MANAGEMENT OF HONEY-BEES.-NO. 7. 
59 
MANAGEMENT OF HONEY-BEES.—No. 7. | 
Winter Management .—When fall approaches, it 
is important to know the exact condition of the 
bees, in regard to their winter’s 1 food ; and for this 
purpose, I recommend that all hives be made of the 
same size and weight, that the quantity of honey 
in each may be readily ascertained, after a little 
practice, in raising them from their positions. There 
should be found 15 to 20 pounds of honey in every 
hive, of the usual quantity of bees, in order to carry 
them safely through the winter. About the first of 
October, I raise all of my hives, and I can at once 
perceive whether any are deficient in honey. If the 
season has been very unfavorable for gathering 
honey, and I find them rather below the standard 
weight, generally I adopt the following mode of 
feeding, being far less trouble than to wait till their 
stores are consumed, at which time the weather will 
not generally permit their being fed with any degree 
of facility. I take a box, or trough, about two feet 
long, six inches wide, and four inches deep, into 
which I place my honey ; I then set a floating cover 
upon it, made of thin, light wood. This cover is 
sawed lengthwise as many times as a saw can be 
made to pass through easily. One end of this cover 
is kept entire, and upon the other end a bracket is 
placed to keep the strips in their proper position. 
The honey passes up through the channels, and 
the bees take it from the bars with great facility, 
being in a position perfectly free from sticking in 
the contents, and they are enabled to take away the 
whole contents of the trough, without any attention 
after filling it. Care should be taken to supply the 
honey before cold weather sets in, and at such times 
as the bees are out in great numbers. The honey 
afforded in this way is stored up in the same manner 
as that gathered from flowers. I have had a gallon 
and a half taken away in a single day by three 
stocks only. I buy southern honey, at from 50 to 
60 cents per gallon, a gallon weighing 12 pounds ; 
hence, a stock of bees may at any time be saved 
from famine, for one-tenth of its value. Where 
honey cannot be readily obtained, common brown 
sugar will do just as well. Dissolve it with suffi¬ 
cient water to make it of the consistency of honey. 
This must be done over a fire, and taken off at the 
boiling point, and the scum taken off. 
When a single stock, or more, or a late swarm 
that has not been able to lay up a winter’s store, is 
to be fed, it must be done in a way that will not 
attract other bees. And I will here add, that in all 
cases where a majority of the hives are of light 
weight, it is much better to feed the whole colony 
than to attempt to save any part of their food, by 
feeding separately such only as absolutely require 
it. The difference will be returned in the supers 
the next season. To attempt to feed bees in cold 
weather, in the usual manner, at the bottom of the 
hives, is a great vexation; and the art of feeding 
them in a proper manner is so little understood, 
that many people leave their bees to their fate, 
rather than attempt to rescue them. I will give an 
instance of feeding a late swarm, which will serve 
for all cases of separate feeding from the general 
colony; but in order to feed on this principle, the 
hives must be made with supers, on my plan, or any 
way in which a superstructure is made for the bees 
to enter. 
| About four years ago I had a late swarm that 
had laid up no honey at all, and constructed combs 
in one corner of the hive only. I took out the door 
of the super, turned the hive round to the south, 
and then placed a temporary door to the super, with 
a pane of glass in it. After the boxes belonging to 
it were removed, I placed a very small tin pan in 
their place, filled with honey, and covered with a 
floating cover after the manner of feeding as before 
mentioned, with the difference that this cover was 
fillecl full of small holes, from which the bees took 
the honey. These bees were active the whole win¬ 
ter when the sun shone, but barely attempted to 
leave the hive, their whole operations being con¬ 
fined to the super. The air was admitted freely at 
the bottom, and the weather was very severe, the 
thermometer being down to zero frequently. This 
hive was placed in a cold situation, and there being 
so few bees in the hive shows conclusively that 
bees will stand any weather, however cold, if in a 
right condition. There are instances in which bees 
are found dead, w T ith an abundance of honey in the 
hives; but they do not freeze to death, but starve 
to death ; for this reason, that the bees are unable 
to change their position, in order to get food m a 
different section of the hive, owing to the dormant 
state in which the weather places them, and they 
die of famine. Had a sufficient supply of honey 
been within their reach, thejr would have withstood 
any degree of cold. Strong stocks are not subject 
to such a death. 
In 'cases where fall feeding has been omitted, it 
may be safely done, in a general manner, in the 
winter season, provided that the -weather be very 
mild, and the bees come forth in large numbers. If 
the weather will not permit of feeding, and if there 
be no supers to the hives, they must be left till the 
first warm spring weather, and if they survive up 
to this period they will probably do well. 
Another important consideration is, to so place 
the bees that they will have the least possible de¬ 
sire to leave their hives during the winter. If two 
stocks of bees should be placed side bj T side, and the 
one so managed that the bees should remain within, 
constantly, without being confined, while those of 
the other should be on the wing during every tole¬ 
rably warm day, the mortality of the bees remaining 
within would not be half so great as that of the 
other; for the reason, that thousands of bees come 
to an untimely death, in the winter season, by being 
suddenly chilled while abroad, and never regain the 
hive. Hives thus depopulated cannot possibly 
thrive so well in the following spring, as those 
which are kept from going abroad ; hence it fol¬ 
lows, that to be successful we must pursue that 
course which will cause the bees to remain within 
the hives, if we can without imprisonment, as that 
often proves more fatal than to suffer them to go 
abroad. T. B. Miner. 
Ravenswood , January , 1847. 
Weather Predictions. —At present I feel en¬ 
titled to deduce from the sum of my investigations 
this capital consequence Never, whatever may be 
the progress of the sciences, will the savant, who is 
conscientious and careful of his reputation, specu¬ 
late on a prediction of the weather.— Arago. 
