1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



305 



involuntarily, strong, appropriately- 

 worded sentiments escaped me. 



"Are you stung?" called out the 

 Magic Girl, sweetly. 



"Am I stung!" I began, then re- 

 membered to restrain myself, as I 

 continued grimly to count my few re- 

 maining "beans." 



Los Gatos, Calif. 



The Maintenance of Colonies 

 From the Close of the Honey 

 Flow One Year Until Its 

 Beginning the Next. 



By *Geo. S. Demuth, Apicultural Assis- 

 tant, Bureau of Entomology 

 (Continued from August issue) 



This paper was prepared as an ad- 

 dress, and not as an article for pub- 

 lication. This will explain certain 

 passages in which the meaning may 

 not be quite clear if the reader at- 

 tempts to interpret it as a paper for 

 publication. 



Food 



Fall Food — The most important of 

 these requirements is food. A colony 

 well supplied with stores at all times 

 will stand a tremendous amount of 

 abuse in the other two requirements. 

 If an abundance of stores is present 

 during late summer and early fall, 

 brood-rearing does not cease, even 

 during a dearth of nectar, but if 

 stores are meager in quantity at this 

 time, brood-rearing may be entirely 

 suspended. It should be noted that, 

 when there is no fall honey-flow, the 

 winter colony must be reared in op- 

 position to the instinct of the bees, 

 which at this season is to rear but 

 little brood during a dearth of nec- 

 tar. If ample stores are not in the 

 hives in August, they should be sup- 

 plied without delay, if the beekeeper 

 expects to have a colony in condition 

 for winter. 



Winter Food — During the winter 

 not only quantity but quality of 

 stores is important, especially if the 

 bees do not have frequent flights. 

 The practice of beekeepers shows a 

 decided tendency to supply in the fall 

 not only enough stores for winter, 

 but also enough to carry the bees 

 through the heavy brood-rearing pe- 

 riod the next spring. Any deficiency 

 in winter stores should be supplied 

 not later than some time during Oc- 

 tober, in this locality. 



Spring Food — During the third pe- 

 riod, the stores are being so rapidly 

 converted into bees that there is dan- 

 ger that many colonies will run short 

 and curtail brood-rearing just at the 

 time when the beekeeper can least 

 afford it. I have seen many failures 

 here and could cite tremendous 

 losses, even among experienced bee- 

 keepers, resulting from a shortage 

 of stores during the month of May. 

 Unfavorable weather conditions often 

 prevail during this period and the 

 beekeeper, thinking each day that the 

 next will bring better weather and 

 permit the bees to replenish their de- 

 pleted stores from the fields, is easily 

 led to wait just a few days too long. 

 To purchase large quantities of sugar 



to tide over the period just before 

 the honey-flow, when conditions may 

 change even before he has had time 

 to feed it, tests the metal of the bee- 

 keeper. Too often he goes through 

 such a period with a feeling of secur- 

 ity and does not appreciate the situa- 

 tion until after the mischief has been 

 done. To cite one illustration of what 

 I mean here, I saw at one time dur- 

 ing the latter part of May a series of 

 six apiaries in which about 10 per 

 cent of the colonies were actually 

 starving and the entire lot of about 

 600 colonies was practically ruined 

 for the season, because the beekeeper 

 thought they could pull through 

 without help. Here a 600-colony man 

 waited a few days too long before he 

 began to feed. The honey-flow that 

 followed was a 100-pound per colony 

 flow, but his 600 colonies furnished 

 an average of only about 10 pounds 

 per colony. This is but one of many 

 such instances that have come under 

 my observation, in addition to some 

 exceedingly unpleasant recollections 

 of similar personal experience, which 

 has helped to drive home this import- 

 ant lesson. It is not a question of a 

 supply of food in the hive merely 

 sufficient to keep the colony alive 

 during a period when nectar cannot 

 be obtained from the fields, since 

 long before there is actual starvation, 

 brood-rearing is greatly reduced, or 

 even suspended, and some of the im- 

 mature young are carried out of the 

 hive. 



Protection 



Fall Protection — -The protection af- 

 forded by the ordinary single-walled 

 hive is usually sufficient during sum- 

 mer and early fall, since during that 

 time the protection needed is largely 

 protection against rain and cool 

 nights or robbers and other enemies. 

 In some localities shade is desirable 

 during the hot days of summer to 

 protect the colonies from extreme 

 heat. 



Winter Protection — It has been 

 shown that when the temperature of 

 a colony of undisturbed, broodless 

 bees is above 50 degrees F., the bees 

 are quiet and their temperature 



drifts with the external temperature. 

 A temperature of 57 degrees F. and 

 above is maintained within the clus- 

 ter_ of bees throughout the winter. 

 This temperature is maintained dur- 

 ing cold weather by an insulating 

 crust of bees on the outer surface of 

 the cluster and heat generation by 

 muscular activity within the cluster. 

 As the temperature of the air sur- 

 rounding the cluster goes downward 

 below 57 degrees F., the activity of 

 the bees within the cluster must be 

 increased in order to maintain the 

 required temperature of 57 degrees F. 

 and above within the cluster. This 

 greater activity makes it necessary 

 that the bees doing the work con- 

 sume more stores to supply the 

 source of the greater energy ex- 

 pended. More rapid consumption of 

 stores results in a more rapid ac- 

 cumulation of feces, which the bees 

 attempt to retain until a flight per- 

 mits voiding them outside the hive. 

 The presence of feces in large quan- 

 tities acts as an irritant, causing ac- 

 tivity in addition to that required to 

 maintain the necessary cluster tem- 

 perature, thus greatly increasing the 

 energy expended and stores con- 

 sumed. This results in a constantly 

 increasing accumulation of feces until 

 the bees are relieved by a flight in 

 the open air. Poorer grades of honey 

 and especially honeydew honey, when 

 used in winter, result in a more rapid 

 accumulation of feces for the amount 

 of energy expended than do better 

 grades of honey or sugar syrup. Dur- 

 ing the winter, therefore, except 

 when the external temperature is 

 between 57 degrees F. and 69 degrees 

 F., bee energy is being expended in 

 response to one or both of two ir- 

 ritants — cold and accumulated feces. 

 Since to survive the winter the bees 

 must live more slowly than they do 

 during the summer, the problem of 

 the beekeeper during this period is 

 the conservation of the energy of the 

 bees, and he must seek the solution 

 in two directions — that of better 

 food, if possible, but chiefly that of 

 protection against low temperatures, 

 that is, lower than 57 degrees F. 



Part of the apiary of the Agricultural School at Rome, Italy; 

 Prof. G. Montagano in charge 



