50 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



more colonies will die from starvation 

 than from queenlessness. 



After a favorable season, when the 

 colonies are plentifnlly supplied with 

 food, the bee-keeper need not be con- 

 cerned about his bees ; but after a bad 

 season, it is necessary to watch the bees 

 and examine them frequently, in order 

 that repentance may not come too late. 

 — British Bee Journal. 



Cause of Bees Freezing to DeatL 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



I see by one of the papers that it is 

 thought by some that bees often freeze 

 to death during the Winter, and that the 

 cause of our wintering trouble is largely 

 due to the fact that there arc no holes or 

 Winter passageways through the combs 

 so, that as the cluster contracts during 

 extreme cold spells those bees which are 

 on the outside of the cluster do not or 

 cannot keep up with the cluster, so are 

 frozen to death. In this way, after each 

 warm day during the Winter, hundreds 

 of bees freeze till the cluster is so reduced 

 that the whole freeze together. 



I think that such is a mistaken idea, 

 and do not believe our wintering trouble 

 is caused by bees freezing, but it is 

 caused by the bees getting in an 

 abnormal condition from many of the 

 various causes brought about by long 

 continued cool or cold weather, which 

 they do not have in their native or warm 

 climate. 



From many observations I find the 

 following to be a correct state of affairs 

 inside of the hive when the bees are in a 

 normal condition. 



As Fall approaches, if we examine a 

 colony of bees we find that the activity 

 manifested during the Spring and Sum- 

 mer, in the interior of the hive, becomes 

 less and less, so that by the middle of 

 October, in this latitude, all brood rearing 

 has ceased and the bees have become 

 partially dormant : still so far, they 

 have not packed themselves away in a 

 snug cluster, or compact shape, for 

 Winter. Every opportunity given by a 

 warm day is improved to void the feces, 

 so the bees may be prepared for a long 

 cold spell, when such an one occurs. 



As the weather grows colder, the bees 

 contract their cluster, many packing 

 themselves away in the cells till the 

 smallest space is occupied by them, and 

 thus the requisite warmth is secured to 

 keep them alive when the mercury sinks 

 below zero. 



In this contraction of the bees (at 

 certain times) many of them are left 

 singly or in little clusters of from 5 to 

 10, 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 cluster that number of bees. 



The reason for this, as formerly given, 

 and more minutely outlined than the 

 above was. that owing to the movable 

 frame, no cross-sticks were used, as was 

 the case in the box hives, and hence the 

 bees left no holes in the center of the 

 combs as they did around the cross-sticks, 

 thus 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 ; and because of 

 this, many bees were frozen. 



To obviate this, the Langstroth frame, 

 and others, were provided with a shaving 

 I bent to form a circle an inch in diameter, 

 which was suspended from the top bar 

 by means of a little strip of tin, suppos- 

 ing that this would effectually secure a 

 passageway for the bees. However, but 

 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 passage- 

 way was cut off. 



Next, 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 approached, the process had to 

 be repeated again. 



After trying all these plans, it became 

 apparent to me that the reason assigned 

 as the cause of the death of the bees was 

 not the real trouble, for bees would stay 

 and die within one-half of an inch of 

 these holes, when it would appear that 

 they could have passed through these 

 passages just as well as not. 



I also discovered that when the weather 

 was cool, cloudy and rainy, for several 

 weeks before it came severely cold, that 

 this loss was apparently much greater 

 than when a clear, warm day occurred, 

 immediately before a severe cold spell. 

 By the number of bees that were found 

 on boards and such places, dull and 

 stupid, after such a fine day, I concluded 

 that these were the same bees that 

 would have died by not following the 

 cluster, had not a warm day occurred 

 for them to leave the hive to die ; hence, 

 I say that the loss was apparently 

 greater when no such day occurred, for 

 many more bees were seen outside of the 

 cluster dead, as they had no chance to 



