286 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



The foundation of a crop of honey 

 rests in the successful wintering- of 

 bees, and this is the result of many 

 things. Strong colonies alone will not 

 insure safe wintering-, neither will a 

 warm cellar, nor chafF hives. Perfect 

 stores will come the nearest to it, but 

 they can't be depended upon alone. 

 In some localities the natural stores 

 can be depended upon; in others part 

 of the natural stores are all right for 

 wintering purposes, and others are 

 disastrous. There are methods where- 

 by the right natural stores may be 

 secured for winter, or, if not, the col- 

 onies may be brought through the 

 seasons practically free from natural 

 stores, when it is an easy matter to 

 furnish them the best of all winter 

 stores — cane sugar. 



When the food is all that it should 

 be, then comes the matter of protection; 

 shall it be packing of some kind, such 

 as sawdust, or chaff, or planer shav- 

 ing's, or shall it be the cellar ? 



If it is the cellar, then follow the 

 matter:^ of temperature, moisture, venti- 

 lation, etc., all of which have a bear- 

 ing^ upon successful wintering. There 

 is a way of telling whether a cellar is 

 damp, how damp it is, and whether it 

 is too damp (depending upon the temp- 

 erature) and there arc methods of 

 rendering it dry if it is loo damp. 



Besides the matter of ventilation to 

 the cellar itself, which also has a bear- 

 ing upon temperature, there is the ven- 



tilation of individual hives, so that the 

 dampness may pass off, yet leaving the 

 cluster always dry and warm. 



Then there is the giving- of protection 

 in such a manner, when wintering bees 

 in the open air, that the cluster may 

 remain warm and dry. 



Successful wintering is really a 

 many sided subject, but it can be 

 mastered so as to be able to bring^ col- 

 onies of bees throug-h the winter safe 

 ly as may be done with a cow or horse. 



All of the leading factors of success- 

 ful wintering, as well as the minor de- 

 tails, are given in the book Advanced 

 Bee Culture, and I am satisfied that 

 any man who reads this book, and fol- 

 lows its instructions, will winter his 

 bees with practically no loss. Last 

 fall I put 104 colonies of bees into my 

 cellar, and took them all out in the 

 spring alive, dry, clean, healthy and 

 strong, and I know I can do this every 

 time, and so can others if they will fol- 

 low the instruction that I give in Ad- 

 vanced Bee Culture. 



If you have failed in wintering your 

 bees, or, if 3'ou have succeeded only in 

 a measure, and would like to secure 

 perfect wintering, get the book now, 

 and read it, and put into practice its 

 teachings, and next spring will find 

 you with strong, healthy colonies — the 

 foundation of all honey crops. 



Price of the book $1.20, or the Review 

 one year and the book for onl^' $2.00. 



MUTCfflN^ 



FiLIHT, MICH. 



