674 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



lui;\y willi buckwlieat honey. 1 intended to 

 watch closely during tlie winter and spring, 

 and report at this time as to which lot win- 

 tered the best ; but for some reason, despite 

 the fact that we had one of the most severe 

 winters on record, all colonies wintered so 

 uniformly well that there was no room for 

 compainson. Different sizes of entrances 

 were given, varying from one inch in width 

 and a" half-inch deep, up to the full width 

 of the hive, and nearly an inch deep. But 

 in this case, again, results were practically 

 the same. Another season might tell an al- 

 together different tale ; but, as already stat- 

 ed, wintering was univei-sally good in all the 

 yards, no matter how the bees were packed 

 for winter. I might just add that the colo- 

 nies given the very small entrances were at 

 the home yard where I could give them 

 attention when needed. An entrance that 

 would be small at an outyard would be 

 suicidal nine times out of ten in our locali- 

 ity, as, after or during a long confinement, 

 siich small entrances would get clogged with 

 dead bees. 



As I have already intimated, at the time 

 the request came for me to try some experi- 

 ments in wintering I had already done about 

 all my feeding, so I had no colonies left 

 with narrow rims of honey over the center 

 combs. Let me say right here that, if any 

 had been on hand, I would have first made 

 it clear to the editor that he would have a 

 colony or two of bees to pay for, as, with 

 the severe and lengthy winter that we had, 

 any colonies that had only a rim of a few 

 inches of honey on top of the frames would 

 be pretty sure to perish before spring, espe- 

 cially if the frames were of the regulation 

 Langstroth dimensions. 



Two colonies in ten-frame L. hives were 

 selected at the home yard for the purpose of 

 seeing if the bees would freeze to death if 

 put into winter quarters outdoors on solid 

 ^ombs of honey with no empty cells to cluster 

 on. No. 18 was a colony of goldens — the only 

 liive of that race in the yard. No. 20 was a 

 strong colony of three-banded Italians. 

 Both were headed by queens from two well- 

 known breedei-s. The goldens were the only 

 bees to show signs of dysentery during the 

 spring of 191.3, and were selected for this 

 experiment because of that weakness. Both 

 colonies had been well fed up during the 

 first week of October before I had heard 

 from the Editor. Nov. 1 the weather turned 

 unusually warm for the time of tbe year, 

 and I at once placed inverted pails filled 

 with thick sugar syrup over both of the col- 

 onies selected. The goldens took down 

 .slightly less than 10 pounds, while the other 

 colony appropriated 15 pounds. All combs 



weie white over the top, and buiT-combs 

 were built freely. Nov. 23 another warm 

 s}>ell came along and the pails Avere again 

 placed on hives with warm syrup. This time 

 the goldens took barely half a pound, while 

 the three-banders took five pounds. They 

 seemed to be solid with stores, and took no 

 more syrup as they had no room to store it. 



Dec. 3 the weather was again mild, and I 

 placed the pail once more over the three- 

 l)anders, but they took only a few ounces. 

 It will be seen by these figures that both 

 colonies had ten combs of solid stores dur- 

 ing the first week in December, so it will 

 have to be admitted by all that the bees had 

 no time to eat out a clustering-space to 

 accommodate themselves during tlie cold 

 weather that started in at once and lasted 

 for over four months. The weather was of 

 the normal winter variety with us till Jan. 

 13, when the thermometer dropped to 30 

 below zero — an unusual record for our local- 

 ity. Tins figure was duplicated a good 

 many times during January and Febniary, 

 and the bees had no flight till late in Marcli. 



Tlie goldens showed slight traces of dys- 

 entery, but not as much' as in the spring of 

 '13. As this colony was the only one show- 

 ing this weakness in the home apiary two 

 springs in succession, it looks as though 

 some strains, at least, are not as hardy as 

 the darker bees. In fact, that has been my 

 experience at different times when I have 

 wintered goldens outdoors. 



The colony of three-banders came through 

 in fine condition ; but I, of course, had to 

 take some of their stores from them to make 

 room for the queen to lay during fruit- 

 bloom. 



THKEE-FRAilE NUCLEI WINTERED OUTDOORS 

 ON SOLID C©MBS OF HONEY. 



At the time I was requested to try these 

 experiments I had four three-frame nuclei 

 in the home yard which I intended to cany 

 into the cellar to winter. I determined to 

 take a chance on them outdoors, and at the 

 same time demonstrate without a doubt that 

 a comparatively small cluster of bees would 

 winter on solid combs. Any one familiar 

 with our latitude knows that it is no certain 

 matter to winter small colonies outside un- 

 less the stores are good and abundant. Nov. 

 1 these four eolonias were each given three 

 solid frames of honey and syrup — combs of 

 the Quinby dimensions. Placed at one side 

 of a ten-frame hive with a division-board 

 crowding the bees on to the three deep 

 frames, truly that is about as awkward a 

 shape as one could imagine, judging by the 

 common idea that a cluster, to winter well, 

 must be of a spherical shape. But, notwith- 



