The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-11-23
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WlNTERlNG BEES.
Causes of Faiiure-Requisites to Success
Wintering on summer Stands.

Causes of Faiiure-Requisites to Success.
Wintering on summer Stands.
There are so many cases of failure
that the problem of a successful winter
ing of bees cannot be too thoroughly
studied. The main causes of such fail
ures are: A population too weak to
maintain a sufficient degree of heat in
the hive; a quantity of food inadequate
to the needs Of the colony during the
winter months; food of so poor a quail
ity that bees living on it cannot remain
i'll good health; a hive which cannot
sufficiently protect bees against the cold
of winter; a hive SO close that tho
dampness produced by their breathing
vets the bees, their comb and their food;
q sequestration of bees, o long pro-
tracted TO allow them TO get rid of their
feces before they become sick with di-
arrhea. To overcome these difficulties
beekeepers have tried several ways Of
wintering bees--on their summer stands.
in rooms above ground, in silos, in cell
lars. Charles Dadant, whose successful
! operations in the apiary entitle his
| opinions to consideration, says in a
communication to Prairie Farmer:
The first requisite to succeed in win
tering bees on their summer stands is a
large population. A part of it ought to
be young bees. A large population
maintains easily the heat inside the
hive, and the bees can easily pass from
an emptied comb to another containing
honey. A colony containing a quantity
of Young bees succeeds better in its Win
tering than another with old bees only,
because the young bees, who have gone
out of their Hives but a few times, are
more careful and do not rush out far
from the hive, as do the older bees.
Honey is the only food necessary III
winter for bees oil their SUMMER stands,
but it is TO be noticed that the food is
used not only to sustain life, but to pro-
duce the Indispensable warmth, for it
has been often ascertaincd that a large
population has consumed less in winter
than Il smaller one, whose bees were
compelled to eat more to keep warm. 1t
is generally admitted that 20 pounds of
honey per colony are not too much to
spare the beekeeperS all anxiety about
the needs of their bees during the winter.
When but a few colonies of an apiary
are short of honey, the most simple
means is to take from those which have
some to spare what the others need.
Such an operation is easy with movable
frame hives. But when no colony has
any honey to spare, and this happens
often to beekeepers who use small hives,
the best food to give is sugar sirup, fed
to the bees III October. This strip,
made with a quart of boiling water and
4 pounds of g~ranulated sugar, to which
a pound of honey n more is added to
prevent capitalization. is given at even
ing. when yet tepid, in old tin can COW
cred with n piece of cotton cloth and
inverted OH the upper bars of the frames.
The bees suck the sirup through the
cloth. The Hill bee feeder, made on
the same principle, but entirely of tin,
: is also used and saves much labor. A
strong colony can put in the comb in a
single night the contents of three or
four of these cans. But the insufficient
quantity of food is not the only want to
be supplied. Its bad quality should also
be feared, for honey dew, Or dark honey
from fall flowers, contains too much in
digestible matter.
When tho cluster of bees is unable to
produce the indispensable warmth dur
ing the cold days of winter, they die
sometimes partially and often wholly.
To prevent such accidents some bee
keepers use chaff hives, or hives with
double walls, the interior of which is
filled with chaff or with sawdust. Some
other beekeepers, for winter, lodge ev-
cry one of their hives in a large box
furnished with a passage for bees. We
, prefer to protect our hives during win
: ter only against the northern winds.
Our method is to heap around each hive
{ a pack of dry leaves or straw, which is
5 kept against the hives, on three sides,
with rope ladders, each of which is
) made with about IL half laths, leaving
| the front side of the hive free, so as not
to prevent the II from warming the
entrance during the few warm days of
winter. Before winter we remOve the
alright ceiling which covers the top OF
the frames of our hives and replace it
with a straw mat, on which we heap up
3 dry leaves. The dampness produced by
the bees passes through the mat and
> condenses in the leaves which are wet
} by spring, while the inside Of the hive
is very dr..
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