Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1885-11-05
Care of the Bees.

The eighth bulletin of the monthly series
issued by The agricultural college required by
law is by Prof. Cook, on "Wintering Bees. y
The winter losses of the apiary are the most
serious obstacles TO successful Eee-keeping.
The terrible cold winters, during which IRON
fifty to 100 per cent of the bees in the Northern
states are lost may be expected about once in
three years, according to past experience.
Prof. Cook thinks that with full knowled le
and equal care the loss may be wholly prevent
cd. The requisites TO success in wintering
are. Enough good food, uniform temperature
without the hives Of about forty-fve degrees
Fahrcnhee, slight ventilation, and cover to
ihe hive which Is non-conductor OF heat. The
food may be either honey or cane-sugar s, rup.
ANY kind of honey wholesome and palatable
to the taste will do. Bees should not go into
the winter with less than thirty pounds Of food,
which will suffice from September to the fol-
lowing harvest The temperature should not
fall below thirty-eight degrees nor rise above
fOrty-seven degrees during the winter. From
the experiments OF many years Prof. Cook
thinks that the cellar wintering is far prefer
able in this climate to packing or all methods.
Other methods may succeed; this with proper
care, surely VIII.
For cover, cloth, with filling of fine chafT
or fine dry saw-dust, serves well. He prefers
a factory cloth over the bees and a burlaps
sack fun Of dry saw-dust still above tue cloth.
The method Of procedure at the college apiary
Is given AS soon as frost stops storing six or
eight frames are placed where lncN are ucslrcu
for winter. These should be nearly full of
honey place a short stick above the center
of the frames so that the cloth can not ilt too
closely. This permits the bees to pass over.
AS soon as the brood Is all Matched remove all
other frames and pack well above and beside
vhe bees. If we are TO pack out doors, do it
now. From the 1st to the 10Th OF November,
before severe weather. place the bees in the
.ellar open the entrances and remove the
covers, but do not remove the cloth or the bur-
laps sack. IL they are in a poor cellar and
become diarrhetc, IL is best To remove them
for few hours some warm day when they
can fly out for cleansing fight, and then re-
turn them to the cellar We should not re-
move the bees finally from the cellar till they
can 60 to work in the prinC which in central
Michigan is not before the 10th or 18th of
April In the spring when the bees are placed
on the stands, on a warm, quiet day we would
clean all the hives out thoroughly and remove
frames Of comb, and move up the division
board so that all the frames left wilIbo COW
cred with bees We should also cover above
and protect ut the sides with ample packing.
AS the bees increase more frames should be
added, and as soon as the bees can protect the
brood. the weaker may be strengthened by
CAPPED brood from the stronger. Such has been
the practice at the college, and we haze not
been troubled by loss from "sprlng dwndling"
Prof Cook Is sanguine that If the sugges tons
contained in the bulletin are needed, winter
losses win much less vex our northern bee
keepers.