The twice-a-week Twin Falls times. (Twin Falls, Idaho) 1916-1918, 1917-10-18

out if we do not offset their need for
SO doing. This is one great reason
for the loss OF winter bees. which
wear themselves to death irving to
keep warm
70 test these matters beyond dis
pute, hives were specially rugged with
scientific thermometers. one Just in
SIDE the entry one in the middle. and
one near the rear of each hive: and
sun others through the packing, made
| OF sawdust l6 inches deep on the ton
sides and bottom Of the hive From
this it proved that brood-rearing
starts even in February with a pro-
duced heat of 94-6 degrees F. As soon
as the brood is gone, the bees lower
the temperature throughout the hive
TO 81 or under, when the thermom-
eters failed to register where the
! bee cluster warmth was Hollow air
spaces failed to keep heat in unless
packed with fine material such as
saWdust, clover chaff, etc, in prefer
! ence to coarse straw, and the like
Moisture: Where does most of the
/ water come from which condenses on
the inside of the hive during the win
| ter? Is it from the outside air. as
| some beekeepers claim? Then how
can you explain that cold air can
! come into a warm hive and condense
moisture when we know that as cold
/ AIR warns it increases the power of
| air to absorb moisture? DR.. Phil
| lips proved this beyond dispute by
/ demonstrating with tests at his apial.v
office in Washington, d. c., that the
bees give or breathe off this water
moisture. He showed that honey
weighs II pounds to the gallon and
water s pounds, and that about one
gallon OF water was generated in the
mve for every gallon of honey con
sumed. Now at 81 degrees F, bees do
not consume honey in quantity suffi-
Gent to give off any water. There
! fore, it would be a suggestion to solve
the heat problem, by keeping the bees
/ at such low temperature that they
| would consume little stores and at
the same time reduce the moisture
problem to nothing, or practically
nothing.
Faces: 1t is now generally under
stood that the clover aphis honeydew
was the cause, or a chief one for the
severe losses of 1916-1917 In other
words, it has been shown that if bees
store hOneydcw for winter feeding.
they get a dangerous dysentery which
| destroys the whole hive full. Careful
| investigation shows that bees can not
ulgest starch, nor even some sugars
which are digestible to man. Fur
ther, they can not digest deXtrine or
turning to sugar. In alfalfa honey
there is 1 per cent gums which they
90 not digest although man can II
a sample of hOneydew honey sent in
from Washington state. there was II
per cent gum or deXtrine, quite in
contrast with the famous south Idaho
| water white alfalfa honey of % gums
Here is q difference in gum contents
OF "a times. An Idaho sample of
honeydew honey had 8 per cent gums
last spring taken out of an overwin-
tering but very feasible hive of bees.
| This is Is times what the pure south
| Idaho honey contains. Now bees do
not void liquid excreta anywhere in
a hive but hold it in them for DAYS
till some warm winter day they can
take short noon flight to expel the
accumulated waste gums If their
food stores make the faces collect
1925 times faster than normal, they
struggle against all possible physical
endurance, burst, pollute the food
stores and all begin to sicken from
! the resulting filth when all the bees
are too cold to keep clean Since
they are very irritable under such
conditions, must eat more to get the
same amount of food value, and more
to support the greater activity from
irritability, and fan more, the heat
rises, they become more active, eat
/ hiOlSs even Try 10 rear D1OOQ, and
wear out in midwinter weather. even
it winter temperatures. "They burn
the candle at both ends" This was
/ the test in proof a wintering cellar
| had temperature of 43 degrees F.,
while the cluster was IS degrees F.
They had hOneydew stores. In 60 days
! the temperature rose to SO degrees
due to accumulated faces in their in
! testines, and so continued. 1t is prob
able that Idaho beekeepers had I'M
! fortunate brOOd-rearing in every hive
where honeydew was commonly pres
ent.
1t thus appears that insulation is
the first great demand for successful
wintering. In saying this, he did not
/ deny but that dysentery rarely comes
when wintering on good honey 1t is
when the chance to fly does not come
often enough in a severe winter like
the zero weather last January. If in
stead of good honey, the stores are
| honeydew, 16 feet of insulating pack
ing would not save the bees. Now it
often happens that the beekeeper
/ tests his hives in fall and finds them
full of honey and at that, much con-
| taminated with honeydew. He can not
I expose the bees to the cold fall while
he extracts the poor honey nor has he
left enough good honey to replace so
much poor stuff Let us say all his
surplus good honey has been already
sold. What shall he do? Now it us
ually happens that there is some late
brood after the time the bees can Sc
cure any more outside honey, i. e., nee
tar. Let him at once feed his bees
bio pounds per hive of sugar syrup
(made of parts sugar to one of wat