THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



33 



The Bee and its Winter Habits. 



Valuable cxtrat-ts from an addret^s de- 

 livered before the Bee-kee]>ers' Conven- 

 tiou, by Prof. A. .1. Cook, of the Agri- 

 cultural College. Tiansing, Mieh. 



Mr. Presidknt : — I think I hazard 

 nothing in the remark that no manual 

 labor pursuit yields as great a per cent, 

 on the eapitiU invested as apiculture. 

 During the season just past — in no wise 

 an extraordinary one as to the honey 

 harvest — my Bees have netted me over 

 833 per colony, about 200 per cent, on 

 their value. Add to this the fact that 

 1 started with only one Italian colony, 

 and have Italianized ni}' whole apiaiy, 

 and you are enabled to. see that the 

 protits of Bee-keeping are by no means 

 inconsiderable. And this is not an iso- 

 lated case. It is to be hoped that all 

 of you are subscribers to that most ex- 

 cellent periodical, the American Bee 

 Journal, of Chicago. In that you have 

 read of Adam Grinim, of Wisconsin, 

 with his several apiaries and immense 

 returns, which are often fairly start- 

 ling ; of A. I. Root, of Ohio, vi^ho is do- 

 ing Avonders not only in obtaining pro- 

 digious returns of honey, but in foster- 

 ing apiarian pursuits. 



Yet I would not assert that this 

 bright picture of profit — and I might 

 aver of real pleasure, as w^ell — has not 

 its shadows. The agriculturist has his 

 droughts, the pomologist his dreaded 

 blasts of AVinter, the merchant his eras 

 of depreciated stock, so also the bitter 

 is mingled with the sweet in the apiar- 

 ist's cup, and how many apiarists all 

 through our country, since the bitter 

 experience of the past two Winters, 

 have little of the swefet in their expres- 

 sion as you speak to them of Bee-keep- 

 ing. They too can speak of the Winter 

 of their discontent. 



Let us therefore analyze closely the 

 dangers in the way of successful Winter- 

 ing of Bees, in the light of their history 

 and habits, and see if we ma}' not at 

 least hope to avoid in future the stumb- 

 ling block w'hicl) has so essayed to over- 

 throw us in the successful prosecution 

 of our fiivorite business. 



That Bees will endure very severe 



cold is certain ; that they are ever so 

 frozen as to be thus destroyed needs 

 proof I knew a colony of Bees to win- 

 ter Avell during the terrible cold Winter 

 of 1871-2 in a hive with an unsealed 

 crevice, and resting on the summer 

 stand. Now all animals while hiber- 

 nating take no food nor exercise, hence 

 there is little destruction of tissue, and 

 little exertion. Now it is not probable 

 that, could we keep our Bees during all 

 the months of Winter at an even tem- 

 perature — at about the freezing point, 

 or a little above — they would, if nor- 

 mal and healthy. Winter w-ell, and con- 

 sume scarcely any lood at all. Does not 

 this explain the not uncommon phe- 

 nomonon of strong colonies wintering 

 on three or four pounds of honey? 



Now, if the above proposition can not 

 be disapproved, is not one of our chief 

 desiderata in Avintering to secure such 

 conditions as will insure even tempera- 

 ture ? 



With the best management there Avill 

 doubtless be more or less food consumed 

 during Winter ; hence good food is in- 

 dispensable. By good food I mean good 

 thick honey gathered from the flowers^ 

 and all capped over, or else coffee A 

 sugar fed by the middle of September, 

 or so early as to be all capped over be- 

 fore Winter and rest comes on. Again, 

 during the early Spring breeding must 

 commence. This only follows upon 

 warmth, activity and food-taking. Thus 

 w^e need not only good honey to serve 

 as food for the mature insect, but there 

 must also be an ample supply of pollen 

 or Bee bread, that the larva) or imma- 

 ture Bees may receive proper food. 

 Hence we conclude that our second 

 desideratum, in successful wintering, is 

 to have the stores wdiich are designed 

 for Winter consumption, of the best 

 quality, and also a sufficient amount of 

 Bee bread that the eai"ly Spring brood 

 may not lack nourishment. 



Again, it is a truth well understood 

 by all physiologists that the greater the 

 animal's activity, the more rapid the 

 destruction of tissue, and unless the tis- 

 sues can have periods of rest, they wull 

 soon become powerless to perform their 

 allotted function, and hence death must 

 result. Suppose w^e should labor con- 

 stantlv. taking no rest, how soon w'ould 



