1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



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S.MITH S LATER AND IMPROVED WINTER CASES. 



KEEPING COMBS AND BEES 

 THROUGH THE WINTER. 



DRY 



The Telescope Cap in Combination with a 

 Permanent Cork Cushion; the Advan- 

 tage of Warm Covers and Cold 

 Walls and Bottoms. 



BY JAY SMITH. 



All will agree that one of the chief essen- 

 tials to successful apiculture is perfect win- 

 tering. Just what perfect wintering is I do 

 not claim to know; but after a number of 

 yeai's of careful experimenting I have a sys- 

 tem that gives such good results that I can 

 not imagine any thing better for this latitude. 

 Here our coldes*: weather is about zero. 

 This year, six above was the coldest. As 

 has been said, moisture and not cold is what 

 kills bees in winter. My experiments have 

 proved this so conclusively that this point 

 can not be emphasized too strongly. 



Six years ago I had some large outer c.ises 

 made with removable covers, Fig. 1. They 

 were large enough so that I packed about 

 six inches of planer-shavings around the 

 sides and top. Some were made for one 

 hive and some for two. As can easily be 

 seen, these confined the heat. I left the en- 

 trance wide open. In the spring 1 looked 

 into the hives, and was surprised at the num- 

 ber of dead bees. Each hive seemed to have 

 about a hatful of dead bees, and they were 

 all covered with mold in a pile on the bot- 

 tom-board. The colonies were all weak, and 

 one was f|ueenless. As soon as warmer 

 weather came on they built up rapidly and 

 did very well. I was satisfied that this was 

 all right for spring, but was not all right for 

 winter. 



I will not go into detail and tell all the 

 plans I tried, but will skip over to the plan I 

 have used for the last few years that has 

 given the best results. I use a regular deep 

 telescope cap. The cushion is the thing I 

 wish to describe. 



I have tried several kinds of material, in- 

 cluding forest-leaves. These were good, 

 but they were heavy, and it was hard to 

 make the cushions flat, and this tilted the 

 caps in different directions and gave the api- 

 ary a bad appearance. I read in Gleanings 

 that ground cork was good; but, so far as I 

 could learn, no one had tried it and could 

 not report from experience. I decided I 

 would try it if I could get the cork. The 



FIG. L— .iay 



SMITH S ORIGINAL 

 WINTER CASE. 



FORM OF 



