DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., APRIL 27, 1881. 



No. 17. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and Proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL, 



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For the American Bee Journal. 



My Method of Wintering Bees. 



S. VALENTINE. 



The great and all- important question 

 that conies to the bee-keepers of to-day 

 is how to carry the bees successfully 

 through the interval from the 1st of 

 December until honey appears in the 

 spring ? With all our noted apiarists, 

 Quinby, Langstrothj Wagner, and oth- 

 ers, leaders in apiculture who have tin- 

 covered much of the desired gold and 

 made apiculture a pleasant pursuit, 

 there are still dark, shady spots that 

 their wisdom has not brought to sun 

 light, and doubtless to-day there is 

 more gloom hanging over the subject of 

 wintering bees than any other in apicul- 

 ture. Since the subject of wintering 

 stands first on the list of apiculture, and 

 well deserves the earnest thought, care- 

 ful study, and accurate experiments of 

 the most practical apiarists, for if we 

 fail to winter our bees and spring finds 

 us without them, we need not bother 

 about their management, forage, or 

 any of the modern improvements, and 

 we are almost certain to lose them 

 seoner or later if they are not properly 

 cared for. The honey bees are not 

 like other insects, but are more or less 

 active all through the winter and re- 

 quire more or less food according to the 

 amount of heat they generate, and as 

 they become numb at a temperature 

 below 40 s , therefore the temperature 

 must be kept up by the bees at the ex- 

 pense of their stores, and if they are 

 kept where they are exposed to ex- 

 treme cold they will require the more 

 food. 



I have been experimenting for some 

 years on wintering bees out and in- 

 doors, and I am satisfied that bees will 

 winter best at a temperature about 

 45°; but from experience we have 

 learned that there are 4 things in the 

 hive that are against successful winter- 



ing : 1st. A failure in late fall breeding- 

 2d. Unwholesome food ; 3d. Lack of 

 stores; 4th. Regular temperature. The 

 first in importance is a good prolific 

 queen, for if there is an old, worn-out 

 queen, or a poor layer in the hive, the 

 colony will be sure to come out weak in 

 the spring, if not dead. In the early 

 part of September it should be seen to 

 that every hive is supplied with a good 

 prolific queen, and if the hive is 

 crowded with honey so that brood-rear- 

 ing has been cut short, the lower half of 

 the best comb for that purpose should 

 be extracted, to give the queen room, 

 or if breeding has ceased from a failure 

 of honey in the field, they should be fed 

 and brood-rearing kept up if possible 

 until the last of October. But before 

 feeding the apiarist should see that the 

 combs are not partly filled with un- 

 wholesome honey, but here some one 

 may ask, what is unwholesome honey, 

 and how shall I know it ? Apple cider, 

 peach juice, grape juice and such like 

 are not honey. When the bees have 

 had ample time to seal up their stores, 

 and it still remains scattered all through 

 the hive unsealed, you can take it for 

 granted it is not pure honey, and will 

 bloat you bees. It will pay you well to 

 extract it and feed A sugar. 



If you have to feed for winter store it 

 should be done in time that the bees can 

 seal it over before cold weather sets in. 

 A good, fair colony should have 25 or 30 

 lbs. of honey, on as few combs as pos- 

 sible, sealed over half way down and 

 before putting up for winter quarters 

 there should be a passage made through 

 each comb, commencing about the cen- 

 tre and extending 3 inches upward, 

 nearly an inch wide, that part of the 

 bees are not cut off from the main clus- 

 ter by a sudden fall in the temperature. 



Now we come to the disputed ground: 

 How and where can we keep the tem- 

 perature most suitable for our bees ? 

 There has been a great deal said about 

 both out and in-door wintering, with 

 great diversity of opinion. I would 

 like to favor out-door wintering, for it 

 takes a great deal of labor to remove 

 a large apiary to and from a cellar ; hut 

 I cannot help but praise the bridge that 

 carries me over. 



From experience I am satisfied that 

 in our latitude (39}^ c ) we can winter our 

 bees most successfully in a good cellar. 

 All agree a uniform temperature is best 

 and to have uniform temperature in the 

 hive there must be quietness, and for 

 quietness we need darkness and a pure 

 atmosphere, and cannot these desired 

 points be best secured in a good cellar V 



It need? no argument to prove that 

 darkness can be best attained in a cel- 

 lar, and by proper ventilation a cellar 

 can be kept with a healthy atmosphere. 

 Poor results have been referred to in 

 eellars standing at the freezing point; 

 but I would consider a cellar that stands 

 at the freezing point too cold and a very 

 poor one. The temperature in my cel- 

 lar stood all through this cold winter at 

 4fi : and 47-. It is 12^ feet wide by 26 

 feet long. It has no window, and is per- 

 fectly dark ; it is right underneath our 

 sitting-room and bed-room, and is ven- 

 tilated through another large cellar, 

 and has a flue connecting with the 

 chimney ; it has a cement floor, but not 

 plastered overhead ; the door opens into 

 the other cellar. 



There are always more or less bees 

 dying which drop on the bottom board 



arid often cause the hive to become foul. 

 In the cellar, if properly arranged, they 

 can be transferred to a clean, sweet 

 hive, or the frames removed, and with 

 a piece of tin 4x6 inches clean all dead 

 bees and filth from the hive, and thus 

 keep it clean and pure, which has a 

 great deal to do with keeping them 

 quiet; while on the summer stands, 

 either from packing or a long spell of 

 cold weather, you may not be able to 

 open the hives for months, and a mass 

 of dead, moldy bees, accumulates 

 right beneath the cluster. I know it is 

 claimed that handling bees in a cellar 

 is also injurious, that they become ex- 

 cited and gorge themselves with honey. 

 I claim gentle, bees can be handled in a 

 cellar without much excitement, and a 

 colony in good wintering condition has 

 very little unsealed honey and the bees 

 cannot so easily gorge themselves. 

 They seem to know all about it, or at 

 least are very careless about looking for 

 honey. They have to be forced before 

 they will go for it. 



My bees are princely Albinos, which 

 are very gentle and easily handled. I 

 have overhauled all of them twice, and 

 some of them a third time, while in the 

 cellar. I seldom used any smoke, and 

 did not find any of them get excited and 

 make a great ado about it. I open the 

 hive without any jarring, and allow a 

 moment's time for the advanced guard 

 to retreat, and then handle carefully, 

 and they were nearly as quiet when I 

 closed the hive as when I opened it. 

 About the middle of February, before 

 I had overhauled them the last time, a 

 few became restless, but after I had 

 closed the hive they became quiet again. 

 One might go into the cellar where 

 there were nearly one hundred, and they 

 would scarcely hear the buzz of a bee. 

 I did not let a hive become foul in the 

 cellar, and I am satisfied the bees are in 

 much better condition than they would 

 have been had I not kept the hives clean. 



Six miles from home I had 15 very 

 strong colonies with plenty of honey 

 which I left on the summer stands. On 

 the 10th of February I went to see them, 

 and found one dead with from 30 to 40 

 lbs. of sealed honey in the hive, and 

 they all had very many dead bees on the 

 bottom-board, some of them smelt 

 badly and had dwindled very much. I 

 have lost one since, and several are in a 

 critical condition. 



Last year I bought and started a small 

 apiary of 15 colonies in West Virginia, 

 for experimenting. They did well 

 through the summer. 1 think it a good 

 locality for honey. Some of them made 

 me from 25 to 40 lbs. of section honey 

 after harvest, and in October, when I 

 saw them last, they were all very strong 

 with bees and had plenty of honey to 

 carry them through, except two, which 

 were badly managed in the early part of 

 the season, and being crowded with 

 work in the fall, I was unable to give 

 them any attention. Now I am in re- 

 ceipt of a letter which states thnt there 

 are over % of them dead. 



My home apiary I have been using 

 exclusively for queen-rearing and ship- 

 ping purposes. Last year we had a very 

 poor season, but 5 weeks of a honey 

 harvest during the first crop of red 

 clover, which ended about July 1st, af- 

 ter that there was very little honey 

 gathered, and our bees quit brood-rear- 

 ing 3 or 4 weeks earlier than usual. 

 1 Now every queen-breeder will have an 



idea of the condition of my home apiary 

 for wintering. However, about the 1st 

 of November I doubled up and prepared 

 76 colonies and 24 nuclei for wintering. 

 My nuclei were nearly all out of honey 

 but I had some sections 6x6 and some 

 5l£x6 filled and partly filled with red 

 clover honey, I went to work and made 

 nucleus boxes to suit them, some to hold 

 3 and some 4 ; I cut a rabbet 2% inches 

 deep to give ventilation and room to 

 feed candy on top, transferred the bees 

 into them, but the smell of honey ex- 

 cited some to robbing, and I was 

 obliged to take them to the cellar. They 

 seemed to do well for a few days, but 

 in a week or 10 days became restless, 

 and on examining found about Jjf of the 

 bees dead. I cleaned the boxes and 

 bored 2 % holes in the rabbet, one in 

 front and one in the rear, to give venti- 

 lation ; but in a few days I found there 

 was not enough ventilation. Oh! how 

 I wished they could have a good flight ; 

 but the weather was too cold. I went 

 to work again and made other lids, with 

 an opening in the centre 2%x4 inches, 

 and covered it with wire-cloth, cleaned 

 the hives again, and put the new lid on, 

 and in a few days found that those 

 bees ttiat were almost helpless had be- 

 come dry and bright. I succeeded in 

 carrying 19 of them through the winter. 

 I lost 4 by letting them get out of food, 

 and on the 12th of February the mer- 

 cury rose to 50°, and I put them out for 

 a flight, and lost one queen by swarm- 

 ing out. In the evening I again re- 

 moved them to the cellar, and gave 

 them some candy, and covered the 

 frames with cloth and they commenced 

 rearing brood. 



November came in with colder 

 weather than usual and I was waiting 

 with my colonies to give them a good 

 flight before putting them into the cel- 

 lar; but severe weather set in about 

 the middle of the month and they did 

 not get it. I put the most of them in 

 the cellar in November, but did not put 

 them all in until the last of December. 

 I had lost 4 colonies before I concluded 

 to put them all in. I lost but 2 in the 

 cellar which starved. This leaves me 

 70. When I overhauled them in Feb- 

 ruary I gave all of them some candy 

 and fixed them up for brood-rearing, 

 and in a week's tune they nearly all 

 had commenced brood-rearing. 



I leave them in the cellar and stimu- 

 late with candy until mild weather and 

 young bees are hatching freely, then I 

 move them to their summer stands, 

 and cushion on the sides with sawdust 

 cushions. I prefer fine dry sawdust for 

 cushions at the side, as it is the best 

 non-conductor, and will keep the bees 

 warmest. But over the top a chaff 

 cushion or anything that is a good ab- 

 sorbent. I think on to]) is the proper 

 place to take up the moisture. With 

 this method I have been successful and 

 have avoided much spring dwindling. 

 From 1875 to 1879 I wintered in the cel- 

 lar with a loss of but 4 colonies. Last 

 winter I wintered with success on the 

 summer stands, and vice versa; but I 

 can assign causes for so doing. We had 

 a very mild winter, and bees could fly 

 nearly every week all through the win- 

 ter, and my hives had impure honey in 

 them, and I wished to take a trip 

 through Kansas. 



It has only been the last 6 or 8 years 

 that there has been any attention given 

 to modern bee-keeping through this 



