340 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Winter Ventilation.— Herr Hilbert, 

 at the Austro-German Congress, pro- 

 posed to discuss tlie following ques- 

 tion : " Is the normal wintering of 

 bees viewed from the present stand- 

 point of Apistic Science still wortliy 

 1 the name of a masterpiece on the part 

 of the bee-culturist, and what points 

 are necessary to successsful winter- 

 ing V" He gave his views in about 

 the following language : 



Thus far wintering has always been 

 considered a sort of a masterpiece on 

 the part of the bee-culturist. This 

 very important question has already 

 been sharply discussed and explained. 

 The present treatment of it is to em- 

 brace only the strictly practical part 

 of the question, and divide it into two 

 portions : the preparation for winter- 

 ing and the wintering itself. The 

 preparation necessary to success in 

 wintering must embrace attention to 

 the following seven points : Construc- 

 tion of the hive ; strength of the 

 colony, with age of the bees ; age and 

 vigor of the queen ; peculiarities of 

 the race ; quantity and quality of the 

 stores for food ; the proper completion 

 of the preparation for winter at the 

 right time, and, lastly, the location of 

 the hives. 



That a great deal depends upon the 

 proper construction of the hive, every 

 one will certainly admit. We have a 

 great variety of quite suitable bee- 

 hives, yet not every form is adapted 

 to each locality and each climate. A 

 hive is good to winter in when the 

 brood chamber (the proper winter 

 nest of the bees) retains the heat well, 

 so that no frost can accumulate on 

 the inner surface or on the combs. 

 Second, the winter nest must be 

 roomy enough so that it can accommo- 

 date sufficient winter stores and so 

 constructed that the bees can easily 

 reach these stores. How many colo- 

 nies starve with full combs V I put 

 little stress upon the position of the 

 entrance ; my preference, however, is 

 for a hive which has an entrance at 

 the bottom and also one above the 

 middle of the brood room, that is, the 

 winter nest. Suitable ventilation is 

 an important consideration. In tliis 

 direction Baron Berlepsch has caused 

 much misfortune ; he attaclied not 

 the least importance to ventilation, 

 indeed he even advised the careful 

 filling up of every little crevice. Since 

 I have arranged for proper ventila- 

 tion I winter with scarcely any loss. 



Only colonies with a large propor- 

 tion of young bees are to be wintered. 

 No race contracts its brood-space as 

 early as does the Italian. We must 

 therefore look to hybridizing. In or- 

 der to obtain yoiing bees, liberal 

 speculative feeding is to be recom- 

 mended for the autumn. Old queens 

 always limit their laying earlier than 

 young ones. The removal, then, of 

 all old and failing queens must be at- 

 tended to. Now we come to the 

 quantity and quality of honey. If 

 possible, no colony is to be put up for 

 winter with less than 20 pounds of 

 honey. A colony would indeed come 

 through the winter with 15 pounds, 



but since the spring weather cannot 

 be foretold, it is always better to sup- 

 ply pounds. Unsealed honey is to be 

 avoided as much as possible, likewise 

 one should guard against old, crystal- 

 lized honey ; rape honey, especially, 

 has a disposition to crystallize quick- 

 ly. If such honey be found it is best 

 to take it out, melt it up, and feed it 

 back, yet this proceedinor must take 

 place early enough to give the bees 

 time to seal over the honey. 



As the last point to consider : the 

 location of the hives. In order to 

 keep the bees in tlieir winter rest, all 

 disturbing influences, as drafts of air, 

 very warm sunshine, birds, mice, the 

 rattle of wagons, and all other noises, 

 should be kept from them. Besides, 

 tlie bee-keeper must not disturb the 

 bees for the purpose of finding out 

 what his pets are doing. A light, 

 continued buzzing betokens that 

 everything is right, a sharp tone indi- 

 cates a lack of warmth, discontent, 

 too great warmtli, need of air or wa- 

 ter, while a moaning sound tells of 

 qneenlessness. 



He who carefully observes all the 

 stated points will winter his bees 

 well. This much is settled ; the whole 

 of wintering is no master-piece. 



Behind tlie Times.— The Home and 



Science Gossip says : 



Keeping bees in the old box hive is 

 entirely out of date, and the sooner 

 it is abandoned the better. The diffi- 

 culty with it is that you cannot regu- 

 late the internal economy of a colony, 

 but must leave the bees to do pretty 

 much as they please. Bees need man- 

 agement, the same as cattle, poultry, 

 sheep, hogs, or any other kind of 

 farm stock. 



Bee Management. — The Indiana 

 Farmer gives the following as its 

 views on this subject: 



While it is true, careful manage- 

 ment will cure nearly all cross bees, 

 it is also a fact that careless'Tiandling 

 will make the most gentle colony 

 vicious and cross. It is a part of the 

 nature of bees to gorge themselves 

 with honey when alarmed, and while 

 in this condition they rarely sting 

 without some great aggravation. 

 During the honey harvest the bees 

 are more or less filled with honey all 

 the time, consequently they are less 

 liable to sting at this season of the 

 year. We seldom use smoke on the 

 bees without first testing their tem- 

 per, by raising one corner of the cloth 

 covering the frames. We may go 

 through the entire apiary examining 

 every colony without having to resort 

 to the use of smoke. Still, it is best 

 to have the smoker going and setting 

 handy, so as to luive it, should the oc- 

 casion occur for its use by tlie drop- 

 ping of a frame or the mashing of bees 

 by careless handling of them. 



With the use of the many improve- 

 ments in bee-keeping in botli knowl- 

 edge and implements, the success of 

 the bee-keeper to- day depends alone 

 on that over whicli he has no control, 

 viz., atmospheric conditions. With 



our knowledge of their wants and na- 

 ture, assisted by the movable frames, 

 we are able to build them up into 

 strong colonies. With the use of 

 foundation, we can give them mate- 

 rial for combs, without taking the 

 time, or stores gathered for its con- 

 struction. With the use of the ex- 

 tractor we can empty tlieir combs 

 without damage, to be replaced and 

 refilled. And we believe, by judi- 

 cious planting, we will soon be able 

 to produce a flora which will not en- 

 tirely fail, let the weather, atmos- 

 pheric conditions, be what they may. 



Curious Statistics. — The Boston 

 Commercial Bulletin gives the follow- 

 ing : 



There are tew persons who have 

 any idea of the immense agricultural 

 and horticultural services rendered 

 by bees; but a calculation just made 

 by Rev. M. Sauppe, a great bee mas- 

 ter, of Zuckendorf, Saxony, goes far 

 to prove the utility and importance of 

 bee-culture. His calculation is that, 

 out of each of the 17,000 liives to be 

 met in Saxony, 10,000 bees fly per day 

 —equal to 170,000,000— each bee four 

 times, equal to 6SO,000,000 of flights, 

 or in 100 days equal to 68,000,000,000. 

 Each bee before flying homewards 

 visits 50 flowers, therefore the whole 

 assemblage has visited no less than 

 3,400,000,000,000 of flowers. If out of 

 ten only one flower has become fertil- 

 ized, 340,000,000,000 of fertilized flow- 

 ers would be the result. Supposing 

 the value of the fertilization of 5,000 

 flowers to be only a German pfennig 

 (one-tenth of a penny), the united 

 bees of Saxony have earned, per an- 

 num, the sum of 68,000,000 pfennigs— 

 680,000 marks, or about §170,000. Thus 

 each liive is calculated to do a na- 

 tional service to the value of $10 per 

 annum, and this they do while pay- 

 ing more than the expenses of their 

 keeping by the honey they gather. 

 Upon these figures M. Sauppe recom- 

 mends that more bees should be 

 reared and kept in Saxony, but his 

 recommendation will do for this 

 country as well. 



i^° The Chinaman's version of 

 "how doth the little busy bee im- 

 prove each shining hour," is amusing. 

 His teacher in the mission school 

 gave him for his lesson that verse, re- 

 peated it to him, and he promised to 

 remember it until the next Sabbath. 

 When he came again, in response to 

 her request, he rendered it in this 

 wise: 



" How see hjm beley [very] small sting bug 

 Go hunty sweet sting bug juice, 

 Si.Tty minutes all the day. all kinds places, 

 Lound [around] flowers just got busted." 

 ••^^^^^ 



Bee Pasturage a Necessity. — We have 

 just issued a new pamphlet giving our 

 views on this important subject, with 

 suggestions what to plant, and when 

 and how. It is illustrated with 26 en- 

 gravings, and will be sent postpaid to 

 any address for 10 cents. 



