Read Ebook: The Preparation of Bees for Outdoor Wintering by Demuth Geo S George S Phillips Everett Franklin

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A common practice has been to remove the hive cover when the bees are packed for winter and to cover the frames with burlap or some such porous material, the object being to allow the escape of any moisture which may be generated within the hive during the winter. Moisture is being generated constantly as the bees consume the honey stores, but if the bees are adequately packed the amount of moisture will be reduced to the minimum. The chief dancer, of course, is from moisture which condenses, and in an adequately packed hive there is no condensation. The temperature never goes low enough for water vapor to condense. Therefore it is obvious that upward ventilation for the escape of moisture is never needed in hives that are packed as they should be. Any beekeeper who has had trouble in the past with condensed moisture in the hives, or with wet packing over the porous tops, may be sure that he has not provided enough packing material.

Another thing is to be considered in connection with the subject of upward ventilation. The entrances to the hives must be greatly reduced in order that there may not be excessive loss of heat at that point. If upward ventilation is provided, there is opportunity for the wind to blow through even the small entrance, through the hive and out through the porous cover. This current of air will be slight but nevertheless it exists, and serves as an avenue for the escape of considerable heat.

If insufficient packing is provided, upward ventilation becomes almost necessary, unless a large entrance is left. The beekeeper must see to it that he is providing adequate packing material before he gives up the upward ventilation, but he should not count his bees well packed for winter so long as he must provide for the escape of condensed moisture.

THE ENTRANCE.

As has been pointed out, the entrances of hives must be greatly reduced during the winter in order that the efficacy of the bottom packing may be preserved. It is desirable, however, that provision be made for larger entrances during the early fall and again in the spring. To provide conditions suitable at all times while the packing cases are on, the Bureau of Entomology has adopted a type of entrance which to some extent has been used previously in the North. Five 3/8-inch anger holes are bored in the ends of the packing case at a height that will allow for the thickness of the case floor, the bottom packing, and the thickness of the bottom of the hive. This usually is a little over 6 inches from the lower edge of the case ends. No alighting board should be placed at the outer entrance holes, as it is not needed and serves only to collect snow and ice.

To prevent the tunnels from getting out of alignment at the outer edge, a peg of the diameter of the holes is inserted through the outer hole for each hive and into the tunnel . This peg is usually about 2-1/2 inches long. This leaves four auger holes, each three-eighths of an inch in diameter, for the bees to use as an entrance during the fall and spring, and during the colder weather a piece of section material or a small board is tacked over three of the holes. This gives in winter a single hole for an entrance, three-eighths of an inch in diameter. This provides a place for the bees to remove their dead, a place for flight on moderately warm days, and also provides adequate ventilation for the hive while the bees are confined without an opportunity for flight. However, the size of entrance should not be discussed without warning beekeepers that unless adequate packing is provided, such a small entrance may result in the death of the colony. Furthermore, a poorly packed colony will not be able to carry out the bees as they die, and the death rate will be higher; and these things combined may result in an accumulation of dead bees at the entrance, which will serve to suffocate the remaining bees. A colony that is well packed, however, is able to remove all dead bees as fast as they die, and there will never be an accumulation on the floor of the hive. Furthermore, a well-packed colony does not need so large an entrance for ventilation as does one that is not packed or which has not enough packing. If snow drifts over the small entrance here described, the beekeeper need have no anxiety, for the bees can still receive adequate ventilation. If a crust of ice closes the entrance it will be well to break it, but usually the escaping heat will melt this ice before any damage is done.

WINTER SCHEDULE.

Great confusion has existed among beekeepers as to the right time to pack the bees for winter, and especially as to the right time to remove the packing in the spring. It is quite possible to give definite directions for both procedures and to place the recommendations on a firm foundation by basing them on weather phenomena. The maps , showing the time of the first average killing frost in the fall, serve as a basis for the recommendations for each of the zones into which the map of the eastern United States is divided. Perhaps it will be a matter of surprise to beekeepers in parts of the South to see that, so far as the wintering of the bees is concerned, they are as far north as beekeepers who live many miles farther toward the pole.

The lines on figure 5 indicate the average dates of the first killing frost in the fall, and these dates, given at the ends of the heavy lines, are of direct value to the beekeeper as giving the proper time for putting on the winter cases. The average dates of the last killing frost in the spring do not show exactly the same lines on the maps, but the differences are not sufficiently great to justify the use of a separate map for this purpose. The authors have chosen therefore to divide the country into the zones indicated, and the recommendations given below apply to each of the zones shown.

In this column the first figure represents in inches the amount of packing needed below the bottom boards, the second the amount of side packing, and the last the amount needed on top.

TIME FOR PUTTING ON THE WINTER PACKING.

Frequently great loss of colony strength is due to delay in putting on the packing. Perhaps this is the most common source of loss in outdoor wintering aside from that due to a failure to pack the bees at all. Packing should not be deferred after the flowers furnishing the last honey are killed by frost. In case the late fall flowers furnish honey that is to be removed, then it is necessary to wait until nectar is no longer coming in before applying the packing, but it is indeed rare that the last honey should be taken away, and it is good beekeeping to apply the packing even before there is any frost at all. The determining factor is the necessity for handling the bees. If more stores must be given them or if some of the late honey is to be removed in order that it may be replaced by better honey or by sugar sirup, then handling of the bees after frost may be needed, but after the last essential handling it is much the best plan to pack the bees. In pints of the country where bees are wintered outdoors it is quite customary to delay packing until Thanksgiving Day, but this is too late by far except in the extreme South .

It is safe, therefore, for the beekeeper to use the dates shown in figures 5 and 6 and the data given in Table I as a guide to the time of packing. He may be assured that if he delays packing later than the dates shown therein the bees will suffer by a loss of colony strength and vitality at a season of the year when they can ill afford to be weakened by neglect. Under no circumstances should packing be delayed more, than two weeks after the date given for each zone. Further, if packing is delayed until after cold weather begins, the disturbance of the colony may induce the beginning of brood-rearing, find this in turn may result in the death of the colony. If by chance a colony has been left unpacked until after the bees have been confined by cold weather for three or four weeks, the packing may do more harm than good.

TIME FOR THE REMOVAL OF PACKING.

The dates given for the removal of packing in the spring follow approximately the average dates of the last killing frost in the spring for each locality. In case local conditions make the removal of the packing unnecessary as early as the dates indicated, it is entirely safe to leave the packing on until some manipulation makes it desirable to handle the combs, as this can not well be done while the hives are heavily packed.

WINTER STORES.

In packing bees for winter two things require attention so far as stores are concerned, and one is as important as the other: There must be plenty of honey in the hive to last until the spring honey-flow, and the stores which will be used by the bees during the period of confinement in winter must be of the best quality and well ripened.

It is, of course, possible to give the bees more honey or sugar sirup after spring opens, but this means that the colonies will need to be handled during this period, and this is not the best plan. It is commonly said among the best beekeepers that "the best time to do spring feeding is the fall before." The safest plan by all means is to allow each colony to have at least 45 pounds of honey at the time the bees are packed. They should then be allowed to keep any honey which may come in later, and it will be adequately ripened if the colony is well packed. This will be small in extent if they are packed at the right time, and the bees will also have their stores replenished by small amounts of honey which come in during the early spring before they are unpacked. This amount of stores for winter will seem large to many beekeepers who have been in the habit of leaving loss, but the object of the plans herein set forth is to have much stronger colonies than are found in the average apiary in the spring, and the amount of stores mentioned may be needed. The only places where beekeepers might have some reason to reduce the amount of stores are locations where the honey granulates quickly, in which event it can not be extracted later. Such honey, however, usually is as good for winter stores as if it were not granulated, and it may then be saved for stores the following winter. Forty-five pounds of honey on the hive is a better investment for the beekeeper than money in the bank, and more beekeepers make mistakes in this regard than anywhere else in the work of the year. Honey that is high in gums, as many of the honeys which come from various trees, is not good for winter stores. Honeydew honey is still less desirable. When either is present it is best to remove it and either to give frames of good honey to take its place or to feed about 10 pounds of good honey or sirup made of granulated sugar after all brood-rearing has ceased. Honey or sugar sirup which is fed late is stored in the place where the last brood emerged; it is therefore the first of the stores that the bees use. As long as they are having good honey or sugar stores for winter use the condition known as dysentery will be warded off. Then, later, when they have used up the good stores, the weather will permit frequent flights, and then the less satisfactory stores will do no harm. Honeydew honeys usually may be detected by their bad taste, accompanied ordinarily by a dark, muddy appearance. In case of doubt as to the stores it is always safe to give good honey or sugar sirup. Unfortunately it is true that many of the fall honeys are not of the best quality for winter use, and this, in part, accounts for the heavy losses of bees occurring regularly in some parts of the country.

ALL THE FACTORS OF GOOD WINTERING ARE NEEDED.

One frequently encounters beekeepers who condemn winter packing, stating that they have tried it without success. The writers have met many such beekeepers, and many of them are good beekeepers in other respects. On careful inquiry it is learned that in all cases they have omitted some vitally important factor. The most common fault in winter packing is to leave the entrances of the hives wide open. This, of course, nullifies the benefit of the packing to a large degree, and one need not be surprised that these men do not find virtue in packing heavily. Another common fault in packing is to omit the packing from the bottom. Snow acts as an excellent insulation, but one can not be sure that there will be snow at just the right times, and it is therefore necessary, to insure good wintering, that good packing be placed on the bottoms.

It is also common to face the hives to the south and then leave the fronts without packing, under the erroneous impression that since the heat from the sun will enter more readily, the colonies will be benefited more than they would be if they were heavily packed in front. To combat this view it should be necessary only to point out that the sun shines only a small fraction of the hours during winter. Furthermore, any place through which heat may enter easily serves also as a place through which heat escapes. In certain well-known cases the other factors of good wintering, strong colonies and good stores, are so well provided that the loss from this lack of protection is not detected, yet it is certain that in any such method of wintering there is a great loss of bee vitality, and the bees are compelled to do more work in heat generation than would be the case were they well packed.

It can not be stated too strongly that the right way to winter bees is to provide all the factors needed, and not to omit any of them simply because in most years the bees can get through without all dying when less help is given. The three things necessary for successful earing for bees from the time they are packed until they are unpacked in the late spring are plenty of protection, plenty of stores of good quality, and plenty of room for the building up of the colony strength in the spring. None of these may be omitted without reducing the colony strength in the spring, and, as every good beekeeper knows, it is the strong colonies which get the maximum crop.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS IN WINTERING.

It is often difficult for a beekeeper to know whether he is wintering his bees as well as he should, for he may not have been able to learn from reading or visiting other apiaries how well colonies may be brought through the winter. The writers therefore have attempted to give here a few measures which the beekeeper may apply to his apiary, that he may be able to decide whether his methods of wintering should be improved.

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 stand 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 or 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 duly 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.

But I ought to say to you that it is not only necessary that these achievements should be repeated, but that they should be exceeded. I know what this advice involves. It involves not only labor but sacrifice, the painstaking application of every hit of scientific knowledge and every tested practice that is available. It means the utmost economy, even to the point where the pinch comes. It means the kind of concentration and self-sacrifice which is involved in the field of battle itself, where the object always looms greater than the individual. And yet the Government will help and help in every way that it is possible.

It was farmers from whom came the first shots at Lexington, that set aflame the Revolution that made America free. I hope and believe that the farmers of America will willingly and conspicuously stand by to win this war also. The toil, the intelligence, the energy, the foresight, the self-sacrifice and devotion of the farmers of America will, I believe, bring to a triumphant conclusion this great last war for the emancipation of men from the control of arbitrary government and the selfishness of class legislation and control, and then, when the end has come, we may look each other in the face and be glad that we are Americans and have had the privilege to play such a part.

THE BUSINESS OF AGRICULTURE.

The next great factor to enlist for the betterment of Agriculture and rural life in this Nation is the business man of the town and the city. He has not always been alive to his obligations. He has contented himself, in too many instances, with plans to secure profit in agricultural trade, instead of sympathetically and eagerly planning constructive assistance. This duty, pressing in peace time, is of the most urgent and impelling character in this crisis; and I appeal to the bankers and business men to see that they omit no effort to familiarize themselves with the agencies serving to aid the farmers and to promote wise plans to secure the necessary results.

D. F. Houston, Secretary of Agriculture.

In the interest of our national development at all times and in the interest of war efficiency just now our agriculture must be well maintained. It should be remembered that the agricultural unit is a small unit. There are 6,000,000 farms in this country, each an individual unit. It is to the interest of persons who do not live on farms, even more than to the interest of those who do live on farms, that production shall be kept up. This means that all people, not farmers alone, but those who live in cities as well as the farmers, are interested in experimental and educational activities along agricultural lines as conducted by the Federal Government and the States. These efforts should be liberally supported.

R. A. Pearson, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture.

In a time like this no man has a moral right, whatever his fortune may be, to employ another man to render any service, of mere comfort or convenience. When the finest young men of the United States are in France digging ditches, sawing lumber, laying rails, and playing with death, and when the finest young women of the United States are scrubbing floors in hospitals, it is a sin that almost approaches the unpardonable offense against civilization for any man or women in the United States to engage in a wasteful or unnecessary service.

Clarence Ousley, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture.

BEEKEEPING IN WARTIMES.

It is imperative that the sugar crop of the United States be increased, and every supply of supplemental sweet should be augmented to the greatest possible extent. Honey is one of the best of these and its production may be increased without great effort. The supply of nectar from which the bees make honey is bountiful and the only limitation to honey production is whether the price obtainable for the honey justifies the labor of the beekeeper. There is no question of this in wartimes.

The recent demand for honey for export has been greater than ever before and the home demand has also greatly increased. Because of the shortage of sugar, all forms of supplemental sweets are being utilized and none of these appeals to the tastes of the consuming public more strongly than does honey. This increased demand has raised the price of honey and it is therefore a paying business to produce it to meet this need, in addition to the fact that the beekeeper may feel that he is materially assisting in the food crisis of the Nation. It is to be expected that even after the war is over this demand for honey will not cease, for many people are eating honey now who were not familiar with its delicious qualities, and they will not forget how good it is.

In the production of honey, it is of the first importance that the colonies of bees be kept strong, especially that they be strong before the beginning of the main honey-flows of the early summer. To bring about this essential condition, the most important step is the proper wintering of the bees, and this bulletin has been prepared that beekeepers throughout the country may be able to get their bees through the winter without the great loss of colonies and reduction in strength of those which still live which have been so common in the past. The proper preparation of the bees for winter now becomes not only a patriotic duty, but it is good business.

KEEP MORE BEES. KEEP BEES BETTER

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