20 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURP: 



.Ian. 1 



FIG. 



-COMBS FOR MAKING UP A WINTER-NEST FOR A MODERATE-SIZED COLONY. 

 Note the center comb Is placed upside down. 



allowed to carry out their own sweet will 

 without molestation from their well-mean- 

 ing owner. In Fig. 1 note the hemispher- 

 ical shape of the winter nest as the bees 

 form it under ideal conditions. The combs 

 next opposite in the brood-nest will show a 

 smaller half-circle, and those next to them 

 a relatively smaller circle still, until there is 

 just a mere spot of perhaps an inch or two 

 in diameter in the outer comb. This makes 

 up a complete hemisphere in the Langstroth 

 brood-nest or a perfect sphere in a cubical 

 brood-nest. While one does not by any 

 means always find this form of winter nest 

 it is the ideal condition. 



If one lifts off the cover of a colony when 

 the temperature is about 45 outside he ought 

 to find, if conditions have been favorable, 

 the cluster of bees in a space about the shape 

 shown in the winter nest of the frames here 

 shown. On the next two combs the half- 

 circle of bees will be smaller until there will 

 be a little patch of bees on the outermost 

 combs or comb. As it becomes colder this 

 hemisphere of bees shrinks in size. When 

 the temperature goes down below zero a 

 large strong colony will be compressed into 

 a space about equal to that of the doubled- 

 up fist. It may not then occupy more than 

 two combs. 



In Fig. 2 we show two combs having an 

 ideal winter nest already formed. For a 

 moderate-sized colony this will make a good 

 winter nest. We would then place on the 

 outside two solid cards of honey, as shown 

 in the two end frames. Colonies not over 

 strong we would contract down to the space 

 they will occupy in mild weather by putting 

 in thick division-boards, or packing of some 

 sort to fill up the empty space. If, on the 

 other hand, the colony is a strong one it 

 may require three or four and possibly five 

 combs in which there are winter-nest cells. 



If a colony is fed gradually during Octo- 

 ber and November they will form this win- 



ter nest. If, however, they are on the verge 

 of starvation, and they are fed 30 lbs. in a 

 single night toward the last end of the fall, 

 or when it is quite cold, they do not have 

 the opportunity of forming this nest. They 

 will carry the syrup down while it is hot; 

 then for a few daysafcer that, if it is so they 

 can fly, or, rather, so the cluster can move 

 freely about the brood-nest, they may or 

 may not rearrange the stores. The cluster, 

 when it actually forms up for winter, will 

 be practically one homogeneous mass of 

 bees separated by only thin cell walls and 

 the midribs of the combs. 



If anybody doubts that bees try to have a 

 winter nest, let him break into several clus- 

 ters of bees when the temperature is down 

 to about 5 above zero, in an outdoor colony. 

 We have done this repeatedly. If the ar- 

 rangement of combs has not been disturbed 

 in the fall, we will probably find the bees 

 tightly jammed into the cells. And, again, 

 we will often discover, as we go over our col- 

 onies in the late winter or early spring, that 

 some of them have actually starved to death. 

 In all such cases we will see dead bees tight- 

 ly packed in the cells of the winter nest, 

 and a solid mass of bees between the several 

 spaces between the combs. Starvation is 

 often due to the fact that cold weather has 

 continued so long without a let-up that the 

 bees are left high and dry, so to speak, in 

 the center of the winter nest. They actual- 

 ly starve, notwithstanding that sealed hon- 

 ey is within two inches of the cluster. The 

 long-continued cold has given them no op- 

 portunity to warm up and shift the cluster 

 over in contact with the sealed honey. We 

 have seen this condition almost every win- 

 ter in our yard. 



Still again, we have often found dead col- 

 onies where some of our newer men in the 

 bee-yard had disturbed the combs, putting 

 a solid comb of honey right down through 

 the center of the winter nest. This made 



