For the American Bee Journal.
Who is to Blame for the Losses?
C. H. DIBBERN.
Already the reports of fearful losses are coming in thick and fast. Every severe winter the story is the same. Now the question arises, are these losses of bees inevitable every cold winter? If so then our business as bee-keepers is still a mere matter of luck.
During the last few years of mild winters the out-door wintering men have had things about their own way in our bee-papers. Now, are these papers not a little to blame for admitting articles to their columns giving bad advice to the inexperienced? Many have advocated the wintering on summer stands without protection or care, and persistently claim to be masters in bee-keeping. I am perfectly willing to admit that bees can be wintered very nicely on summer stands in a mild winter, also that they are wintered successfully if well packed in chaff in a cold winter; but I claim that the labor of preparing them is more than double that of cellar wintering.
I contend that the only certain way is to prepare a suitable place especially for the bees. If a cellar, have the floor cemented and see that it is dry, dark, and well ventilated. In such a place they will not consume more than half the amount of honey they would if left out “packed” in the most approved style. This being a fact they have no particular occasion for a flight. I know that the out-door men claim that cellar-wintered bees do not breed early and are liable to “spring dwindle.” I hardly know what spring dwindling is. By good spring management I have never failed to have my hives crowded as soon as there is anything for the bees to do. Then what is to be gained by having the queen expend her energies and raising vast broods of bees in February to be ready to die when the blossoms come? But sometimes failure comes even in the best of cellars; but would they have fared any better out of doors? Nine times in 10 the cause can be traced to bees filling their hives from the refuse of cider mills. How to keep them from storing such stuff is one of the great problems to be solved.
It is not to be supposed that any kind of a hole under a house will do to winter bees. I have known bees to be packed away among onions, cabbage, and sour kraut. In the spring they wonder what made their bees die. Perhaps they were fastened by wire cloth so that the light could be let in and the bees could not “get out you know.” That such must fail is apparent.
I do not find fault with those who prefer to pack in chaff and winter out of doors; I cannot see, however, that it is the best way.
It will be the “survival of the fittest” this winter, sure. The box hive men and careless bee-keepers will go out of the business. It is the golden opportunity for the bee-keeper of the future. Soon the fields will be white with the harvest, but the laborers will be few. The bees will have less competition in the fields and the honey in the market.
Milan, Ill.
[Are the papers reprehensible for giving place to candid and respectful arguments, whether based upon tenable or doubtful theories, intended to advance and simplify a science of such magnitude as the bee-keeping interest? Differences of opinion (and honest ones, too,) exist in almost all leading pursuits, and frequently, although seemingly contradicting each other, lead to successful results: again, as has been frequently demonstrated during the past winter, practices embracing all the most approved theories, have alike proved disastrous. There are so many favorable contingencies to be provided, that theories are powerless to insure success. It is interesting, as well as mystifying, to glance through our correspondence from week to week, and note the different methods of preparing bees for winter, and the disasters attending all the different styles. Nor are the cellars exempt from heavy losses, even where success has been proverbial heretofore: The truth is, the winter has been an exceptional one, and loss or success with a single or a few individuals, will neither establish nor disprove theoretical assertions; nor will it justify the “I told you so” class, because successful, in arrogating to themselves all of human wisdom.— Ed.]
☞ The North Western Wisconsin Bee-keepers Association will meet at Germania Hall, LaCrosse, Wis., on Tuesday, May 10, at 10 a.m. All interested in bee-keeping are requested to be present.