1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



223 



winter lasts only about two months, as I 

 understand it does in the South. After 

 about the first of March I understand it is 

 spririq- in the South, while we often have 

 six weeks of winter weather after that 

 time." 



"Then you alluded to the time the bees 

 are in a partially quiescent state, hy the 

 word ' winter'?" 



" Yes. When bees beg'in to breed to any 

 great extent, then is when a great consump- 

 tion of honey occurs; and if no honey is to 

 be had from the fields at such times of rap- 

 id breeding", the stores in the hive are 

 drawn upon so rapidly that starvation often 

 occurs, when the apiarist thought his bees 

 had sufficient stores to last for months, he 

 judging from the consumption needed for 

 the fall and winter months. Hence the wise 

 apiarist has an eye out on this matter, from 

 now on till the flowers give honey in the 

 spring, unless his hives were very heavy in 

 honey the preceding fall." 



"But what about the warm weather in 

 the fall we often have when the bees can fly 

 nearh' every daj'. and that after all nectar 

 secretion in the flowers has past?" 



" Some seem to think that mild weather 

 with no honey-flow is a trying ordeal on the 

 stores in the hives; but it depends very 

 much on when this mild weather occurs. 

 If in October, November, December, and 

 January, and the bees are on their sum- 

 mer stands, I have found that here, in Cen- 

 tral Nevy York, they consume fir less stores 

 than they do in cold weather, as at this 

 time there is no disposition toward brood- 

 rearing, and the mild weather does not call 

 for so much honey being used as ' fuel ' as 

 does the cold. At such times colonies out- 

 doors consume but little more than do those 

 in the cellar, or about a pound a month, 

 while with very cold weather, as the pres- 

 ent winter has been, the colony outdoors re- 

 quires from double to treble that amount, 

 even when wintering perfectly." 



" I had supposed that in your cold cli- 

 mate bees used five or six pounds a month." 

 " Oh, no! not when wintering perfectly. 

 But let any colony become uneasy from any 

 cause, and they' will go to eating voracious- 

 ly, and from this brood-rearing will result 

 in nineteen cases out of twenty, and the 

 consumption will increase from the average 

 of from one to three pounds a month to from 

 five to eight pounds a month, generally re- 

 sulting in that colony dying before April, 

 or its vitality becoming- so exhausted so that 

 spring dwindling will be the result. I 

 suppose with your short winters you do 

 not have this state of affairs." 



" Not to any such extent as you Northern 

 bee-keepers do; but we have a large con- 

 sumption of stores after brood-rearing 

 commences." 



" Undoubtedly this is so, on the same 

 plan it is with us in April and May, when 

 our healthy colonies begin to rear brood 

 rapidly preparatory to increasing for the 

 swarming season. And I judge you are as 

 pleased to see brood in February and 



March as we are to see it in April and 

 May." 



"Yes. But what am I to do for stores 

 before the flowers open which give a secre- 

 tion of nectar?" 



"It is generally better to know that each 

 colony has enough in the fall to carry it 

 over till nectar is expected in the spring, 

 even if you had to allow forty pounds for 

 each colony; but if, from any cause, the 

 bees do not have enough when brood-rear- 

 ing commences at the beginning of the 

 season, it is well to feed, for there is no 

 time in the year when it pays better to feed 

 than after the bees begin to rear brood and 

 have general weekly or daily flights; for 

 the fe d so used not only preserves the life 

 of the colony but helps much by way of 

 stimulating the colony to greater efforts 

 than wouM otherwise be made; and if this 

 stimiilalion brings your bees on the stage 

 of action in the right time for any honey 

 harvest you will be doubly paid for all 

 feeding you may feel obliged to do." 



The Ohio foul- brood bill, spoken of on 

 page 172, has passed the House, without a 

 dissenting vote. It now remains for it to 

 get through the Senate, and finally receive 

 the signature of the Governor. If the bee- 

 keepers of the State do their duty in writ- 

 ing their Senators it will pass the Senate. 



A CORRECTION. 



Referring to the next to the last Straw 

 on page 168, Dr. Miller says he was not ob- 

 jecting that the thing could not be done — 

 giving a larger proportion of young bees to 

 a nucleus — but that he was interposing in 

 behalf of the beginner because we had not 

 told Jiow it was to be done. In my footnote 

 telling how, I spoke as if the doctor did not 

 know the kink, when a more careful read- 

 ing would have shown that he did. I deem 

 it but right and fair that I make this ex- 

 planation, although the doctor does not 

 expect or ask it. 



SALISBURY'S AUTOMATIC WINDMILL ELEVA- 

 TOR. 



El-Sewhere in this issue I have referred 

 to Salisbury's elevator that runs by wind 

 power, works for nothing, and boards it- 

 self. Since that article went to press, the 

 following letter shows that the thing is a 

 success in every way: 



I have a " rig that luus." " It is built to run, and it 

 does it "—not an auto but an elevater by wind energy 

 stored up by windmiU. There is just one drawback, 

 now that we have dry sand — 'dusty.'" However, I 



