PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W. T FALCONER MANPG CO 



VOL. V. 



DECEMBER, 1895. 



NO. 12. 



Shading Hives in Winter. 



BY (i. M. DOOLITTLE, 



A correspondent writes me as fol- 

 lows : Every winter 1 have trouble 

 with my bees going out in weather too 

 cold for them to fly and dying in 

 great numbers on the snow. Do you 

 have any such trouble, and if so how 

 do you pi-eveut it ? Some tell me to 

 scatter straw around my hives so the 

 bees need not get down in the snow, 

 but from some experience along this 

 line I find that whenever the air is 

 too cold for the bees to have a gener- 

 al flight that they die on the straw 

 the same as on the snow, and besides, 

 did they not do this, it is much work 

 to put out straw every time we have 

 snow, and when spring comes it leaves 

 the apiary in a very unsatisfactory 

 and untidy shape, so I do not like this 

 plan in any event. Would shading 

 the hives in some way do any good ? 

 This matter of bees coming out in the 

 snow and dying used to be a great 

 source of annoyance to me, and es- 

 pecially as it neared spring, at which 

 time the loss was greater than at any 

 other time of the year, for, in early 

 spring, a single bee is of far more 

 value as a factor toward brood rearing, 

 than is half a dozen bees after the 



warmth of summer is fully upon us. 

 To keep the bees from thus coming 

 out and dying on the snow I used to 

 sweep a little snow up in front of the 

 entrance so the bees could not get out, 

 but as the sun soon thawed it away, or 

 melted it so that ice was formed over 

 the entrance when it froze at night so 

 as to shut the pure air out of the hive, 

 I gave it up, especially as it was 

 nothing permanent anyway, having to 

 be repeated every time the snow came. 

 I next tried other plans and finally hit 

 upon that which is suggested by our 

 correspondent, the shading of the 

 hive. I would also say that a shade 

 of the right kind is very beneficial in 

 other ways besides keeping the bees 

 from flying out on the snow. Some 

 seem to think that the hives should 

 set in the sun and that the sun shin- 

 ing on the hives does not heat up the 

 interior of the same to an extent 

 sufficient to disturb a healthy colony 

 of bees, but from years of experience 

 I am convinced that such are mistak- 

 en. I find that even chaff hives are 

 warmed clear through their thick 

 walls so as to make the bees break 

 their cluster and run about the south 

 side of the interior of the hive, along 

 the warm material, to such an extent 



