^()VK^fBKR 1. Idl5 903 



VARIOUS PLANS FOR WINTERING WHICH WERE SUCCESSFUL 



L!i' \V. D. SELLERS 



As my increase is gathered in the shape 

 I if swarms from the fariners, so ray oppor- 

 1 unities each year to see how the bees ha\e 

 \\ iulered ai-e wide. About the time that the 

 maples 'are in bloom I start to make my 

 round among the farmeis. Mr. A. last 

 sjn-ing said ho had saved all his bees. They 

 wore wintered in eight and ten frame hive- 

 bodies — no ab.-:orbent material above them 

 — just the cover glued down on the body. 



j\[r. B. said thai he had lost one out of 

 twenty colonies. His Jiives are eight-frame. 

 He also uses no absorbent on top of his 

 colonies. He had .^otne air-spaced observa- 

 tion hives which showed up better than the 

 ones in single-walled hives. 



Mr. C. had not lost one colony out of 

 twenty. His hives are all air-spaced obser- 

 vation hives v^inlered with sealed covers. 

 Xot seeing any bees Avoricing out of one of 

 his liives I asked him whether it was alive, 

 at the same tirae bumping my foot against 

 it. I was again surprised to find the hive 

 overflowing with bees. 



]\[r. I), had not lost a colony either. He 

 wintered his bees in ten-frame hives with a 

 super ''over glued down on top of the hive- 

 body Avitli teles'iope cover. 



The most of Mr, E.'s bees are in air- 

 spaced liives, and some in ten-frame. He 

 wintered his bees Avith the supers on, with 

 partly filled boxes and comb. He lost one 

 colony out of thirty-five. 



Air. F. has some 30 colonies, and had not 

 lost one. Pie requeened with all young 

 queens last fall, and wintered them with a 

 wood-bound wire Cjueen-excluder on top 

 of the body, with a super of planer-shav- 

 ints on top of this. We wintered with the 

 %-inch bottom-board 

 turned up, and had the 

 front of the board 

 loose. He showed me 

 some of his colonies 

 by looking in under 

 the frames. Some look- 

 ed extra strong, some 

 weak. He feeds arti- 

 ficial pollen early, and, 

 later, sugar syrup. 



The majority of 

 beekeepers visited do 

 not use absorbents at 

 all on top of their 

 hives, and I find that 

 most of their colonies 

 are storing during 

 fruit bloom. Some of 

 them never look into 



the brood-chamber from one year's end to 

 the other. Their bees sM'arm. every year, so 

 tiiey have fine large young queens with 



Last year I sold tlu-pc tons of lioney in my store 

 at home. — See preceding page. 



plenty of honey; and, not being disturbed, 

 they raise large colonies of bees early in the 

 season. 



T visited another beekeeper, Mr. G. As 

 he Avas not well, he was selling out his bees. 



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A truilur solves tlii> prollcm for outyard work. 



