THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



55 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



WASHINGTOnTsEPTEMBER, 1866. 



C^" The American Bee Journal is uow pub- 

 lished monthly, in the City of Washington, (D. 

 C.,) and all communications should be address- 

 ed to the Editor, at that place. 



■Wintering Bees. 



Many years ago, Baron Ehrenfels, the most 

 extensive and enthusiastic bee-keeper of his 

 day — "the man of a thousand hives," as he was 

 popularly called — declared that he only deserv- 

 ed to be called a master in bee culture who could 

 so manage his apiary that his average yearly loss 

 in wintering did not exceed tive per cent, of his 

 entire stock. Ever since then the subject of win- 

 tering bees has engaged the solicitous attention 

 of thoughtful bee-keepers in every country. 

 Nevertheless, nothing comparatively has been 

 elicited to remove the difficulties, or that can 

 be regarded as giving assurance of success. 

 Dzierzon, who has been longer and more large- 

 ly conversant than any other man with the 

 practical management of bees, stated at the 

 last German Apiarian Convention, that the 

 wintering of bees was the great remaining un- 

 solved problem in bee culture; and this is cor- 

 roborated by the fact, that William Giinther, the 

 late well-trained and expert bee-keeper of the 

 Baron of Berlepsch, lost nearly the whole of 

 his large apiary in the disastrous winter of 1864 

 and '65. An attempt, therefore, to trace the 

 causes in which these difficulties originate, can- 

 not but be interesting and useful, though we 

 may still fail to reach the desired result. 



In very many, if not a majority of cases, the 

 disaster may imdoubtedly be attributed to the 

 want of adequate supplies of food. Inexperi- 

 enced, oversanguine, or careless bee-keepers 

 undertake to winter colonies, or weak and late 

 swarms, which failed to gather the necessary 

 store of honey, and the bees die literally of 

 starvation. This should not happen more than 

 once in the experience of any, A new begin- 

 ner may be excused for not knowing how much 

 honey is needed to carry a colony safe through 

 the winter; the winter may prove to be unusu- 

 ally severe and protracted; or the weather the 

 while be so exceedingly variable, as completely 

 to disappoint the prudence of one who never 

 before had occasion to "forecast the fashion of 

 uncertain evils" in bee culture. One lesson, 

 however, on this point, in the School of experi- 

 ence should suffice, and, if wise, he will thence- 



forward rather err in overprovisioniug stocks, 

 that may seem to be in danger of exhausting 

 their stores before the flowers of May again dis- 

 pense their nectar. He will take care that they 

 shall be furnished with ample supplies in good 

 season; and thus, in all likelihood, rather incur 

 the risk of running into the opposite extreme of 

 "killing with kindness." 



But the bees are not unfrequently found dead 

 in the spring, in hives which still contain an 

 abundant supply of honey — enough, indeed, in 

 some instances, to have carried an ordinary 

 colony safe through the winter. The very "stalf 

 of life" to them was there in plenty, but exces- 

 sive cold prevented them from moving forward 

 in cluster to the comb containing it, and they 

 were doomed to die a lingering and cruel death, 

 with the richest stores garnered around them. 

 The fault here is usually the want of winter 

 passages in the combs, through which the bees 

 might pass to reach their food in the lateral 

 combs, when those above them are exhausted. 

 In cottage hives, in which the combs are built 

 straight and parallel to each other and to the 

 sides, they are apt to be defective in this par- 

 ticular, if the comb-building took place at a 

 time when the fl.owers were yielding honey 

 profusely, and the bees were anxious and in 

 haste to provide all possible storeroom. In such 

 hives, moreover, this faulty construction of the 

 combs is not readily ascertained when they are 

 well stocked with bees. But where it is sus- 

 pected (and suspicion here is ofttimes wise), it 

 will be prudent to bore an inch hole with an 

 auger, through the hive and broadsides of the 

 combs, near the middle, and then cork shut the 

 holes in the sides of the hive. This should be 

 done lute in October or early in November. In 

 movable comb hives such faulty construction is 

 much more frequent, but it is then more easily 

 ascertained, and a remedy can be more readily 

 applied; though Mr. Langstroth has devised 

 and introduced an ingenious prevention which 

 effectually disposes of this source of danger — 

 and "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound 

 of cure," says the adage. 



It is, however, not only indispensable that 

 the supplies be abundant and accessable, but 

 the quality of those supplies is likewise of great 

 importance. Thin, watery honey, gathered late 

 in the season, or derived from late honey dew, 

 or perhaps collected in pine groves, is unsuita- 

 ble for winter food; and if bees are confined to 

 the use of such honey exclusively, for a pro- 

 longed period, it will ,prove highly deleterious. 

 So also will honey, which though originally in- 



