654 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



OCTOHKR, 1919 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



time, when it is certain that I had to unpack 

 mine in March to give them more room? 



' ' Maybe, ' ' replied Wife, ' ' they didn 't 

 imagine that anybody would be as big an 

 idiot as you are and try every fool idea 

 that is printed." 



Friend Wife is not a beekeeper, so you 

 must excuse her. Phil Franklin. 



Maryland. 



A. JJhuk ut' Decatur, IlL, last winter used 

 windbreaks around groups of liives. 



ANOTHER STYLE OF PACKING 



Demuth Plan Unsatisfaaory for Practical Honey- 

 Produoers 



Since the Demuth plan of. wintering bees 

 in a shaftlike winter repository has been 

 presented to the beekeeping fraternity by 

 letter and illustration, I have spent much 

 time in comparing that plan with the gen- 

 erally adopted ten-frame Langstroth hive 

 and have tried to view their advantages and 

 disadvantages from every side imaginable. 

 Summing up the matter, I am inclined to 

 the opinion that the Demuth plan will never 

 be adopted by the practical, every-day hon- 

 ey-producer as a means of better wintering. 

 For experimental purposes in a limited way 

 it may give the scientist or the investigat- 

 ing beekeeper some satisfaction; but to the 

 great majority of honey-producers it would 

 not be profitable, as it involves too much 

 unpleasant work for the beekeeper and tin- 

 necessary work for the bees in the fall and 

 spring. The only advantage that can be 

 claimed by the plan is the shaftlike shape 

 of the winter nest, but nearly all other fea- 

 tures are decidedly contrary to nature and 

 to the interest of the beekeeper. 



The operation in itself of sliding the 

 frames into the inner case is to bees and 

 beekeeper an unpleasant affair. It is a posi- 

 tive detriment to beekeeper and bees, as it 

 completely upsets all their plans of arrang- 

 ing their winter quarters for which they 

 have worked all summer in accordance with 

 nature's dictates. If we examine the con- 



tents of the inner case after the frames 

 have been transferred, we find these condi- 

 tions: The bees are stripped of the best 

 part of their winter and spring supplies, and 

 what is left is scattered in places where 

 the bees would not store it, and none are 

 found placed near the bottom-bars, where 

 they would benefit the bees during winter. 

 To overcome, or at least partially overcome 

 this trouble, the transfer has to be made 

 early enough in the season while honey is 

 yet coming in, to give the bees a chance of 

 supplying and re-arranging their winter 

 stores; or else they have to be fed to make 

 up the deficiency. The cake of candy may 

 keep them from starving, but it has not the 

 beneficial effect of natural stores of well- 

 ripened capped honey. 



In either case it is a disadvantage in one 

 form or another to the beekeeper. If the 

 transfer is made early, the hive with its ap- 

 pliances is so disarranged that the harvest- 

 ing of surplus hoitey from a fall flow is en- 

 tirely cut off; or, if made late in the season, 

 bees are deprived of the privilege of restor- 

 ing natural conditions, even if the owner 

 resorts to feeding sugar syrup. 



Then again the Demuth plan compels us 

 to be satisfied with two inches of packing 

 and a thin three-eighths inch inner case for 

 wintei- protection. While this is better than 



Brood-nest in center and division-boards at sides. 



Above this is placed a super with combs of honey 



in the center and division-boards at the sides. 



no protection at all, it does not come up to 

 the recommended six inches on sides and 

 ends and from eight to ten on top, with a 

 heavy one-inch outside winter case. 



A much better way of transforming the 

 flat ten-frame Langstroth hive into a smaller 

 but deeper winter repository, which insures 

 all the advantages of the Demuth plan and 

 others besides and recpiires no extra fixings, 

 is as follows: 



Eemove one-half of the combs that con- 



