14 N. H. COLLEGE EXTENSION SERVICE [Bulletin 15 



weigh about forty pounds; and since a colony needs about thirty-five t-o forty pounds of 

 good stores to winter well and to raise large numbers of young bees in the early spring, 

 the difference between seventy-five or eighty pounds and the actual weight of the hive 

 should be fed in the fall in the form of heavy sugar syrup. September is the best month 

 for feeding to make up a shortage. Use two and one-fourth pounds of white granulated 

 sugar to each pint of water. Bring the syrup carefully to a boil, and while boiling add 

 a teaspoonful of tartaric acid for each twenty pounds of sugar to invert the sugar and to 

 prevent granulation. For feeding in early spring in the case of nuclei, or weak colonies, 

 a more dilute syrup may well be used. White sugar which has been scorched or burned 

 and brown sugar S3aTip are both unsuited for feeding bees, since they are apt to produce 

 dysentery. Honey from unknown sources should not be fed, as it may introduce germs 

 of the foulbrood diseases. When feeding is necessary, it is best to feed the total amount 

 of syrup needed to carry the colony through the shortage period in one or two feedings 

 rather than to feed a little each day. There is probably no better feeder made than a 

 shallow tin plate or cake pan set on a couple of small sticks over the frames inside an 

 empty covered super. Into this tin the syrup is poured, and some shavings or small 

 sticks are placed to keep the bees from drowning. 



COLONY RECORDS 



If one is to keep more than one or two colonies of bees, it will be found a great advan- 

 tage and almost a necessity to keep colony records. There are many details to this art 

 of beekeeping, and success will depend on carrying out the different operations which 

 are necessary at the right time. Besides this a record of the performance of each colony 

 will give one the data necessary in deciding from which to breed queens for general im- 

 provement of the apiary. 



It has been found well to give each colony a number and a separate page in one's 

 notebook. Every time the apiary is visited the notebook will be taken along as part of 

 the regular equipment, and conditions for each colony will be recorded at the time as 

 observed. Records will then read, as, for example; 



Colony No. 1 

 May 1. Has queen — eggs and brood in all stages in 7 frames; gave second body. 

 June 1. No queen cells — colony conditions good, reduced to one body placing all 

 brood in same and gave first super for comb honey. 



WINTERING BEES 



The preparation of colonies for winter, and the giving of abimdant protection during 

 cold weather, is one of the prime requisites for success in beekeeping in northern New 

 England. The neglect of this is the cause of large losses each winter. 



Several conditions are necessary for successful wintering. In the first place, there 

 should be an abundance of young bees hatched in the late fall. This will be secured 

 best by means of a young queen, a well-sheltered location, and some insulation about the 

 hives m the fall. Secondly, to winter well the bees must have plenty of good quaUty 

 stores. Most kinds of honey are excellent for winter food, but some of the darker honeys 

 contain small amounts of materials other than sugars, not entirely digested by the bees 

 Mr. F. W. L. Sladen, in charge of beekeeping for the Canadian Government, has stated 

 that in his experience colonies winter better when fed in the late fall ten pounds of thick 

 white sjTup in addition to their natural stores. 



Colonies to winter well must be strong and should cover at least five or six frames so 

 as to generate easily the heat required to keep up the normal temperature of the cluster. 

 Phillips and Demuth have shown that the lowest temperature ever recorded in any part 

 of this winter cluster of bees within the hive is 57° F., the so-called "critical temperature" 

 at which bees form a cluster within the hive. It has also been shown that bees gener-r 

 ate the heat necessary to maintain this temperature by the consumption of honey or 

 sugar and by physical exertion while in the cluster. The fewer the bees to the cluster 

 and the quicker the heat they generate is lost by radiation or by air currents the more 

 must the bees eat and work; then comes danger of dysentery and exhaustion resulting in 

 colonies which die, or are so weakened by spring as to be of little value. 



Hence, another requisite in wintering is to conserve carefully the heat generated by 

 the bees. This can be done by cellar wintering or by wintering the hives out-of-doors 

 m large cases with packmg. Bees are usually placed in the cellar after a warm dav 

 permitting their flight in early November, and are brought out about the time silver 



