ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



59 



Another thing, and perhaps it is 

 known, that we follow the forest leaf 

 method of packing our bees. Forest 

 Ieq,ves are cheap; our bees are next to 

 timber, and we p£)ticed long .ago that 

 where leaves are gathered in the forest 

 wjjece the timber is thick you will find 

 the ground unfrozen in the coldest 

 weather. You will find the ground 

 loose under the leaves, where the leaves 

 are very thick, indicating that the 

 leaves are good insulators. 



Doctor Phillips — And they keep dry. 



President Baxter — I would say that 

 the leaves absorb the moisture and the 

 bees are dry. 



We have been following the method 

 now for thirty-five years with great 

 success. You remember the terrible 

 winter of 1884-S5; my losses then w-ere 

 only among those that w-ere not packed 

 according to my method — the Dadant 

 method. Out of sixty hives we lost 

 all but 12, those having the sealed cov- 

 ers. I did not lose 5 per cent where the 

 sealed covers were taken off and re- 

 placed by a mat and capping filled with 

 leaves. 



When you pack bees you want to 

 have good strong colonies — fairly good 

 stores; don't tr>' to winter on poor col- 

 nies, poor stores and a lot of honey- 

 dew. 



I have been using for the past 35 

 years chaff hives. "The chaff packed 

 hives always come ©wt in ^;he spring 

 better and use less honey. 



In 1911, I had an apiary six miles 

 east of town; it had eighty colonies. I 

 packed the bees with a big load of 

 leaves and mats for all colonies, but 

 didn't have enough leaves to pack 12 

 of the colonies; I was short 11 mats. I 

 took the cover off of one and put the 

 mat over that one colony and left with 

 sealed covers the other 11. Those 11 

 were dead in the spring. TheNqne wds 

 alive with the mat on top the frahi6< all 

 those that were packed with leaves 

 were alive. 



In 1884-5 the bees actually starved 

 to death because they could not get at 

 the stores — those that were packed 

 with leaves were nice and dry and 

 could get at the stores at any time. 



Doctor Phillips — At Ontario, in 

 speaking of outdoor wintering and 

 packing, somebody said something 

 about the Langstroth hive, and one 

 bee-keeper got up and said that if Mr. 

 Langstroth could see the thing that 



was called the Langstroth hive today 

 he would turn over in his grave. His 

 hive was the double- walled hive and 

 he always advocated hive insulation. 



President Baxter— =-1 have found great 

 objection to the Langstroth hive for 

 wintering; the shallowness of the 

 frame; in deeper frames they winter 

 better with the same kind of packing. 



Mr. Stone — I just put cheese cloth 

 over my brood frames and leaves on 

 top of that; I find it as good as burlap 

 and it keeps the leaves from falling 

 through, which is all that is needed. 



Mr. Pyles — I think I have said be- 

 fore at the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association: There are some things we 

 don't know. 



About the wintering of bees: the 

 matter of packing; the getting ready or 

 not getting ready. 



, Some four or five year's ago Mr. Kil- 

 dow and I went down to one of our 

 neighbors to look at some bees he had. 

 We had in view the idea of buying. 



Ha had every kind of hivet under the 

 sun except the modern one; one thing 

 he had was a box about one foot square 

 and another box about a foot square 

 to get the surplus honey; the hive was 

 standing there without any cover with 

 two feet of snow. That is the kind 

 of hive they had wintered in and it was 

 the strongest hive of the bunch, with- 

 out any protection whatever, w'ith two 

 feet of snow lying on the ground; those 

 were fine and in first class condition, 

 and I would be glad if I could have my 

 colonies go through the winter in a 

 modern hive in the condition that old 

 square box w^as in. 



Doctor Phillips — The hive fitted the 

 cluster, didn't it? 



Mr. Pyles — No, the cluster when I 

 saw it was bigger than the hive. There 

 was that snow lying on top and when- 

 ever it melted it must have run down 

 upon those bees. 



I have sectional hives; have a %- 

 inch bee space in front (the entrance). 

 I pried up this hive one winter from 

 the bottom board and put a 2-inch 

 block under it. I had plenty of leaves 

 and during the4«)ne-y flow ,in_ the sum- 

 mer time there was an abundance of 

 ventilation. I left those hives down 

 before winter and had this %- 

 inch entrance in front. Two or three 

 thicknesses of burlap were placed and a 

 telescope cover on top of the hive. A 



