THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



January 



A MILD AUTUMN. 



And Its Remarkable Result in Little Rodey. 

 (By Samuel Bridgham, 2nd.) 



HAS anyone told you about the 

 weather lately? Please don't 

 laugh. I mean it, that is to say 

 the kind of weather we have been en- 

 joying here in Rhode Island. Warm, 

 balmy, enticing. The kind of weather 

 that makes one want to take a long 

 walk in the country to see the wonder- 

 ful autumn tints of foliage and sunset. 

 You see I am speaking from the point 

 of view of the city fellow just now, 

 and the truth is that a blank brick wall, 

 (no not even one window wherein per- 

 chance I might see a pretty face to be- 

 guile the hours, breaks the monotony 

 of it), helps to cut ofif the sunshine. 



This sort of rot is rather far from 

 my subject, however, and is not at all 

 what I started to write. 



The truth is that the "pussywillows,'* 

 are budding in my neighborhood rather 

 profusely for this time of year, to- 

 gether with quite a number of blooms 

 of other species. Not at all an un- 

 usual thing, say many of the old people 

 hereabouts, but, coupled with the ex- 

 tended warm spell which is rather pro- 

 longed even for St. Martin's sunimer in 

 this latitude, it has caused a state of af- 

 fairs among the bees in my yard, and 

 the state of affairs is this: 



The weather being warm you can 

 can see, I was about to say all the bees, 

 at any rate a goodly number, flying 

 briskly nearly all day. This is partic- 

 ularly noticeable in the morning and 

 afternoon. In the morning the major- 

 ity of flying bees in the yard seem to 

 be departing from the hives. At noon- 

 time what bees are in the air are hov- 

 ering close by, and at nightfall there is 

 a grand rush to get inside out of the 

 cold, nevertheless there does not seem 

 to be so great a number of bees return- 

 ing as went out in the morning. 



Besides all this I have noticed that 

 hives which were quite well filled at the 

 close of the honey harvest, and which 

 gave promise of wintering well, are 

 now rather too light, while those hives 

 whch were on the ragged edge, so to 

 speak, that is to say those hives on 

 which, at the close of the honey sea- 



son it was safe to run a risk in regard 

 to their wintering, at the present time 

 need feeding very badly. 



That is the state of afifairs. Now 

 what does it mean? Good, "hefty" 

 hives suddenly gone light, questionable 

 ones now undoubtedly in need of sup- 

 plies, and light ones on the verge of 

 starvation. Surely something is wrong. 

 Som'eone will say, "that chap did not 

 leave enough honey in the hives," but I 

 want to say right here that the only 

 honey removed was from those hives 

 which had the brood chamber filled 

 solidly with stores, while those hives 

 in which the brood chamber and supers 

 were only partly filled were left alone, 

 in order that the bees might remove 

 what honey they had stored in the su- 

 pers to the brood chamber, which oper- 

 ation they have performed in every in- 

 stance. 



As a rule the weather at this date is 

 so chilly that but few bees are abroad, 

 except now and then for a cleansing 

 flight in the middle of the day, and it 

 seems to me that the warm weather of 

 the past few weeks has stimulated them 

 to too great activity, so that they range 

 the fields in quest of nectar and, their 

 search being vain, are compelled to re- 

 turn to their hives and draw heavily 

 upon their resources in order to main- 

 tain their vitality and strength. As a 

 matter of fact I have seen bees far 

 from the apiary, which is the only one 

 that I know of in the neighborhood, 

 vainly alighting upon the frost-wither- 

 ed blossoms of the goldenrod, and 

 eagerly appropriating what scanty food 

 the infrequent pussy willows, anemones 

 and other blossoms afford, while the 

 part of the dwelling house where the 

 honey is kept is continually visited by 

 numbers of bees almost daily. 



Are the bees over-stimulated by the 

 warm weather and compelled l)y the 

 lack of supplies afield to draw too much 

 upon their honey supply? I am inclin- 

 ed to think that this is the explanation 

 of the case, and that it will be neces- 

 sary, even at this late date, to resort to 

 artificial feeding in order to enable the 

 bees even in the strongest hives, the 

 hives that have the most honey, to win- 

 ter successfully. In fact, I have al- 

 ready begun to do so. Has anyone else 

 been troubled in this way? If so, what 

 explanatioa have they to offer? 



Providence, R. I., Oct. 18, 1902. 



