THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



303 



Wintering Bees. 



THE PRIZK KSSAY KKAI) HKFOKK THK NA- 

 TIONAL UKK-KKKl'KHS' CONVENTION 

 AT rUlI-ADEI.rillA, I'A., OCT. 



20tli, ISTC. 



Few manual labor i)ur.siiits jujssoss tiii' 

 fascination or the financial possibilities 

 that may be justly claimed for apiculture. 

 Remove from this the uncertainties, with 

 which the late disastrous winters have 

 served to invest it, and it would stand para- 

 mount. Hence it is that this subject of 

 wintering bees is of leading importance and 

 well deserves the earnest thought, careful 

 study, and accurate experiments of the 

 most able of our practical and scieidific men. 



In a brief consideration of this imiu>rtant 

 theme, let us exauiine the physiological 

 facts that bear upon it, glean what we 

 may fron.i the lields of experience, and then 

 see if we may come to any c(mclusions that 

 appear to be justitied by the premises. 



It is a physiological "fact, without excep- 

 tion among animals, that exercise and the 

 power to generate any considerable amount 

 of heat, recpiires food and necessitates ex- 

 cretion. It is further true that bees, unlike 

 most insects, are like the higher animals, 

 more or less active the winter through, and 

 can only subsist in a temperature indepen- 

 dent of the surrounding media, which is 

 maintained by the bees them.selves. If the 

 temperature of the surrounding media is 

 neither extremely high nor extremely low, 

 that is if it keeps at the proper uniform 

 standard, the bees, like higner animals in 

 like condition, will exercise little, will take 

 little food— and by food I mean all nourish- 

 ment, including oxygen— and will conse- 

 quently excrete very little, either in form or 

 faeces, or by evaporation from the general 

 surface of the body. It is further true that 

 bees, from the fact of their confined situa- 

 tion in winter, cannot excrete excessively 

 without rendering the atmosphere about 

 them unwholesome and even poisonous; 

 this with undue fecal deposits is sure to 

 bring disease. Hence our first truth: suc- 

 cessful wintering demands a uniform tem- 

 perature. 



It has already been stated that bees take 

 food during the winter. Whatever the tem- 

 perature, some food is consiimed. Now it 

 IS a physiological fact, unquestioned, that 

 good health among all animals demands 

 proper food. As tainted water often brings 

 dysentery and death to hosts of our own 

 unfortunate brothers, so no less will un- 

 wholesome food bring disaster to the deni- 

 zens of the hive. Hence our second truth: 

 to winter safely, our bees require suflicient 

 stores of good wholesome food. 



The student of bees need not be told that 

 the worker bee is possessed of no great 

 longevity. A worker bee three months a 

 laborer is aged and imfirm. It is equally 

 patent that winter is the trying period 

 when the "struggle for life" Is sure to come 

 to the bees. Does the leader of a trying 

 campaign call to his aid men feeble with 

 years, whose very age nuikes them topple 

 and lall under the first burden that is laid 

 upon them? No more should the apiarist 

 expect a colony of old bees to be able to 

 .stand the trying ordeal of winter, and build 

 up the depleted household to its wonted 

 strength as spring draws on. Therefore we 

 announce our third truth: bees to winter 



well, must be strong in youthful vitality as 

 well as in numbers. 



It has been state«l that excretion is a cer- 

 tain result with bees, even in winter; 

 though this will be slight if the temi)erature 

 be kejtt just right To prevent any ill- 

 effects from an accumulation of these ele- 

 ments of destructive assimilation — water 

 and noi.some gases — tiiere should be, absorb- 

 ents above the bees, which would not only 

 absorb the moisture but i)ermit the gases to 

 escape, without exjiosing the bees by a too 

 rapid removal of heat. Our fourth and last 

 truth then: covering the bees with .some 

 absorbing material tiiat is at the same time 

 a poor conductor of heat, is condusive to 

 sale wintering. 



Now let us see if recent experience has 

 sustained the above conclusions; for if we 

 arc sure of our diagnosis we may feel con- 

 fident as to practical results. 



And first as to temperature. It is a signi- 

 ficant fact that those winters which have 

 been most disastrous have also been charac- 

 terized by extreme cold. I am well aware 

 that many colonies of bees perished during 

 these winters that were indejiendeiit of the 

 cold. But we must remember tliat this is a 

 complex subject, and that several elements 

 must be considered in solving the problem. 

 And just here I would call attention to the 

 fact that many apiarists, because of the 

 complexity of this subject, and because it 

 would not yield a sinii)ie solution, have be- 

 come alarmed and cried eiiidemic. It is not 

 necessary to show that cold is the only 

 cause of disaster. I myself lost heavily the 

 first cold winter, with my bees wholly pro- 

 tected against the extreme cold. Yet the 

 reason of the mortality was not difficult to 

 find, as will appear in the sequel. During 

 the terrible winter of 1874-.5, terrible alike 

 for cold and for bee-mortality, I supervised 

 the preparation of four apiaries for winter. 

 With my own I tried the experiment of put- 

 ting them into a new depository which I 

 supposed to lie frost proof; but during the 

 unprecedented cold of Feb., when the ther- 

 mometer on three occasions went 2.5 deg. be- 

 low, and once to 32 below zero; the mercury 

 in my building even went below zero, near 

 which it reTuained for a number of days. 

 My bees all died. All three of my neigh- 

 bors, two of whose bees were not so strong 

 as mine, whose bees I had prepared in 

 precisely the same manner, except that 

 they were amply protected against the 

 severe cold, passecl the winter with no loss. 



During the winter of 1872-8 I also pre- 

 pared my own bees and those of one of my 

 neighbors for winter. These were amply 

 protected, and came through not only with- 

 out loss but in excellent condition. .So far 

 as I know there were no other bees saved 

 anywhere in the town. 



My friend Mr. John Davis, of Delhi, has 

 passed all these winters without lo.ss. He 

 protects his bees, never allowing the tem- 

 perature of his cellar to fall below freezing 

 point. 



That able and far seeing apiarist, the 

 lamented M. Quinby, was one of the first to 

 discover this fact; and here as elsewhere 

 he gave advice, that if heeded would have 

 saved great loss and sore disappointment. 



I could give much further evidence of the 

 same kind were it required, but will only 

 say that though I have studied this subject 

 widely and closely, I have yet to observe 

 aught to invalidate the above stated truth. 



