298 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Tor the American Bee JoumiL 



Cause of Loss in Winter, 



L. REED. 



I have kept bees for 33 years, first 

 in the old box-hive, next in the cross- 

 bar hive (as it was called), and then 

 in the Langstroth hive. When I kept 

 bees in the box-hive I had no losses 

 to speak of. I wintered them on the 

 summer stands without any protec- 

 tion, in the southern part of this 

 State ; but since I adopted movable 

 frames I have had more or less losses 

 in wintering. 



My experience in bee-keeping in 

 this country commenced with 4 colo- 

 nies of Itiitlian bees in Langstroth 

 hives. I got them in August, 10 or 12 

 years ago, and put them into an out- 

 door cellar or cave for the winter. 

 They had plenty of good lioney. and 

 the hives had on honey-boards i-inch 

 thick, glued down tight. The hive- 

 bottoms were nailed on, and there 

 was no ventilation whatever. The 

 cellar was 10x12 feet, and not venti- 

 lated. I took them out on April 1 , 

 and they were in extra good condi- 

 tion, full of bees, and young bees 

 hatching. They commenced swarm- 

 ing on June 1, and swarmed twice 

 each in June. One of the old colo- 

 nies cast the third swarm on Aug. 6, 

 something very unusnal. I put them 

 into a large box-hive and they tilled 

 it in two weeks. I put on a lO'-pound 

 box and they filled that. The 13 colo- 

 nies averaged a surplus of 75 pounds 

 each. 



I put them into the same cellar in 

 the same way, and they came out the 

 next spring in good condition ; with 

 no loss. They all cast two swarms 

 each, and averaged about 65 pounds 

 per colony. I then had 39 colonies, so 



I had to build my cellar larger. I put 

 them into it in about the same man- 

 ner as before, and lost 2 out of 39. by 

 starvation. The rest were in good 

 condition. 



During the third season I let them 

 swarm as much as they would, and in 

 the fall I had 104 colonies. I doubled 

 some of them up so that I had about 

 84 colonies. I did not get as much 

 surplus that season as before. We 

 had a frost on Sept. 1, and I had a 

 great many water-melons. The first 

 thing 1 knew the boys were cutting 

 them up and putting them on stumps 

 for the bees to work on. The bees 

 took in quite a quantity of this melon 

 juice. I put my bees up for winter 

 with this in the hives, took off the 

 honey-boards and put quilts on, and 

 the next spring I was minus 50 colo- 

 nies—all died with the diarrhea; 

 cause, water-melon juice. 



The next season my bees gathered 

 about 4J^ pounds to the colony, of 

 honey-dew or " bug-juice." The next 

 winter I lost 33 colonies with diar- 

 rhea ; cause, " bug-juice," not pollen. 



One year ago I wintered my bees 

 in a warm cellar with small loss. Last 

 summer my bees did well, On Sept. 



I I noticed that the bees were work- 

 ing very strong. I found that they 

 were working on blackberry bushes. 

 The leaves were covered with plant- 



lice ; they were also curled up, and 

 the bees were taking the liquid in at 

 a fearful rate. My bees had to go 3 

 miles for this stuff. My son had 2 

 colonies within one-half of a mile of 

 this blackberry region, and his bees 

 took in 30 pounds to the colony, of 

 this " bug-juice," in about ten days. 

 His hives were the Mitchell, with"l2 

 frames, and they filled the frames 

 one-third full of basswood honey, the 

 rest with the honey-dew, to the bot- 

 tom. His bees died before the first 

 of January. They were packed in 

 chaff. I sent some of this plant-louse 

 nectar to Prof. Cook, and he pro- 

 nounced it safe to winter bees on. He 

 had some of it at the Detroit Conven- 

 tion. I sent Mr. Newman some of it, 

 and he mentioned it on page 259. It 

 is fermented, and can be smelted for 

 40 rods ! 



Last fall I put up for winter 51 

 colonies — 40 in the cellar and 11 on 

 the summer stands, packed in chaff, 

 of which 6 died. 1 starved, and 5 had 

 the diarrhea. Tlie loss in the cellar 

 was 6—1 starved and 5 had the diar- 

 rhea, caused by the " bug-juice." I 

 have 39 colonies in good condition, 

 except 3 or 4 that are very weak in 

 bees. 1 took them out of the cellar 

 to stay on April 15 and 16, and they 

 brought in tlie first natural pollen 

 yesterday (April 15). It has been the 

 warmest weather for the last week 

 that I ever have known for this time 

 of the year. Bees were robbing badly 

 to-day. and I had my hands full. 



As far as my experience goes, I 

 have found that" '' bug-juice " or late, 

 frost-bitten honey is the sole cause of 

 bee-diarrhea. I do not care how much 

 pollen or bee-bread the bees have, 

 for if they have plenty of good honey 

 they will come out all right. Pros- 

 pects are good for a large crop of 

 honey in this locality. 



Orono,© Mich. 



New Jersey and Eastern Convention, 



A. WYE. 



The New Jersey and Eastern Asso- 

 ciation met at New York, on March 

 10, 1886. Officers for the ensuing 

 year were elected as follows— all of 

 New Jersey : President, J. V. Hutch- 

 inson ; Vice-President, J. T. Tucker ; 

 Secretary, F. E. Johnson ; and Treas- 

 urer, C. F. Kroch. 



Prof. Kroch delivered an address 

 on spring management, saying : The 

 first point to be determined by the 

 novice, is the time when his principal 

 honey-flow will probably begin ; I say 

 probably, because it will vary frorh 

 year to year. Then he must know 

 that, as a bee will become an active 

 worker about 30 days from the time 

 the egg is laid, he must begin opera- 

 tions about five or six weeks before to 

 induce breeding. 'For this purpose 

 he must feed each colony about a gill 

 of sweetened water per day in such a 

 way as will least disturb them. Dur- 

 ing the time, the bees must be con- 

 fined to the least possible space by 

 means of divison-boards. It is of no 

 advantage to make the bees breed too 



fast. If the colony is weak, they can- 

 not take care of much brood. During 

 cold snaps they contract their clusters, 

 and any brood left uncovered will die. 

 It is considered best not to unite 

 weak colonies in the spring, but to 

 wait until some of the stronger colo- 

 nies can spare frames of hatching 

 brood later in the season. 



Mrs. Dr. £. II. Mason advocated 

 destroying the brood-combs every 

 second year. She thinks that her bees 

 have by this means become larger 

 than any she has ever seen elsewhere. 

 She also waxes the inside of her hives 

 to save the labor of her bees, and 

 prevents propolization by the use of 

 iaalm-soap. 



Mr. J. H. M. Cook, who had passed 

 the months of January and February 

 upon the estates of Senor Cassanova, 

 in Cuba, gave an account of the same. 

 A practical bee-keeper in Cuba, or 

 elsewhere, will follow, as his highest 

 guide, the forms and methods of 

 nature in caring for and managing 

 them properly. It was a singular 

 experience for him to see bees gather- 

 ing honey in mid-winter; but he had 

 proved that bees do not cease labor 

 for any cause other than is derived 

 from the climate. In Cuba they 

 gather honey every day. The prin- 

 cipal honey-plant there is the morn- 

 ing-glory, and its honey is good. On 

 Senor Cassanova's estate there were 

 300 colonies employed at the time of 

 Mr. Cook's visit, and their production 

 was 18 tierces, equivalent to 1.320 

 pounds of honey each, or an aggre- 

 gate out-put in January and February 

 of 23,760 pounds. In his own busi- 

 ness, which involved 100 colonies, 

 near Montclair, N. J., Mr. Cook used 

 the method of reversing frames ; and 

 for the protection of his bees, he lie- 

 lieved in the enameled cloth next to 

 them, and chaff upon that; for thus 

 the condensation of the air is i)re- 

 vented,the bees are dry, and ttifir 

 hives continue warm. 



Prof. Kroch was in accord with Mr. 

 Cook, and said : The water from tlie 

 air will condense only on cold sur- 

 faces; if you have no cold surface, 

 there will be no condensation. The 

 cushion — be it of chaff or other 

 material over the enameled chith, 

 keeps the heat from escaping. If an 

 apiarist puts porous cloth, instead of 

 enameled, next to the bees, he will 

 find that he has gone contrary to the 

 law of nature, because they will make 

 it impervious to air by varnishing its 

 entire surface ; while to the enameled 

 cloth they will do nothing except 

 about the edges. This would seem 

 to indicate that the air-tight covering 

 is the proper thing. 



Mrs. Dr. Mason gave her 25 years' 

 experience. She started out with 

 brown bees, but had so changed the 

 character ot her colonies that now 

 they were Italian, or what might be 

 called grades, produced by crossing 

 pure Italians with the Germans. She 

 did not believe in disturbing bees by 

 noises or alarms, or by opening their 

 hives unnecessarily. She had no 

 difficulty in bringing them back when 

 they wandered, but she was particular 

 about so treating them as to leave no 

 desire to wander. 



