18 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Failures in Safely Wintering Bees— 

 The Proposed Remedies. 



Thei'e are about as many plans proposed 

 for the proper wiutei'ing of bees as tliere are 

 writers, and yet every winter shows the ut- 

 ter failure of nearly every plan. We have a 

 great deal of theory, but very few facts. 

 The few facts published are generally ac- 

 counted for in the most unreasonable way. 

 An old and much respected accjuaintance 

 once told me that a neighbor of his had lost 

 all his bees. The reason was (he said) an 

 old iincle had died in the family, aud they 

 forgot to tell the bees. The two circum- 

 stances did actually occur. His mistake 

 was, supposing that one resulted from.the 

 other. 



An old bee-keeper, and an intelligent one, 

 lately as serted that uncapped honey was 

 poisonous. His reason for saying so was 

 that he had heard so, and once he became 

 sick after eating uncapped honey. So with 

 the failures in wintering bees. A few facts 

 are observed, but they are supposed to be 

 connected together in a very illogical man- 

 ner. Thus, water is often found in the fall 

 or winter in the hive, or the mats if used are 

 partly saturated. Its presence is accounted 

 lor by supposing that the bees evaporate a 

 large quantity, which afterwards condenses 

 on the combs, and sometimes on the bees 

 themselves, causes mould, disease and some- 

 times death. The mats are often sliown, 

 saturated, as an evidence, but my experi- 

 ence is that the moisture comes thi-ough 

 leaky roofs. My blankets are covered wiih 

 tarred paper, lying close upon them, yet the 

 blankets are dry in damp weather, because 

 the tarred paper sheds the rain. 



Novice feeds a few swarms on sugar syrup, 

 after extracting all the honey gathered in 

 the fall, and they live through the winter. 

 Many bee-keepers therefore conclude that 

 all fall honey is unhealthy for the bees, and 

 that they would have died, if they had not 

 been supplied with sugar syrup. Straight- 

 way they adopt the infallible remedy of 

 pumping out all fall honey and feeding up 

 with artificial food. One or two winter^s 

 experience will kill that remedy. 



Another bee-keeper says he does not want 

 more than a pint or quart of bees to winter 

 with. The difficulty here is to measure a 

 pint of bees. It would be an interesting 

 sight to see a man stuffing bees into a meas- 

 ure. How tight should he pack it, or rather 

 how tight would he pack it. The trial would 

 not last long and he would be as uncertain 

 at last how many bees make a pint. I think 

 he would find that a great many had points 

 if they couldn't make a pint. The lookers 

 on, if well protected would enjoy it. 



Another bee-keeper surrounds each hivo 

 with a large box, and packs between witli 

 saw dust, straw, dry earth, chaff or otlier 

 good non-conductors. Another puts his 

 swarms in a dry cellar, moving tlicm out 

 and in on warm days to cleanse tiicmselves 

 as he imagines they must, and talks about 

 their being swelled up with tiie enforced 

 confinement of the fceces within their bodies. 

 Just imagine a dog swelled up to double 

 size because he could not find a conveniciut 

 door-ste]> on which to make a deposit, or a 

 man waling about with an apparently sud- 

 den attack of dropsy, because our city coun- 

 cil has not provided a public water-closet. 



Others build special houses to winter their 

 bees in. Still others put on their hives, 

 blankets and mats with special provision 

 for ventilation, in the face of the facts that 

 the bees, when they can, will stop air-tight 

 every crevice except their entrance hole. If 

 another hole is left two or three inches in 

 diameter perhaps they will not close it be- 

 cause it is too big a job, but if the owner 

 will put a piece of wire gauze on it, they 

 will plaster it all over and make it air-tight. 



The blankets and mats appear to be good, 

 because they are non-conductors and not be- 

 cause they ventilate the hive or absorb the 

 moisture. The latest, and therefore most 

 approved, plan, is to winter bees under a 

 cold frame, or, as the phrase is, under glasSy 

 That will have a run for a winter or two. 

 A short time ago one of my acquaintances 

 made an experiment which appeared to be 

 successful. He surrounded one of his hives, 

 early in the spring, with fresh manure, thus 

 making a hot-bed of it. His intention was 

 that the extra heat should start the queen 

 to laying and aid in hatching out the brood. 

 In this he succeeded very well. With a 

 view to public benefit, he wrote a circum- 

 stantial account of it to a certain person 

 who being of a volatile, sanguine, harum- 

 scarum disposition immediately procured 

 several loads of manure and buried up his 

 whole apiary of fifty hives more or less. He 

 published, from time to time, how he was 

 progressieg with this great invention, but 

 suddenly his proclamations ceased and no- 

 body knows from him, how it resulted. They 

 only know that as usual his bees did not. 

 winter well or as it is now fashionable to 

 say they did not spring well. 



In considering the subject of wintering 

 bees a good plan is to examine the condi- 

 tion and progi'ess of the life of a swarm in a 

 state of nature, and to ascertain what in- 

 stinct teaches ihem to do. Art can only 

 slightly improve on nature but cannot en- 

 tirely change it. Bees in nature are gener- 

 ally found in hollow trees. It is not prob- 

 able that many accurate observations nave 

 been made, but the best knowledge w^ehave, 

 is, that they select a home in tiie hollow of 

 a tree, which, hollow has resulted generally 

 fi'om decay. 



These hollows are from one foot to per- 

 haps fifty feet in length and of different di- 

 ameters. The walls are generally in a de- 

 caying condition, being spongy, and full of 

 air cells, thus making a first rate non-con- 

 ductor. Here they work from year to year, 

 no honey being taken away by man, comb 

 accumulating every year until the whole 

 cavity is filled ancl it tiie seasons are good 

 the honey also accumulates, so that when 

 a bad season happens they will have prob- 

 ably the surplus of several years to tide them 

 over. If the cavity is large they probably 

 never swarm, their numbers will increase 

 according ty the laying capacity of the 

 queen. Tliese several conditions always 

 ensure large swarms and plenty of food. In 

 such hives where is the ventilation? If there 

 should be a hole Jibt)ve, which would inip- 

 ]ien maybe once in fifty times, such strung 

 swarms would live in spite of its ventilation, 

 but they would stop it up if jjossible. 



If tliere is any superfluous moisture it 

 may be taken up by the decaying wood lin- 

 ing the cavitv, but tliere is i)robably no 

 moisture. In human life there is so little 

 extra moisture, that it requires accurate ex- 

 periments to find it. 



