THE BEE-KEErRRS' REVIEW. 



1J5 



broody loiiihs lor inakiuj^ tbe test I 

 ttok tlu'iu out of colonies tluit had 

 foul brood, and extracted the hone.^ 

 before putt in j; them in the tank. 



Afierwards, I used the combs bv 

 lutting liuni in healtliy colonies, by 

 ] utting bees from foul-broody coloniee 

 (II them, aftei- lirst starvuig the bees, 

 ■•Mid by uiviiii;- tliem to a colony that 

 I secured in transferrin,!;' a colony 

 from a barn*!. No foul brood ever de- 

 veloped in any case after the combs 

 had l)eeu subjected to the stronii 

 fumes in the tank. 



Mr. Weber's method is pi-ol)ably all 

 ri,i;ht. but it would be too slow if tliere 

 were many combs that needed treat- 

 ment. If I had many cond)S to be 

 treated, I should think seriously of 

 makin.u' a room as tight as possible, 

 a room largi* enougli to hold all of my 

 extracting-combs. and then turning 

 the gas into it. Even if tlie room was 

 not air-tight, by keeping a stream of 

 gas going into it constantly for sever- 

 al hours, it would be kept full, just 

 as a leaky tank might l>e kept full 

 il a small stream of water was con- 

 stantly poiued into it. 



Clayton, Mich., April 24, 1903. 



ARMTH, NOT FRESH 

 AIR, IS THE GRE.^T 

 NEED OF BEES IN 

 WINTER. 

 BY IRA BARBER. 



Friend Hutchiusou—The April Re- 

 view came safely to hand yesterday, 

 and the tir-;t thing that attracted my 

 attention was Mr. F>ingham's criticism 

 of my article on airing bees. I might 

 say that the article was not written 

 for Mr. Hingham's benefit, as it has 

 several times been published thai 

 lie Jins au ideal repository for winter- 



ing bees, and I have no desire to dis- 

 iiua> iiiui. 11 was written for that 

 l.irge c.ass of be(>-ke(>iiers who so of- 

 ten inciiiirc iiow lliey can build a 

 place in which to winter their bees, 

 when they i)robably already have as 

 good a place as they can build. 



For more than 25 years I have been 

 li-.ving to gel my bees through the 

 winters Willi ii,i loss. I have tried 

 wintering them in [ills, both below an 

 al.o\e gioniid, in rooms in my house, 

 in out-buildings, in cellars, l)oth wet 

 and dry, and I never met with com- 

 plete success, until au accident one 

 winter closed the ventilator to a small 

 cellar in which 1 had packed 225 colo- 

 nies just as snugly as they could be 

 packed. AVhen I visited the cellar in 

 the spring, and found the ventilation 

 completely sliut oft', and the bees so 

 hot that they were all in a mass to- 

 gether, yet they came out tlie strong- 

 est of any lot of bees that I ever win- 

 tered, without the loss of a colony, I 

 concluded tliat I would try them iii 

 the future with no ventilation. 



Mr. F.ingham does not see why the 

 fresh air should be so baneful to bees. 

 The fresh air is all right for the bees, 

 or foi' anybody, the trouble is that 

 the liees are too frisky when they get 

 a snift' of it. I could tell of all my 

 long experience in wintering bees, but 

 it Avould make a very long article, and 

 I will simply say that for the last 20 

 years, my bees have Avintered better 

 without ventilation than they have 

 with it. That is why I now look upon 

 the airing of bees as a step backwards. 

 Mr. Bingham asks if the large bee- 

 keepers referred to in my article were 

 ever aide to Avinter their bees success- 

 fully in cellars until they adopted 

 tlie plan of feeding sugar syrup to 

 tlieir bees just before putting them 

 into the cellar. In reply I would say 

 that no one in Northern New York 

 feeds sugar to bees for winter use, 



