998 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



jliitn and the disinterested assistance he has so gener- 

 ously afforded me, this publication would have been 

 ' postponed indefinitely, not to say for ever. 



WINTER PASSAGES IN COMBS NOT NECESSA- 

 RY. 



" Good evening-, Mr. Doolittle. Came 

 over this evening to have a little talk with 

 you, as the days are getting so short that I 

 did not want to hinder you during the day- 

 light. What I wish to know is whether 

 bees ever freeze or not." 



" Of course, if a single bee is exposed to 

 a freezing temperature, that bee freezes. 

 What is there to hinder? " 



" Well, that is not just what I wished to 

 know. It is like this: This morning I found 

 quite a few bees away from the main clus- 

 ter, in my hives, dead, and a neighbor tells 

 me that they were frozen to death. Was he 

 right? " 



" In reply to this question let me give you 

 a little of my experience and observation 

 during the past third of a century." 



" That's right. That is just what I want 

 you to do." 



"As fall approaches, if we minutely ex- 

 amine a colony of bees we shall find that 

 the activity manifested during the spring 

 and summer in the interior of the hive be- 

 comes less and less, so that by the middle 

 of October, in this latitude, all brood- rear- 

 ing ceases, and the bees have become par- 

 tially dormant; still, so far they have not 

 packed themselves away for winter, in a 

 snug cluster, or that compact shape in 

 which we find them later on. Every oppor- 

 tunity given by a warm day is improved to 

 void the fjeces, so the bees may be prepared 

 for a long cold spell when such occurs. As 

 the weather grows colder, the bees contract 

 their cluster, many packing themselves 

 away in the cells till the smallest possible 

 space is occupied by them, and thus the req- 

 uisite warmth is secured to keep them 

 alive when the mercury sinks below zero. 

 In this contraction of bees, at certain times 

 many of them are left singlj', or in little 

 clusters of from three, five, ten, or twenty- 

 five, which do not recede with the main 

 cluster, and thus are chilled where they 

 are; and if the weather becomes cold enough 

 they may be frozen, thus losing to the clus- 

 ter that number of bees." 



" That corresponds exactly with my 

 neighbor's talk; and he said if I would 

 make holes through the center of the combs 

 in the fall, such would obviate this trouble. 

 Is he right in this also? " 



" In this part your neighbor is but reit- 



erating the reason formerly given, which 

 was, that, owing to the movable frames, no 

 cross-sticks were used in these hives, as 

 was the case with box hives, and hence the 

 bees left no holes in the center of the combs 

 as they did around the cross-sticks, this 

 compelling the bees to pass over and around 

 combs of cold honey to keep pace with the 

 receding cluster, instead of passing through 

 the center of the combs to the next range, 

 which was more nearly filled with bees. 

 In thus passing around, many became stiff- 

 ened and were caught by the cold, which 

 might have been saved if the holes had been 

 provided in the center of the combs for them 

 to pass through." 



" Was not this a good argument? " 



"It seemed so to many, and to this end 

 some of the frame hives were provided with 

 a thick shaving of wood, bent to form a cir- 

 cle about an inch in diameter, which was 

 suspended from the top-bar by means of a 

 little strip of tin, supposing that this would 

 effectually secure a passageway for the 

 bees.'' 



" Did it not do the same? " 



" It generally did during the first season 

 when a new swarm was put in one of these 

 hives; but only a short time elapsed before 

 it became apparent that, during a good 

 yield of honey, this shaving would be filled 

 with comb and honey, and hence the pas- 

 sageways were cut off- Finding this to be 

 the case, the practice of cutting holes 

 through the combs each fall, by various 

 means, was resorted to, only to be filled up 

 the following summer, when, as winter ap- 

 proached, the process had to be repeated." 



" Did you try these plans? " 



" Most assuredly I did, and believed I 

 was doing the right thing; but after trying 

 all of them it soon became apparent to me 

 that the reason assigned as the cause of the 

 death of the bees was not the real trouble, 

 for I found, after repeated examinations, 

 that bees would stay and die within half 

 an inch of these holes, when it would ap- 

 pear that they could pass through these 

 passages just as well as not; and in some 

 instances they would stay and die right in 

 and on the very edge of these holes." 



" That was strange, certainly'." 



" Yes. And I also discovered that, when 

 the weather was cloud3', cool, and rainy 

 for several weeks before it became severely 

 cold, this loss was apparently much greater 

 than when a clear warm day occurred im- 

 mediately befjre a severe cold spell." 



" Why should this be so? " 



" By the number of bees that were found 

 on boards, the edges of the hives, fences, 

 etc., dull and stupid, after such a fine day, 

 I concluded that these were the same bees 

 that would have been found dead by not 

 following the cluster, had not a warm day 

 occurred for them to leave the hive to die; 

 hence I said that the loss was apparently 

 greater when no such day occurred, for many 

 more bees were seen outside the cluster dead, 

 as they had no chance to goout of the hi veto die. 

 Since then I have watched very closely, and 



