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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Criticisms from Bruce, Ontario. 



J. ANDERSON. 



The articles written by some of the 

 Bee Journal correspondents show 

 that the writers have niucli yet to 

 learn connected with bee-keeping; 

 while others clearly demonstrate that 

 their authors are no mere novices. 



Theie can be no good reason wliy 

 bees shoidd die, as last season, where 

 the winter is only of eight or ten 

 weeks' duration. Xothing but in- 

 judicious and improper treatment 

 could cause their destruction in such 

 localities. If men, for the sake of 

 adding a little more to the gains of 

 the season, rob their bees of the good 

 and wholesome food which nature 

 teaches them to store up for the 

 stormv dav, and then scantily supply 

 them "with that wliich is unwhole- 

 some, or if they deprive them of the 

 full amount of heat so essential for 

 the cold nightsof winter, by an undue 

 number of swarms and divisions the 

 previous season, or by boring holes in 

 their boxes, or scraping away the 

 plaster bv which the little things so 

 industriou,sly exclude the cold air 

 from their combs, without supplying 

 them with substitutes, then it is but 

 just that such persons should Hnd out 

 "that nature is wiser than men. and 

 that their imaginary gains are but 

 real losses. 



I seldom lose a colony during the 

 first three months of winter's con- 

 finement. Of course. I winter within 

 doors. I have found out by hard ex- 

 perience, that outside wintering will 

 never do where the winter is severe 

 and long.andtlie elements changeal)le, 

 as in Bruce. Any losses worth notic- 

 ing, whieli I sustain, occur about the 

 end of confinement; after the bees 

 are shut up without liglit or liberty 

 for about five months, as they were 

 last winter ; nor do such losses occur 

 tlirough any disease among the bees, 

 but simply for want of food. Some 

 bees consume far more food than 

 others; and it is difficult, indeed im- 

 possible to test, on this point, before 

 winter, the progeny of young queens, 

 so as to know the gluttons from those 

 more sparing of tli."ir winter supplies. 

 I have had some colonies w'hich con- 

 sumed between GO and 70 pounds of 

 food during winter, and died of want ; 

 while others, about the same strength, 

 wintered well aside them without con- 

 suming a quarter of that amount. 

 >rot a single tear was shed over the 

 grave of those gluttons. 



I highly value and largely indorse, 

 the able and interesting articles which 

 recently appeared in' the -Journal 

 from the ready i)ens of Messrs Dadaul 

 and Heddon : but would not, on any 

 account, adojit all their views. To ex"- 

 cbide pollen from the bees during a 

 long winter would, in my humble 



judgment, cause their ruin. It is 

 true I may be mistaken, as I never 

 tested it, but the opposite I have 

 tested to my entire satisfaction. I 

 have been the keeper of bees for 30 

 years, and for half that period it lias 

 been my uniform practice to follow 

 the bees' own habits, and place frames 

 with bee-bread within reach of the 

 bees during their winter imprison- 

 ment. Now, I flattermyself with the 

 idea that my bees always winter well ; 

 so well, that I find but few dead bees 

 in many of my hives when taken out ; 

 not a cupful in some of them ; so I 

 have no more fears that my bees will 

 die in winter, than that uiy horse or 

 cow will die. These will certainly die, 

 if not properly attended to, and so 

 will my bees. They must be attended 

 i to at the right time. This success in 

 I wintering is reached by little and lit- 

 tle. Experience will teach the iiiteli- 

 gent bee-keeper that the same iden- 

 tical practice will not secure perfect 

 success in all kinds of winter recepta- 

 cles, and that, while general principles 

 are never to be violated, yet in numer- 

 ous details, the apiarist must largely 

 draw upon his judgment and experi- 

 ence, according to circumstances and 

 the state of his bees. One essential 

 principle in wintering is, to keep the 

 bees still. Excitement or restlesss- 

 ness is sure to cause diarrhea, and, 

 finally, death. This restlessness may 

 be caused by the want or loss of a 

 queen, by too much heat or cold, by 

 unhealthy food or scarcity of food, or 

 by dampness, or any external disturb- 

 ance. A flight in winter is unneces- 

 sary ; for it does more harm than 

 good, when the bees are wintering 

 well. Some seem to have an impres- 

 sion that healthy bees retain in their 

 intestines all the food they consume 

 during their confinement. "But this is 

 not the case ; when bees winter well, 

 they discharge their feces very freely, 

 but what they pass is as hard as wax. 

 In the numerous reports of winter 

 losses, given last season in the Jour- 

 nal, spring losses, or spring dwind- 

 ling, was not given. This oversight 

 is a misfortune, for spring dwind- 

 ling is as great an evil as winter 

 losses, and tlie one as difficult to over- 

 come as the other. If our colonies are 

 not strong, in the beginning of sum- 

 mer, when the blossoms appear, then 

 our honey harvest will be a failure 

 that season, especially in localities 

 where fall blossoms are scarce. How 

 is this common evil then to be met, is 

 a question of vast importance to 

 many ':' Numerous remedies are, of 

 couise, proposed ; but many of them 

 are worthless. Late fall breeding is 

 good as far as it goes, but early spring 

 breeding, in my experience, is' far l)et- 

 ter. If young bees are hatching in 

 large numbers, just when the hives 

 are put on tlieir summer stands : then 

 there will be no fear of spring dwind- 

 ling. But how is this early breeding 

 to be produced without an "undue ex- 

 citement of the bees? Can any one 

 tell 'i Soinetinies I have had the 

 pleasure of witnessing it without any 

 elfort on my part to )Hoduee it. 

 Where bees have plenty of good honey 

 and pollen during their eonlinemeut. 

 and are wintering well, breeding will 



be commenced before the bees can 

 with safety be put on their summer 

 stands. Deprive the bees of their 

 pollen, and this would be impossible. 

 When I took out my bees last spring 

 (April 10th) I found, to my pleasure, 

 that about as many young bees were 

 hatched as there were dead in the 

 hives, and as large numbers were 

 hatching every day, dwindling was 

 not iierceptible. I ain not prepared to 

 say that there is more dwindling in 

 spring than in summer or fall. I 

 know, we readily speak of the age of 

 bees, and fix the number of their 

 busy days ; but are we certain that we 

 are correct 'i Does not excessive labor 

 make a bee old ';* Old age is not the 

 only thing that destroys bees. The 

 bees that 1 winter do but little work, 

 as our fall blossoms are but scant, 

 and the bees having plenty of food in 

 their hives, do not expose themselves 

 very much in search of those flowers; 

 they can, therefore, do a large amount 

 of work in spring, after their. 5 months 

 rest. Of this 1 am satisfied, that a 

 large number of the same identical 

 bees that occupy my liives in Septem- 

 ber may exist and actively labor in 

 .June the following year, perhaps 

 longer. This I have frequently proven 

 by colonies that lost their queens 

 early in spring, when I had none to 

 give them. Let a strong colony be 

 left without brood or queen when 

 honey is abundant in the fields, and 

 then we shall witness a greater dwind- 

 ling than anything we ever experi- 

 enced in spring. The grand remedy 

 then for spring dwindling, or rather 

 its preventive, is early breeding, 

 together with prolific queens. To 

 have early breeding we must have 

 plenty of pollen in our hives, and to 

 have prolific queens we must learn to 

 distinguish such queens from those 

 that are worthless, and should never 

 be wintered. 



In drawing my remarks to a close — 

 which I fear are already too lengthy- 

 let us have a word or two connected 

 with the stings of bees. How differ- 

 ent the effects produced by the small 

 drop of poison attached to these fine 

 weapons ! Some men care nothing 

 for it. and I have the fortune to be 

 of that favored class. Bee stings 

 never trouble me, though scores of 

 them get to my blood at once, conse- 

 quently I use smoke but very seldom. 

 If my bees make an attack upon me— 

 well, let them do so ; for I have beeil 

 in the fault. Something occurred 

 that might have been prevented; and 

 by their sharp weapons they teach me 

 to lie more careful in my next visit to 

 their home. But all are not of this 

 class; some have a fearful dread of 

 bees, and can only approach a hive 

 with trembling, as they know the 

 sting pains and disfigures them. 

 ]5ut there is still a third class of 

 liersoiis who have a greater reason to 

 be afraid than those last alluded to, 

 for tlie effects produced on them by a 

 single bee sting are most serimis and 

 alarming. The eyes become bloody, 

 suffocation is experienced, coughing 

 is produced, vomiting sets in. the 

 whole body becomes covered with 

 large blisters, and the whole circula- 

 tion of the blood is interrupted. All 



