I'lOS 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1247 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 

 DOOLITTLE 



OUTDOOR WINTERING. 



" I must winter my colonies out of doors this 

 year, as it is impossible to do otherwise. Will 

 not a slight protection to the hives enable me to 

 do this? " 



"A slight protection may be all right, and 

 possibly best for Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, or Penn- 

 sylvania; but in this colder climate of Central 

 New York the heat of the bees alone must be de- 

 pended upon for warmth; and any plan of out- 

 door wintering which we may adopt must con- 

 serve the heat as much as possible. The place 

 is sheltered partially or wholly by woods, which 

 will allow the sun to shine in, though keeping 

 oi? the prevailing winds." 



" I have a place where I can put the bees for 

 winter where there are woods on the west and 

 south side, so that no wind will touch them ex- 

 cept from the north or northwest." 



" Such a place as that will be much better than 

 most bee-keepers have, for this will allow the 

 bees to fly, many times, when they ordinarily 

 could not ; for, more often than otherwise, when 

 it warms up enough during winter so the bees 

 can fly, a strong south or southwest wind pre- 

 vents, as the wind nearly always blows from 

 those directions every time the mercury rises to 

 40 or 60 degrees during December, January, 

 February, or March." 



" How much packing would you use .'' " 



"When I wintered bees out on their summer 

 stands during the '70's and '80's I did a lot of 

 experimenting to find out just how thick the 

 packing should be to give the best results ; and 

 the conclusion I arrived at when using chaff or 

 sawdust was that five inches was the nearest 

 right. The bees were entirely surrounded, ex- 

 cept at the entrance, with this chaff." 



" I can get dry sawdust, cut from kiln-dried 

 lumber, and very fine. How would that do for 

 packing ? " 



" It does very well, but I think it is a little 

 more likely to get damp and soggy during win- 

 ter than the chaff. I have used sawdust for 

 years, side by side with the chaff ; but my expe- 

 rience was in favor of dry timothy chaff, as we 

 used to have much of that kind of chaff at that 

 time when nearly every farmer raised his own 

 grass seed." 



" But that can not be obtained now. Some 

 tell me that where a double-walled hive is used, 

 a dead-air space between the two walls is better 

 than a space filled with either chaff or sawdust. 

 What do you think of such a claim as that.? " 



" My experience has been that the bees did 

 best when the packing was used. In my later 

 outdoor wintering I used wheat straw for pack- 

 ing double-walled hives, and I found this far bet- 

 ter than an empty space, and quite a little better 

 than either timothy chaff or sawdust. Those 

 who argue for no packing tell us that a dead-air 

 space is preferable to a solid wall for keeping out 

 either heat or cold ; and that when we pack a 

 dead-air space with either chaff or sawdust we 

 make, in a measure, a solid wall of it. Now, by 

 using the coarse wheat straw for packing we cut 



up, so to speak, that solid wall into hundreds and 

 perhaps thousands of little dead-air spaces, as 

 each straw is a dead-air space of itself. And we 

 not only have these hundreds of dead-air spaces, 

 but the spaces surrounding and between the 

 straws are so shaped that all moisture, which al- 

 ways accumulates more or less between the walls 

 of a hive during winter, passes off into the open, 

 and thus our colony of bees is not only very 

 much helped about retaining its warmth, but 

 they are kept dry and comfortable. This was 

 the way I wintered all of my colonies which were 

 left outdoors during the later '80's and early 

 '90's. Since that time I have favored cellar win- 

 tering, not only because of the better results but 

 for the great saving in stores." 



" Did you entirely surround the colonies with 

 this straw except the entrance .? " 



"Yes." 



" How did you fix the entrances } " 



" By making a flue, runway, or bridge from 

 the outside to the interior, about 5 inches wide 

 by ^2 inch deep." 



" Did you have any trouble about the bees 

 coming out on bright sunshiny days during 

 March or earlier, when the air outside was too 

 cold for them to fly, after they left the warm 

 hive, so that many would get lost on the snow 

 upon taking wing ? " 



" Yes, to a certain extent; but bees are not en- 

 ticed out of double-walled straw-packed hives to 

 nearly so great an extent as they are from single- 

 walled hives. The trouble can be pretty much 

 done away with by leaning a wide board up in 

 front of the entrance, standing the lower part on 

 the alighting-board out four or five inches from 

 the entrance, and allowing the upper end to rest 

 against the front of the hive." 



"But this would have to be removed every 

 time there comes a warm day so the bees could 

 fly." 



" Not necessarily. It can be overcome by 

 cutting out from the bottom of this board a 

 piece the size of the runway, which goes from 

 the entrance to the interior of the hive " 



" But will not this allow the sunlight to enter 

 the hive ? " 



" Not the direct rays of the sun, as they strike 

 this board and are thus kept trom coming near 

 the entrance of the hive. When the bees come 

 out at the entrance they are in the shade till they 

 pass over the space made by this leaning board ; 

 and this space being as cool, or nearly so, as the 

 outside air, they will turn and run back into the 

 hive unless the air outside is warm enough for 

 flying in safety, except, perhaps, a few bees that 

 are ready to die of old age, or when the bees are 

 wintering so poorly from some cause that they 

 must get out to empty themselves or soil the 

 combs and the inside of the hive. There is 

 more in this vestibule than some imagine. Sup- 

 pose we should leave the doors of our houses 

 open all winter, as most of the entrances of bee- 

 hives are left, I think we should have hard work 

 to keep warm in spite of our warm fires. We 

 not only close the doors, but most of us have a 

 storm-door over the outside door, that but little 

 cold may get in when the inside door is opened. 

 When a hive of bees is completely surrounded 

 on all sides with several inches of dry dead-air 

 spaces, and a vestibule over the entrance, each 



