756 



gijEanings in bee culture 



October, 1917 



These thonglits were forced on my mind 

 by reading Mr. Doolittle's article on page 

 1066, Oct. IStli issue, last year; and, can- 

 didly, I am afraid that I shall have to ex- 

 cept Mr. Doolittle from the claim that age 

 mellows our views, for surely he is preju- 

 diced in favor of cellar wintering. His ex- 

 perience and conclusions on some points 

 are so at variance with the common prac- 

 tice of hundreds of beekeepers living fur- 

 ther north than he does that I feel like 

 making some remarks on the subject, even 

 if I run the risk of being called presump- 

 tuous. 



He says that in outdoor wintering he 

 had a loss " several years that went above 

 75 to 80 per cent of the colonies left out." 

 Surely for his latitude there was something 

 radically wrong, either in strain of bees, 

 metliod of packing, quality of stores, or 

 some other factor. Why, I can take him to 

 a chain of apiaries (not our own) where 

 the bees have been wintered outdoors for 

 many years, and the loss for five consecu- 

 tive years will not average 5 per cent. 

 This is exceptional, I will admit ; but where 

 to look among professional beekeepers to 

 find losses of 75 to 80 per cent in any one 

 year would be a problem. One hundred 

 miles north of Toronto, and just two miles 

 from an arm of the Georgian Bay, we 

 have an apiary of over 200 colonies. In 

 this locality it is not so very uncommon 

 for the thermometer to i-egister 40 below 

 zero. We make no claim for the future, 

 but simply give results in wintering for 

 the four years they have been wintered 

 there. We have had losses from queeuless 

 colonies, and in the four years three or 

 four colonies have been smothered by hive- 

 entrances becoming clogged. Last winter 

 two colonies starved. Aside from these 

 losses not a single normal colony has died 

 in the four seasons. At present 280 colo- 

 nies are in that yard; and when it is con- 

 sidered that we sometimes do not see the 

 apiary from late in October till the follow- 

 ing AjDril, can it be wondered at if we be- 

 gin to inquire the why and wherefore of 75 

 to 80 per cent losses for a number of 

 years ? 



So much for winter losses, and now a 

 word or two about the amount of winter 

 stores consumed. Frankly, I know little 

 about cellar wintering. For six years, here 

 in York Co. I wintered about 40 colonies 

 in the cellar with varying results. Only 

 one year did the cellar-wintered bees out- 

 strip the others during the honey harvest. 

 During the winters of 1911-'12 and 1912- 

 '13, over 200 colonies were wintered in 

 caves out in Leeds Co. These caves were 



about as near perfect as any repository 

 could be, and the bees all came out alive 

 each year. But they were behind the out- 

 door bees each year for all that. 



Mr. Doolittle gives the weights of the 

 two lots tested, figuring from Nov. 20 and 

 April 19, and found that the cellar-winter- 

 ed bees had an advantage over the outdoor 

 bees to the extent of over 11 pounds to 

 the colony saved in stores. I do not doubt 

 it a bit, provided the bees had a good cel- 

 lar to winter in. But it would have been 

 a fairer test to weigh those two lots of 

 bees on May 19, and then I venture to say 

 the difference would not have been so pro- 

 nounced in favor of the cellared bees. In 

 fact, if there had been an early willow flow 

 in the interval, the chances are that the 

 difference would have been in the other 

 direction. At least that is what would 

 likely happen here in " our locality." 



Always, in placing cellar-wintered colo- 

 nies alongside of well-wintered stocks out- 

 side, in the early s^Dring more stores would 

 be present in the former than in the latter. 

 A month later the reverse was always the 

 case, the explanation being that the out- 

 door colonies had used up more of their 

 stores earlier in brood-rearing. 



As on the liive question, I am not preju- 

 diced on this problem of wintering, for 

 I certainly know that the majority of our 

 producers in Eastern Ontario still winter 

 in the cellar. On the other hand, I do 

 not for a moment think there is the ex- 

 treme difference in favor of one system over 

 another, as Mr. Doolittle's article would 

 lead one to believe. While I write, I can 

 think of quite a large number of extensive 

 beekeepers in Ontario who formerly win- 

 tered in the oellar exclusively, and today 

 ai-e outdoor winterers with no thought of 

 changing their system. While there may 

 be some who hav© changed from outdoor 

 to cellar wintering, I cannot recall any. 

 Is it conceivable that these men who make 

 their living out of bees — in fact, keep bees 

 for that purpose — would follow any system 

 showing such a decided disadvantage when 

 compared with another way? The ques- 

 tion is easily answered, and needs no 

 further argument. I have made no excep- 

 tion to Mr. Doolittle's locality as compared 

 with our location, as he lives considerably 

 south of us and should at least have a 

 climate no colder than ours. From corres- 

 pondence in the neighborhood of Syracuse, 

 I know that they often have days warm 

 enough fo4- bees to have a flight when such 

 is not the ease with us. Mr. House, near 

 that place, has an ideal wintering reposi- 

 tory, and yet I remember when visiting 



