Wintering of Bees.
FRANCIS JAGER, APIARIST, UNIVERSITY FARM, ST. PAUL.
The winter losses of bees in Minnesota are great every year. Bee keepers can reduce these losses by preparing bees for their winter-quarters.
The chief known cause for winter losses are: Queenlessness, smallness of number of bees in colonies, insufficient food, improper food, dampness, bad air, the breaking of the clusters, and low temperature.
More colonies die from lack of food and from cold than from all other causes. In fact, most of the other causes can be traced to lack of food and cold.
Queenless colonies will certainly die in a few months.
If the number of bees in a colony is small the clusters cannot generate enough heat or keep it generated and the bees will perish. To avoid this, small colonies should be united in the fall into one big colony.
Bees must have food in the winter in order to generate heat. About forty pounds of honey to the colony should be provided when the bees are put into winter-quarters. Should the colony be short of honey of its own, finished frames may be supplied early in the fall or sugar syrup may be fed. Bee keepers should keep about one well filled extracting frame out of every seven for feeding purposes.
Dark (not amber) honey is poor food for bees in winter. All black honey should be removed and combs of white honey should be substituted. Experiments made by Dr. Phillips, in Washington, D. C., have shown that bees consume least honey and winter best when the temperature inside the hive is 57 degrees Fahrenheit.
Dampness in a cellar causes the comb and frames of the hive walls and cover to get damp and mouldy, and the bees perish from wet and cold after exhausting their vitality in generating heat.