Read Ebook: Wintering Bees in Cellars by Demuth Geo S George S Phillips Everett Franklin

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 112 lines and 10994 words, and 3 pages

It will be impossible to maintain the temperatures recommended unless the cellar is built in the way described, or in some other way by which the cellar is equally well insulated. It is impossible to maintain an equable and high temperature in a cellar the walls and ceiling of which are exposed to the outside air.

VENTILATION OF THE CELLAR.

If the proper temperature is maintained in the cellar there will be little need of ventilation, for in almost all cases there will be sufficient interchange of air to keep the bees in good condition. If the temperature is as low as 45? F., a little ventilation will be needed, although most of the bee cellars that have been built have had too much ventilation, and as a result it has been impossible to maintain a correct temperature within them. In cold weather the tendency toward an interchange of air is greatest, and at such times the ventilators may be entirely closed. In mild weather it makes no difference if large ventilators are open, unless this results in too great a rise in temperature.

In a well-insulated cellar it should not be necessary to ventilate at night at the approach of spring to cool the air inside, for the bees will not get so warm from their own activity as will bees in a cellar that is or has been too cold. The greatest problem in most cellars is to maintain the right temperature during the spring just before the bees are to be removed. The trouble is that in most cellars--those which are too cold in winter--the bees generate heat constantly during the winter and as a result have an accumulation of feces in the intestines, resulting in a condition known as dysentery. For this reason they become excited easily, and beekeepers have thought it necessary to ventilate the cellar at night freely in order to remedy this trouble. The proper method, of course, is to prevent it by keeping the temperature higher during the winter, but if the temperature has fallen too low during the winter ventilation at night seems to help somewhat. It is safe, however, to say that a cellar in which this happens is not satisfactory as a place to keep bees during the winter, and steps should be taken to insulate it more completely before bees are put into it again. If the bees are wintering on stores that are not of the best quality the tendency to accumulate feces will be far greater, even with the right temperatures inside the hives, and if there is dysentery it may be relieved somewhat by ventilation, although this is simply reducing a symptom and is not removing the cause of the trouble.

VENTILATION OF THE HIVE.

Since bees in a good cellar require little ventilation, practically no attention need be paid to this subject if the cellar has been built in the way advised. If the temperature of the cellar tends to fall too low, it is advisable to reduce the entrances of the hives, for with a greater difference between the temperatures within and outside the hive the tendency for interchange of air will be correspondingly greater. In any cellar fit for the wintering of bees it will be neither necessary nor desirable to ventilate the hives at the top, as sometimes has been recommended.

The ventilation of the hive within the cellar is not so much for the elimination of foul air as for the escape of moisture, and therefore the amount of ventilation needed for the hive depends upon the humidity of the air within the cellar. If the temperature of the cellar is kept high enough there will be no condensation of moisture within the hive, and if water is ever observed on the covers of the hives it is conclusive proof that the cellar is too cold for the bees. In a cellar so cold that condensed moisture shows on the bottoms of the hives stops should be taken at once to raise the temperature.

CLEANING THE CELLAR.

In even the best of cellars there will be some dead bees on the floor, and those may be cleaned up once or twice during the winter. In a cellar with proper temperature there will be few dead bees until after the middle of the winter, but the death rate increases toward the close of the winter. If the cellar is cleaned, it should be done with as little disturbance as possible. No bright light should be admitted at this time, although a moderate amount seems to do little harm until after the bees have an accumulation of feces in the intestines.

REMOVING THE BEES FOR FLIGHT DURING THE WINTER.

Some beekeepers have advocated removing the colonies toward the end of the winter for a flight on some warm day and then replacing them, on the supposition that the flight would enable the bees to stand a longer period of confinement. It is found, however, that if bees are disturbed, as by carrying them out, they begin brood-rearing almost invariably, and this does more harm than the flight does good.

DISTURBANCE DURING THE WINTER.

Work in or about the bee cellar while the bees are confined should be done with the least possible disturbance of the bees, for often a little handling or jarring of the hive causes sufficient excitement to increase the temperature of the cluster to the point where brood-rearing begins. This is true especially in late winter. It is by far the wisest plan, therefore, to stay out of the cellar during the winter, except on the few occasions when a little work, such as cleaning out, makes a visit seem needed. Care should be taken not to jar the hives or to allow light to strike the entrance. Of course, if bees are being wintered in a cellar which has the right temperature, a little disturbance does little or no harm, but there is no reason why bees should be disturbed in winter and the beekeeper should not run any risk of starting brood-rearing.

REMOVAL OF THE BEES FROM THE CELLAR.

TIME.

The old rule of many beekeepers is to take the bees from the cellar when the soft maples are in bloom. This is an excellent rule in localities where there are trees of this species. In general, in zone 1 the right time to take the bees out of the cellar is about the time of the spring equinox .

In choosing a time for the removal of the bees, the beekeeper again should watch the weather maps closely. He should choose a time when a high-pressure area is just passing and at the approach of a well-defined low-pressure area. At such a time the weather will be cool, not permitting the bees to fly, but at the time of the low-pressure area the weather will become warmer, allowing the good flights, which are then badly needed.

If the bees are taken out at a time when they can fly at once--and some beekeepers prefer this--they should be taken out in the early morning, so that they can have a good flight before night. Bees should not be taken from the cellar at a time when they can fly only a little, but they should either be taken out when they can not fly at all or at a time when they can fly freely almost at once. Bees in good condition rarely fly freely unless the outside temperature is as high as 60? F.

PREVENTION OF DRIFTING.

When the bees are taken from the cellar and placed on their summer positions they sometimes tend to leave the weaker, colonies and on their return to collect in those with greater populations. This is known as "drifting." In general, the bees tend to drift toward the windward side of the apiary. Most frequently they join the hives that were first set out and which have established a strong flight by the time the neighboring colonies have first taken wing. The tendencies, therefore, are to join flying colonies, stronger colonies, and the end colonies in a row. The condition of the bees plays a large part in drifting, for if the bees are badly in need of a flight because of dysentery they go at once into the air without properly marking the location of their hive, and therefore are not able to find it when they return.

To prevent drifting, it is best to set the bees out when it is too cold for them to fly, so that as the weather warms, permitting flight, this will take place more naturally. It is also well to reduce the entrances so that as the bees leave the hive their tendency to orient themselves will be greater. It is claimed by some beekeepers that if the cellar is well aired the night before the bees are to be removed, they will be in better condition and will drift less, but it is not clear what difference this can make unless the clusters are made tighter because of lower temperatures.

Beekeepers have discussed the question whether, after removal, the bees should be placed on the same stands occupied by them the fall before. If the bees could remember their old location so that they would return to it, even after an interval of four months, it would be necessary, or at least desirable, to place each colony on the same stand which it occupied previously. There is no evidence, however, that the memory of the bees is so good, and it is usually the ease that the bees of a colony will lose the memory of location within a week; therefore no attention need be paid to this feature.

PROTECTION OF THE HIVES IN THE SPRING.

The greatest objection to wintering bees in cellars is that after they are removed they are exposed to low temperatures. The ideal practice would be to pack the bees after taking them out in much the same way that bees are packed for outdoor wintering, but the work involved makes this impracticable. There can be no doubt that protection at this time would be beneficial. As has been pointed out, the apiary site should be one in which the hives are well protected from wind, and it is advantageous if the apiary grounds slope toward the south in order that the bees may have the fullest advantage of heat from the sun. If the bees have been wintered in the cellar in double-walled hives they will have the advantage of some protection when they are taken from the cellar. The beekeeper may feel safe in giving the bees all the protection possible at the time that they are taken from the cellar, knowing that it is impossible at this time or any other to insulate the hive too well.

In deciding whether the hives should be packed in the spring the beekeeper should be governed largely by the condition of the bees. If they have wintered well they will be able to stand greater extremes of temperature in the spring without loss, but if they have been wintered in a cold cellar they will be greatly injured by cold weather after they have been set out. Of course, the need of protection is determined chiefly by the kind of weather prevailing during the first few weeks after the bees have been taken from the cellar. In some seasons the weather is so fine that the bees would be little benefited by packing or other protection, but the beekeeper can not influence the weather, and the only safe plan is so to place the bees that if the weather does turn cold they will still be safe. Here, as everywhere else in beekeeping, it pays to be on the safe side, so far as protecting the bees is concerned.

PROVIDING BREEDING ROOM AND STORES IN THE SPRING.

After the main honey-flow is past it is usually desirable that each colony be kept in two hive bodies of full depth. Most producers of extracted honey do this, but too many producers of comb-honey are not adequately supplied with hive bodies and do not give the second body. These two hive bodies should be left with the bees at least until brood-rearing ceases, and at this time one of them should be removed if the bees are to be wintered in the cellar. As has been pointed out in other bulletins of the department, if the bees are wintered outdoors they will do better in the two hive bodies throughout the winter.

In the upper hive body will be found a considerable amount of the honey to be used by the bees up to the time of the next honey-flow. Usually there will be enough in the lower hive body for the bees while they are in the cellar, especially where comb-honey is produced, but if the lower hive body is not adequately supplied with winter stores the beekeeper should move some of the stores. It is also a good practice to winter the bees in the cellar in a hive containing the full stores, except that this makes it necessary to carry in hives weighing perhaps 80 pounds.

After the second hive bodies have been removed, if they contain honey they should be stored in a warm, dry place, where the honey will not be injured. If it is possible to place such hive bodies in the furnace room of the residence, this will be found to be ideal. If no such place is available, the beekeeper may keep these in a dry cellar or other location where the honey will not be exposed to rapid changes in temperature. For this purpose a place suitable for the storage of comb-honey is desirable. It should be pointed out that the honey in these combs should not be extracted. It will be needed for the building up of the colonies the next spring, and to remove it is simply to reduce the crop of the next season.

Some time within two weeks after the bees have been taken from the cellar, depending on the weather, each colony should be provided with its second hive body. Preferably, this should be placed underneath the hive body in which the bees were wintered in order that the propolis at the top of the hive may not be broken. At this time an examination of the colonies may be made from below to see whether any of them are queenless or require immediate attention for other reasons, but at this season there is little that the beekeeper can do that will help the bees other than to provide them with room for the brood and with adequate supplies of stores. Queens should not be clipped at this time, and usually not until settled weather has arrived. Further spring manipulation is not necessary and the bees are better off if the beekeeper lets them alone.

If the bees have been requeened at the proper time and if the total amount of stores is given as indicated, it will not be worth while to go through the bees to look for queenless colonies. The beekeeper should see to it that at least 45 pounds of honey are provided for each colony from the time of the last honey-flow in the fall to the beginning of the first main honey-flow of the following season. If this is not given in full, the beekeeper may be sure that the crop of the following year will be reduced. This amount of honey left for the use of the bees is a better investment for the beekeeper than money in the bank.

It should be pointed out that the giving of a second hive body in the spring is not simply a means of supplying additional stores, but more than one hive body will be needed for the development of the brood. A single 10-frame Langstroth hive is not large enough for the development of a good colony of bees, which, before the beginning of the main honey flow, should have brood to fill at least 12 frames.

As was stated earlier in this bulletin, a colony of bees from one season to the next needs three things in abundance--room for the development of the brood, stores of good quality, and protection from wind and cold. In cellar wintering the protection is given by putting the bees in the cellar; the room and stores must be supplied later or the population of the colony will be reduced at the critical time of the honey-flow. If the early sources of honey are abundant, the amount of honey advised will not be consumed. The wise beekeeper, however, does not gamble on the early honey-flows, but invests this honey as life insurance for his bees.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS IN CELLAR WINTERING.

It is often difficult for the beekeeper to know whether his bee cellar is giving the best results, for he may not have been able to determine from reading or the observation of other cellars whether it is satisfactory. The writers, therefore, have attempted below to give a few measures which the beekeeper may apply to his apiary and his cellar, so that he may be able to decide whether his methods of cellar wintering should be improved.

During the winter a thermometer inserted in the entrance of the hive should show a temperature of at least 52? F.

There should never be any condensed moisture on the covers of the hives, and certainly never any on the bottoms.

While, the cellar should be kept dark at all times, if a candle is held at the entrance of a hive at the end of January it should be several seconds before any of the bees break cluster. Frequently the cellar doors may be opened in March without disturbing the bees.

There should never be many dead bees on the bottom of the hives. The live bees should be able to push them out as they die during the winter. The bees thus carried out will be found on the cellar floor just below the entrances. If there are bees all over the floor, it shows that these bees have flown from the hives--an indication of poor wintering.

The bees should be quiet during the late winter. Noise at this time indicates that the bees are disturbed by an accumulation of feces, caused by low temperatures or poor food.

If the bees were in good condition in the fall and have been wintered well, the loss during the winter will never be more than one-sixth of the total population of the hive. Such a loss is excessive, however, and in a well-wintered colony it may be as low as a hundred bees. This probably depends to a large extent on the age of the bees which go into winter, and if the temperature is right and the stores good there will be almost no loss of vigorous bees.

The bees should not leave the hive while they are being carried from the cellar. If they do, it indicates that they are excited by an accumulation of feces.

Before removal from the cellar there should be no spotting of the hives from dysentery. There may be a little spotting after the bees have had a free flight outside, but if this is small in amount it does not indicate a serious condition.

When the bees are taken from the cellar there should be no moldy combs, for the cellar at the right temperature will be too dry for the growth of molds.

There should be no brood when the colonies are taken from the cellar. Brood-rearing in the cellar is proof that the cellar is too cold or that the food used by the bees is inferior.

Enough brood should be in each colony at the opening of the main honey-flow to fill completely 12 Langstroth frames.

The population of the hive should not decrease appreciably after the bees are removed from the cellar. Such a condition, known as spring dwindling, is an indication of poor wintering. For three weeks after the hives are set out no new bees will be emerging, but the loss of bees during this time should be so small as not to be noticeable.

THE PRESIDENT TO THE FARMERS OF AMERICA.

The forces that fight for freedom, the freedom of men all over the world as well as our own, depend upon us in an extraordinary and unexpected degree for sustenance, for the supply of the materials by which men are to live and to fight, and it will be our glory when the war is over that we have supplied those materials and supplied them abundantly, and it will be all the more glory because in supplying them we have made our supreme effort and sacrifice.

In the field of agriculture we have agencies and instrumentalities, fortunately, such as no other government in the world can show. The Department of Agriculture is undoubtedly the greatest practical and scientific agricultural organization in the world. Its total annual budget of ,000,000 has been increased during the last four years more than 72 per cent. It has a staff of 18,000, including a large number, of highly trained experts, and alongside of it stands the unique land grant colleges, which are without example elsewhere, and the 69 State and Federal experiment stations. These colleges and experiment stations have a total endowment of plant and equipment of 2,000,000 and an income of more than ,000,000 with 10,271 teachers, a resident student body of 125,000, and a vast additional number receiving instructions at their homes. County agents, joint officers of the Department of Agriculture and of the colleges, are everywhere cooperating with the farmers and assisting them. The number of extension workers under the Smith-Lever Act and under the recent emergency legislation has grown to 5,500 men and women working regularly in the various communities and taking to the farmer the latest scientific and practical information. Alongside these great public agencies stand the very effective voluntary organizations among the farmers themselves which are more and more learning the best methods of cooperation and the best methods of putting to practical use the assistance derived from governmental sources. The banking legislation of the last two or three years has given the farmers access to the great lendable capital of the country, and it has become the duty both of the men in charge of the Federal Reserve Banking System and of the Farm Loan Banking System to see to it that the farmers obtain the credit, both short term and long term, to which they are entitled not only, but which it is imperatively necessary should be extended to them if the present tasks of the country are to be adequately performed. Both by direct purchase of nitrates and by the establishment of plants to produce nitrates, the Government is doing its utmost to assist in the problem of fertilization. The Department of Agriculture and other agencies are actively assisting the farmers to locate, safeguard, and secure at cost an adequate supply of sound seed.

The farmers of this country are as efficient as any other farmers in the world. They do not produce more per acre than the farmers in Europe. It is not necessary that they should do so. It would perhaps be bad economy for them to attempt it. But they do produce by two to three or four times more per man, per unit of labor and capital, than the farmers of any European country. They are more alert and use more labor-saving devices than any other farmers in the world. And their response to the demands of the present emergency has been in every way remarkable. Last spring their planting exceeded by 12,000,000 acres the largest planting of any previous year, and the yields from the crops were record-breaking yields. In the fall of 1917 a wheat acreage of 42,170,000 was planted, which was 1,000,000 larger than for any preceding year, 3,000,000 greater than the next largest, and 7,000,000 greater than the preceding five-year average.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet