PRESERVATION OF HIVES IN WINTER, AND
MEANS OF PROTECTING THEM FROM THE COLD.
The most important point that remains to be treated, is the
preservation of hives in winter. This severe season, which lasts at
Neufchatel four months, from the commencement of November to the end
of February, and which is even longer in the mountains, causes the
death of more bees than all the enemies of all the other seasons put
together; and mostly, too, from our own want of attention. It is
by practice only that true principles can be laid down: and these
principles must be variously modified, to adapt their application
to the differences of temperature and locality. One can learn with
certainty only by the light of experience. I shall proceed to tell
what it has taught me; and here I enter on the most difficult and the
most essential part of my task.
We must suppose that the necessary care has been taken to ascertain
that each hive has the quantity of provision necessary for its
subsistence until the return of the fine season, and it is better
that they should have too much than too little; for bees are great
economists, and never waste their superfluity.
I lay down as a general rule, and without any exception, that bees
ought never to be fed during the winter. Food given them during that
season causes disease, breeds infection, particularly if they are kept
confined; and if they are at liberty, and forced out by the unwholesome
smell of the hive, they are likely to perish from the cold. Besides, it
always appeared to me that they consume more when food is given them by
little and little, than when they have it in store. I have pointed out,
in Chapter VIII. the certain rule by which the quantity of provision
may be estimated; and, in Chapter XVII. I have detailed the method
of supplying them in autumn. Thus they will be saved from hunger, if
my advice be followed. Let us now see how they may be defended from
cold, and the fatal effects of a long imprisonment. Some winters are
so long and so rigid, that our valuable insects suffer greatly from
the intensity of the cold; and the least evil it does them, is to
crystallise their honey, which is then no longer of any use to them.
The warmth keeps it in a fluid state; but this warmth, concentrated
in the middle, or on one side of the hive, does not prevent it being
candied in the other parts of it. More candied honey will generally be
found on one side than the other. This may be prevented by narrowing
the entrance, and closing up every crevice by which the external air
can penetrate. Our industrious and provident little labourers set
the example. Their instinct leads them, during the summer, carefully
to close up every crack or joining of their habitation, with a sort
of gummy matter called _propolis_, which cannot be penetrated either
by the mice, the moths, or the ants. I have seen an excellent swarm
perish, in consequence of a slight bend in the board, which left an
interstice on each side, through which a cold north wind sifted, and
froze more than three-fourths of the bees; and no after care was able
to save those that were left.
Two years after, another hive, belonging to the same person, carefully
plastered round, but being made of too slight material, too thin, and
having no covering, lost at least two-thirds of its population from
cold. It was saved, however, by great care, and in time recovered. It
is to avoid similar disasters that hives are commonly taken into the
house; but this exposes them to the evil arising from infection.
A thick strong-made hive is a more certain protection from the cold
than one that is thin and light. It keeps in the warmth, like suitable
winter clothing; while the other resembles an unseasonable summer
garment: and, for this reason, I have recommended, in Chapter VI.
not to spare the _material_. Notwithstanding the excessive cold of
Lithuania, and the north of Russia, the swarms succeed in finding for
themselves a comfortable abode in the hollows of the thick oak-trees,
through which the cold does not penetrate. But, in addition to
the warmth arising from the thickness of the hive, I always cover
mine, during severe weather, with a piece of old blanket, or some
such thing, to check the first impression of the cold; and as few
country people have a thermometer, by which to estimate the degree of
temperature, they should hasten to thatch, or cover them, in some way,
whenever they perceive the hoar frost on the glass of their windows,
which will be the case when the common thermometer of Fahrenheit
descends three or four degrees below the freezing point.