1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



73 



Only a few moments ago, since beginning 

 this article (the date is January 3) , I went 

 out and examined several colonies, and 

 found them all dry and warm. 



I should like to see Bro. Root try a few col- 

 onies in the hives I have described, and see 

 what the results would be in using free up- 

 ward ventilation. 



Barryton, Mich. 



[It rather appears to us that your indict- 

 ment is not so much against sealed covers as 

 against a too small double-walled or chaff 

 hive — that is, a hive with too narrow spaces 

 between the walls. We have read your ar- 

 ticle very carefully, and note that you tried 

 the sealed covers only one year with your 

 large chaff hives, and came to the conclusion 

 that they were a failure. You also state, 

 further on, that your experience with sealed 

 covers on the smaller chaff hives was not 

 satisfactory. We will admit that you may be 

 right for your locality when you pronounce 

 in favor of a larger chaff hive with an oppor- 

 tunity for the moisture to pass up through 

 the packing material unobstructed by any 

 sealed cover beneath. 



You are probably aware of the fact that 

 the writer had active charge of our bees 

 from the year 1878 on to about 1883. Dur- 

 ing that time we used the large two-story 

 Root chaff hive. This had walls about 8 

 inches thick around the brood-nest, and per- 

 mitted of packing material from 6 to 8 inches 

 thick over the brood-nest, wirh free air- 

 space of five or six inches on top. For about 

 fifteen years we wintered our bees outdoors 

 in this sort of chaff hive; and from your de- 

 scription we should infer that our hive was 

 even larger than yours. During nearly all 

 of the period mentioned we used absorbing 

 cushions with no sealed cover, and wintered 

 successfully, except the winter of 1881, when 

 our loss was very heavy, as was also the loss 

 of nearly all bee-keepers throughout the 

 country. In the early SO's practically every 

 one who wintered outdoors used absorbing 

 cushions. Taking every thing into consider- 

 ation, the writer feels that he has had as 

 much or more experience with large hives 

 and absorbing cushions as he has had with 

 the smaller cnaff hives and sealed covers. 

 The records show that we have been just as 

 successful with the latter as with the former. 

 The large Root chaff hives cost nearly twice as 

 much as the present chaff hives now in use. 

 When we were using these big hives and ab- 

 sorbing cushions it was noticeable every 

 spring that the cushions were more or less 

 damp, the amount of dampness depending 

 upon the strength of the colony in the spring. 

 At that time it was our custom, on a warm 

 day when the sun was shining, to lift the 

 covers, remove the cushions, lay them on 

 the ground, letting them dry out all day. 

 Just before night we put them back in the 

 hives again. This was a regular program 

 every spring. If we did not dry out the 

 cushions we were likely to find dysentery 

 very shortly. 



Later on we began trying the big chaff 

 hives with absorbing cushions and sealed 



covers, half having the absorbing cushions 

 and the other half sealed covers. The re- 

 sult for a number of winters left us in doubt. 

 We kept on with our experiments, however, 

 and about this time began using the smaller 

 chaff hive — first with absorbing cushions, 

 and later with sealed covers. The smaller 

 hives with sealed covers gave unmistakably 

 better results than those with absorbing 

 cushions. We also came to the conclusion 

 that the small chaff hives with sealed covers 

 would winter the bees about as well as the 

 large chaff hives with absorbing cushions. 

 The initial cost of the former finally decided 

 us to abandon the big hives altogether. For 

 the last fifteen years we have been winter- 

 ing outdoors in the small hives with sealed 

 covers, and any one of our apiarists will cer- 

 tify that our wmtering has been remarkably 

 good. 



You probably fail to take into considera- 

 tion the difference in climate. It is proba- 

 bly much warmer with us, and it is not so 

 necessary to have a large hive; but a chaff 

 or double-walled hive is an expensive prop- 

 osition at best. These enormous chaffs es- 

 pecially really add too much to the operating 

 expense in a bee-yard. While it is undeni- 

 ably true that they are better in a climate 

 Hke yours, because of the added protection, 

 it does not follow that they afford the cheap- 

 est way of wintering, all things considered. 

 Our argument has been this: That if the 

 smaller chaff hives in a given locality with 

 sealed covers will not bring the bees through 

 in good condition the bee-keeper for that lo- 

 cality had better by all means adopt cellar 

 wintering. When a chaff or double-walled 

 hive has to be so large, with a packing space 

 of anywhere from 6 to 10 inches in order to 

 winter successfully, it is cheaper to winter 

 indoors. The fact that the majority of bee- 

 keepers in your State, especially the north- 

 ern sections, winter in cellars or clamps, 

 rather goes to show that this advice is not 

 far from right. From the standpoint of econ- 

 omy it would be cheaper to use single-walled 

 hives and build a repository wholly under 

 ground for sheltering them during the win- 

 ter than to put that same yard in these mon- 

 strous chafr hives. Portland cement is com- 

 ing down, cheaper and cheaper, and lumber 

 is growing higher and higher. 



Having said this much we are not going so 

 far as to say that the sealed cover is better or 

 worse than the upward ventilation and ab- 

 sorbing cushions for all localities. If any 

 one has been successful in wintering with 

 the latter we would advise him by all means 

 to stick to it. We are using at Medina the 

 two methods side by side. Just yesterday 

 (Jan. 12) we went out into the bee-yard and 

 found the colonies provided with upward 

 ventilation and absorbents were wintering 

 just as well as those with sealed covers; but 

 the absorbents were damp, in some cases 

 quite wet. We will admit that, if we were 

 using the old Root Jumbo chaff hive, at this 

 stage of the year the absorbents would be 

 dry. It is only when we come toward spring 

 that the dampness seems to show up. — Ed.] 



