39 
June, 1918 
the yield from this source. The wild asters 
are all hardy, vigorous growers, always bloom 
and usually yield heavily a strong, dark honey. 
This is fortunate, since it enables the bees to 
provide a supply of food for the winter months. 
The Colony in Winter 
One other effect of weather on the honey crop 
has to do with the bees themselves. By this 
I mean the weakening of a colony by cold in 
the winter. Not infrequently a bee keeper 
will lose the advantage of a good "honey year" 
because he failed to protect his stock during 
the severe winter. He may have brought his 
colonies through the winter alive, but so weak¬ 
ened that they could not store a surplus. The 
bee keeper cannot change the weather, but he 
can do his best to offset unfavorable weather 
conditions—and if he does all that he can, he 
may produce a profitable crop while his neigh¬ 
bors lose money. 
In order that a colony of bees shall store a 
surplus of honey it is essential that the colony 
be strong in numbers, and they must be strong 
at exactly the right time. Most bee keepers 
try to plan their work so that their colonies are 
at their maximum strength during the period 
of the heaviest honey flow in their particular 
section. In a white clover section the colonies 
must be "on a war footing” while the clover 
is yielding heavily—not a month before or a 
week later. There are many steps that lead 
up to the production of this full strength 
colony. 
In the first place the colony must come 
through the winter in satisfactory shape, and 
to do that it must be in good condition the 
previous fall. A colony of bees is in good con¬ 
dition for wintering if three conditions are ful¬ 
filled. First, it must be strong in numbers; 
second, it must have an abundant food supply; 
and third, it must be housed in a hive that 
will afford it sufficient protection from the 
weather. 
The Hive on a Winter Footing 
The first condition is the most difficult to 
define properly. It is hard to tell a beginner 
how to judge whether or not a colony is strong 
enough in numbers to withstand the winter. 
During the winter the bees in a hive will 
cluster, forming a solid ball. The outer indi¬ 
viduals will in time become so stiff and cold 
from exposure that they can no longer move. 
Then some of the bees from inside the ball 
where it is still warm will crawl out and sur¬ 
round the cold ones, warming them up so that 
eventually they may again take their turn in 
the outer layer. If the cluster is so small that 
the entire ball of bees becomes chilled and 
stiff to the center, then it follows that they 
will all freeze to death. Sometimes they seem 
to starve to death before they freeze. Often 
a small ball of bees will be found dead in a 
hive that is still well supplied with honey. 
The cluster in such case became so cold and 
stiff tl^at they could not move to where the 
honey was, although it was only a matter of 
inches. Consequently it was useless to pro¬ 
vide the food unless the colony was large 
enough to protect itself from cold. Occasionally 
a large colony will starve to death from lack 
of food, but more often they die with food 
within reach just because the cluster is too 
small. 
The third condition, that of a suitable hive, 
is an important one but probably not so im¬ 
portant as it would seem. I have seen so 
many bees that had died in thoroughly good 
hives and so many that wintered perfectly in 
a soap box that I have been led to doubt my 
White clover furnishes the bulk of the eastern 
honey crop. When its white blosspms are at 
their prime they are fairly alive with bees at 
work 
better judgment in the matter of hives. Theo¬ 
retically there are certain conditions concern¬ 
ing a good hive for wintering which, if ob¬ 
served, will tend to success. The cluster of live 
bees is constantly giving off moisture. If this 
moisture ascends and strikes a cold roof it will 
condense and drip down on the colony, causing 
more damage than mere cold air. As a result 
of this we try to house our bees in such a way 
that this will not happen. By taking an old 
super box and placing it above the colony and 
filling it with straw, leaves or shavings, the 
roof will be kept warmer than the walls of the 
hive. Consequently the moisture will collect 
on the walls and run down to the floor where 
it will do no damage. For this reason alone I 
prefer the single walled hive, although in the 
North the double walled hive is more popular 
and I presume more of a necessity. 
If the requirements of numbers, food and 
proper housing are all cared for, there is not 
much to fear in the matter of wintering, and 
there is not much danger that the weather will 
interfere greatly with your success. A very 
prolonged cold spell will sometimes keep the 
bees imprisoned longer than is advantageous, 
and unless their stores are of good quality they 
may develop a disease known as dysentery. 
This is sometimes, but not often, fatal to large 
numbers of bees in the late winter and early 
spring. 
With the first warm weather of early spring 
the bees will be about, and the chances are 
that they will- find the first skunk cabbage and 
the first pussy-willow even before the most 
ardent naturalist has discovered them. 
Food for the Young Bees 
From these first flowers the bees will gather 
pollen more than nectar, because they usually 
(at least they should if they belong to a good 
keeper)have a surplus of honey left from the 
previous fall. On honey alone, however, they 
cannot rear their young. They must have pol¬ 
len—fresh pollen. As soon as the pollen sup¬ 
ply comes the queen will begin to lay eggs, and 
by the time the fruit trees are in bloom there 
should be a large amount of brood in the hives. 
This is the time when the bee keeper must 
“look to his knitting,” because it is the bees 
raised on the fruit bloom that must be de¬ 
pended upon to gather the bulk of the honey 
crop from the white clover. Unless each colony 
has a good laying queen at this time and plenty 
of room in which the queen can lay, no crop 
of honey may be expected, even in a good year. 
From this time on the bee keeper may do 
much to offset unfavorable weather conditions. 
If the bees do not secure plenty of stores from 
the fruit bloom, then the keeper must supply 
food on which the brood may be fed. If a 
large supply of honey has been gathered from 
the apple, as is sometimes the case, part of it 
must be removed in order that the bees may 
have room in which to raise more young. If 
the colony is “short handed” or weak in num¬ 
bers, it should be combined with other weak 
colonies. One strong colony is at any time 
worth a dozen weak ones, if they are allowed 
to remain weak. If the bee keeper has man¬ 
aged well he will find that as a result of the 
honey flow from the fruit trees his colonies 
will contain a large number of vigorous young 
bees that will be just the right age for active 
work at the time when the white clover comes 
into bloom. By providing a tremendous force 
at this time a great deal may be done to over¬ 
come unfavorable weather. 
One more point that must be looked after 
in the question of spring management is to 
(Continued on page 60) 
