66 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HONEY BEES. 



Messrs. Editors : — A subscriber wishes to know 

 why swarms of bees so frequently die in winter — 

 and sometimes in other seasons of the year, with- 

 out any apparent cause. Permit me to reply to 

 this inquiry through the medium of your excellent 

 paper, and I will communicate some truths that 

 nave fallen under my observation during a term of 

 thirty years, During several of the first years of 

 my keeping bees, I fell into the same error so oft- 

 en committed at the present day, by having no 

 ventilator to my hives during winter, except where 

 the bees pass out and in at the bottom of the 

 hives ; the consequence was, I lost many valuable 

 swarms as I supposed, by freezing to death. 1 

 tried to winter them in the cellar ; the dampness 

 would mould the comb, then the bees would be- 

 come sickly and frequently die. I then concluded 

 to let them stand in the bee house and take their 

 chance. I watched year after year to ascertain 

 what kind of weather affected them most ; I found 

 w^^en there came snow attended with wind drifting 

 around the bottom of the .hives closing the en- 

 trance, such swarms were certain to die by suffo- 

 catiim before morning. I have known several in- 

 stances of a person's losing their entire stock of 

 bees in a single night by suii[i)cation, caused by the 

 snow drifting in around the hive. I have also lost 

 valuable swarms by a few dead bees dropping 

 down inside, closing the mouth of- the hive so as 

 produce sufiocation. 



My opinion now had become completely changed 

 in regard to the manner of treating bees during 

 winter seasons. I then made a new set of hives 

 with chambers and honey drawers to fit and to ob- 

 viate the difficulty of the bees being smothered in 

 future from lohalever cause. With o three-fourth 

 inch centre bit, I bored a hole through the front 

 side of all my hives about eight inches from the 

 bottom, fixing wires across the hole horizontally 

 inside of the hive at such distances that a bee 

 could not quite get through. This I called the 

 ventilator. The reason why they should not pass 

 out and in at the ventilator is this : — 



Bees are notorious robbers, and a hive can bet- 

 ter defend themselves, if there is but one point 

 where they can be attacked. I put all young 

 swarms that come out into this kind of hives ; the 

 bees would close up tlie ventilators in summer 

 with wax. About the first of Dec. I would clear 

 out the ventilators with the point of an awl and 

 they would remain open during" the winter. I al- 

 so raised each hive from the bottom board, not 

 quite high enough to allow the bees to ci'eep out, 

 by putting a small wooden wedge under each cor- 

 ner of the hive ; if the snow blew in about the 

 hives closing them ever so tight at the bottom, the 

 ventilators would supply the swarm with sufliclent 

 air to prevent sufTocatiim. I put no straw about 

 my hives — used no quilts to cover them — yet my 

 entire stock of bees would stand the severest win- 

 ter that ever blew. Other bee masters in the 

 neighborhood, who had been in the habit of put- 

 ting their bees in the cellar, seeing how mine 

 wintered, have treated their entire stock in like 

 manner, and have not lost a single swarm. 



During the severest weather, when the ther- 

 mometer indicated ten, sometimes sixteen degrees 

 below zero, I would examine my bees at sunrise. 



As the sun shone in through the ventilator, I 

 could see their operations ; they would be close 

 against the ventilator, and as lively as in sum- 

 mer, seeming delighted to breathe the fresli air. 

 Xo cattle, fowls, boys, or anything else, should 

 be allowed to disturb bees in cold weather ; and I 

 believe a good swarm of V>ees canntit l>e frozen to 

 death in a hive well supplied witli comb and honey, 

 rightly ventilated, and nut disturbed, in the cli- 

 mate of Massachusetts. 



Bees are liable to fail in the warm season of the 

 year from various causes. In the first place, 

 however short-lived the working bees are, the 

 queen, I think, lives to be several years old ; yet 

 the time must come when she will die. If her 

 death takes place in winter, there being no brood 

 comb in the hive, however numerous the swarm, 

 they will not be able to provide anotlier sovereign. 

 (I never knew a hive of bees that lost their queen 

 in the winter, make any effort to supply them- 

 selves with a new queen, except in (me instance.) 

 [See Boston Cultivator, of April 24, 1847.] 



When warm weather returns, tliis swarm will 

 remain inactive in the hive and dwindle away, till 

 the bees of some other hive step in and take away 

 their honey, or the bee moth takes possession of 

 the hive. I have lost as many as four hives of 

 bees occasioned by losing tlieir queen in winter. — 

 About three years ago, in February, 1 finind the 

 queen on the bottom board of one of my best 

 hives apparently dead. 1 placed her in my hands ; 

 by breathing warmly upon Iier for a few minutes, 

 she was restored to her usual activity. I opened 

 the chamber of the hive where she belonged, re- 

 moved the communication cap and placed her 

 among the bees. In March, I found her again 

 on the bottom board, apparently hfeless. I warmed 

 and returned her to tiiehiveaa before. x\l)outthe 

 first of April, I picked her up a third time, but 

 the vital spark had fled. I examined her through 

 a magnifying glass, and found her antenna; gone, 

 three of her feet worn off; no doubt she died of 

 old age. The swarm remained inactive in the 

 liive till some time in the summer, when tlie bees 

 of another hive took away their honey. 



Another reason why a hive of bees may run 

 down in summer, is this : — When a hive of bees 

 becomes pretty numerous in the spring, they go to 

 work and erect four or five royal cells ; in each of 

 these cells may be found a young queen ; they all 

 hatch about the same time and send out a swarm 

 accompanied by the old qvecn, leaving tlie young 

 queens in the old hive. If we gt) some morning 

 about eight days from tliis time, and place the ear 

 against the old hive, and hear the young queens 

 piping, (so called) we then expect a second swarm 

 out of the old hive — which takes place from nine 

 to fourteen days after the first swarm. Some- 

 times there will be a tliird swarm. Now it occa- 

 sionally happens that two or more queens go out 

 with second or third swarms ; (I have seen tliree;) 

 when this happens, they may light in two or three 

 different places, each bunch of bees having a queen ; 

 theysliould all be collected and put into one hive. 

 Sometimes all the j'oung (jueens will go out of the 

 old hive with the second swarm ; (oftener with the 

 third swarm;) in this case all the queens but one 

 will be put to death during that day or the night 

 following. Now the old hive being destitute of a 

 queen, and but few workers, will run down in the 

 course of the summer (as described in the case 



