582 



THE AMERICA]^ BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal 



Wintering Bees. 



MR. pond's question answered and 



ONE OF MR. CLARKE'S POINTS 

 CONTROVERTED. 



ALLEN PKINGLE. 



On page 524, Mr. Pond asks, '• Can 

 any one give me a logical and scien- 

 tific reason why a strong colony of 

 bees should winter with greater safety 

 on a set of frames from \-2 to 1-5 inches 

 deep, than on a set which are only 9}^ 

 inches deep i"' in the answer to this, 

 Mr. P. says that he does not want 

 theories. 1 will endeavor to answer 

 his question with facts and the rea- 

 sons for them. 



In my apiary I use three sizes of 

 frames, viz : \2%xVZ^4, inside meas- 

 urement; 12}| deep by 10^ wide, and 

 9 deep by 12i,£ wide. Other things 

 being equal, the bees winter better on 

 the deep than shallow frames, for this 

 reason : They will not store much 

 honey in the top of a shallow frame, 

 not nearly so much as in the top of a 

 deep frame. In the shallow frame— 

 the brood-nest will extend nearly to 

 the top of the frame, thus leaving but 

 little room for honey. The conse- 

 quence is, that when the colony clus- 

 ters for the winter upon frames Ifi 

 inches apart from centre to centre 

 (and they ought not to be less than 

 that in winter), there will be but a 

 small portion of their winter stores 

 above them where it ought to be. I 

 will not stop here to prove that the 

 winter stores ought to be mostly 

 above the bees, but simply postulate 

 it as the proposition will, I presume, 

 not be disputed, being so obvious that 

 it is generally conceded. 



Now, in the case of shallow frames 

 i^i or 2 inches apart, the cluster of 

 bees 6 to 7 inches in diameter, would 

 only occupy 3 or 4 frames ; and the 

 amount of honey stored in these is 

 utterly inadequate to support a colony 

 through the winter, especially in a 

 low temperature. They would have 

 to depend upon a lateral supply which 

 would be quite inaccessible in a low 

 temperature. I do winter bees on 

 such frames successfully, but not in 

 the same conditions otherwise as in 

 the case of those on deep frames. 

 The former must be kept warmer so 

 that they can shift about for their 

 food. In a low temperature they will 

 starve to death when the upper 

 stores are gone, though they mav 

 have plenty of the "collateral" to 

 " back them up,'" at their sides. On 

 the other hand, in the case of deep 

 frames, there will be sufficient honey 

 stored above the bees, in connection 

 with that in the two frames imme- 

 diately on either side of the cluster, 

 to winter a colonv inside or out. This, 

 I know to be a fact from long experi- 

 ence. 



Before the winter supplies are stored 

 in the hives, the frames upon which 

 it is intended to winter the bees, 

 should be spread apart at least l^j 

 inches from centre to centre. This 

 gives room for a wide comb of honey 

 in the top of eacli frame, and also 



gives more room and convenience for 

 the cluster beneath. This is a very im- 

 portant matter in successful winter- 

 ing, and will amply repav the bee- 

 keeper who attends to it. 



In the month of August, during the 

 last good honey flow, I always begin 

 to prepare my bees for winter by 

 spreading the frames after extracting, 

 so that a good, thick comb of honey 

 can be stored and capped in each 

 frame. If there are frames with 

 clover honey which I wish to leave 

 for winter, I uncap one or both sides 

 as may be required, spread them out, 

 and the bees will attend to the rest. 



In elucidating his " hibernation 

 theory," Mr. Clarke says: '-Give 

 bees a chance to hibernate, and they 

 will winter well. To do this, I firmly 

 believe that we must get them up off 

 of the ground." Xow, if Mr. Clarke 

 means by this that bees will not win- 

 ter well on the ground, he is certainly 

 mistaken ; and if the fact that they 

 will winter well, flat on the ground in 

 this cold climate, must spoil the hiber- 

 nating liypothesis, then the hibernat- 

 ing hypothesis must be spoiled. 



I have been in the habit, more or 

 less, of wintering bees on the ground. 

 Last winter I had 7 colonies outside, 

 flat on the ground all winter, and they 

 came out in good condition. 1 am, 

 however, inclined to think that there 

 is, after all, some truth in this " new- 

 fangled notion " which Mr. Clarke 

 has, with great nocturnal travail, 

 brought forth. I think bees do exist, 

 a part of the time during winter, in a 

 sort of semi-torpid state, though not 

 so far gone into " the land of nod " as 

 to be hibernating, in the proper sense 

 of that word. Bees which I liave 

 wintering in the cellar, I have found 

 betimes, in a slumber so profound 

 that several pretty hard knocks on the 

 hive failed to bring a response, and 

 when the covering was lifted and the 

 light entered, they showed even then 

 in response to a blast of breath blowed 

 upon them, little sign of life, and less 

 disposition to move. Still, it would 

 be rather too much philological lati- 

 tudinarianism to say they were 

 " hibernating." 



Albeit, there is another apicultural 

 gentleman somewhere in the northern 

 latitudes who can beat Mr. Clarke all 

 hollow in the hibernating idea. At 

 the annual meeting of the Ontario 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, held in 

 Toronto a year ago last fall, the afore- 

 said gentleman gravely related to the 

 meeting how a neighbor of his had 

 •' taken up " a hive of bees in the fall, 

 after the old plan ; and after the bees 

 had fallen into the hole in the earth 

 prepared for them, and completely 

 asphyxiated from the fumes of the 

 sulphur, the earth was filled in upon 

 them, and I think he said " tramped 

 down." In the spring they were dug 

 up ( whether by accident or design I do 

 not remember), and the redoubtable 

 little fellows were found to be not 

 only alive and smart, but in excellent 

 health and spirits. The gentleman 

 added (as a legitimate corollary of 

 this fact, of course) that the plaii of 

 winteriug bees after this cheap and 

 convenient fashion was well worth 

 considering. Our enterprising Air. D. 



A. Jones said, with dry humor, that 

 he would be quite willing to pay $.500 

 for a queen that would produce bees 

 like that. 

 Selby, Ont. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



Do Bees Make Honey or Gather It? 



W. H. SHIRLEY. 



I have always thought that bees 

 gather honey from flowers just as 

 nature furnished it. with but little 

 change ; and that when bees so gath- 

 ered it from the flowers and stored it 

 in the combs, and when man took this 

 same substance from the bees in the 

 form of comb honey, or extracted it, 

 we had honey in all its native purity. 

 Such honey I have sold for the past 

 ten years with a SoOO guaranty of 

 purity, if one poimd of the honey 

 sent out by me was not just as left by 

 the bees, and as gathered by them from 

 the flowers. 



In the fifth paragraph of Mr. Jerome 

 Twichell's circular, a copy of which 

 is found on page .);^2, he says that it 

 must be admitted that bees gather 

 honey from a number of flowers, " or 

 from the sugar and glucose barrels 

 found around grocery stores;" and 

 then says that it all becomes honey, 

 that bees cleanse and purify glucose 

 so that it is not injurious but undesir- 

 able to eat on account of its flavor. 

 Take 4 pounds of glucose and 1 pound 

 of honey, mix them and then see if 

 you do not have all the honey-flavor 

 one could ask for. Farther, Mr. T. 

 says that bees will store but J^ of a 

 pound of honey from 1 pound of sugar 

 or glucose. I succeeded in obtaining 

 three-fifths of a pound of comb honey 

 from one pound of extracted, this sea- 

 son, and I know of several bee- 

 keepers who claim that they can get 

 back four-fifths of a pound. Let us 

 calculate a little. I think glucose can 

 be bought for from 3 to -5 cents per 

 pound, according to the price of corn ; 

 good extracted honey can be had for 

 10 cents per pound ; now take 12 

 pounds of glucose, 3 pounds of honey, 

 and you will have 1.5 pounds of glu- 

 cose, honey, flavor and all at a cost of 

 90 cents. From this you can get 9 

 pounds of glucose-honey in the comb, 

 which will bring 17 cents per pound, 

 or SI. -53, leaving a clear profit of 63 

 cents on an investment of 90 cents. 

 Glucose manufacturers had better 

 look this matter up, and if glucose 

 becomes honey after being stored bv 

 the bees, my w-ord for it that we bee'- 

 keepers who depend upon the flowers 

 of nature for our honey will have to 

 succumb to the glucose manufac- 

 turers. 



Granulated sugar, at present prices, 

 figures out about the same profit. 

 For instance : Ten pounds of sugar 

 at 7J^ cents per pound amounts to 75 

 cents ; 7 pounds of honey at 10 cents 

 per pound amounts to 70 cents ; to 

 this add 3 pounds of water and we 

 have 20 pounds of sugar-honey at a 

 cost of $1.4.5. From this we can get 

 15 pounds of comb sugar-honey which 

 will bring $2.-55, or a net profit of $1.10. 

 The cost of foundation and sections 



