=WINTERING BEES.=
There will be little complaint of losses in wintering bees, whether in
a cold climate or a warm one, whether indoors or outside, provided the
following points are observed with each colony:
(1) _The colony must have a good queen._--By a good queen is meant one
not over two years old and which shows no signs of failure during the
latter part of the season. It is preferable to have a queen of the
current season's raising. Such a queen, if reared from good stock and
under good conditions during the latter part of the summer, will be in
her prime the following spring, and if no other conditions are lacking
will have her colony strong for the harvest.
(2) _Plenty of good bees._--Bees that are several months old or that
have gathered a heavy fall harvest of honey are not good to depend
upon for the winter. They drop off gradually of old age before there
are young bees to fill their places, and the queen, however prolific,
not having bees enough to cover her eggs, can not bring up, as she
otherwise would, the strength of the colony to a proper standard in
time for the harvest. There should be young bees emerging at all times
up to the month of October, or, in the South, even later.
(3) _Good food and plenty of it._--Any well-ripened sealed honey
that is not crystallized is good winter food. Honeydew stored by
bees and honey from a few flowers (cruciferous plants, asters, etc.)
crystallizes in the combs soon after it is gathered and the bees are
obliged to liquefy it as they use it. They can not do this well in dry,
cold weather, and dampness within the hive, though it might enable
the bees to liquefy the crystallized honey, is otherwise inimical to
bee life, especially so during winter. Some of the crystallized food
is also wasted; hence the bees may starve even though the fall weight
indicated sufficient stores for winter. Disastrous results are very
likely, therefore, to follow the attempt to winter on such food.
The removal of all pollen when preparing bees for winter has been
advised by some, who assert that it is unfit winter food and produces
dysentery. It will not, of course, alone sustain the life of the adult
bees, but if all conditions are right no more of it will be eaten than
the bees require to repair the waste of bodily tissue, and this being
slight in winter the consumption is small as long as other food lasts.
The pollen grains which by accident find their way into honey as the
bees gather it would probably be quite sufficient to supply this waste
in the case of the adult workers and no harm would result to these bees
from the substitution of other combs for those containing pollen. But
good colonies should begin brood rearing in January or February, and
pollen or a suitable substitute for it containing nitrogen most then
be present or the nurse bees will be subjected to a fearful drain on
their vitality to supply the rich nitrogenous secretion required by
the developing larvæ; in fact, they can not do so long, and the colony
dwindles. This absurd theory that bees can not have access to pollen in
winter without detrimental results can best be answered by referring to
the well-known fact that a colony in a large box or straw hive, freely
ventilated, yet having some part of the hive protected from drafts
of air and kept dry, will almost invariably come out strong in the
spring if populous in the fall, heavy with honey, and having a young
and vigorous queen. The pollen, it could not possibly be claimed, had
been injurious to such colonies, although they always gather and store
it without restriction, and are not disturbed in the possession of it.
In truth, their stores of pollen have constituted an important factor
in their development, and the strong instinct which they have toward
making accumulations of pollen for winter use and which they have
exercised for thousands of years undisturbed is of great benefit to
them.
[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Percolator for preparation of winter food.
(Original.)]
Other conditions being equal, those colonies having the most honey
stored compactly in the brood apartment and close about the very
center where the last brood of young bees should emerge, are the ones
which will winter best. Forty pounds for a northern latitude and 30
in the middle sections of the Tinted States may be considered only a
good supply. When natural stores are found to be lacking in the brood
chamber, the best substitute is a sirup made of granulated sugar, which
should be fed early in the autumn as rapidly as the bees can manipulate
it and store it away. If given slowly the bees will be incited to rear
brood unseasonably, and will consume much of the food in this way.
If several pounds be given at a time--placed in the top story of the
colony to be fed, just at nightfall--it will be stored away quickly,
so that in a week at most the full winter stores will be completed.
The bees will seal it over better if fed slowly at the last; that is,
after the main feeding. Sirup made by percolation of cold water through
a mass of sugar and then through some porous material, as cotton, is
what is called a completely saturated solution; that is, it contains
all the sugar the water can be made to hold, and will not trouble
by granulation (fig. 71). The same difficulty is avoided by adding
well-ripened honey to moderately thick sirup, about one-fourth or
one-fifth as much honey as sirup. Molasses, brown sugar, glucose, etc.,
are not suitable for winter stores for bees.
[Illustration: Fig. 72.--The American straw hive of Hayek Bros.]
[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Davis hive with newspapers packed between
inner and outer cases, and brood frames on end for the winter.
(Original.)]
It is poor policy to permit bees to enter winter quarters without an
abundance of stores--better twice the amount that will be actually
consumed than merely enough to enable them to live through.
(4) _The bees must be kept dry and warm._--A substantial hive with
a tight roof will keep rain and snow from the cluster; but the bees
must have air even during the severest weather and also when in their
most quiescent state; hence the question of ventilation has to be
considered. It has occasioned more discussion and experimentation
than any other point concerned in the wintering of bees. The amount
of ventilation both indoors and outside, whether upward ventilation
or lower ventilation, or both, and whether through the wooden walls
of the hive alone, have given rise to thousands of experiments based
on all sorts of theories, and innumerable losses have resulted. The
matter is really more complicated than would seem at first thought. The
warm air about the bodies of the bees (the winter temperature of the
cluster being about 72° F.) coming in contact with the cold surfaces
of combs of honey in ordinary hives, or with the inner Avails of such
hives, condensation and deposition of moisture occurs. During severe
weather this accumulates in the shape of hoarfrost, which, melting with
a rise of temperature, trickles down over the combs, the walls of the
hive, and the bees themselves, and, entering the honey cells through
the somewhat porous capping, sours the honey with which it mixes. The
soured food, dampness, and chilling of the bees combine to bring on
diarrhea, which is sure to weaken and decimate the colony if it does
not exterminate it. To avoid these troubles the surplus moisture of the
hive must be carried away by free ventilation, which at the same time
supplies pure air, but which does not create drafts in the hive nor
permit such an escape of heat as will chill the cluster through. Straw
hives (fig. 72) do this well; also the forms shown in figs. 73 and 74
if well packed over the combs and ventilated above the packing.
[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Double-walled hive adapted to outdoor
wintering as well as summer use below 40° north latitude in the United
States. Thickness of each wall, ⅜ inch; space between walls, 2 inches,
packed with dry chaff or ground cork. (Original.)]
(5) _There should be no manipulation out of season._--Breaking up the
cluster and exposing the individual bees and their combs to a low
temperature, as well as causing them to gorge themselves with honey
when an opportunity for a cleansing flight may not occur soon, are also
causes which bring on diarrheal difficulties. Feeding to complete the
winter stores, when necessary, should be done soon after the last honey
flow, so that the bees will settle down for the winter on the approach
of cool autumn days. After this they are better off if left undisturbed
until the final work of preparing them for winter is done, which, if
the hive is well arranged, will be no material disturbance to the bees.
It is always preferable not to be obliged to touch the brood combs or
disturb the cluster when the weather is too cold for the bees to fly
freely.
OUTDOOR WINTERING.
A consideration of the requirements above mentioned leads at once to
the essential features of any plan of outdoor wintering that may be
followed in the colder portions of our country with uniform success,
namely, the presence in the colony of a vigorous queen less than two
years old; a good cluster of healthy bees bred the latter part of the
season, that is, of sufficient numbers so that when closely clustered
during quite cool weather late in October or November not less than six
spaces between the brood combs, and preferably eight or nine spaces,
shall be occupied by a good number of bees, or that the cluster shall
be at such a time not less than 8, and preferably 10 to 12, inches
in diameter; the stores should consist of 30 pounds of well-ripened
honey or thick sugar sirup, stored and mostly sealed over and about
the bees; since in a long, shallow hive the heat is too diffused,
combs much longer than deep should be on end for the winter, to enable
the bees to economize their natural warmth; free access of pure air,
but without the creation of drafts, hence the entrance should be
indirect or screened in some manner; the ventilation should permit the
gradual passing away of the moisture-laden air of the hive, but not
the escape of heat, hence 6 or more inches (in the coldest portions of
the United States 10 or 12 inches) of dry, porous material, soft and
warmth-retaining, should be on all sides of the cluster and near to
it, the whole being protected by waterproof walls from any access of
outside moisture. Care to establish in all cases conditions similar
to the above before bees cease flying in the autumn will insure the
apiarist against any serious losses in wintering out of doors, even in
the severest portions of our country.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.--An apiary in Vermont--winter view. (Reproduced
from photograph.)]
In the extreme South, where bees can fly out at any time of the year,
little extra precaution is needed for the winter beyond seeing that the
stores do not become exhausted during a drought or a protracted rain,
when no honey can be gathered. Just in proportion to the severity and
length of the winter season the above general rules may be looked upon
as applicable, always bearing in mind, however, that in the variable
climate of the middle section of the country many of the precautions
strictly essential in a colder climate may still be profitably
followed, although fair results may be expected in the main without
their strict observance.
INDOOR WINTERING.
Dry cellars or special repositories are utilized in those portions
of the country where the cold of winter is extreme and likely to be
somewhat continuous. Economy of food is one of the chief advantages,
but two-thirds as much, or about 20 to 25 pounds per hive, are needed
to bring a colony through if conditions are favorable. The colonies,
prepared as regards bees, queens, character of stores, etc., the same
as for outdoor wintering, are carried into the cellar or repository
just before the first snows come or severe freezing occurs. Caps are
removed or lifted up and cushions or mats laid on the frames. Light is
excluded and all other disturbing influences in so far as possible,
the effort being made to keep the temperature at about 42° F. during
the earlier part of the winter. Later, especially after brood-rearing
may have been begun, a somewhat higher degree is admissible--45° to
46°, some even allowing it to go up to 50°. No definite rule can be
given, however, since much depends upon the humidity of the air, etc.
As long as the bees remain quiet the temperature is not too high and is
preferably to be maintained. Should they become exceedingly restless,
and the opportunity occur during a winter thaw to give them a cleansing
flight, it will be advisable to return them for a few hours or a day or
two to their summer stands, and when they have flown and quieted down,
replace them in the cellar or repository. In the spring there should
not be too great eagerness to get them out of the cellar, provided
they are not restless. Their confinement indoors makes them somewhat
sensitive to the outside cold, and due caution should be observed, else
the ranks of the workers will become greatly decimated before young
ones appear to take their places.
The same questions regarding ventilation of hives indoors that
puzzle many in the case of those left on their summer stands have
been discussed over and over. All that is necessary, however, is
to consider the same points, the question being less complicated,
though, by reason of the greater uniformity between the temperature
surrounding the cluster of bees and that outside the hive when the
latter is in a suitable winter repository. Some have reported success
in wintering in damp cellars, yet it is probable that such success was
purely accidental, or rather occurred in spite of the dampness of the
repository, the other conditions very likely having all been favorable,
especially as regards ventilation of the cellar, and the important
points of having good stores and an even temperature, which should be
several degrees higher than is required in a dry cellar. Wintering in
a damp repository is, however, attended in general with such risks
that it should by all means be avoided, and the bees, even in a severe
climate, intrusted preferably to their summer stands, if well prepared
as regards their stores and populousness.