The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1921-02-17

set 10 work 10 clean house" with all
the vim and hustle of the human
housewife. While they are unable
to take broom and mop to remove the
accumulated debris, their methods
are fully as effective. Each worker
will seize one of her dead sisters By
wing or leg, drag the burden out
through the entrance and, if possible,
fly several yards away from the hive
before dropping her load. Others
seem content to push the dead bees
through the entrance and let them
drop to the ground where they some
times accumulate in such numbers as
to lead the inexperienced bee mar TO
believe he is losing his colonies.
The bee keeper who has carried his
colonies through a number of winters
notes with a good deal of satisfaction
the brisk activity of the bees in get
ting rid of the useless litter, but any
hive which, after a spell Of warm
weather, does not show indications Of
house cleaning, is at once an object
of suspicion and the owner takes the
first opportunity to find out why the
bees are not taking advantage OF
their opportunities. Sometimes a
rap on the side Of the hive will be re-
warded by the appearance of a few
bees at the entrance, or it may bring
only a sleepy buzz in protest against
the disturbance. Lifting the hive for
the purpose Of forming an estimate
of food conditions may convey the
information that grim starvation i:
lurking in the hive, in which case the
bees have little ambition to engage
in labor which they know only toe
we'll will be useless and for which
days, possibly weeks, of short ra
tions have reduced strength and vi
tally to a point where manual labo.
is impossible. In case a shortage o
stores is indicated, if the owner i
to save the colony he must take ad
vantage of the first warm day to opeI
the hive and give the bees one o
more frames of sealed honey, or, il
the absence of honey, give them
4 supply of pure sugar syrup, z pint
+ of graduated sugar to | pint of wa
teri in a suitable feeder.
1t may be that because of stores o
poor quality, such as h~oney-deW
: which the bees sometimes gather i
/ quantity late in the season, the bee
e are afflicted with d~ysentery, or tina
; through loss Of the queen at the be
e ginning of Winter there is apparent
t ly no hope of starting brood rearing
: In either case the bees are more tina
likely to remain quietly in their clu>
= ter, too sick or dispirited to take not
:, of the fact that outside the sun
Y shining and that their more prosper
Gus neighbors have been release
from confinement and are having
e holiday. Given a supply of food Q
good quality, the dysentery will prof.
e ably disappear, but for the colon
5 which is ~queenless in Winter nothin.
e can be done except to wait for tn
y coming Of settled warm weathe
when the remnant of the colony ma
y be united with another hive, or,
e still strong in numbers, a queen ma
d be purchased from a breeder and il
;, troduced.
The colonies which have bee
packed at the beginning of Winter
that is, the hive given suitable pre-
n lection against both cold and wei
y will usually be found in the Sprin
to be in much better condition tina
e those which were given no protection
e Also, it will be found that brood rear
e ing has been started several week
earlier in the protected hive, and i