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QEORQE W. YORK, Editor. 



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39th YEAR, 



CHICAGO, ILL, MARCH 9, 1899, 



No, 10, 



Influence of Locality on Bee-Management. 



BY ADRIAN GKTAZ. 



THIS title sounds somewhat like a joke. A few years 

 agfo, when something; happened that was not fully un- 

 derstood, it was customary to attribute it to the " strain 

 of bees ;" later on, the accusation was made against the 

 " locality." Nevertheless, it is true that the locality, or 

 rather the climate, the length and character of the honey- 

 flow, and several other circumstances, including the meth- 

 ods of management and the awkwardness of the keeper, 

 play an important part in the results obtained. 



WINTERING BKES. 



Among the periodical articles that appear regularly 

 every year or so in the different bee-papers, is one by Mr. 

 Doolittle, to the effect that the bees dying in small groups 

 outside of the main cluster, during the winter, are old bees 

 which went off for the purpose of dying. This statement 

 has often been denied, and many have said that the bees 

 thus found were those unable to reach the main cluster in 

 time, and simply died of cold. 



My own experience is in accordance with this la.st point 

 of view. I frequently find small clusters of bees between 

 the outside combs, that have evidently died of cold because 

 the main cluster beyond has receded and thus withdrawn its 

 warmth. Or, sometimes they have eaten what honey was 

 around them, and on account of a too low temperature 

 failed to go aroutid the combs and reach another part of the 

 cluster or of the honey. 



Mr. Doolittle is a very careful observer, and his state- 

 ments are always correct, or practically so. In this case 

 the difference of opinion can very easily be accounted for. 

 Doolittle winters his bees in a cellar, or rather a repository, 

 in which the temperature remains at about 40 degrees dur- 

 ing the whole winter. The inside of the hives outside of 

 the cluster must be higher by a few degrees. Under such 

 circumstances (shall I say " locality ?") I think tho.se of the 

 bees that may be separated from the main cluster, or get 

 out of stores, can crawl around the combs and reach a bet- 

 ter place. 



In my " locality " the case is altogether different. I 

 winter my bees outside. The climate during the winter is 

 very variable. To-day the bees may fly freely. A cold 

 wave comes, and in 24 or 36 hours the mercury may drop 

 away below the freezing-point, if not below zero. What 

 are the consequences ? During the warm days the cluster of 

 bees expands considerably, they fly out freely, and when 

 the night comes they occupy the spaces between several 

 combs. When the cold comes, the different parts of the 

 cluster contract, and those numerous enough can keep 



warm easily, but the smaller portions between the outside 

 combs cannot, and before long the weather is too cold to 

 permit them to go around the combs and rejoin the main 

 cluster. I think that some passage-ways through the combs 

 would help them greatly in such cases, and I am going this 

 year to try some arrangement of that sort. 



STIMULATIVE FEEDING OF BEES. 



This is another of Mr. Doolittle's periodical subjects. 

 He objects to it. And let me say here that on this point 

 Doolittle has often been misunderstood, or misquoted. 

 Many times it has been said that Doolittle is not in favor of 

 feeding. Thafs wrong. Doolittle says positively that un- 

 less there is plenty of stores in the hive, the bees will not 

 breed freely, and if there is not plenty all the time, feeding 



Adn 



Ccfaz. 



must be done. He calls plenty the equivalent of two combs 

 of honey. 



What Mr. Doolittle objects to is the feeding of a small 

 quantity of honey every day, or every night for the purpose 

 of stimulating brood-rearing. On the other hand, quite a 

 number of our best honey-producers practice successfully 

 that kind of feeding. 



This is a question not of " locality " but of manage- 



