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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



December 



Fifty Years Ago 



On Wintering Bees 



(American Bee Journal, Dec., 1868) 



By R. Bickford 



IT is settled beyond a doubt in my 

 mind, by the experience of oth- 

 ers as related in the American 

 Bee Journal, and by my own experi- 

 ence for several years in the apiary, 

 that bees, to winter well, must have 

 sufficient ventilation to carry off the 

 excessive moisture which accumu- 

 lates in well-stocked hives. This 

 moisture arises partly from the ex- 

 halations from the bodies of the bees, 

 but mostly, I think, from the sur- 

 rounding atmosphere, which con- 

 stantly holds in suspense a greater 

 or less amount of moisture, accord- 

 ing as its temperature is higher or 

 lower. The warm atmosphere of the 

 hive is capable of holding a consid- 

 erable quantity until it is condensed 

 by coming in contact with the cold 

 walls of the hive, at some distance 

 from the cluster of bees. There it 

 condenses, first into minute drops of 

 moisture and afterwards, if the cold 

 increases, into frost. The constant 

 accumulation of the quantity, by re- 

 peated .hawing and freezing, in a 

 hive that has not sufficient means of 

 ventilation, gradually encroaches 

 upon the space occupied by the bees, 

 finally reaching those on the outside 

 of the cluster. These grow be- 

 numbed, cease to eat, lose their vi- 

 tality, grow cold, the frost forms on 

 their bodies and they die where they 

 stand. 



The frost continues to penetrate 

 the cluster, if the cold weather is 

 prolonged, until finally the last bees 

 die covered with frost. The warm 

 days of spring then melt this frost, 

 and on examination, the whole mass 

 of bees are found dead, and as wet as 

 if just dipped from a basin of water. 



I found one hive in that condition 

 last spring. The entrance to this 

 hive was left open, but the honey- 

 board was left on tight, without any 

 upward ventilation, as an experiment. 

 All my other colonies wintered well 

 on their summer stand.., having their 

 entrances open 3 or 4 inches wide 

 and the front and rear openings in 

 the honey-boards (half an inch wide 

 and extending the whole length of 

 the hive) uncovered, but the middle 

 opening closed. 



For the coming winter I have 

 adopted Mr. Langstroth's plan, with 

 some modifications. I shall omit the 

 outside covering of th^ hive, believ- 

 ing it is better to have the hive of a 

 single thickness of board, say seven- 

 eighths of an inch, in order that the 

 heat of the sun may easily penetrate 

 it. and warm up the hive almost daily, 

 thus giving the bees an opportunity 

 to bring to the central part of the 

 hive fresh supplies of food from the 

 outer combs. This plan may lead to 

 a somewhat greater consumption of 

 honey; but if a swarm of bees gives 

 its owner from 30 to 100 pounds of 

 surplus honey in a season, as mine 

 have done the past summer, he 

 ought to be entirely willing to have 

 them eat all they need during the 

 winter. At all events, one of two 



things must be done, to winter bees 

 successfully, in addition to their hav- 

 ing a supply of food and thorough 

 ventilation, they must either be kept 

 in a repository where frost cannot 

 enter, as a cellar, trench, ice-house or 

 the like ; or they must be put where 

 the sun can warm them up occasion- 

 ally. 



I have removed all the honey- 

 boards, placed two one-half or three- 

 fourths inch strips across the frames, 

 and covered the whole top of the 

 frames with any old woolen garments 

 that could be found about the house. 

 There need be no cutting or fitting. 

 Pack them in as you would pack a 

 trunk, in the top box; two, three or 

 half a dozen thicknesses will make 

 no difference. The moisture will 

 pass through as readily as the in- 

 sensible perspiration of our bodies 

 will pass through our thickest cloth- 

 ing. The hives will remain dry and 

 the bees warm. I have no fear of 

 losing a single swarm the coming 

 winter, although several new ones 

 which I bought, are quite weak, ow- 

 ing to the sudden close of the honey 

 harvest a month earlier than last 

 year, in consequence of the drought. 



Seneca Falls, N. Y. 



The Argentine Ant 



A LOUISIANA beekeeper writes 

 to enquire how to rid his apiary 

 of Argentine ants, saying that 

 they have destroyed ten hives of bees 

 in four months. This insect is a seri- 

 ous pest in the apiary and also inter- 

 feres seriously with numerous other 

 agricultural activities. Although, as 

 yet, the area where it has become es- 

 tablished is not large, it is sufficiently 

 serious where it has become estab- 

 lished to make it a matter of general 

 interest. 



The Argentine ant, as will be ap- 

 parent from its name, is very prob- 

 ably a native of South America. It 

 was first noticed in this country in 

 New Orleans in 1891, and had prob- 

 ably been present for several years. 

 It has become established in several 

 places in California; in three or four 



counties or more in Alabama, in sev- 

 eral counties in Mississippi, and over 

 a considerable portion of the south 

 half of Louisiana, as well as in one 

 or two localities in the northern por- 

 tion of the State. It is very proba- 

 ble that its spread will continue until 

 it occupies all the Southern States, as 

 well as the milder portions of the 

 •Pacific Coast. 



The introduction of the English 

 sparrow has brought a pest to our 

 doors that is hardly worthy of con- 

 sideration in comparison with the 

 Argentine ant. It is usually first no- 

 ticed from its invasion of the do- 

 main of the housewife. It is almost 

 impossible to keep foodstuffs free 

 from them, once they find their way 

 into a house. In stores and eating- 

 houses they become so annoying as 

 to be intolerable. Syrups, cakes, can- 

 dies, fruit are especially sought for, 

 although they do not hesitate to at- 

 tack raw meats and even cornmeal. 



Cases are on record, in localities 

 where they have become very abund- 

 ant, where babies in their cribs have 

 been annoyed to the point of distrac- 

 tion by the ants crawling over their 

 bodies and into their mouths and 

 nostrils. In some sections it has be- 

 come necessary to set bed-posts in 

 some kind of repellant in order to 

 make it possible to sleep in quiet. 

 Not until the insects have been pres- 

 ent for a considerable time do they 

 become sufficiently abundant to dem- 

 onstrate fully all the disagreeable 

 irritations which they are capable of 

 inflicting upon the unfortunate neigh- 

 borhood. 



They sometimes remove garden 

 seeds from the ground before they 

 have sprouted, they damage the fig 

 crop by boring into the ripened fruit 

 and tunneling the interior, and they 

 damage numerous kinds of blossoms 

 by cutting into the unopened buds. 

 They cultivate plant-lice and mealy 

 bugs on various crops to a serious 

 extent; they sometimes visit the 

 nests of sitting hens in such num- 

 bers as to cause the hens to abandon 

 their nests. They make themselves 

 so generally disagreeable that land 



Typical Florida palmetto gr 



