40 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Wintering, Springing, Feeding, Making Increase 

 and Securing Surplus. 



A. LAING. 



I WISH to impose upon your good 

 nature, and ask you a lot of 

 questions in reference to your 

 article on the Flint apiary as given in the 

 December Review. Your success seems 

 to me remarkable; 75 pounds of surplus 

 honey per colony, spring count, with no 

 super combs for honey, and 136 per cent, 

 of increase, is one of the best reports I 

 ever saw; and I am wondering if any 

 good bee keeper could go and do like- 

 wise, providing he used good judgment 

 and care. I have a cousin not far from 

 here who increased one colony to three, 

 and took 400 pounds of honey in the one 

 season, but I had hardly thought it 

 was possible in our climate to get such 

 results as you speak of from a whole 

 apiary. 



I am now thoroughly convinced of the 

 advisability of men who are experienced 

 apiarists, and who are making a specialty 

 of bees, going into the business extensive- 

 ly; consequently, I want more bees, and 

 the question is which is the cheapest — 

 well, there are several questions I would 

 like answered in the Review. 



SHALL WE RAISE BEES OR BUY THEM? 



I have clover, and, by moving the bees, 

 a small amount of basswood and buck- 

 wheat, now would it be cheaper for me 

 to buy bees at 35.00 per colony, or raise 

 them as you did at Flint? 



Was the season a good one at Flint or 

 did other bee keepers have only a small 

 crop? 



Is your location at Flint, from the bee 

 keepers' standpoint, good, average or 

 poor, generally speaking? 



From what source was the 3,000 

 pounds of honey gathered, principally? 



EARLY FEEDING. 



Where one has not the frames of honey 

 for the early feeding, would not good 

 syrup poured into the combs in the honey 



house, and then two or three given to 

 each colony, answer the purpose just as 

 well as the combs of honey? 



Were your hives 8- or 10-frame 

 Langstroth? 



In reference to packing on the sides, 

 were you not bothered with the rain 

 getting under the upper edge of the tar- 

 paper, and soaking the packing, thus 

 making it worse than no packing, as the 

 sawdust would hold the moisture? 



Do you believe that you could take 75 

 colonies in a fair clover location, and in- 

 crease them to 175 colonies and take 

 7,500 pounds of honey, which would be 

 equal to your work with the Flint 40? 



THE SIDE-HILL CELLAR. 



Would you describe your Flint bee 

 cellar? I believe it would be possible to 

 make a cellar in a sandy location for $25, 

 that would accomodate 200 colonies. If 

 the sides were sloped a little, say two 

 feet in a drop of six, I think they would 

 not cave, and, if not, why use any lumber 

 at all, except as a cover, and perhaps for 

 a door. How do you control the temper- 

 ature in your cellars that are many miles 

 distant from your home? Unless the 

 temperature can be kept almost sta- 

 tionary, either by the cellar being en- 

 tirely under ground, or by automatic 

 regulators, cellar wintering woula not be 

 practical, with scattered apiaries, as it 

 would be impossible to visit each one 

 with every change of temperature. 



SiMGOE, Ont. Can., Jan. 2, 1911. 



[Before proceeding to answer the above 

 queries, I think I better introduce a letter 

 from my friend Snyder of New York, 

 and then reply to both correspondents at 

 one time. Here is the Snyder letter: — 

 Editor.) 



Kingston, N. Y.. Jan. 3, 1911. 

 Friend Hutchinson: 



I am now reading your article in 

 December Review for the third time. I 



