THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



363 



If I wanted bees to breed in the winter 

 and did not care whether I had mouldy 

 combs or not, I would advocate tight 

 covers; then the bees could have all the 

 moisture they wanted, as, if they did 

 not reach up and take down the big^ 

 drops as they hung^ on their ceiling, 

 the drops would fall down upon them 

 whether they approved of it or not; but 

 with the flat reversible cover drawn 

 forward so that there is from V to Yz 

 an inch space across the top of the hive 

 at the back, there is perfect hive-venti- 

 lation; and no matter how much thin 

 sprup is fed, there will be no large 

 drops of water falling on the bees, 

 killing them and destroying the combs. 



I have very little to say about the 

 temperature of my cellar. Sometimes 

 it down near freezing, and, at other 

 times it is near 50 degrees; but I think 

 the bees are better at 40 degrees than 

 at 50; that is, for the early and middle 

 parts of the winter. 



Notwithstanding what I have said 



about having hives and combs dry in 

 the cellar, I am sure there are times 

 when the bees need more moisture, or 

 water, and without much experience 

 in watering bees in the cellar, I can 

 not think at present of a more practi- 

 cal way than a little shallow recepta- 

 cle, kept supplied at such times, on 

 the alighting board close to the en- 

 trance. Last winter my bees went in- 

 to the cellar very heavy with natural 

 stores, but they seemed more uneasy 

 than when put in with less stores, and 

 fed syrup. I watered or moistened 

 them by sprinkling water over the 

 hives, cellar and floor. In January I 

 opened up two colonies; they both had 

 little patches of brood in the center of 

 the cluster, in about equal amounts. 

 One colony was considerably afi^ected 

 with dysentery, having begun to spot 

 up the hive and combs, while the other 

 was as sweet as a new pin. 



Manistee, Mich., Dec. 4, 1806. 



^'''>^^'f^WMr^4J''=^<^' 



el-pffwl TalRs on E^^tei^sive 



E. D. TOWNSEND. 



TT HAS now teen three years since I 

 ^ wrote a series of articles for the 

 Review, giving an outline of my method 

 of p'roducing honey, and caring for 

 bees; three eventful years, during 

 which time my bees have been increas- 

 ing, more yards have been established, 

 and, as more bees are added, I find 

 myself changing the methods of man- 

 agement to quite an extent. To be 

 sure, many of the old, tried methods 

 are still kept in use, but every year 



finds me whittling down, or cutting 

 out entirelj', some manipulation that I 

 used to tiiink absolutely necessary. 



The editor, knowing of these many 

 successful changes during these three 

 years, has asked me to go into 

 detail, and describe mj' methods of 

 management clear through the season; 

 or, in other words, bring everything 

 up to date; the fact is, he has asked me 

 to write 100 columns for the Review 

 during the season of 1907. 



