;e (|)ee- 



eepeps' Rev^ieii) 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to.tk[e Interests of Hoqey Producers. 



$1.00 A YEAR. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL X.ll, FLINT. MICHIGAN, OCTOBER 10, 1900. NO, 10. 





'intering bees by 

 burvixCt them in 

 cla:mps. by w. z. 

 hutchinson. 



For many years I have wintered bees 

 by burying them in the j^round, much as 

 farmers bury pota- 

 toes and other veg- 

 etables. I don't 

 remember where I 

 first got the idea, 

 '»ut I do remember 

 liaving some cor- 

 respondence on the 

 subject with Mr. C. 

 J. Robinson, of 

 Rich ford, N. Y. 

 He very persistent- 

 ly urged me to give no ventilation. He 

 asserted that the bees would winter better 

 with no ventilation — that the hibernation 

 would be more perfect than in a "sea of 

 oxygen. ' ' I was vers- loth to take this ad- 

 vice; and it was with many misgivings 

 that I finally ventured to risk six colonies 

 with no ventilation except that which 

 would come through the earth. At the 

 same time I buried a dozen other colonies, 

 giving them ventilation by means of a 

 four-inch tube laid along the bottom of 

 the trench, and extending out into the 



outer air. There was also a similar tube 

 at the top, extending from the bottom of 

 the pit up through the earth some three 

 or four feet. I remember that I had a 

 thermometer hung, by means of a string, 

 in this upper tube, and that I often climb- 

 ed up and drew up the thermometer to 

 learn the temperature. The outside tem- 

 perature had very little effect upon that 

 inside the pit. When the mercury stood 

 at zero in the open air, the thermometer 

 drawn up from the clamp showed 43°. 

 It did not vary three degrees from this in 

 all winter. 



The bees wintered perfectly in both 

 clamos. It seemed as though they were 

 just about the same as when set in the 

 previous fall. The straw around them, 

 and the hives and combs, were dry and 

 clean and free from mold. My belief in 

 the ability of bees to pass the winter with 

 no ventilation was greatly strengthened. 

 The next winter I put 32 colonies into 

 one clamp, and wintered them perfectly 

 with no ventilation. This brought my 

 confidence up to such a height that,^the 

 next winter, I put 96 colonies into one 

 clamp, and /os/ nearly all of thetn. There 

 were 16 hives that had live bees in them 

 when dug out in the spring These were 

 weak in numbers, and several of them 

 balled and killed their queens when they 



