/an. 24, 1907 



American Bee -JoarnalJ 



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How to Spend the Bee- Keep- 

 er's Winter Months 



BY c;. M. DOOI.ITTI.E. 



Most of bee-keepers seem to think that 

 the winter months allow them to "let 

 loose" of our pursuit, for the bees in 

 winter repose are better left undis- 

 turbed. Perhaps the bees are better un- 

 disturbed, but the bee-keeper who pays 

 no thought or attention to the subject of 

 apiculture from the time the honey is 

 taken oiY the hives till the following 

 May, cannot reap the richest harvest 

 from his bees. 



During the fall he should know that 

 all of his colonies are in the best shape 

 for wintering, that they have plenty of 

 stores, that they are safely housed, and 

 that nothing has been left undone that 

 will contribute toward their most suc- 

 cessful wintering. Then, if the bees are 

 wintering out on the summer stands, 

 they should be allowed to fly whenever 

 any chance occurs through the tempera- 

 ture rising to 45 degrees in the shade, 

 with the air still, and the sun shining. 

 If the hives are buried with snow, or the 

 entrance clogged with ice or dead bees, 

 they should have all of these obstruc- 

 tions removed, for an occasional winter 

 flight is of the greatest advantage. Don't 

 be hanging around the "corner grocery" 

 at such times as this, and, if I say never 

 stay there, only as you have business, I 

 would give expression to the thrifty 

 side of life. 



Should the bees in the cellar become 

 uneasy during March, it is generally 

 better to put them out for a flight. And 

 if they can be protected by chaff or 

 Other packing, I would recommend leav- 

 ing them out. Otherwise they would 

 better be returned till the weather is 

 likely to allow their flying as often as 

 once a week. With such frequent flights 

 they will be more likely to come out 

 well, than they will if kept in the cellar 

 till the elms and soft maples bloom, 

 as is generally recommended as the 

 time of final taking out. But so long 

 as they remain quiet in the cellar, I 

 would not disturb them till it is time 

 to take them out for good. 



When pollen becomes plenty, examine 

 the bees by lifting the frames of each 

 hive, and if the; colonies are weak, it is 

 better to confine the bees, by means 

 of a dummy, to the frames which have 

 brood in them, together with one frame 

 of honey, so as to help them in keeping 

 up the necessary heat for brood-rearing. A 

 queen will lay from 700,000 to 1,000,000 

 eggs during her lifetime, if she is a good 

 one, and lives from 3 to 5 years; but 

 under the present system of manage- 



ment, the queen is generally coaxed to 

 lay all these eggs in 2 or 3 years. 



Of course, the readers of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal all know that bees 

 gather honey, not make it, and the eggs 

 laid by the queen produce bees; con- 

 sequently the more eggs the queen lays, 

 the more bees we get, and the more 

 bees we have, the more honey they 

 gather. 



Then another item comes in right 

 here, which is, that to gather honey to 

 the best advantage, these bees must be 

 on the stage of action just when the 

 flowers are secreting the most nectar. 

 To have a multitude of bees in the 

 hives when there is no honey or nectar 

 in the flowers amounts to nothing. So 

 we must time our work so as to have 

 the queens laying the most prolifically 

 at the suitable time before the honey- 

 flow. 



And this brings in another factor : 

 We must know our locality, so that 

 we are conversant with the time of 

 blooming of all of our honey-producing 

 flora ; then bring our maximum strength 

 of bees to meet the flow, and in this 

 way we are sure of success, providing 

 the weather is favorable for the secre- 

 tion of nectar. Of course, we are large- 

 ly dependent upon Dame Nature for 

 some of these thmgs, but if we fail 

 through thoughtlessness, ignorance or 

 lack of energy on our part, the harvest 

 will be largely a failure, even where 

 Nature supplies all that is necessary for 

 a bountiful harvest. 



As soon as the queen has filled with 

 eggs all the combs which were allowed 

 at the time of manipulation above men- 

 tioned, more combs must be given, and 

 whether contracted or not, we should 

 see that the bees have plenty of stores 

 at all times, for brood-rearing can not 

 go on at its best where the bees are 

 scrimping their food to the larvx on 

 account of a shortage of honey, look- 

 ing toward starvation to the whole col- 

 ony. 



A little before the hives are filled 

 with brood the surplus arangement 

 should be put on, not waiting for the 

 bees to swarm, as some do, for it often 

 happens that many colonies will not 

 swarm at all. but stick right to storing 

 honey all the season through, when 

 the supers are put on at the right time. 



_Now.^ in order to do all of these 

 things just when they ought to be done, 

 the hives, supers, etc., should all be put 

 in readiness during the winter months^ 

 all ready to put on at a moment's no- 

 tice during the summer's work; so, as 

 soon as the work of the fall is done up, 

 these things should be looked after, and 

 faithfully attended to till everything is 

 in readiness for the oncoming season. 

 As you complete these things, one after 



another, store them away in neat and 

 tidy order, so that they will not de- 

 preciate by standing, through dust col- 

 lecting on ihem, or from the depreda- 

 tions of mice and rats. 



If you still have more time, get 

 around the back numbers of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal, and other papers and 

 books on bees, if you have them, and 

 re-read and "post up," and you will 

 be surprised to find how many new 

 thoughts and ideas you will get and 

 find, which escaped your former read- 

 ing, or else have slipped from your 

 memory since you read them before. 



Have a note-book with you when you 

 read, with one or two pages for every 

 month, and as you read jot the thought 

 down under the month for which it is 

 appropriate, and then when summer 

 comes, you will have these things at 

 your "tongue's end," or at your "fingers' 

 tips," ready for use just when they are 

 wanted. Say, if you will do this, you 

 will say that you get double value out 

 of the American Bee Journal, or any 

 other bee-paper or book which you re- 

 read in this way; for new things and 

 new visions will open up and unfold to 

 you which had passed unnoticed before. 



Then, if you find out anything new, 

 or can shed any new light on some old 

 subject; in short, if you can add your 

 mite of knowledge to these columns, 

 don't be backward in doing it. No mat- 

 ter if you can't write as well as some, 

 or can't put your thoughts together as 

 you think they ought to be. Editor York 

 is "at the helm," and he can make "the 

 crooked things straight," and the "rough 

 places smooth," for both you and me. 

 Come on, beloveds. Let's make this win- 

 ter one of great advancement along bee- 

 keeping lines. Borodino, N. Y. 



Selling Section-Honey by the 

 Piece, Etc. 



BY WM. DUESCHER. 



I am not in favor of selling honey 

 by the piece. The "piece-seller" at the 

 convention in Denver, Colo., gave the 

 example of oranges being sold by the 

 piece. It seems to me the largest or 

 heaviest of anything brings, or ought 

 to bring, the highest price. The most 

 of mj' honey in 1903 weighed from 24 to 

 26 pounds per case. This should have 

 brought a good price, as every cell was 

 full of honey, but the honey dealers 

 wrote me they get less for such honey. 



I use i^, 1% and 2-inch sections, 

 and have always bought three kinds of 

 shipping-cases. For years I have packed 

 i-54-inch sections in 2-inch section-cases, 

 in which they fit better, and which saves 

 me one case in every 6. 



Piping of Queens and Second S\v.«ms. 



In the Bee Journal for Feb. 9, '05, 

 Canadian Bee Journal was asked, "When 

 you put your ear to a hive the evening 

 before a second swarm issues, did you 

 ever hear more than one queen pipe?" 

 The queens pipe 3 days before the sec- 

 ond swarm issues. When such a swarm 

 has settled in its new hive, sometimes a 

 queen flies out, followed by bees, but re- 

 turns and is surely killed. My father 



