296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



WINTERING BEES UNDER SNOW. 



tIEND MASON GIVES HIS EXPERIENCE IN TH 

 MATTER, AWAY UP IN MAINE. 



N Gleanings of Apr. 1, J. H. Mftiining asks you 

 if you have ever successfully tried the plan of 

 I letting bees be under the snow for two months 

 or more. I liave thought many times, while 

 reading your advice on this matter, that I 

 should like to know if you have ever thoroughly 

 tried the plan of letting the bees be covered for 

 throe months with snow; and, if so. I have wonder- 

 ed why my bees fared so ditferently from others. 1 

 tried it for years, and made a loss every year, and 

 every year I laid it to other causes, because 1 found 

 it advised by what I regarded the best authority. 

 My bees are so situated that they have good drain- 

 age, as you will see by looking at a picture of my 

 apiary whicli I send you, with the exception of what 

 few bees are in the sheds, which are shown in the 

 picture. The bees are arranged on grades, one 

 alcove another, running around a bank; those on 

 the lower grade are all covered with snow first; 

 those on the second grade are not covered so long, 

 and those on the top grade are never covered at all, 

 and always come out the best, and the second grade 

 ne.vt, while the third grade always comes out damp, 

 moldy, in a dying condition, or dead. Now, T have 

 noticed this so maTiy times that I am satisfied that 

 covering with snow is an injury to my bees. 



J. n. Mason. 

 Mechanic Falls, Maine, Apr. .5, 1880. 



Thanks, friend M.; bnt I am a little sur- 

 prised to receive these facts. Not only have 

 1 made it a practice all my life to leave all 

 the snow just as it falls, but 1 have heard 

 the same thing from so many other veteran 

 bee-keepers that I supposed there was no 

 doubt in the matter ; and if snow does do 

 harm, it is probably because you have it so 

 much deeper than we do, and remaining on 

 the ground so long a time. We seldom have 

 the snow remain on the hives longer than a 

 couple of weeks — sometimes, perhaps, a 

 month ; but very rarely so deep as to cover 

 the hives as much as one week. Going 

 around to the hives as fast as the snow falls 

 is so much of a task that I think I should 

 much prefer to set the hives up on high 

 stands, or, better still, on high ground, situ- 

 ated as you suggest your upper row is. 



OVERSTOCKING. 



what we do know and what we don t auout 



IT. 



T FANCY I hear the reader say, " You don't know 

 |lf any thing about overstocking;" to which 1 can 

 ^t retort, " Neither do you." 1 believe, however, 

 ■^ it is a subject of very great importance, and, 

 possibly, by talking about it, even if only to 

 tell what we dnn't know, we may eventuallj' learn 

 something about it. 



It is in the memory of many living bee-keepers, 

 when it was very common for farmers and others 

 to keep a few bees, so that, on a day's journey, 

 many apiaries would be past, if from one to ten 

 colonies could be called an apiary; but a collection 

 of 100 or more was unknown. Now, however, one 

 maj' make a day's journey and scarcely see a liive 

 at any farmhouse by the way; but within a few 



years very many have made a specialty of the busi- 

 ness, keeping fifty or more colonies in one place. 



There are those who believe that, in the near fu- 

 ture, bees will be principally kept by those who 

 make bee cultux-e a principal part of, if not all, their 

 entire business. The tendency of the last few years 

 has certainly been in that direction, and even now 

 many a man is asking of himself, if not of others, 

 "What is the outside limit, for greatest profit, of 

 the number of colonies I can keep in my apiary'?" 



It is a very slii)pery subject. No matter how many 

 facts we may gather, so great are the varying con-" 

 ditions that surround them that any positive, defi- 

 nite conclusion always evades our grasp. For in- 

 stance, Bro. Doolittle (p. 13, Gle.\nings) gives some 

 very interesting facts as to the product of his field; 

 but as to his conclusions, there are a good many ifs 

 in the way. He says that one year 500 colonies 

 gave 15,000 lbs. surplus, and afterward 300 colonies 

 gave 24,000 lbs. surplus; and from those and other 

 data he deduces certain conclusions. Here are cer- 

 tain things that he /rnoit's, and he has the right to 

 use them; but when he takes along with them 

 something that he docs not know, and uses it as 

 fact, he vitiates his right to correctness of conclu- 

 sion. The thing that he does ?io< know, but takes 

 for granted, is that the product of the field was the 

 same each year. Just here is the great stumbling- 

 block in the "way of making anj' progress in the 

 problem, just this variableness of seasons. He may 

 say there was the same amount of bloom each year, 

 but that doesn't settle it. Every observing bee- 

 keeper knows that he can not tell by appearances 

 the amount of nectar the bees can gather. One 

 year T obtained over 16,000 lbs. of surplus; and an- 

 other year, from about the same number of colo- 

 nies, and with a better show of bloom, I got 3000 lbs. 

 So we see how difficult it is to get at anything tangi- 

 ble. Nevertheless, Bro. Doolittle's contribution is of 

 value, and I presume he was as fully aware as any 

 oneof theditBcultiesof whichi have been speaking. 

 ]f wecan get a great mass of facts bearing upon 

 the matter, we may get some knowledge that may 

 be of value. 



J am not unaware that there are those who say 

 there is no danjicr of overstocking, and even a few 

 who insinuate, or sny plainly, tliat there is no possi- 

 bility of it. To these latter few, I want, in all kind- 

 ness, to enter a most earnest protest against the 

 utterance of any such sentiments. Please, breth- 

 ren, considei' the mischievous tendency of such 

 talk. It may make no difference to you whether 

 you are right or wrong. You have only a few colo- 

 nies, and can be little affected by any view; but 

 here is a man, limited in experience, who succeeds 

 in getting a good crop, and reasons thus: " I may 

 just as well have five times as many bees, and get 

 five times the crop;" so, by increase and purchase, 

 he starts the next season with a fivefold number, 

 and, as a result, there are so many bees that the 

 field barely gives them enough for their own sup- 

 port, and not a pound of sui'plus is obtained. If 

 you say this is an exaggerated case, not likely to 

 happen, let me give you what is likely to happen, 

 and has happened. 



Mr. Smith has an apiary upon which he depends 

 for support. As nearly as he can decide, he has in- 

 creased to the maximum number for greatest profit. 

 Mr. Jones happens to live within h"alf a mile or a 

 mile of Mr. Smith, and, believing there is no such 

 thing- as overstocking, couimences to build up an 



