Upon raising the 

 hive from the bottom-board, not over 

 20 dead bees were to be seen, which 

 proved conclusively, to me at least, 

 that those bees were wintering in the 

 best possible condition thus far, in 

 spite of the extreme cold. Next, we 

 went to a colony which occupied but 

 four spaces, and found them in as 

 perfect condition as the first, although 

 a practical bee-keeper had told me, 

 but two weeks previous, that I could 

 never winter so small a cluster. 



We now went to one of the smallest 

 which had so contracted its cluster 

 during the extreme cold, that they 

 could be said to occupy scarcely more 

 than one space between the combs, 

 for there was not more than 100 bees 

 except in the one space; yet this 

 small cluster was perfectly quiet and 

 gave no sign of bee-diarrhea. Upon 

 raising the hive from the bottom- 

 board, about 100 dead bees were found 

 which showed that the constant strug- 

 gle with the cold had caused more 

 bees, in proportion, to die of old age 

 out of this little cluster than had died 

 from the others ; still the greater part 

 of them being alive was sufficient to 

 prove to my friend that bees would 

 never freeze in this latitude while the 

 cluster was in a normal condition. 



Our wintering trouble is not caused 

 by bees freezing, but it is caused by 

 the bees getting in an abnormal con- 

 dition from many of the various 

 causes brought about by long con- 

 tinued cool or cold weather. Let me 



describe (or re-write what I find in 

 an old diary of mine) my observation 

 of bees during a year when all win- 

 tered successfully : " As fall ap- 

 proaches, if we examine a colony of 

 bees we will find that the activity 

 manifested during the spring and 

 summer in the interior of the hive, 

 becomes less and less, so that by the 

 middle of October, in this latitude, all 

 brood-rearing has ceased and the bees 

 have become partially dormant ; still, 

 so far, they have not packed them- 

 selves away in a snug cluster, or com- 

 pact shape for winter. Every oppor- 

 tunity given by a warm day is im- 

 proved to void the fieces, so the bees 

 may be prepared for a long, cold spell 

 when such a one occurs. As the 

 weatlier grows colder, the bees con- 

 tract their cluster, many packing 

 themselves away in the cells till the 

 smallest possible space is occupied by 

 them, and thus the requisite warmth 

 is secured to keep them alive when 

 the mercury sinks below zero. 



" In this contraction of the bees (at 

 certain times) many of them are left 

 singly or in little clusters of from five 

 to ten, which dO not recede with the 

 main cluster, and thus are chilled 

 where they are, and if the weather be- 

 comes cold enough, they may be 

 frozen, thus losing to the cluster that 

 number of bees. "The reason for this 

 formerly given was, that owing to the 

 movable frame no cross-sticks were 

 used, as was the case with box-hives, 

 and hence the bees left no holes in 

 the centre of the combs as they did 

 around the cross-sticks, thus com- 

 pelling the bees to pass over and 

 around combs of cold honey to keep 

 pace with the receding cluster, instead 

 of passing through the centre of the 

 combs to the next range, which was 

 more nearly filled with bees. In thus 

 passing around, many become stif- 

 fened and caught by the cold, which 

 might have been saved if holes were 

 provided in the centre of the combs 

 for them to pass through. To this 

 end the Langstroth frame and others 

 were provided with a shaving bent to 

 form a circle an inch in diameter, 

 which was suspended from the top- 

 bar by means of a little strip of tin, 

 supposing that this would effectually 

 secure a passage-way for the bees. 

 However, but a short time elapsed 

 before it became apparent that during 

 a good yield of honey this shaving 

 would be filled with comb and honey, 

 and hence the passage-way was cut 

 off. Next, the practice of cutting 

 holes through the combs, each tall, 

 by various means, was resorted to 

 only to be filled up the following sum- 

 mer, when, as winter approached, the 

 process had to be repeated again. 



" After trying all these plans, it 

 became apparent to me that the rea- 

 son assigned as the cause of the death 

 of the bees was not the real trouble, 

 for bees would stay and die within % 

 of an inch of these holes, when it 

 would appear they could have passed 

 through these passages just as well as 

 not. I als6 discovered that when the 

 weather was cool, cloudy and rainy 

 for several weeks before it came 

 severely cold, that this loss was appar- 

 ently much greater than when, a clear. 



warm day occurred immediately be- 

 fore a severe cold spell, liy the num- 

 bers of bees that were found on boards 

 and such places, dull and stupid after 

 such a fine day, I concluded that these 

 were the same bees that would have 

 died by not following the cluster, had 

 not a warm day occurred for them to 

 leave the hive to die; hence, I say 

 that tlje loss was apparently greater 

 when no such day occurred, for many 

 more bees were seen outside of the 

 cluster dead, as they had no chance 

 to get out of the hive to die. 



" From several years' experience in 

 this matter, I see no reason for chang- 

 ing the conclusion thus formed. 

 After the bees once get thoroughly 

 clustered, I do not see this loss oc- 

 curring after a warm spell, as some 

 claim they do, nor but little after a 

 mild fall like the past has been. After 

 bein^ fully settled for winter, and 

 this loss of old bees has passed away, 

 a colony will lose but few bees for six 

 weeks or two months, and will re- 

 main quiet. If at this time a warm 

 day occurs so they can fly freely, they 

 again cluster back quietly, and re- 

 main so about the same length of 

 time, when they again desire to fly, 

 and if such a chance occurs, all will 

 go well, and the bees winter well. 

 Thus we have a colony in a normal 

 condition, and all the cold ever ob- 

 tained in any portion of the world 

 where bees can be kept with profit, 

 (occurring during this period between 

 their flights), will not freeze or ma- 

 terially injure them if thev have 

 plenty of stores within easy access." 



Although several years have passed 

 since the above was written, I have 

 seen nothing to change my mind on 

 this subject, and still believe that if 

 bees can have a good flight once in 

 six weeks, extremely cold freezing 

 weather between these flights cannot 

 harm them; and that belief is 

 strengthened still more by the bees 

 passing safely through the late, ex- 

 tremely cold weather. Bees had a 

 splendid "fly" on Dec. 31, 188i, at 

 which time no trace of bee-diarrhea 

 could be seen, as none of the bees 

 spotted the hives or snow. 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



For tlie American Bee JournaL 



Registering Colonies, etc. 



10— .JOHN RET, (3-5— .56). 



I notice on page 22, that Mr. Frad- 

 enburg describes his plan for regis- 

 tering colonies, and I tliink that it is 

 a good one for correct work. I will 

 give the plan that I have used for 3 

 years, and which I am so used to that 

 I do not think that I will change, al- 

 though I think that Mr. Fradenburg's 

 is a better plan. 



I take a piece of soft, white chalk 

 which will wash oif of the wood, and 

 number the hives in front, beginning 

 with l,and on the backs of them I 

 keep my register. The first thing 

 tliat I do in the spring, when the bees 

 begin to carry in pollen, and it is 

 warm enough to open the hives, is to 

 examine them, and it I find them 

 strong, I mark on the backs of the 



