January. 1909. 



American Vae Journal 



place that gets cold stays cold, and like- 

 wise a warm place stays warm, that is, 

 out of all proportion to the moist and 

 more dense air of the lower altitudes. 

 Almost 4 weeks ago we had a light 

 snow, and following was warm and very 

 pleasant weather, and in all places where 

 the sun shown on it the snow was melt- 

 ed in 2 or 3 days, but on the north side 

 of buildings, or of hay and straw stacks 

 or other things that cast a shade, snow 

 lav for one to two weeks, and that, too, 

 when the mercury was up to 50 and 

 60° and I think one or two days was as 

 high as 70°. The sun will shine through 

 a board fence and melt the snow off 

 where it strikes, leaving a streak of 

 snow where the boards cast a shade. 

 Even a barbed wire shadow will hold a 

 streak of snow for quite a little time 

 after it is gone where the unobstructed 

 sunshine strikes. In this country snpw 

 will scarcely begin to melt in the sun 

 until the mercury is several degrees 

 above the freezing point, but in the East, 

 when there is dense cloudiness, as quick 

 as the mercury registers 2° to 4° above 

 freezing the snow begins to move. 



I expect by this time many readers 

 will begin to'think this .Jt'tude with its 

 light, drv atmosphere has a^^ected rny 

 head, and I am getting a litJe "off m 

 the upper story." I want to tell you 

 that most of us here have found out 

 that a colony of bees in an old, warped 

 and twisted cracker-box with ^-^cks all 

 around the top that you can scarcely 

 chink tight enough to move without put- 

 ting the whole thing in a bag or have 

 the bees leaking, will winter better than 

 one with equal stores and bees in one of 

 the best made hives that can be put up. 

 The reason is that the box lets off all 

 moisture exhaled by the bees, keeping 

 the colony dry all the time, while in the 

 tight hive the moisture condenses within 

 the hive into frost when cold, then melts 

 and wets bees, combs and honey, and 

 sours the honey. 



For wintering here I think there is 

 nothing better in the way of ordinary 

 protection than to set the hives either 

 against ?&ch other or within 2 or 3 inch- 

 es, close to the ground, and facing south 

 or southeast. Have a bed of say 2 to 4 

 inches of chaff beneath, S or 6 inches 

 behind (a foot or more behind will be 

 all the better), and on top from about 

 2 or 3 in front, to S or 6 at the back. 

 Leave the front end of the hive so the 

 sun will strike it direct. Before pack- 

 ing on top lay 3 or 4 sticks about i inch 

 square on top of the frames, or use a 

 Hill's device so as to make a passage 

 over the frame tops, and on this put 

 burlap or other porous covering, then 

 the straw or chaff on this with corru- 

 gated or other iron roofing over all 

 laid directly on the chaff. So arranged, 

 the sun will warm that body of chaff 

 on top, and not only keep it dry but will 

 go far toward keeping the colony warm, 

 too. 



I know of but one objection to this, 

 and that is the danger of mice nesting 

 in that warm place above and cutting the 

 quilts. This could be avoided by using 

 a piece of wire-cloth to cover the hive 

 top, or by using a super or rim to hold 

 the chaff, and the use of flat-iron on 

 this. The sun shining on the hive front 

 will warm it and the whole front in- 



terior, and the bees will cluster against 

 that front and get many a limbering up 

 from day to day. In this country the 

 colony almost invariably clusters and 

 starts breeding toward spring on the 

 sunny side, and as they prefer to have 

 the nest near the entrance this makes all 

 favorable. Where hives sit with the 

 side to the sun, the nest will form at the 

 side, and if the back is sunward they will 

 nest at the back, I know of no better 



way to winter in this country; and when 

 so packed, and in a sunny nook, if the 

 colony goes into winter in normal con- 

 dition there will rarely be loss. In case 

 of too much heat, and too much activity, 

 a shade-board leaned up in front would 

 prevent that; and when extremely cold 

 it could be removed to let in the sun- 

 shine. 

 Loveland, Colo. 



(Continued next month.) 



RcflcctioHiy 



California Bce-Kccper 



By W. A. PRVAL. Alden Station. Oakland, Cant. 



Some Timely Rains. 



The day before Thanksgiving was a 

 generous one for the agricultural class, 

 especially in the greater portion of this 

 State, as a glorious rain that just soaked 

 the earth came almost unexpectedly. It 

 lasted nearly all day, and the parched 

 earth is now ready to be put in condition 

 for all early crops. To the bee-keeper it 

 will be a blessing, as it will start the 

 early flowers that the bees may forage 

 through the winter. 



The Plague of Bee-Moths. 



Perhaps I have mentioned it before, 

 but if I have, it will bear repeating, for 

 amateur bee-keepers can not be too much 

 on their guard against the evil. It is the 

 pest of the moth— the big fellows and 

 the little wee ones. They are an enemy 

 that work to your injury while you 

 sleep; they may be worse than a mort- 

 gage in getting away with your well- 

 earned labor. 



The big or common wax-moth — Gal- 

 leria mellonella — is well known to bee- 

 keepers everywhere; it is very destruc- 

 tive and will soon ruin the comb of any 

 weak colony it may get a foothold in ; 

 it will leave a hive full of good comb 

 that is not protected by bees or other- 

 wise — nothing but a mass of webs and 

 excrements in a short time if not dis- 

 covered in time by the apiarist and de- 

 stroyed. 



We have another wax-moth that at 

 first I thought was the wee-moth de- 

 scribed lay Prof. Cook in his "Bee-Keep- 

 er's Guide." The Professor says that 

 this small moth feeds on the pollen, and 

 weaves a web over the comb. Some 

 years ago I found a moth answering 

 this description but recently I found a 

 moth of the same or nearly like size 

 depredating on exposed comb. Th^ 

 never had a chance to do much harm in 

 my apiary, so little attention was paid 

 to them. Being busy with other affairs, I 

 set a lot of old comb aside for rendering 

 itito wax (all the clear comb was ren- 

 dered early in the season with the cap- 

 pings) in the winter. This comb was 

 placed in fairly tight boxes and ordina- 

 rily it might be considered moth-proof. 



But I was surprised to find that some of 

 the small moths had gotten in and did 

 fully as much damage as I ever knew 

 the first-mentioned to do. I should have 

 put this old comb in the sun-extractor; 

 then there would have been no valuable 

 wax to be destroyed. 



The sun-extractor is one of the best 

 things a bee-keeper has in the apiary ; all • 

 pieces of comb should be melted and not 

 allowed to accumulate. There is no 

 need of waiting for a wet or dull day to 

 render wax and circumvent robber-bees 

 when you have a wax-extractor. But I 

 was going to remark that these small 

 moths that did the darriage just referred 

 to, do not answer the description given 

 by Prof. Cook in his valuable work, 

 though it is much smaller than the com- 

 mon wax-moth, and depredated on wax, 

 etc., as badly as the latter. If it were 

 the wee-moth it would have confined 

 itself almost wholly to pollen. 



I have turned some specimens over to 

 entomologists for further identification; 

 I hope to give their report later. 



Leaky Hive-Covers. 



There is nothing so bad for the bees 

 as a leaky cover. One of the sides of 

 a hive could be better dispensed with in 

 our climate than to have water coming 

 upon the bees from above. I have seen 

 old hives with a part or all of one side 

 gone, which seemed to house a colony 

 of bees comfortably, at least where the 

 opening was not to the south so that the 

 prevailing winter's rain could be blown 

 in upon the inmates. But where rain 

 keeps dripping in upon the bees from 

 above, the colony is made uncomfortable, 

 if not famished, and, besides, the combs 

 are destroyed by the moisture. 



Where a hive-cover cannot be made 

 water-tight, it is an easy matter to place 

 a temporary roof over the hive that will 

 shed water, Years ago I had a lot of 

 roofs made of light boards made from 

 discarded fruit-boxes (and one can get 

 all he wants from the fruit-stores for 

 the asking). They were made in the 

 first instance for shade against the hot 

 sun of summer, but when winter came 



