310 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' 1U5VIEW. 



were set out. This was the most serious 

 loss with which I ever met while in the 

 bee-business. There was no dysentery. 

 The combs were clean and dry and full of 

 honey, but the bees had deserted the 

 hives, and crawled all through the straw. 

 Perhaps the heat generated by so great a 

 number piled in such close quarters drove 

 out the bees. Perhaps they went in 

 search of air. They certainly went. 



Since then I have several times winter- 

 ed a dozen colonies in one clamp, and 

 always with good success except in clay 

 soil. Two or three times I have tried it 

 there, and the bees wintered poorly; the 

 hives and comos coming out in the spring 

 reeking with mold and dampness. My 

 successes have all been on a dry sandy 

 hillside. With such a location I should 

 have no hesitancy, whatever, in putting 

 any number up to 25 or 30 into a clamp. 

 It is possible that a large number might 

 winter all right if given sufficient ventila- 

 tion, but I am without experience on that 

 point. 



The work of burying the bees is about 

 as follows: First dig a trench wide and 

 deep enough to allow the hives to set 

 down in until the tops of the hives are 

 level with the surface of the earth. Put 

 in a little straw and lay in two rails a foot 

 apart. Set the hives in a row on these 

 rails. Put some straw around the hives, 

 and then lay some rails over the hives, 

 putting some short pieces of rails across 

 under the rails to support them. Next 

 cover the hives liberally with straw, say, 

 to a depth of two feet, and then shovel 

 on the earth to a depth of 18 inches. 

 Sometimes I vary this by putting on only 

 a few inches of earth, and then another 

 layer of straw and then a few more inch- 

 es of earth, covering the whole with a 

 light covering of manure. 



I do not know that wintering bees in 

 clamps has any advantages over that of 

 wintering them in the cellar, and it is 

 certainly considerable more work; but 

 when one has a few colonies to winter at 

 a place where there is no cellar, and ex- 

 perience has told him that indoor winter- 



ing is better than out-door, he can success- 

 fully winter the bees by putting them in 

 a clamp, if the soil and location is suit- 

 able. Don't winter in clay. Don't bury 

 them where water will stand. Don't try 

 wintering large numbers without ventila- 

 tion, in fact, my experience is against 

 large numbers, and I do not know that 

 there is any objection to giving ventila- 

 tion, even with small numbers, but I have 

 never found it necessary. 



Flint, Mich., Oct. 9, 1900. 



NTRODUCING QUEENS BY AN 

 IMPROVED HATCHING-BROOD 

 PLAN. BY M. M. BALDRIDGE. 



the 



Friend Hutchinson : I have read in 

 Review what you and others say 

 about introduc- 

 ing queens with 

 absolute safety. 

 The only safe 

 way I have tried 

 is to give the 

 queen to hatching 

 brood, same as 

 you advise, but I 

 place the same in 

 a top story over 

 the brood nest, 

 with a fine wire- 

 screen between. This keeps all robber 

 bees and the bees of the bottom story 

 away from the queen, and insures the re- 

 quisite heat for both the queen and the 

 hatching bees. Any time inside of a week, 

 and when there are plenty of bees in the 

 top story to protect the queen, I remove 

 the wire screen and let the bees in the 

 bottom story have access to the queen. Of 

 course, the queen in the bottom story has 

 been previously removed and all queen 

 cells destroyed. A day or so later the 

 brood in both stories can be consolidated 

 in one story, if so desired. 



As many combs of hatching brood — 

 (none unsealed) can be given to the top 

 story as desired, and these can be taken 



