Evening journal., 1908-11-13

Preparing the bees for winter Now
is the time to prepare the bees for the
winter. There is little left for them
to do 1t is too cold outside for them
TO gather honey. Only In the middle
of the day do they fly out and
then only to return empty handed 10
their hives. unless some belated house
keeper has been making jelly and sets
it outside to cool and the bees find it.
1t will not take them long to report the
rich find TO their home fellows and in
short time a whole swarm OF bees win
be on hand to carry home the spoils.
The drones have all been driven out
to die. No room in a bee hive for any
useless bee during the winter. The
poor drones, unable TO make their own
living even If the fields were full of the
precious sweet, quietly submit TO their
fate and die. some ON the sides of the
hive. some under the hive and some in
the grass In front OF the hive in full
sound of the hum of the busy workers
that had so graciously supplied their
wants heretofore.
AS the cold weather approaches the
bees arrange the stores of honey 10 the
best advantage for their winter use and
form themselves into a cluster in as
near the centre of IL as possible lt Is
wonderful the amount of heat that
cluster of bees will hold As heat
rises to the top they have sealed all
cracks or crevices that might allow the
heat to escape. They feed on the honey
that is nearest the cluster and when a
warm day comes they will move the
cluster over nearer the supply of
honey During a period of cold
weather they will live ON the
honey they had taken the precaution
to store in the honey sacks in their
bodies, and when the first warm day
arrives they will break up the cluster
and fill up with honey again, and re-
forming the cluster win be ready for
another spell of cold weather.
In preparing them for the winter.
some protection should be afforded
them on the top to prevent the escape
of heat. This is done by putting on
an empty super and filling it with a
cushion made of straw or hay; or one
I or two hran sacks and on top of them
newspaper. This is all the protec-
tion needed in this climate. Farther
north the bees are taken into the cell
lar during the winter. Cellar winter
ing is attended with many difficulties
There is no need of explaining the
manner of cellar wintering as in this
climate bees generally winter better
out doors.
II is important that each colony
should have sufficient supply OF
honey TO carry them through the win
ter. About 25 to 80 pounds of honey
will be sufficient. After a little ex-
perience it can be determined wheth-
er there is sufficient amount by
merely lifting one end of the hive and
judging the weight But If the hiv,
should be opened and the frames
examined. the outside frames should
be filled with sealed honey and the next
frames partly filled. Each frame hav.
ing less honey until the middle frame
would show only little honey at tn,
top
Should the colony not have enough
of honey, it should be given enough
to make up at least % pounds. n,
further attention need be given tn,
bees until spring. If the snow shoul,
cover the hives no attention need b.
given to ii as enough air will ge
through the snow TO keep them alive
and the bank of snow will keep then
warm. The snow, however. viii sool
melt at the entrance.and unless it cai
flow away II might block up the en-
trance by freezing at night, in whicl