154 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



contents of the closed hive looked 

 like being boiled when opened a short 

 time after. But that with an open 

 entrance, a colony should perish or 

 even suffer, on account of being too 

 warm, I flatly deny, and declare it to 

 be an impossibility. If, for instance, 

 the entrance has been closed during 

 transportation, on opening the same a 

 part of the bees will come forth im- 

 mediately and commence to ventilate 

 to expel the warm and vitiated air, 

 and in a little while the colony will be 

 quiet again. But if ventilation is of 

 no avail on account of the whole at- 

 mosphere having a high temperature, 

 then the bees will leave the hive and 

 cluster outside, which we may observe 

 quite frequently on sultry days in 

 summer ; this outside clustering we 

 may even observe in winter, by put- 

 ting bees in a very warm room. In 

 1846, when my whole apiary of 60 

 colonies and many empty hives were 

 destroyed by lire, I had a chance to 

 observe the conduct of bees in a heat 

 which was unbearable to man. They 

 would leave the hive in larger and 

 larger numbers on tlie approach of 

 the lire and heat to their hives, but 

 clustered quietly on tlie outside until 

 devoured by the merciless element, 

 by which it appears that bees very 

 well know how to rid themselves of 

 heat in the hive as long as the 

 entrance is open, and are not quite as 

 stupid as Dr. Krasicki wants us to 

 believe. 



But does Dr. Krasicki furnish us 

 no proof for his theories V Certainly, 

 but on closer examination they prove 

 too weak to support his cause. Here 

 he mentions a colony in a log g"m 

 with a door which had come off, still 

 the bees, though entirely exposed, 

 withstood a very severe winter ; there 

 another colony m a hollow tree with a 

 very large entrance had existed for 

 several years. Wliy, that is nothing 

 extraordinary and proves nothing. I 

 have had similar cases happen to me, 

 and reported them. Just think, tlie 

 bees clustered in a compact mass in 

 the center of theirnestand the combs 

 around them all covered with hoar 

 frost, which, being a very poor con- 

 ductor of heat, acts as a very good 

 envelope, preventing the escape of 

 heat, like a lieavy featlier bed. As 

 long as bees can get to honey, they 

 are able to withstand the severest cold 

 weather, may the hive be open or 

 closed. In fact, an open door or large 

 entrance is preferred, as in that case 

 they are supplied with fresh air more 

 readily than by having an air-tight 

 door and a small entrance perhiips 

 nearly closed by frost and snow. 



How the interiors of hives look 

 after a protracted cold I had occasion 

 to observe in the winter of 1845. From 

 the beginning of February until 

 Easter, we had the severest winter 

 known for a long time, witliout any 

 interuption, and 1 had to take many a 

 heavy and well protected colony into 

 a warm room to save what could be 

 saved. On opening sucli liives, I 

 found them almost a solid lump of 

 snow and ice, looking more like an 

 ice house than a bee hive. If bees do 

 not winter well in well-protected 

 hives, the cause is certainly not in 



having had too warm winter quarters, 

 but most likely on account of not hav- 

 ing had proper ventilation to carry 

 off the vitiated air and noxious gasses, 

 or for want of water to quench their 

 thirst. A.s long as the atmosphere is 

 not heated to a degree as high as it 

 attains sometimes about the Red Sea, 

 which is with us no natural phenome- 

 non, excess of it cannot be taken into 

 consideration in our latitudes. It is 

 my conviction that the average tem- 

 perature which the bees enjoy during 

 tlieir working season, which is from 

 1.5'-' to 20'= (66° to Ve'^Fahr.) is most 

 conducive to their well-being in winter 

 also, as in that case they would per- 

 haps consume less than in severe 

 winter weather, when, to keep up the 

 necessary temperature, they have to 

 consume more honey. To protect 

 them from cold, their worst enemy, 

 should always be our point in view, in 

 doing which we will prevent an ex- 

 cessive consumption of stores, which 

 is certainly to our own as well as their 

 interest. 

 Karlsmarkt, Germany, Nov. 23, 1881 



sthSS^[MMM 



Increase and Prospects.— I have 25 

 colonies of bees, and am working 25 

 more for my neighbors; have ex- 

 amined them and find all doing well, 

 with plenty of sealed honey, and think 

 all will winter safely. I expect to 

 work my home apiary for section 

 honey, as I can And sale for comb 

 honey when I cannot extracted. I 

 have trouble to obtain straight combs 

 without separators; am like Mr. Doo- 

 little, do not like comb foundation in 

 sections, unless I could obtain a better 

 kind than I have had. Last season 

 was a poor one for surplus, but the 

 early part was splendid for building 

 up. I made 11 colonies from 2, which 

 were very weak in the spring, one 

 having no more than 1 quart of liees, 

 besides I reared all my queens from 

 the same two colonies. White clover 

 was a comi)lete failure as to honey, 

 but after the fall rains we had a 

 splendid fall harvest for the bees, but 

 not much sm-plus. Golden rod yielded, 

 I think, the principal part. We are 

 getting paid back for our drouth last 

 summer, with compound interest, for 

 it rains almost without ceasing. We 

 liave had an exceedingly warm winter 

 to date, the thermometer reached as 

 low as 14° above zero on the 24th of 

 January, that being the coldest we 

 have had, while Mr. Doolittle, of New 

 York, writes Jan. 24th, 26° below. 

 What a difference in a few Innidred 

 miles. I have 2 acres of melilot or 

 sweet clover, sown last spring, which 

 looks i)romising. I will report results 

 next fall. I measured one single root, 

 pulled up, which measured 20 inches 

 in length. Drouth surely will not 

 affect it much. White clover looks 

 well and has been green all winter. 

 A. W. Stith. 



Demossville, Ky., Feb. 17. 1882. 



Undersized Bees.— On page 92 of the 

 Bee Jouunal for Feb. 8, there is an 

 item from Mr. Mallory in regard to 

 undersized bees. If 1 rightly under- 

 stand the statement, he means that 

 those small bees hatched in 15 days 

 after the brood was given to the 

 colonies. ' He also states that it was 

 thought a high temperature matured 

 the bees early. Now, it is a plain 

 case that they were not "mature" 

 bees, but forced, imperfect, immature 

 bees, and what were the queens, reared 

 by such an artiflcial, forcing process, 

 the full sisters of these same lively 

 little workers which lived only a few 

 days? I do not make the sweeping 

 assertion, as others have done, that 

 they are all worthless; but I do most 

 positively say, that the majority of 

 queens so reared will not give satisfac- 

 tion, and will be short-lived. But 

 scores of bee-keepers are practicing 

 this method of queen-rearing, and 

 sending them broadcast over the 

 country, is it any wonder that the 

 cheap queen business is falling into 

 disrepute. Although we may differ 

 in opinion as to how to produce the 

 best queens, let us be very careful 

 and sure of what we are sending to 

 our customers, and "do unto others 

 as you would have others do unto 

 youj" by sending out only such queens 

 as we would be willing to introduce to 

 our own colonies. Jonas Scholl. 



Lyons Station, Ind. 



A Prospect. — We have had some 

 rain herein the last month, and have 

 hopes of getting honey yet; still the 

 prospect is not very good at my place. 

 The rainfall has been 6I4 inches this 

 winter ; 16 inches is our average for 

 this country. G. E. Pleasants. 



Anaheim, Cal., Feb. 20, 1882. 



Bees in Excellent Condition.— It be- 

 ing warm yesterday, my bees had a 

 good flight. Upon examination, I 

 found that they had brood in a space 

 as large over as my hand. They are 

 in the best condition I ever had them 

 at tins season. I think these points 

 are necessary in wintering, viz : a good, 

 fertile queen, plenty of young bees, 

 plenty of sealed honey without much 

 pollen, and to keen them dry. 



Thomas Chantry. 



Casey, Iowa, Feb. 27, 1882. 



Mnch Food Consumed.— Thus far the 



winter has been very mild, and bees 

 have a good fly every week or ten days 

 at farthest: They have consumed a 

 good deal of their stores, and many 

 will have to be fed to enable them to 

 see the next honey season. B. G. C. 

 Trumbull county, O., Feb. 25, 1882. 



Wintering Nicely.— Yesterday and 

 to-day our bees had a good flight. 

 Colonies taken up and fed with sugar 

 syrup last fall are wintering with the 

 loss of but few bees, and do not mark 

 tlie snow with excreta like others with 

 natural stores and plenty of pollen. 

 We lost one nucleus with a pint of 

 bees, having 6 frames. If confined to 

 2 frames they would probably have 

 survived. W. H. Stout. 



Pine Grove, Pa., Feb. 15, 1882. 



