THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



341 



A few years ago we used to get all 

 the honey we conld get put into the 

 upper stories; then during the last half 

 of September in this location, when the 

 brood was pretty well hatched out, we 

 fed granulated sugar syrup to make 

 up any shortage in winter stores. 

 This latter plan is very good indeed 

 when one has but few bees and plenty 

 of time; but when one begins to count 

 his colonies by the hundred, and many 

 of them are away from home, we find 

 that many methods we used to tolerate 

 and practice wiih one home yard are 

 not practical when one is managing 

 several out-yards. Then from a finan- 

 cial standpoint the difference in price 

 between the buckwheat honey and 

 granulated sugar is offset by the item 

 of labor in extracting the honey and 

 feeding back the sugar. 



I told you above, there was one 

 reason besides writing that called me 

 to the bee-yard this beautiful August 

 morning. It is this : The allowing of 

 the bees to crowd their hives so full of 

 honej' has caused a verj' few to swarm; 

 and to catch these stray swarms is the 

 other reason. What I do with these 

 late swarms is another subject. 



By this time the reader will have a 

 pretty good idea of the condition our 

 bees will be in when the season closes, 

 so I can now take up the main subject, 

 the wintering of bees in clamps. 



In the first place, the word "clamp" 

 may confuse some. It is nothing more 

 than a trench dug in the earth, about 

 18 inches deepi, and wide enough so 

 two rows of hives will go in nicely 

 without crowding; then the length of 

 the clamp will depend on the length of 

 our 2x4 scantling which we place in 

 the bottom of the clamp lengthwise to 

 set the hives on. It may .seem strange 

 that the length of the scantling should 

 have anything to do with the length of 

 the pit. The fact is, it does not. We 

 simply dig our pits this length for con- 

 venience, for we find that it does not 

 make any difference about the length, 

 only we had rather better results with 

 from 20 to 35 colonies to the pit, so of 

 late years we make three or four pits 

 to the yard, of 20 odd colonies. Three 

 scantling are laid in the bottom of the 

 pits — one in the center and one at each 

 side, flat side down, to set the hives on. 

 The hives are set in without bottoms, 

 or with the deep entrance open if the 

 bottom board is left on. Then we 

 think the combs come through the 

 winter in better shape — that is, with 

 1©S5 mold and dampness — if we raise 



the covers half an inch or so to provide 

 upward ventilation through the hives. 

 As we give no outside ventilation, the 

 hives and combs are somewhat damp 

 when we dig them out in spring. We 

 have tried outside ventilation. While 

 the hives and combs come through the 

 winter in a little better condition, the 

 bees did not come through quite as 

 strong; for you see it is hard to ar- 

 range an outside ventilator in a clamp 

 so it will not let in more or less light; 

 and we laj' it to this light that the bees 

 worry and lose a larger per cent of 

 their numbers than without venti- 

 lation. 



When a pit is full of hives arranged 

 as above, the top of the hives will be 

 three or four inches below the surface 

 of the ground our pit is dug in. We 

 now throw on 18 inches of long straw, 

 the same as if we were burying pota- 

 toes, apples, etc. Of course it will not 

 be 18 inches deep when the earth is 

 shoveled on, but it ought to be 18 

 inches when arranged with the fork 

 ready for the earth. We now shovel 

 on earth until we are sure no frost will 

 reach them. It usually takes some 

 more earth than we throw out of the 

 pit to cover them properly. 



They are now ready for their long 

 winter sleep; and if it is vour first 

 venture in this way of wintering I 

 know just how you feel when you are 

 throwing on the last shovelful of earth, 

 thus (to you) shutting off the last bit of 

 air from them, as if you were glad it's 

 only a few of your bees you are run- 

 ning the risk on. We used to call our 

 first-buried pit of 22 colonies "the 

 grave" and the neighbors would look 

 dubious, and make remarks something 

 like this: "He is a little off;" "one 

 would think to look at him he had 

 more brains;" "bull-headed people 

 sometimes go wrong," etc. 



Of course, we knew nothing of these 

 sayings until 3 ears aftewards, when 

 the success of this way of wintering 

 was assured; then one and then an- 

 other would speak out and say, "I did 

 not think it possible to burj' bees up 

 excluding all the air, and have a 

 single bee come through alive." Then 

 he would tell of what Jones said when 

 he first heard of my burj'ing bees, 

 something on the line of the quotations 

 above. 



The soil ought to be of a loose sanJy 

 consistency. Keep throwing on dirt 

 until no more will stay, as we depend 

 on this steep slope of the pit to turn 

 the water off. Then a good idea is to 



