THE AM£RIGAI< BEE JUUBNAL. 



695 



taken one swarm and 101 pounds of 

 comb honey from one hive. This is 

 extraordinary. 



But why all this nonsensical bosh 

 about the difference between Linden 

 and Basswood honey V Is it not born 

 of jealousy, nurtured in contention, 

 and reared in envy and discord ? Its 

 assumption is certainly useless, sense- 

 less, and entirely worthless !— Ed.] 



Practical Farmer. 



The Great Wintering Prolileii]. 



DR. W. G. PHELPS. 



This question is again before us, 

 and in spite of the assertion by one 

 and another that it is no problem to 

 them, that they feel perfectly safe in 

 wintering their bees, the question 

 comes to many of us with a good deal 

 of force. How shall I prepare my 

 bees so as to carry them safely through 

 the winter V Let us look at some of 

 the requisites that are considered 

 positively necessary to successful win- 

 tering : 



1. Abundance of young bees. The 

 life of a worker bee is very short. In 

 the heighth of the honey harvest it is 

 found by experiment that the whole 

 population of the hive (with the ex- 

 ception of the queen) will be changed 

 in from six to eight weeks. Bees at 

 this time of the year do not die of old 

 age, but wear themselves out, or 

 rather, I think, they wear their wings 

 out, and there comes a day when they 

 will load themselves up so heavily 

 that they fail to return to the hive. 

 We often see the old bees with but 

 stubs of wings trying two or three 

 times to rise from the entrance on 

 their outward flight, before succeed- 

 ing. During the leisure of winter, 

 bees live much longer, those hatched 

 in September and October living 

 through to March and April; so if 

 we want our bees to go into winter 

 in good condition,they must be reared 

 during those months ; and if honey is 

 not coming in from the fields during 

 that time, they must be fed in order 

 to encourage brood rearing. The 

 older bees will die too soon in the 

 spring before enough young ones are 

 reared to keep up the cluster and do 

 the work of the hive. 



2. Abundance of food, and that 

 readily accessible to the bees. As 

 before stated, 20 to 25 pounds of honey 

 or syrup for each fair-sized colony, 

 capped over before cold weather sets 

 in. is considered sufficient for winter, 

 and until bloom opens in the spring. 

 In order that the bees may make use 

 of these stores, there must be some 

 way provided whereby they may shift 

 their cluster without having to pass 

 around or under the frames, either by 

 cutting small holes half an inch or 

 more in diameter, through the combs 

 near the middle of the length, and 

 about 2 nr .3 inches from the top ; or 

 by placing sticks across the top of 

 the frames an inch or so apart, pro- 

 vide means for them to pass over, and 

 so shift from one part of the hive to 



the other. By placing an inverted 

 wooden butterdish, such as the 

 grocers use, across the top of the 

 frames, a clustering chamber is 

 formed, which the bees will take pos- 

 session of and so gain access to the 

 frames over the top, and being en- 

 abled to form a compact mass in the 

 warmest part of the hive, save food 

 and the wear and tear consequent 

 upon its consumption in order to 

 make the necessary heat. 



3. Limited space. The size of the 

 hive should be regulated according to 

 the size of the colony, by removing 

 extra frames and contracting the 

 space with a division-board, so that 

 the bees will be rather crowded for 

 room, and so have less space to keep 

 warm. The combs should be spread 

 a little further apart for winter than 

 for brood-rearing in the spring and 

 summer, say IM inches from centre 

 to centre, instead of 1% inches as is 

 usual, by that means allowing more 

 of the bees to cluster together be- 

 tween them. 



4. Good ventilation at the bottom of 

 the hive; that is, the entrance should 

 be kept clear and open, but no upward 

 ventilation, except so much as may 

 pass through 3 or 4 inches of chaff or 

 sawdust packing, which may be 

 placed over the bees to keep down the 

 heat. Where openings are left above 

 the bees, either from a misplaced mat 

 or ill-fitting cover, it causes a draught 

 of air through the hive, and conse- 

 quently great loss of heat, which 

 should be particularly guarded 

 against. 



Galena, (J Md. 



For tbe Amencaa Bee JonmaL 



Ationt tlie Fastins of Bees. 



WM. F. CLARKE. 



The editorial note to Mr. Jones' ar- 

 ticle, page 681, where it is asserted that 

 bees can fast for three months with- 

 out sustaining injury, invites a few 

 words from me. 



I have no idea how long bees can 

 safely fast, or for what periods they 

 abstain from food when the weather 

 and surrounding circumstances are 

 favorable to their hibernating, but I 

 believe that their normal winter con- 

 dition, in this climate, is one in which 

 they become dormant for certain 

 periods during which they do not 

 feed. Every well-authenticated case 

 of bees fasting for a certain length of 

 time, tends to corroborate ray theory. 

 Mr. I). A. Jones, in his experiments 

 for the cure of foul brood, has dem- 

 onstrated that a fast of three weeks 

 does not hurt bees if they are kept 

 perfectly quiet. He thinks if we only 

 knew how to regulate the temperature, 

 they could be safely kept without 

 food for a very long time. 



I could not desire a better state- 

 ment of my theory than that given by 

 Mr. D. A. Jones in the Canadian Bee 

 Journal of Oct. 19, viz : " There is no 

 longer any doubt in our mind that 

 when a colony of bees only consumes 

 a couple of pounds of food during the 

 winter, they must lie in a semi^ 

 dormant state much of the time, or' 



' hibernate,' as friend Clarke puts It ; 

 because two or three pounds of stores 

 would scaicely fill the sacs of an or- 

 dinary colony of bees, yet it is not an 

 uncommon thing to have them win- 

 tered on less than two pounds." 



What we want is a thorough series 

 of experiments in relation to this 

 matter. I have never been, and am 

 not now in a position to make them. 

 It requires a larger number of colo- 

 nies than I can keep ; facilities for 

 both out-door and cellar wintering, 

 which I have not; and continuous 

 observation of results, which I am not 

 able to bestow, as my duties often 

 call me away from home. 



Dr. Tinker, Prof. McLain, Mr. 

 Jones and others have thrown much 

 light on the subject by their investi- 

 gations, and I am not without hope 

 that before very long we shall get 

 some fixed principles to guide us as 

 to the right temperature and sur- 

 roundings to secure the condition of 

 dormancy or hibernation— call it 

 what you will — which bee-keepers 

 generally know to be the chief pre- 

 requisites for perfect wintering. The 

 scarcity of stores the present season 

 makes it a favorable time for these 

 experiments, and I trust the coming 

 winter will increase our stock and 

 store of knowledge on this important 

 subject. 



Guelph, Ont. 



Western Plowman. 



Tlie Restoration of Payini Prices. 



C. H. DIBBERN. 



One advantage that bee-keepers 

 will secure by the very small crop, 

 will be the restoring of prices to a 

 paying basis. It remains to be seen 

 whether they will allow competition, 

 or a lack of proper distribution, to 

 again force ruinous prices on them, 

 as soon as a reasonably fair crop is 

 produced. 



I do not think that the very low 

 prices prevailing for the past few 

 years, were caused by over-produc- 

 tion, but rather a 



LACK OF JTJDICIOUS DISTRIBUTION. 



Here is a ease in point : A few days 

 ago, while passing a store, my notice 

 was attracted to some small baskets 

 of what appeared to be very fine 

 peaches. They were packed in nice, 

 new baskets with skeleton covers of 

 alternately white and red colored 

 wood, and the fruit itself was further 

 covered with salmon-colored mosquito 

 netting, giving to it a hazy and very 

 pleasing effect. 



Upon inquiring the price, I was 

 somewhat surprised to fjnd it $1 per 

 basket, holding not more than one- 

 half peck. I remarked that it was 

 pretty high ; but the dealer produced 

 his bill from a commission merchant 

 showing that they cost him 00 cents. 

 Thinking that only a very reasonable 

 profit, I bought a basket and took 

 them home for Sunday. What was 

 my disappointment upon opening the 

 basket to find the fine peaches only 

 on top, about a dozen of them, the 



