_West Newberry, Mass._, September 10, 1870.
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Honey is the most elaborate of all vegetable productions.
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Wintering Bees.
We republish the following from the A. B. J., Vol. IV., page 109, at the
request of a number of new subscribers. We regard it as probably the
least troublesome and most successful mode of out-door wintering yet
devised.
It is settled beyond a doubt in my own mind, by the experience of others
as related in the BEE JOURNAL, and by my own experience for several
years in the apiary, that bees to winter well, must have sufficient
ventilation to carry off the excessive moisture which accumulates in
well stocked hives. This moisture arises partly from the exhalations
from the bodies of the bees, but mostly, I think, from the surrounding
atmosphere, which constantly holds in suspense a greater or less amount
of moisture, according as its temperature is higher or lower. The warm
atmosphere of the hive is capable of holding a considerable 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
repeated thawing and freezing in a hive that has no efficient means of
ventilation, gradually encroaches on the space occupied by the bees,
finally reaching those on the outside of the cluster. These grow
benumbed, cease to eat, lose their vitality, 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 bee dies 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 stands,
having their entrances open three or four 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 the hive, believing
that 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 will give its owner from
fifty to one hundred 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 having 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
occasionally.
I have removed all the honey-boards, placed two one-half or
three-quarter inch strips across the frames, and covered the whole top
of the frames with any old woollen garments that could be found about
the house.[3] These need no cutting or fitting. Pack them in as you
would pack a trunk, (the roof or cover of my top box is movable, and I
like it much better than the old plan of having it nailed on,) two,
three, or half a dozen thicknesses will make no difference. The moisture
will pass through as readily as the insensible perspiration of our
bodies will pass through our bed covering. 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, owing
to the sudden close of the honey harvest a month earlier than last year,
in consequence of the drought.