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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 



1902. 



notice of the change, by disturbance of alighting-spot in 

 the placing of an obstruction as stated, but it is not advis- 

 able to try these things when they need their whole force in 

 the hive to keep warm during cold weather. 



The most important requirement in wintering is good 

 food. A strong colony with honej'-dew or fruit-juice is 

 worse oil for winter than a comparatively weak colony with 

 good, healthy stores. If the confinement is of long dura- 

 tion, the bees of the hive that contains unhealthy food will 

 become restless, owing to their intestines being loaded 

 with an excess of feces. They will then either leave the 

 cluster and become chilled, or be compelled to discharge 

 their excrements in the hive, and thus soil the brood-combs 

 and the other bees, causing the speedy loss of a good por- 

 tion of the swarm. On the other hand, the colony which is 

 supplied with healthy stores will keep clustered together 

 and will be able to pass through a very long period without 

 much suffering or loss. 



If our colonies are strong in bees and have plenty of 

 good food, the next requirement is a good shelter. It is well 

 to have the inside of the hive so arranged that the moisture 

 arising from the bees may pass off without causing the hive 

 to become damp on mild days. For this purpose absorbents, 

 such as chaff, sawdust, etc., are used. We use forest leaves, 

 because they are plentiful where we keep our bees, and also 

 because these leaves are usually neat and may be placed 

 over the combs without soiling anything. Chaff and saw- 

 dust must be put in sacks, and the bees sometimes gnaw a 

 hole in the sack or cushion so provided, ard when you re- 

 move it it allows a quanity of sawdust or chaff to fall in the 

 hive among the combs. Dry oak-leaves are much more 

 easily removed. 



I have heard the objection that dry oak-leaves are not 

 as good a non-conductor of heat or cold as the chaff. This 

 may be correct, but they are much better than many people 

 think. Did you ever try to dig a hole in the ground, in the 

 ■woods, when the ground was frozen ? If you did, you must 

 have noticed that when there is a thickness of leaves of 

 three or four inches over the soil, you are able to dig into 

 that soil long after the bare ground has been frozen over. 

 This shows how much shelter there is in forest leaves, 

 though they may not be as efficient as sawdust or chaff. 



I have sometimes heard people say that this matter of 

 absorbents above the bees was nonsense. It is not to me, 

 because I have seen the matter tried on hundreds of colo- 

 nies, and I will here say what the experience was. We used 

 to put leaves in the caps of our hives, not to absorb the 

 moisture but to keep the heat from escaping, just to help 

 keep the bees warm. When we did this, we used an enamel 

 cloth over the bees and placed the leaves on top of this 

 enamel cloth. During a very hard winter, many of our bees 

 died, the hive apparently wet from one end to the other, in 

 the brood-chamber, from the moisture that had escaped 

 from the bees. Nearly every colony found in that condition 

 was dead. But we had a number of colonies in which the 

 oil-cloth was partly gnawed away by the bees, large holes 

 having been cut into it by them. These colonies almost 

 invariably wintered safely, but the leaves in the upper 

 story were soaked with moisture, and in some instances 

 mouldy. The larger the holes were, in the enamel cloth, 

 the better the condition of the bees. This was an eye-opener 

 to us, and from that time on we have uniformly remos'ed 

 the enamel cloth for winter. 



We place over the frames a mat made of what is com- 

 monly called here " slouerh-grass." It is a very coarse grass 

 which grows on the Mississippi lowlands, and is used in 

 some places as hay. This is tough and wiry, and lasts 

 longer than straw, for straw-mats are easily broken when 

 dry. This mat allows the moisture to escape through it into 

 the upper s'ory, which we still fill with leaves as formerly. 

 We do not believe that anything surpasses the straw-mat in 

 usefulness, both as winter and summer shelter. While it 

 acts as a warm cover for frames during the cold days, it is 

 the very best shelter against the rays of the July sun dur- 

 ing the hot summer days. Here, in Illinois, we cannot 

 leave our hives exposed to the direct rays of the sun in the 

 hottest weather, as they do in countries where the altitude 

 gives a relief from the scorching heat, or where the sun's 

 rays are less perpendicular. Cool summers, like the one just 

 past, are an exceptional occurence. 



Now as to the outside shelter : I am very free to say 

 that although we have used our method for years, there are 

 some better ways, though perhaps more expensive, of shel- 

 tering the hives. We simply wrap up each hive on the 

 three cold sides — north, east and west — with forest leaves 

 held together by a frame-work of lath and twine, which is 

 tied around the hive, like a cloak S^me people use corn- 



stalks for the same purpose. Others use this same slough- 

 grass already mentioned by me, and make each hive look 

 like a little hay-shock, the front onlj' being open. 



If all the other conditions are complied with — good food, 

 plenty of bees, sufficient amount of stores, and absorbents in 

 the super — the bees will be likely to winter well, if not too 

 much exposed to the high, northern winds. But the addi- 

 tional shelter is not to be disdained, whether it is of leaves, 

 or corn-fodder, or simply a tight board-fence, or in snow 

 countries a big pile of loose snow around and over the hive. 



But, by all means, I would give the bees a fair oppor- 

 tunity of taking flight as often as the weather will permit 

 during the winter. Hancock Co., 111. 



Rearing Long-Lived Queens and Bees. 



BY DR. E. GALLUP. 



NOW, Mr. Greiner, I may as well pitch into you as any 

 one — good naturedly, understand. I wish to ask what 

 I call quite important questions, and would like them 

 answered as candidly as they are asked. 



You seem to fear that our bee-supply dealers may have 

 to get up a different style of hive, etc. Now, if a queen 

 reared in an extra-strong colony, such as I have mentioned, 

 will fully occupy 16 Langstroth frames with brood, eggs, 

 etc., in all stages of growth, in 21 days, are you perfectly 

 satisfied with an 8-frame hive for such queen ? Do you 

 really think two Sframe hives, one on top of the other, 

 every frame fully occupied with brood, is the best and most 

 satisfactory style of hive? Now you must understand that 

 both stories must be double-walled, at the sides especially, 

 or the two outside combs in each story will not be occupied. 

 With double walls and dead air space the outside frames 

 will be as fully occupied with brood as the center ones. Now 

 we have 16 combs occupied with brood, and no place to store 

 honey, and if we wish to examine the lower story we have 

 to lift off the upper story. Then, with a good queen we are 

 compelled to go on up to 4 or 5 stories, in order to give such 

 a colony surplus room to store during the height of the sea- 

 son. In one case I worked a 10-frame Langstroth hive + 

 stories high. I would certainly, for myself, prefer 12-frame 

 hives to 8 frames. 



You seem to think that the dead bees in front of that 

 hive I mentioned, might have come from other hives in the 

 yard. Well, at the time I was making that observation I 

 had only one other colony in the yard, and that was over 

 100 feet away. I also had a 3-comb starved-out black colony, 

 but not near the one spoken of. But the black colony kept 

 on increasing in numbers, while the others decreased in 

 numbers. Since you have accused me of jumping at con- 

 clusions, I have partially jumped at the conclusion that dead 

 bees in front of that hive in the morning might have come 

 from a neighbor's, over one block away, and come in the 

 night on purpose to fool me in my observations. 



You say that queens of my own rearing live to be 6- 

 years old, simply because I mentioned one living that long, 

 that I had received from Adam Grimm. Now, do you suppose 

 I have never tested the longevity of bees by changing 

 from blacks to Italians, at different seasons of the 

 year? Well, I have, and I came to the same conclusions 

 that you and Mr. Dadant did ; but sometimes we are com- 

 pelled to modify our conclusions, not by actual facts. In 

 my 70 years' actual experience, and as close observation as. 

 I have been able to make (for I commenced when I was 12 

 years old, and am now past 82), I would certainly be a dull 

 scholar not to have learned something in all that time. Mr. 

 Dadant, Mr. Hetherington, and Mr. Quinby — all successful 

 bee-keepers — used large hives, but they did not use hives 

 four times as large as a 10-frame Langstroth hive. When I 

 made that experiment I did not experiment on one single 

 hive, but I made 7. 1 also made 2 long-ideal Adair hives., 

 containing the same number of cubic inches as my other 

 large hives. 



Well, I have told you before, that the second season 

 after putting bees in them none of them swarmed, and I 

 jumped at the conclusion that I had a non-swarming hive ; 

 but the third season all of them sent out rousing swarms, 

 before the standard hives did. Mind you, all of them had 

 superseded their queens, and reared queens to suit the 

 capacity of the hive. I was then keeping all Italians, and I 

 had one of those queens impurely mated, so I killed the 

 queen, and gave a cell from a purely-mated queen, cut out 

 all cells from the old colony and gave a good cell, and here 

 I had a grand opportunity to examine for the missing link, 

 and I found it in every case. This'change of queen was. 



