JANUARY 15, 1913 



miles to the north. It was on a sort of 

 side hill, but so situated that it could get a 

 strong windsweep from the south and north- 

 east. These bees were jjacked in winter 

 cases — cases that ordinarily have given us 

 good results. But as in the waterworks 

 apiaiy we found the bees were beginning 

 to dwindle, showing that they too were suf- 

 fering. It became necessary, therefore, to 

 move both yards of bees home and put them 

 in the cellar This was done on sleds in the 

 snow. How this was done will be fully 

 explained later. 



Xow, then, let us take a look at the bees 

 at the other yards, packed in precisely the 

 same way — double-walled hives, no better 

 nor stronger in the fall than those at the 

 waterworks and Brunswick yards, but well 

 protected by windbreaks of woods and 

 shrubbery. Presto! we found an entirely 

 diiiferent condition. ,One such yard is lo- 

 cated in the midst of woods. Another apia- 

 ry, next to our factor}^, is surrounded by 

 tall evergreens shown on the front cover of 

 our Dec. 15th issue. Another yard, the Har- 

 i-ington, is located in an orchard with low- 

 shrubbery and apple trees on the north; a 

 piece of woods on the west, ajiple trees and 

 slu'ubbery on the south. All the apiaries 

 had an equal and a fair chance. All were 

 well fed up for winter, and all were equally 

 well housed. As already rei^orted, the two 

 yards that Ave left out in the open, subject 

 to windsweeps, were losing bees and stores ; 

 those that were sheltered from the wind 

 were in excellent condition. 



We have never had any difficulty in win- 

 tering bees outdoors when placed in dou- 

 ble-walled liives properly protected with 

 windbreaks, except in extraordinarily cold 

 weather such as we had a year ago ; and as 

 these very cold winters come only once in 

 about thii'tj^ or forty yeai-s it is hardly 

 worth while to take them into serious ac- 

 count ; and when thej' do come, the bees 

 should all be put indoors in the cellar. 



Tf the reader of these lines discovers that 

 his bees are exposed he can veiy easily 

 move them, if cold weather has set in in his 

 locality, to a more sheltered location. We 

 recently moved a yard of 90 colonies about 

 1000 feet to the west on a sled. On the 

 north and west is a big mass of woods. On 

 the east side of it is a grove of basswoods. 

 On the south is a slight knoll and some low 

 slirubbery. The most perfect windbreak 

 tliat we know of is an open spot inside of 

 a piece of woods. A mass of undergrowth 

 consisting of brier bushes, and low-spread- 

 ing trees we would place next, pi'oviding 

 they surround the apiary, or at least are 

 on the sides from which the prevailing 



39 



winds come. Farm and out buildings make 

 an excellent protection. 



We have come to attach less importance 

 to a high board fence on tlie north and west 

 than we formerly did. The trouble is, the 

 wind strikes it, glances upwai-d, when it is 

 struck by the on-impelling blast overhead, 

 and then glances downward. At our bass- 

 wood apiary from which we have just re- 

 moved 90 colonies to a more sheltered loca- 

 tion, we found there was one row of hives 

 where the bees would die more than any- 

 where else in the apiaiy. The drifting 

 snow shows how the wind would strike 

 those hives and then rebound, apparently, 

 and skip the other rows, which would win- 

 ter better. 



The objection might be raised that bees, 

 if put in an inclosure of woods, will wear 

 out their wings in flying through the brush 

 or trees. To a certain extent this is true; 

 but the most of them will ascend almost 

 vertically until tliey reach a height suffi- 

 cient to clear the obstruction. In doing 

 this they clear all domestic animals in the 

 fields near by. thus avoiding trouble with 

 neighbors. When an apiary is located near 

 a line fence next to an open field the bees 

 are apt to fly in such droves that they are 

 liable to attack the farmer and his hoi-ses 

 in plowing, cultivating, or in haying and 

 harvesting. We have, therefore, come to 

 the conclusion that all apiaries should be 

 located, as far as practicable, remote from 

 a line fence, and so inclosed that the bees 

 will have to fly high, where they will not 

 bump up against live stock in great droves. 

 When they descend they will be so scattered 

 that they will prove to be no menace to 

 either man or beast. 



We shall be glad to hear from some of 

 our subscribers and correspondents, because 

 we believe that a thorough discussion of 

 this matter of windbreaks will show their 

 very gi-eat importance. While they have 

 little or nothing to do with bees wintered 

 in cellai-s, we should remember that proba- 

 bly only about a tenth of the bees in the 

 country are housed indoors during winter. 



We are also pretty well convinced that 

 this matter of windbreaks is of supreme im- 

 portance to beekeepers located in the south- 

 ern States. If there is a place where one 

 suffers from cold it is in a semi-tropical 

 climate during winter. The atmosphere is 

 chilly and damp — so disagreeably cold that 

 it seems to go clear through one's anatomy. 

 We are convinced that damp chilly weather 

 is about as destructive to bee life in the 

 South as the cold drj- weather in tlie Xorih. 

 In fact, for our own comfort we would pre- 

 fer the latter. 



