i88i; 



GLEyVNINGS IN BEE CULTUllE. 



S71 



001^ 0WN ^?mw- 



THE CONDITION OF OUR BEES I'OR WINTER. 



TT is with some reluctance, coupled with no little 

 laf regret, that I inform our readers the exact con- 

 ^[ dition of our bees for wintering-. They are not, 

 -*■ to my notion, in the best possible condition for 

 the coming- cold weather. A large number of 

 our colonies arc weak; not onlj' that, but a lai-ge 

 number have no young- bees— one of the prime es- 

 sentials for successful wintering. You ask, " Why 

 thisstateof things?" I willexplain. In the first place, 

 you are all aware that we have had foul brood pret- 

 ty gcnerallj- in our apiary. In our efforts to 

 exterminate its ravages we have burned up some- 

 thing like three or four hundred frames of brood. 

 Such a drain as this in our apiary has necessarilj- 

 left many of our colonics with a great number of 

 old bees. Up to date we have had 60 cases of foul 

 brood. In many instances the taking-away of the 

 brood and honey, followed by 48 hours of starvation, 

 seemed to so discourage the bees that they were 

 slow to overcome the shock. When the treatment 

 was applied in July and August, they recovered in 

 a great measure; but as by far the larger part of 

 the diseased colonies were treated in September 

 and October, few if any of said colonics commenced 

 brood-rearing again, even after feeding. In a word, 

 then, this means that about one-quarter of our col- 

 onies have nothing but old discouraged bees. Be- 

 sides these, about one-fourth moreare, well— nuclei 

 on four frames. Again, you will ask, " Why not 

 double these up?" This we have done in a few 

 cases; but there are two reasons why we shall not 

 double up all. In the first place, these nuclei have 

 valuable queens, none of which we value less than 

 ?2.00, and some are worth much more. To unite 

 these nuclei would leave one surplus queen. On 

 account of foul brood we can not sell or otherwise 

 dispose of her. It is true, we could cage and place 

 her over a cluster of bees. She might live a month 

 or possibly two months; but as the ball of bees 

 changes its position in the brood-nest in cold weath- 

 er, her majesty might be left high and dry where 

 she and her eight or ten bees could enjoy (?) a good 

 freeze by themselves. There are about fifty colonies 

 in our apiary that would stand uniting very com- 

 fortably, but that -would leave a surplus of 2.5 

 queens, worth about $.")0.00. Taking every thing 

 into consideration, we prefer to risk the queen and 

 their colonies as they are. 



There is still another reason for not uniting more 

 generally. 1 told father that, if I could have 

 a spell of warm weather, by feeding to stimulate 

 brood-rearing Ihelieved I cou\d start foul lirood in 

 many of the colonies. That is, the germs of foul 

 brood are in many apparently healthy colonies; 

 but in the absence of brood in October, the disease 

 was not apparent. If this be true, to unite very 

 extensively would be apt to spread foul brood all 

 over the apiary. 



Now I confess I have taken a rather discouraging- 

 view of this existing state of things. Let us look at 

 the other side for a moment. Those bees have all 

 been fed up on sugar syrup of the best kind. They 

 had been allowed to consume most of their natural 

 stores before being fed, and it may be possible that 

 they have consumed their diseased honey, if they 

 had any. Again they have been contracted on as 



few conibs as possible, consistent with sulticient 

 stores, and given good wheat-chaff packing— in 

 short, the best care we know how to give them, and 

 so we hope for the best. 



FEEDING AFTER DARK, BY MOONLIGHT AND LAN- 

 TERN LIGHT. 



As I have before stated, in consequence of foul 

 brood we have been obliged to exercise extreme 

 caution to prevent robbing. While e.vamining col- 

 onics during warm days we have used the bee- 

 tent with excellent success; but to feed by the 

 aid of the tent, sunny days would lie quite incon- 

 venient, and well nigh impossible. If we waited 

 till cold weather, that would be too late; besides, 

 the bees would then be little inclined to carry the 

 feed into the combs. It so happened about this 

 time, Oct. 1-th to 15th, we were having beautiful 

 evenings, the moon being full at this date. The 

 apiarist and mjsclf availed ourselves of this oppor- 

 tunit3', and fed all such colonies as were needy. We 

 could not have had a lovelier time, no robbers to 

 bother us or follow our feeding-cans about. We 

 fed in this way about two barrels of sugar made 

 into syruj). After the 1.5th, the moon did not come up 

 till about!) o'clock; and then as the bees still need- 

 ed more feeding we were obliged to use artificial 

 lights. As lamps go out too easily, we used lanterns. 

 I gave the apiarist my large lantern, and then 

 mother anil I hunted ai-ound in the house till we 

 found what we call Ruber's lantern. I believe they 



I are called "babies' lanterns." That was so insignifi- 

 cant I hardly thought it would do. 



" But," said mother, " this is all we have in the 

 house." 



" Well," said F, " fix it up the best you can, and 

 I'll try it." 

 I will explain to our readers, that the lantern in 



' question is about 7 inches high, with a very small 

 burner— a sort of lantern and night lamp combined. 

 After I had worked awhile in the apiary I decided 

 that it was just the thing. It was so small that it 

 could be set down on top of the frames of the hives, 



: or on a ledge of the hive. Its smallness, and, conse- 



j quently, its using so little room, is why it is superior 



; to the other lantern for night work in the apiary. 

 We fed with lanterns about two barrels of syrup, 



' and I do not think the lanterns caused us any more 

 trouble than smokers in the daytime. Not only 

 did I do feeding by this kind of light, but I hunted 

 queens, and performed various other little manipu- 

 lations with the hives. Of course, on cool and chil- 



i ly evenings it would not be })olicy nor even an ad- 

 vantage to woi-k with the bees; but at that time of 

 the year, when robbers are most troublesome dur- 

 ing the liours of the da.y, a groat many of the opei-- 

 ations connected with the apiary can be performed 

 easily and safel.y in warm clear evenings by moon 

 light or lantern light. In the A B C of Bee Culture, 

 under the head of " Robbing," the author lays spe- 

 cial stress upon the fact that bees can be handled 

 in the night time; but for some reason but few re- 

 ports of it have come in, and those, I believe, of un- 

 favorable character. The A B (' recommends the 

 use of a lamp and shade. As a lamp would require 

 such careful handling, and besides would be likely 

 to be blown out by a little breeze, I think a lantern 



; would give results entirely satisfactory, if, then, 

 our friends will use a lantern (which will stand tum- 

 bling about and all kinds of winds), I think they will 

 find certain kinds of night work in the apiary a 



; success. It is (juite likely, on the first evening, if 



