48 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to be necessary, it is alwnys besi lo ftirnish 

 the bees with an aflequate supply in antumn. 

 If feeding is resorted lo in the spring, it should 

 be continued till flowers become abundant. 

 Honey is of course the best food, yet sometimes 

 too expensive. If candied, it should be heated 

 till dissolved. Feeding should never be at- 

 tempted as a matter of profit. The best honey 

 cannot be made from cheap honey and refuse 

 sugar or molasses ; it is not made by the bees 

 Init gathered by them from the flowers. Of 

 these white clover is the principal source of 

 sup]>ly. Fruit trees, basswood, locust, and 

 majile yield abundantly and of fine quality; 

 buckwheat furnishes a large quantity, excellent 

 lor winter food of bees, l/ut inferior for the 

 t-.tblc, as it is dark and strong-flavored. 



The bee-moth is the greatest foe the apiarian 

 has to contend with, where the common box or 

 straw hives are used. All moth-traps and moth- 

 proof hives are sheer humbugs. The best safe- 

 guard is to be sure to have only young and 

 fertile queens in the colonies ; otherwise con- 

 stant watchfulness from May to October is in- 

 dispensable. In day time the motha remain in 

 their hiding places, and may often be found 

 about the hives. They are on the wing m the 

 evening, hovering around the apiary or run- 

 ning over the hives, endeavoring to enter and 

 deposit their eggs. Many may be destroyed by 

 entrapping them in shallow dishes of sweetened 

 water, with a little vinegar added. Hollow 

 sticks, small shells, and similar things are often 

 placed on the bottom-boards, where the worms 

 hatched from the eggs may take refuge and be 

 destroyed. It is necessary to look often under 

 the bottom of the hive, and if one side is raised 

 (as is required for ventilation in warm weather) 

 under the blocks or shells on which it rests. 

 These caterpillars, at first not thicker than a 

 thread, are of a yellowish white color with a 

 few browuisli dots. They live on the wax, 

 eating it, and filling the combs with webs. 

 They protect themselves from the bees by a 

 sort of silken sack, which they spin and in 

 which they lodge. When they have attained 

 their full size, which requires about three weeks, 

 they spin their cocoons. In these they remain 

 enclosed some time and change to chrysalids of a 

 light brown color, with a dark elevated line along 

 the. back. A few days afterwards they are 

 transformed to winged moths, issue from the 

 cocoons and are soon ready to deposit eggs, for 

 another generation. Rats and mice do not 

 attack the hives except in winter, unless the 

 combs are unprotected by bees. They are 

 easily removed. There is a disease called 

 " foulbrood," which sometimes is very destruc- 

 tive to the young bees in the larvse state. They 

 die in the cells and become black and putrid. 

 The disease appears to be in a measure infec- 

 tious, and it is exceedingly difficult to eradicate 

 when once introduced in an apiary. 



Many different methods are practiced in win- 

 tering bees. It is necessary to protect them 

 especially from two things — from being frozen, 

 and from being starved. The latter happens 

 when they collect together closely, in the cold- 

 est weather, and the combs become covered 

 with frost and ice, the moisture from their bod- 



ies and from the air being there deposited and 

 frozen, excluding them from the honey. The 

 entrance to the hive is liable to be closed with 

 ice, and the bees thus suffocated. The bee 

 never passes into the torpid state in winter, like 

 some other insects ; it perishes at a degree of 

 cold low enough to freeze it. As in the case of 

 other kinds of farm stock, it requires less food 

 when kept warm and comfortable. If the hives 

 are to be carried into a house or cellar, the place 

 for them should be cool, dry, and dark. The 

 best method is to house them, unless sufficient 

 protection can be given them on their stands. 

 The Russian and Polish beekeepers, who man- 

 age bees as extensively and successl\illy as any, 

 winter their liives on the stands ; but they make 

 their hives of inch-and-a-half plank, and Avind 

 the upper part with twisted ropes of straw or 

 cordage to increase the protection against ex- 

 tremes of heat and cold. If left on the stands, 

 hives made of common boards need additional 

 covering in the colder climates ; the entrances 

 should also be narrowed so as to leave only 

 space enough for a single bee to pass. This must 

 not be allowed to become stopped with frost 

 and ice, or dead bees and filth. Light snow 

 may cover the hive without danger. The prac- 

 tice of beekeepers is about equally divided be- 

 tween these two modes of wintering. The suc- 

 cess of outdoor wintering would be greatly 

 increased by making better hives, by better pro- 

 tecting them against extreme co'd ; and from 

 changes of temperature. It is easier and pre- 

 ferable when the number of hives is very large, 

 and there is no danger of theft, to manage them 

 out-doors than in-doors. With a small number 

 it may be otherwise. 



The time for carrying beesout from their winter 

 quarters is in the month of March, except in very 

 backward seasons. A few bright cold day !will 

 not be more destructive to them than too long 

 confinement. If new snow has fallen, and the 

 weather is not sufficiently warm for them to 

 venture into the air safely, the hives may be 

 shaded from the sun, or the bees confined in the 

 hive. If they are to stand very near each other, 

 it is not well to carry a large number of hives 

 at once, the bees at first not readily distinguish- 

 ing their own. The hives should be raised from 

 the bottom-board only on one side, if at all. 

 Many prefer if the bees are not especially 

 numerous, to let the hive rest entirely on tlie 

 board, allowing less room for passage, and se- 

 curing greater defence against intruders. More 

 ventilation than this affords may be required in 

 warm weather, when, if liable to suffer from 

 heat, the hive may be raised entirely, proper 

 means being furnished for the bees to ascend 

 from the bottom-board. 



The careful beekeeper has long desired to pos- 

 sess some method of measuring the daily in- 

 crease or decrease in the weight of his hive. 

 A German publication states that a beekeeper 

 took the trouble to weigh one of his hives twice 

 a day — before the bees left in the morning, and 

 after their return at night — and thus he deter- 

 mined the nightly loss by consumption and 

 evaporation. "These observations were contin- 

 ued from May 5 to August 2, a period of ninety- 

 one days, and the results are very interesting. 



