328 



■S^H® MMERICSJf mWW JOUiRNSI,. 



BEES IN WINTER. 



Bees Flying in llie Sunshine- 

 Syrian Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Jouriial 

 BY KEV. M. MAHIN, D. D. 



In the American Bee Journal of 



April 18, 1888, there are several things 



upon which I wish to offer a few 



thoughts and suggestions. The tirst is. 



Bees Flying In tlie Sunshine. 



I have been keeping bees for 19 

 j'ears, and have always wintered them 

 on the Slimmer stands, because I have 

 had no suitable cellar or repository- in 

 which to winter them. I have had 

 them facing all points of the compass, 

 sheltered and unsheltered, shaded and 

 unshaded ; and while I have kept no 

 accurate statistics, tlie general results 

 are prett}' well fixed in my mind. 



In some winters there has been but 

 little difference in the condition of the 

 bees in hives differently situated, and 

 in others the difference has been mark- 

 ed. In winters in which the losses 

 were great, those colonies have uni- 

 formly wintered best which where 

 most full}' exposed to the sunshine, and 

 that fronted south. Sometimes a few 

 bees will venture out when the tem- 

 perature is too low for them to return ; 

 but generally they are diseased, and 

 would die in the hives if they did not 

 come out ; and it is better for the col- 

 ony that they perish on the snow than 

 in the hive. 



Careful observation has satisfied me 

 that, as a rule, healthy bees will not 

 leave the hives when the temperature 

 is so low that they cannot return in 

 safety ; and I am satisfied that I have 

 had colonies benefitted by flying when 

 the temperature was considerably be- 

 low 50°. 



I wish also to speak concerning 

 Syrian Bees, their Temper, etc. 



For six years or more I have kept 

 Syrians and Italians in the same yard, 

 in the same kind of liives, and with tlie 

 same treatment ; and part of the time 

 in nearly ecjual numbers. I have had 

 some Syrian colonies that were not 

 good honey-gatherers, just as it has 

 been with Italians ; but every season I 

 have found the rule to he, that the 

 Syrians had the most hone}-. They 

 have proved themselves superior both 

 for comb and extracted honey. 



Something needs to be said in re- 

 gard to their temi)er. This is a (|ue,s- 

 tion to which I have given careful at- 

 tention, and my conclusions are that, 

 as a rule— there are exceptions of 

 course — they are more gentle, and 

 easily handled, when honey is coming 

 in plentifully, than are Italians, but 

 ni(ii<' ilillicult to manage during a 



honey-dearth. They will not bear 

 much smoke. A little is an advantage, 

 but if they are heavilj- dosed vcith it, 

 they become so angry as to be im- 

 manageable, and to subdue an angry 

 colony with smoke is impossible. They 

 require gentle treatment when the 

 hive is first opened, and then they may 

 be handled as easily as any bees. I 

 have taken all the combs out of a full 

 colony, and put them back again, with- 

 out using a particle of smoke, and 

 without a bee getting angry. 



I have never had the least trouble 

 with them when they swarmed. No 

 bees are more gentle In swarming 

 time. On the whole, I like and pre- 

 fer the Syrians. 



Prospects for the Season. 



As far as I know, bees that had 

 honey enough have wintered very 

 well, and are in good condition. They 

 will be, unless we have a veiy hea\-j' 

 frost, an unusually abundant fruit- 

 bloom, which will give the bees a good 

 start. But in this vicinitj' the white 

 clover will be a failure. I do not re- 

 member ever to have seen it so badly 

 frozen out. At New Castle, where all 

 of my bees are except 2 colonies, the 

 white clover does not seem to be dam- 

 aged much ; and there, and perhaps 

 in the central and southern part of the 

 State generally, the prospect is good 

 for a large honej' crop. 



Bluffton, Ind., April 19, 1888. 



PACKINa BEES. 



The Winter Preparation of 

 Bees. 



Written Jnr the American Bee Journal 

 BY JNO. A. BUCHANAN. 



When I wrote on page 788 of the 

 American Bee Journal for 1887, 

 stating that bee-masters of this State 

 do not, for the most part, think that it 

 pays in this latitude to pack bees for 

 winter, or make and use chaff hives, 

 I knew that the statement would draw 

 some comments. The first was from 

 Mr. Ran, on page 11. 



He thinks that we have made an 

 "astonishing revelation," and suggests 

 that a house well lathed and plastered 

 would be warmer than it would be 

 without such lining. We will agree 

 on that point, but let us go further and 

 suppose that we had a colony of bees 

 with their combs built to the ceiling in 

 one corner of the plastered room, and 

 another c^olony so situated in a room 

 with only the siding of the building 

 between tlie bees and the cL'ments. 

 which would winter best ? I firmly 

 believe that the bees with their combs 

 built against the siding, where the sun 

 would so often warm, cheer, and in- 



vigorate them, would winter best. 

 How often have we seen reports of 

 colonies of bees being located in a 

 building between the plastering and 

 the siding, where for years they have 

 lived and flourished ! 



Some years ago my bees had 

 swarmed so much that I ran short of 

 hives to put them in. One day three 

 large swarms clustered together. After 

 looking at their mightj' proportions 

 awhile, I concluded to experiment on 

 them, so I got a board 2 feet square, 

 nailed cleats 3 inches wide around it, 

 put a stout staple in each corner, tied 

 ropes to the afl'air, and' hung it to a 

 cross-beam in an old wagon-house, 

 with one edge resting against the 

 weather boarding in which were open- 

 ings of half an inch, by shrinkage. 

 Before putting this board up, strips of 

 comb the full width of it were waxed 

 to underside, as guides, running to- 

 wards the openings in the siding. The 

 big swarm was brought on, and made 

 to cluster on the starters. 



The bees went to work with a 

 hearty good-will, and although late in 

 the season, the center combs were 

 built down as much as 3 feet, and 

 contained a great abundance of honej' 

 for winter. Here we had a veritable 

 curiosit}-, a powerful colony of bees 

 without a hive, save the old wagon- 

 house, which was about as cold in 

 winter as out-doors. 



"What will you do with them in the 

 winter ?" was asked bj' many. "Leave 

 them there," was the reply. 



" Will they live there?" I replied, 

 "That is just what I wish to find out." 



To my surprise this was as strong a 

 colony at the time of apple bloom in 

 May, as there was in any of my chaff 

 hives. 



Many times when there was zero 

 weather during that winter, I would 

 at night take a light out, and by hold- 

 ing it so that the rays would pass up 

 between the combs, the bees could be 

 seen clustered just as any one has 

 seen them through the glass in a hive. 



These bees, with the combs, were 

 transferred during fruit-bloom the next 

 spring. There was comb enough to 

 fill 21 Langstroth f^xnies. 



Now I just relate this experiment to 

 .show that bees are not such tender, 

 frail little creatures as some would 

 have us believe they are. We all have 

 seen liees wintering in boxes or hives 

 so cracked and open as to expose the 

 bees to view all the winter, and yet 

 tliev would come out in the spring in 

 the very best condition. But though 

 all these things have been seen by 

 hundreds of close observing bee- 

 keepers, in almost every State in the 

 Union, they may be, to Mr. Ran, 

 " astonishing revelations." 



