142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



GENEEAL COMKESPONDENCE 



ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ON OUTSIDE WINTERING 



BY R. F. HOLTERMANN 



When giving the methods of wintering 

 outside as practiced by me, in the first place 

 T plainly stated that, so far as the cases and 

 fence are concerned, I learned the method 

 from Jacob Alpaugh, and it appears to me 

 that we should not lose sight of that. 



Trom letters I have received, and from 

 the cover picture in Gleanings, Jan. 15, it 

 appears necessary to draw attention to the 

 too frequent way of following (or, rather, 

 twt following) directions. 



If the reader will look at that cover 

 picture he will see that the result of having 

 those covers placed against the winter cases 

 is to bring the snoAV which has fallen im- 

 mediately under the entrances up to the 

 hives or cases. If there had been a heavy 

 fall of snow the snow would even block the 

 entrance. Now, to this latter I have no 

 particular objection so long as the snow is 

 removed as soon as a thaw sets in, which 

 would not likely be the case if the beekeeper 

 did not look after the bees during the winter. 

 But such a situation has far worse results. 

 I pointed out in my writings that wherever 

 ice or snow is immediately under the en- 

 trance the effect is to chill the bees ; and as 

 they fall on the snow or ice they perish. To 

 illustrate, vessels on the Atlantic in the dark 

 are at times able to detect the proximity of 

 icebergs by a fall in temperature. If the 

 temperature in the open is 55 or 60 degrees 

 when the bees fly, the temperature one. two, 

 or three inches from a block of ice would be 

 much lower. The bees flying from the en- 

 trances in the illustration might not have 

 perished had the cases been set on blocks 

 nine inches high, and had the snow been, 

 as it would have been in this case, a foot 

 from the entrance. Of coui-se the bees may 

 have been dead ones cleaned out. 



Some ask if the small round entrances 

 (three or four %-i"ch holes) are sufficient. 

 All I can say is what I have said. I have 

 cut the wood away at times between two of 

 the holes. Otherwise they have answered 

 the purpose. When beekeepers undertake 

 to enlarge materially and permanently the 

 entrances they do so contrary' to the system 

 I use. Again, with a board slanting up- 

 ward directing the flight to the entrance, 

 the current of air into the entrance is in- 

 tensified, wliich ill windy weather would be 

 very undesirable. 



The illustration on page 61, Jan. 15, 

 shows a full-width entrance with a full- 

 width bridge instead of an entrance 5 inches 

 wide by % inch deep, with three %-in. holes 

 just under the front board of the hive, as I 

 have them. My method gives much less 

 entrance room, and makes the hive much 

 less liable to be robbed. In fact, there is a 

 vast difference in this respecti 



Next, some have not left an opening at 

 the top of the case to allow the air to pass 

 over the packing and carry away the mois- 

 ture which comes from the bees through 

 the packing. Any one reading my articles 

 will see that I pointed out the necessity of 

 having a %-inch hole in the sides of the 

 case and immediately under the cover. 



The packing should be of such a quantity 

 that there is an inch or two of space be- 

 tween the packing and the cover, allowing a 

 free circulation of air between. If this is 

 not done, there will be a tendency for mois- 

 ture, expelled by the bees, to linger about 

 them. 



Again, many beekeepers make the cases 

 out of %-inch lumber instead of i/2-ineh or 

 %-inch. It is not a question of price or 

 convenience. I am not going to say that 

 bees cannot be wintered, and often well 

 wintered, in %-inch cases ; but the object in 

 the thin case is to have the heat of the sun 

 is painted a dark color, as was recom- 

 mended, 

 is painted a dark color, as recommended. 



In carrying on expei'iments with living 

 things one must be \ery careful to have all 

 the conditions accurate. To compare certain 

 details, all the otlier conditions must be alike. 

 This is very difficult to obtain in animal 

 life; and to cover these imperfections one 

 must repeat the tests again and again, and 

 then draw conclusions from the. general 

 average of results. 



It requires a judicial frame of mind to 

 cany on research work. 



My advice is to have shade in the apiary. 

 Fruit-trees leaf out after the cold spring 

 has passed, and therefore, in my estimation, 

 they make a good shade. Have the apiaiy 

 in a sheltered place. One man in the stale 

 of New York recently told me that he was 

 going to locate his apiary on top of a high 

 liill at the north end of a lake. The location 

 may be the ruination of his apiary so far as 



