1905 



GLEAN L\GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



305 



Years ago A. L Root used a large amount 

 of hard candy without any bad results ; but 

 this was made by a local baker at the time. 

 Possibly it contained a little glucose ; for 

 candy will not usually assume a transparent 

 glass-like condition without glucose or honey. 

 We would not use glucose under any cir- 

 cumstances. Now, it is possible that honey, 

 because of its liability to burn, may make 

 an unsatisfactory winter food. However, 

 we are wintering some of our colonies on 

 the very same food that you condemn. But 

 it is possible that the average bee-keeper 

 had better make a soft candy of the kind 

 you describe, not using either honey or glu- 

 cose. We have used a good deal of queen- 

 cage candy, but much of it is lost in the 

 form of granules rattling down on the bot- 

 tom-board, and then being carriedout. — Ed.] 



BROOD-REARING INDUCED BY 

 TER FLIGHTS. 



MIDWIN- 



Remove the Bees Early in Spring, and Leave 

 them out. 



BY O. H. TOWNSEND. 



Mr. Root:— In a recent issue you ask for 

 reports on moving bees from cellars in mid- 

 winter for a cleansing flight. I used to 

 practice it; but since I quit taking them out 

 for such a flight my success has been much 

 better. It causes the bees to start brood- 

 rearing, which uses up the vitality of the 

 old bees. I think winter or early brood- 

 rearing is the main cause of spring dwin- 

 dling. 



For the last ten years I have removed the 

 bees from my cellar just as soon as possi- 

 ble after I could see any bees bringing in 

 pollen, which is generally in March. I move 

 them out in the evening, so they get quieted 

 down over night; and if the weather is too 

 cold for them to fly they stay in the hives. 



I notice by referring to records that I 

 have removed them from cellars just about 

 the 13th of March several seasons. I would by 

 no means return them to the cellar, even if 

 snow comes, bringing with it zero weather, 

 as I find the cold does not hurt them in the 

 least. On one occasion we moved the bees 

 out, and the next morning there was four 

 inches of snow at a temperature of four be- 

 low zero. I was quite alarmed for the safety 

 of the bees; but, although they did not fly 

 for over a week, they were all bright and 

 healthy. 



If they are returned to the cellar after 

 having a flight they invariably go to rearing 

 brood, no matter what the weather is out- 

 side. If the bees are left in the cellar late 

 when it is necessary to open doors at night 

 to keep the temperature down, it keeps the 

 bees uneasy. This, too, will cause them 

 to start brood; while if they are taken out 

 early, and left out, they will rear brood only 

 as weather permits, thereby saving the vi- 

 tality of the wintered bees until we have 

 ' ' bee ' ' weather. 



When you take your bees out for a cleans- 



ing flight, leave ten average colonies out- 

 doors. They do not need to be packed— just 

 leave them alone with tight covers, and see 

 if they do not come through in better condi- 

 tion every way at the commencement of the 

 honey season. If they are damaged by leav- 

 ing them that way I will agree to pay you all 

 the damage or the difference in the average 

 value between the ten and the ones return- 

 ed. 



If I lived further north, where spring is 

 later coming, I should not expect to take 

 the bees out quite so early, as the weather 

 would be such that the temperature would 

 keep down in the repository later. I aim to 

 hold the temperature as near 45 as possible, 

 and it does not get more than one or two de- 

 grees below that, and not over three or four 

 above 45, except late in the winter. 



My best cellar is arranged so I can more 

 than double its capacity or room by opening 

 doors. As to the weather, I sometimes open 

 or close these doors to help regulate the tem- 

 perature. With good stores the loss in win- 

 tering and spring of bees need not be more 

 than with any stock— sheep or cows, for in- 

 stance. For cellar wintering, the long cold 

 ones suit me best, and the bees are the most 

 quiet. 



All the bees I lost last winter of those 

 wintered in the cellar were from starvation 

 late in winter and spring, the bees having 

 used about double the amount of stores that 

 they have for any time previously for years. 



Otsego, Mich., Feb. 24. 



A WINTER FLIGHT SOMETIMES A NECES- 

 SARY EVIL. 



Generally Speaking, Not to be Advised. 



BY C. A. HATCH. 



When I commenced to keep bees it was 

 almost the universal custom to set them out 

 during February or early March for what 

 was called a cleansing-flight. But some be- 

 gan to doubt its advantage, and to experi- 

 ment; and the result was, all were willing 

 to forego so disagreeable a job where the re- 

 sults were in doubt, or, as some claimed, a 

 positive injury. Various experiments were 

 tried, among them setting out for a week 

 or as long as warm weather lasted, then re- 

 turning; leaving out for one day only; pack- 

 ing in chaff and leaving out permanently; 

 but among all such experiments none seemed 

 to prove that the bees were benefited enough 

 to pay for the extra work. 



My own experiments went to show that, 

 if bees were uneasy, and spotting their 

 hives, it could be stopped for a time by a 

 flight; but if a certain time intervened be- 

 tween this flight and the setting-out time, 

 say three weeks or more, it was a real in- 

 jury to the bees. The reason, it would seem, 

 is not far to seek. When wa know that a 

 disturbance like a winter flight will start 

 brood-rearing, and that the eggs laid by the 

 queen will be out of the cell in three weeks, 

 it would go to show that these young bees 



