site logo

How They Pass The Winter

Categories: ENEMIES OF BEES.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

But it is altogether a different thing with our hives in which bees are

wintered; they are seldom or never entirely exempt! Perhaps it is

impossible to winter bees without preserving some eggs of the moth or a

few worms at the same time. The perfect moth perhaps never survives the

winter; the only place that the chrysalis would be safe, I think must

be in the vicinity of the bees--and a good stock will never allow it

t
ere--but eggs, it would appear, are suffered to remain. In the fall,

at the approach of cold weather, the bees are apt to leave the ends of

the combs exposed; the moth can now enter and deposit her eggs directly

upon them; these, together with what are carried in by means before

suggested, are enough to prevent losing the breed. The warmth generated

by the bees will keep these eggs from freezing and preserve their

vitality. When warm weather approaches in the spring, those nearest the

bees are probably hatched first, and commence depredations and are

removed by the bees. As the bees increase and occupy more comb, more

are warmed up and hatched. In this way, even a small family of bees

will hatch, and get rid of all the eggs that happen to be in their

combs, and not be destroyed. This is the time that the apiarian may be

of service in destroying the worms, as the bees get them on the floor.



More

;