BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
We experimented largely on both cellar and outdoor wintering. For 15 or 18 years, we sintered the bees at our home apiary in the cellar and occasionally also at an outapiary. We discontinued it because, in our latitude, there are too many winters when a number of warm days make it undesirable to have the bees in confinement. We are just a little too far south for regularly successful cellar wintering. If we could foresee the weather, we would put them in the cellar for the cold winters and keep them out-of-doors during the mild ones.
### Our House Cellar
In 1875, we built a house in which a hot-air furnace was placed. We separated a space, measuring 12x22 feet, from the main cellar, with a double-wall partition. The parts of this room that had the outer wall exposed to the weather in winter were also lined with boards and shavings on the inside, so as to avoid the sudden changes of temperature. This bee-cellar, when too cold, was readily warmed by opening the partition door that separated it from the main cellar. In case of too much heat, two windows could be opened and in fact remained open most of the winter. But both the air currents and the heat were easily regulated.
In this cellar we wintered bees for some 15 winters, with very good success. The failures were always due to mild weather, when the sun would permit the outdoor bees to fly and our cellared bees were restless. Ice was tried to cool the cellar but it did not seem very practical. We finally abandoned cellar-wintering altogether as unnecessary in our latitude. We have seen many cellars, in locations further north, and we think the hillside cellar, with a well-protected entrance, on a level with the apiary, is the ideal cellar. It must be deep enough in the hill to be immune to temperature changes.
The degree of temperature that we considered the most desirable in the cellar, was from 42\({}^{\sf o}\) to 45\({}^{\sf o}\). Messrs E. F. Phillips and Geo. **S.** Demuth, of the Bureau of Entomology, section of beekeeping, at Washington, have made extensive experiments and they hold that a temperature of nearly 50\({}^{\sf o}\) is requisite. It would be very unreasonable to differ with them, after the positive tests and extensive experiments made by them. The temperature, as recorded by us in the cellar, might admit of \(50^{\circ}\) at the top of the hives. But there is a very safe way to adjust the advice to give the novice. Have a thermometer, try to find the degree at which your bees are quietest, and hold it at that. Everybody agrees that this is sound advice. When the bees are happy, we can just hear a slight rumble, a "bruissement" as the French call it, much resembling the quiet rustle of the leaves among the trees or the whisper of the waves on a distant shore.
**Wintering in Clamps**
We also tried wintering in clamps, long ago. For two winters, we put our bees in a clamp, just as we would potatoes or cabbage, with the only difference that we had draft holes, for the ingress and egress of ventilation. This method would certainly be successful in cold climates. It failed with us when we had a wet winter, the ground of the silo being soaking wet during the greater part of the winter. The bees suffered from mould and came out in bad shape.
**Wintering Out-of-Doors**
This was the final method adopted by us. We tried colonies in sheds, sheltered by closing the shed in stormy weather and opening it on warm days. This method was very satisfactory. But sheds for hundreds of colonies are not practical. We tried putting large dry goods boxes over some hives, during the cold. This was also good, provided we uncovered our colonies in warm days.
We tried what has been called "chaff-hives," with 2 inches of chaff or sawdust all around, above and below the live body. This was good but entailed the making of very expensive andumbrous outer-cases, which made the hives difficult to transport, especially as our hives are already very large. A chaff-hive of the Dadant pattern weighed 80 pounds, empty. In addition, during one winter we found that the bees which were con fined by the cold needed a flight as often as the weather warmed sufficiently. The colonies in our chaff-hives failed to take flight whenever there happened to be just one warm day, because it took more time for the warmth of the atmosphere to reach the cluster, than with single-wall hives.
We finally adopted the method which gave us the least amount of expense, while securing a good average of wintering, for the winter climate that we have in our locality. The hives are double on the back, as noticed in the description. The brood chamber is reduced to the actual capacity of the colony, by removing all empty frames, if any, and moving the division board to reduce the space as much as possible. Then forest leaves are used both in the body and in the cover, as protection. The oilcloth is first removed, and the straw mat laid directly
Figure 55: Hives packed for winter out-of-doors
over the frames, so that the moisture from the bees may escape gradually through it into the leaves of the cap, without causing a draft of air.
The hive is then wrapped with forest leaves, held in place with wire netting of the kind used for poultry yards. A piece of netting of the proper size is laid behind the hive, leaves spread upon it and both ends brought together in front, which is always faced south, southeast or southwest. In this way the hive is efficiently protected from fierce north winds, but the front is open so as to permit the rays of the noon sun to strike it fully. Whenever a warm day comes, usually about once or twice a month, the bees are able to fly, void their excrements and often rearrange their cluster.
Heavy snows are not objectionable, if they do not cut out the ventilation by thawing and forming ice about the openings. We usually see that the snow is piled freely behind the hives,
Figure 56: A three-colony winter-cats
with an open entrance when a thaw comes. Many people object to letting the bees have a flight in snow time. It is true that many get lost on the snow, unless the weather is quite warm. But we have always noticed that the hives whose bees get the freest flight in snow time, turn out as good as the best.
We never disturb them, for any purpose whatever, during cold weather. Even if we wish to pile the snow on the north side of the hives, we go at it very cautiously, so as not to awaken them, as the few bees that would leave the cluster might be chilled and lost.
Many people believe in what is called "sealed covers" over the brood combs. We don't. We tried this to our heart's content. During the winter of 1884-5, one of the hardest that we ever saw, every colony which had absolutely sealed covers over the cluster, was pitifully soaked by the melting of the ice which formed from the bees' respiration. Wherever the bees had covers in which the moisture could escape slowly through the absorbents in the cap or cover, the colony wintered in much better condition.
This test was made by us accidentally. We had on the hives, right over the top of the frames, oil cloths some of which were more or less damaged by the gnawing of the bees. This was neglect on our part. But as it happened, we found the neglect to have been beneficial. For wherever the oil cloth was perfect, theupperc escape of moisture was prevented. The moisture settled over and around the bees, congaled there, to thaw out and soak them as soon as the weather moderated. In the hives where the oil cloth was more or less damaged, the moisture escaped among the leaves of the upper story, the bees remained dry and conditions were much more satisfactory. Thus, the poorer the "sealed cover" the better the success.
Let it not be understood that we want the bees to have an open super above their combs. No, we try to have for them what we want for ourselves in a cold winter night, a warm, woolly, moisture-absorbing cover, that will at the same time retain the heat. We have no use, either for ourselves or our bees, for an impermeable cover that will confine moisture near the body.
We do not urge the adoption of the above system of winter ing by any one. In wintering, perhaps more than in any other part of the management of the apiary, much depends upon location. Let each man judge of this for himself.
Outer winter cases of different models have been recommended. Some are made to contain 4 colonies; others 3, others still only one. If our opinion is desired, we gladly recommend the 2-colony winter case which does not require the moving of the hives of bees for winter. Two hives may be kept all summer in close proximity to each other; so that they may be incased together without trouble. Whenever we move any hives of bees for winter, we cause more or less of what is called "drifting." Drifting is the loss of direction by some of the bees, because of a disturbance. Whenever some of the colonies are moved, there is drifting. The strongest colonies then gain the greater number of the drifting bees, because they make a greater call, a more discernible noise, which draws the lost bees. So the weak colonies are weakened and the strong colonies strengthened by the "drifting." Very expert beckeepers, with large practice in the use of the packing cases, have acknowledged to us that drifting was one of the main drawbacks of that method.
If the packing of colonies, singly, in thick packing boxes, in a way that they could not at all feel the cold of winter, was not so expensive, it would be the ideal way of wintering bees, even in very cold regions. We have not adopted this method because of the great expense it entails. Our method has been sufficient and although we have lost heavily in a few abnormal winters, we succeed quite regularly. Our losses are not over 4 or 5 per ccnt, one year with another.
## Chapter 13 Diseases of Bees
If any one had asked us, 20 years ago, how much trouble might be expected from bee diseases, we should have probably shrugged our shoulders and answered that they were very insignificant and hardly worthy of notice. For 40 odd years after we began bekeeping, the only disease we saw in the apiary was diarrhea, also called dysentery, from which the bees suffer more or less after a protracted winter, especially when their food is not **of the best.** Spring dwindling, which is a result of this diseased condition, is of importance only in rare seasons and late springs. There is less of it with strong colonies than with small hives.
Foulbrod, in either of its two different forms, was entirely unknown to us. In 1903, the writer had to go as far as Colorado to be able to see some rare samples of it, rare because the beelepers who had it in their apiaries kept it under control by constant fight.
It was not until the spring of 1908 that we found the disease among our own bees. We had been feeding them some very fine western honey, which we had on hand, so as to avoid buying sugar, thinking that the bees would return that honey with ample interest in a very few days. Whether this was the cause, or whether the American foulbrood which had been noticed in many parts of Illinois had just reached us in some other way, we found it very much scattered among our bees, although none of the colonies had more than a few cells of it.
We did not hesitate in treating the bees. We transferred every colony by the method recommended in text books of the most modern date. We will give the method in a few words.
We go to the first colony, remove it from its stand and put upon that stand a clean empty hive with frames containing only a few starters of foundation. All the bees and the queen are shaken into it and treated just like a natural swarm. The contents of the hive are removed, the brood is burned, the balance of the combs rendered into wax, the honey being heated forat least a half hour to the boiling point of water. When the hive has been emptied, it is singed with the flame of a tinner's gasoline torch and, after supplying it with frames, it is then ready for the transfer of the next colony. This work succeeds best when it is done, as we did it, just at the opening of the honey harvest, and with the greatest care.
After 48 hours, the bces are again shaken onto full sheets of foundation, or on combs from healthy colonies if such may be secured. This method is called the "starvation method." By this is meant that the bces are deprived of their combs and placed where they must build combs. So they consume all the honey in their honey sacks, producing wax. This method was entirely successful on the disease which is called "American foulbrood." All the text books describe it. But we might as well give a short description of it here.
In American foulbrood, caused by bacterium named "Bacillus larvae," which was discovered and named by **Dr. G. F.** White of Washington, the unhatched bee dies just about the time when it is sealed in its cell by the workers. Its body decays, turns to a brown coffee color, has the odor of joiner's glue, and when a toothpick is inserted into it, it strings out, like so much liquid rubber, to the length of 2 or 3 inches. These 3 symptoms, when together, indicate positively the existence of American foulbrood.
We succeeded fully in doing away with the disease and afterwards harvested the largest crops that we ever secured. But since the disease is in existence in the country, we find it necessary to be constantly on the alert and treat, without delay, any colony in which it is found, even if only a few larvae are diseased.
Neighbors of ours, who made light of the disease when it first appeared, saw their colonies absolutely ruined in a very short time. Two or three men near us quit the bce business entirely, from discouragement. Yet beckeeping was never so profitable as it has been since it requires greater vigilance than formerly.
We also had a fight with European foulbrood in one of our apiaries. This mysterious disease, caused,according to Dr. White, by a bacterium which he named "'Bacillus pluton," attacks the bee larva when it is small and still coiled in the cell. Some beekeepers say that it has a very disagreeable odor. We have never detected much odor, perhaps because we never allowed it to develop to a dangerous point. We found that the best remedy for it is that given by Alexander years ago and tried with success by Dr. C. C. Miller, removal or caging of the queen for from one to three weeks, during which time the bees clean out the disease, if the colony be strong enough. Weak colonies have to be united. Italian quecns have proven safer than black queens in producing a progeny capable of coping with the disease.
Here we must give extra warning to the beginner concerning the possibility of "robbing" when there is foulbrood in the
Figure 57: Gas torch for singeing hives that have contained foulbrood
apiary. No combs should be exposed, no honey allowed to be robbed, no bees permitted to enter other hives, for in each of those instances there is danger of transmitting the disease. Thus doubrood should be treated at the beginning of a honey crop. If we find ourselves compelled to treat it at other times, it must be done when the bees are quiet, when there are no robbers about.
When American foulbrood is treated properly, with the greatest care, there is but little danger of its reappearance except from outside of the apiary. Not so with European foulbrood; for it seems to reappear mysteriously.
We also met with "sacbrood," a disease of the larvae in which they die and dry up, so that they may be shaken out of the cell. This usually disappears of its own accord, when the good season comes. It may be due to faulty quecns.
We no longer fear bee diseases, though they are unpleasant to meet. Vigilance is necessary, it is true, but in nothing can we expect to reap a reward without labor. It is quite probable that the time will come again when the foulbroods will be as rare as they were 50 years ago. We read in the text books of the first half of the nineteenth century, that some of the leading scientific beekeepers, such as Dzicrzon and Berlepsch, had their apiaries well nigh destroyed by the diseases before they found methods of cure. Earlier still, Schirach, in the Eighteenth Century, discovered that the cure of American foulbrood was to be found in depriving the bees of all honey and compelling them to use that which was contained in their stomachs, because honey is the most active transmitter of what is called "American foulbrood."
There is a very destructive disease of the adult bees called Isle-of-Wight disease, in the British Isles. But traces of a similar disease have done very little harm in this country. However, a disease called paralysis, vertigo, May disease, etc., appears from time to time in different parts of the world. We have seen it, but only on a very limited scale, and it usually disappears with the beginning of the honey crop.
For a more thorough description of all the bee diseases we refer the reader to our larger work "The Hive & Honey Bee."
But let us give one warning: Do not feed to your bees unknown honey, no matter how fine it may be. There is no doubt that honey may be entirely healthy for human beings and yet contain enough of the bacilli of foulbrood to contaminate any colony to which it is fed. Pay no attention to the men who tell you that sugar is not good for bees. If you have to feed the bees and have none of the honey of your own production, better give them syrup made of the very best sugar. There will be no danger of disease
## Chapter 14 Enemies of Bees
We have found no enemies of bees quite so bad as our own selves, when we are neglectful or too varacicious. We have occasionally removed too much honey, to our sorrow later.
The moths have never done much harm in our apiaries, because we promptly accepted Mr. Langstroth's statement that there is no more danger of a healthy colony of bees being destroyed by the moths than there is of a healthy cow being killed by carrion flies; although a queenless colony will be just as readily riddled by the maggots of the moth as the body of a dead cow will be consumed by the maggots of carrion.
We keep our empty combs from year to year, during the winter in a cold honey house, where the thermometer often goes down to zero F. (--18\({}^{\circ}\) C). Neither larvae, eggs nor moths can withstand such low temperatures. In the summer, if the honey house is kept well closed, there is still no danger. But, in the summer, we usually have all our combs in use where the bees care for them better than we could. Hives in which the bees have died at the opening of spring are usually the most fertile breeders of moths, for moth worms often winter in out-of-the-way corners, kept alive by the warmth of the bees. Were it not for such accidental wintering of the live grub, moths would become well nigh exterminated in these northern countries. Such combs should be treated several times during the spring and summer months and it is better to keep them out of the bee house. However, if the treatment is thorough, by burning a quantity of brimstone in an carthen dish, with the supers and combs piled in broken tiers, so as to allow free circulation of the gas produced, the quantity of brimstone that will kill the flies in the room will also kill the moths. The quantity to be used must depend upon the size of the room and its greater or less ability to retain the fumes.
We also use carbon-bisulphide, poured upon a ra and laid at the top of a pile of supers, closing the pile carefully to allow the evaporating gas to penetrate in all the crevices. Care mustbe taken not to bring a flame near, as this gas ignites and explodes.
Other enemies of bees are too insignificant to find a place in this short treatise.
We will here give a few rules that we consider important, in our climate at least:
We never face colonies northward, as the bees often get chilled near the entrance to their home in unpleasant weather.
We never move colonies of bees, even a few inches, without placing a slanting board in front of the hive, to cause them to notice the change of location.
We never disturb colonies of bees in cold weather.
We never try to winter a colony that has less than 6 combs. Such a colony might be wintered in the cellar, if it has sufficient stores. Smaller colonies are united.
We never close colonies to keep them from flying because of snow or rain or other reasons, except to transport them. We consider that enough bees worry themselves to death to make
Figure 58: I.ow, moist, rich bottom land that is good for honey production
up for those that would leave and get lost in the cold or in the rain.
We never use drone traps, moth traps, separators, queen excluders, entrance guards, etc. Separators are useful in combinoney production, but not with our system.
We never cut our queens' wings. We do not disapprove of the practice, but we do not find it necessary in our system.
In our description of the Dadant System of bekeeping we do not wish to be understood as advising the average beckeeper to change from any system that he now uses. There are tens of thousands of beekeepers using 8-frame Langstroth hives, 10-frame hives of the same depth, and even other patterns, with good success. Our own success, for more than a half century, has caused inquiry as to our methods. That inquiry led to the publication of this work. We have no apology to make, but neither do we urge the following of our system nor the adoption of our hive. The only thing which we consider _absolutely indispensable_ in modern bekeeping is the use of a movable-frame hive of sufficient capacity for the prolificness of the queens. But there is no doubt in our mind that a maximum crop of extracted honey, can be secured by the Dadant system with less manipulation than with any other system yet made known. More bees may be kept, more honey produced with the same hours of labor. We have given our reasons for using this method. That is enough. Let the reader decide for himself as to his course.
The _Senior_ editor of the American Rege Journal, who is the author of this book, has spent nearly all his life in a beekeeping atmosphere. His father, the late Charles Dadant, was an investigator who became well known on both sides of the Atlantic. As a young man, the author of this book was associated with his father in honey production and assisted him in the many experiments which he conducted in his efforts to make bekeeping a practical success.
Contains just the things you want to know, in a style easily understood and with many pictures to explain the text. You may safely recommend First Lessons in Bekeeping to your friends.
167 pages, cloth bound, well illustrated. Price, SS1.00.
**American Bee Journal, Hamilton, Ill.**books on"beekeeping for sale by american bee journal
**BY G. M. DOOLITTLE**
An old work that has had a big sale. Gives DOOLittle's methods of queen rearing by artificial grafting. We advise "Practical Queen Rearing" as preferable, but the student or commercial breeder who desires to practice cell grafting will find this work interesting.
Price, cloth binding, $1.00. Leatherette, 50c
American Bee Journal
**Oldest Bee Journal in the English Language. A 36-page**
**Monthly Magazine**
**Subscription $1.50 per year. Canadian postage 15c;**
**Foreign 25c exira**
Every phase of beekeeping is covered in the Journal, every section of the country receives attention. The market page alone is worth several times the subscription price to bepers with honey for sale.
New methods, latest news, illustrated articles on honey plants, free legal service department, questions answered, profusely illustrated, First and best in its field.
If the American Bee Journal is wanted in combinator with any one of our bee books, add $1.25 to the regular price of the book and both book and Journal will be sent postpaid.
**American Bee Journal, Hamilton, Ill.**books on beekeepering for sale by american bee journal
A Thousand Answers to Beekeeeping Questions
BY DR. C. C. MILLER
For over 25 years Doctor Miller has answered questions
for beginners and veterans alike through the columns of the
American Bee Journal. More than
10,000 of these questions have been
answered in this manner. These have
been sifted and more than 1,000 of
them included in this new book, edited by Maurice G. Dadant.
Alphabetically arranged by subject,