672 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE 



HIVES BURIED UNDER SNOW AND ICE 



BY F. L. POLLOCK 



I usually spend the winter in some milder 

 climate than that of Ontario, and the bees 

 are left alone from November to April on 

 their summer stands. They are packed, 

 some one, some four, but mostly two hives to 

 the ease, with about four inches of planer- 

 shavings around them, and a chaff cushion 

 and about eight inches of shavings on top. 

 I used to worry considerably about the pos- 

 sibility of the entrances being choked with 

 snow and ice in my absence, but lately it 

 does not trouble me so much. 



strong. Only two were dead out of forty, 

 and these owed their death to the work of 

 mice, wliich had chewed up most of the 

 combs. Doubtless the result would not have 

 been so good if I had used sealed tops, but 

 this is a practice quite unknown in Ontario, 

 so far as I can hear. 



From careful investigation since, I am of 

 the opinion that entrances are very seldom 

 entirely closed by snow or ice. The radia- 

 tion from the packing-case, if painted a 

 dark color, and the breath of warm air from 



Pollock's apiary, run for comb honey in shallow frames. 



Some time ago, on coming home in April 

 I found the snow still deep. The six-foot 

 fence at the north of the home apiary was 

 drifted clear over in places. Most of the 

 hives were entirely out of sight ; some show- 

 ed a bit of the roof. On inquiry I found 

 that they had been so during most of the 

 winter, which had been a very hard one. 

 witJi temperatures of 20 degTea=i below 

 7ero lasting for days at a time. With much 

 foreboding I began to dig around the hives. 

 The picture (next page) shows how they 

 looked after an hours' work. To make it 

 worse, there wns a sheet of hard ice about a 

 foot down. This was the re-sult of a heavy 

 thaw and rain in February, followed imme- 

 diately by severe cold and snow. 



I never had better wintering than in those 

 buried hi\e8, Nenrly all the colonies were 



the entrance, cause the ice or snow to shrink 

 away from the wood. Often when the en- 

 trance appears blocked, a careful examina- 

 tion will show that the snow is now^iere in 

 contact with the wood. Daily it shrinks 

 away a little more, giving quite enough 

 ventilation for very cold weather if absor- 

 bents are used over the fi-ames. By March 

 the sun is usually warm enough to clear the 

 entrances of snow ; and if not. it may be 

 better for the bees to stay in.side until it is 

 warm enough. 



There were hybrids, Italians, and Carnio- 

 lans in this yard, and I found that the 

 yellow bees had by far the most dead on the 

 bottom-boards. The hybrids came next, and 

 the Carniolans had by far the lowest death 

 rate. T have obsen'ed the same result almost 

 every spring. 



