1374 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1 



ing to make their tirst flight when the wea- 

 ther is too cold. ] set each hive out on the 

 old stand from which they were taken. They 

 are all lettered and numbered at the time of 

 setting in to correspond with the stands in 

 the yard, which enables me to do this read- 

 ily, and the bees will return to the hives 

 where they belong, without confusion. 



1 am convinced by years of experience that 

 this is one of the little things that pay me 

 well to do. 



The tirst impulse of the bees on being set 

 out on a warm day is to tly; and, indeed, so 

 strong is that impulse it would seem some- 

 times, when the weather is favorable, that 

 all of the bees in the hives had taken Hight 

 at once, and were having their annual spring 

 picnic. In their anxiety to be on the wing 

 they scarcely hesitate to note their surround- 

 ings, l)ut Hy and Hy until the desire for Hight 

 is for the time gratified. Then they begin to 

 hunt for the well-marked loealitj^ of last fall, 

 which these old liees surely remember. If 

 the bee-keeper has not preserved the former 

 order in setting the hives upon the old stands 

 from which they were taken, confusion will 

 prevail. Not knowing where to go, the bees 

 are attracted where the Hight is the thickest 

 and the confusion greatest: and at the hives 

 where most 1:iees are alighting, there most 

 bees will be attracted to alight, until it woukl 

 seem as if all the available bees in the yard 

 had joined in a few mammoth swarms at the 

 expense of depleting the rest. 



The ))ees that are set out of the bee-house 

 are mostly old, and require careful treat- 

 ment. They will last but a short time at 

 most: so it is important that the colonies all 

 become strong as soon as possible while they 

 have the assistance of these veterans. 



Stimulative feeding at this time is not. I 

 am sure, the best way to do this. The in- 

 creased activity rapidly exhausts the vitality, 

 and shortens the lives of the old l)ees. and 

 results in harm. 



A colony in normal condition, with an 

 abundance of sealed stores, will remain (juiet, 

 and be among the tirst to l)ecome strong, 

 without any fussing, and usually make the 

 best record. There is no reason why colo- 

 nies wintered indoors should not he superior 

 to those wintered in the open air. Every 

 thing lieing equal, I think they are. 



P^ast Townsend, O. 



WINTER LOSS VS. LOSS BY DISEASE. 



Plenty of Well-ripened Stores in Wintering, 

 the Essential Point. 



BY GRANT STANLEY. 



The subject of wintering our bees is one of 

 as much importance as the storing of surplus: 

 for surely if they fail to winter we shall have 

 no l»ees to store it. So we see it is a very im- 

 portant matter that we supply every essen- 

 tial possible in order to have them come 

 through the winter in the very pink of con- 

 dition, and this must l)e furnished somewhat 

 in advance of their needs. The great troul)le 



with too many bee-keepers is that they wait 

 until frost has cut off every vestige of bloom 

 l)efore any attempt whatever is made to pre- 

 pare them. else, in their greed for a few 

 pounds of honey, put the matter off until 

 cold weather arrives, and then (as some men 

 do in all business) trust to "luck" and the 

 chances of a moderate winter that the bees 

 may "pull through." 



It is the opinion of the writer that more 

 Ijees perish in winter from an insufficient 

 quantity of well-ripened stores than from all 

 other causes combined, including foul and 

 black brood. The suliDhur-pit of old may al- 

 so be thrown in. If we watch the journals 

 each spring we shall see the reports of vast 

 numbers of colonies that perish. Then along 

 with this we are told that less than one bee- 

 keeper in every ten reads the journals. How 

 many colonies perish in the hands of such 

 bee-keepers, the reports of which never come 

 to light? It has lieen said that colonies will 

 often simply "give up the ghost" when it is 

 found the larder is running low. As I said 

 at the beginning, if the colonies are not prop- 

 erly wintered tliere will not be a great deal 

 of surplus stored, so we see the question of 

 wintering is of first importance to our suc- 

 cess, and not a secondary matter, as many 

 suppose. Weak colonies in spring are more 

 often the result of a scant supply of well- 

 ripened stores than any other cause. We 

 see much space in our journals devoted to 

 the subject of foul and black brood, while 

 very little mention is made regarding win- 

 tering: l)ut I lielieve if the latter subject is 

 well catered to we shall hear less of the for- 

 mer. There is more in this si;l)ject than 

 many bee-keepers sujipose. We are told by 

 so good an authority as Mr. France that im- 

 proper wintering which results in starved, 

 chilled, or pickled brood, is very conducive 

 to foul brood. In other words, it opens the 

 way and invites the disease; ami if this be 

 true, it is possible that foul lirood can l)e 

 traced to a faulty system of wintering in 

 many instances. 



Now, while I have not lost a single colony 

 in wintering, with the exception of the win- 

 ter (jf 1903, when so much loss in bees pre- 

 vailed over a large portion of country, still 

 I have spent no small thought on this sub- 

 ject, not only that we may avoid a loss in a 

 like winter, but I want the bees to feel so 

 "sassy" in the way of plenty of well-ripen- 

 ed stores that I need feel no uneasiness on 

 this score until warm weather has arrived. 

 I am using shallow (Danzenbaker) brood- 

 frames, for I believe they possess many 

 points of merit not found in any other hive 

 on the market; but the question of the colo- 

 nies having plenty of well-sealed stores had 

 to l)e thought out, as, with the use of this 

 frame, all honey is carried up into the sec- 

 tions (of course, just where it is wanted dur- 

 ing the harvest), so that, if we leave the su- 

 pers on the hives until frost has cut off all 

 nectar, we shall have very little honey in the 

 l)rood-cham])er for winter — possibly an inch 

 or two in the top of each frame, which the 

 bees have placed there during the latter part 



