MARCH 15, 1913 



t NATURAL SHELTER VS. ARTIFICIAL WIND- 

 S' BREAKS 



BY J. L. BYER 



' On page 775, Dec. 1, 1912, Mr. Holter- 

 mann lias an article entitled " Fences for 

 Winter Protection;" and as this is a subject 

 on which I disagree with my friend, natu- 

 rally the said article was read with more 

 than usual interest. Right here let me say 

 that, while we generally agree on all mat- 

 ters apicullural, yet when such a condition 

 is not possible we can always " agree to 

 disagree " with one another, and that is all 

 there is to it. On this subject of winter 

 protection my exi3erience has been so very 

 much in favor of natural windbreaks, such 

 as hedges, trees, etc., as compared with a 

 bare board fence, that I actually wonder at 

 the claims made for the latter. While the 

 fence may more ef- 

 fectually stop the 

 wind, yet with me 

 the best results have 

 always been obtained 

 from a shelter that 

 breaks the force of 

 the wind and yet al- 

 lows it to i^ass gently 

 through the yard. 

 Having just purchas- 

 ed a camera, and be- 

 ing eager for a lit- 

 tle practice, I have 

 taken pictures of 

 four of my yards 

 wintering outdoors, 

 and I will briefly ex- 

 plain how the shelter 

 in each yard seems 

 to have worked out 

 in actual practice 

 over a term of seven 

 or eight years. 



Fig. 1 shows part 

 of the Markham api- 

 nvy, which is shelter- 

 ed on the north, west. 

 and east by apple 

 trees, small fruit, 

 shrubs, etc., with 

 buildings on t h e 

 north. The house is 

 about 80 feet north 

 of the yard. Here 

 we have always had 

 first-class wintering 

 with tile exception of 

 one season when a 

 lot of honey-dew was 

 in the hives. In ad- 

 dition to wintering Mammv and the bee 



181 



well, the bees in this yard always " spring " 

 well too ; and the colonies are always boil- 

 ing over with bees early in fruit bloom. 



Fig. 2 shows a small corner of the Cashel 

 apiary. This yard is sheltered on the north 

 by a lot of high evergreens ; on the east and 

 west sides by an apple orchard, while the 

 south is protected by buildings. Like the 

 yard already described, the bees here inva- 

 riably winter in perfect condition, and, with 

 the exception of the year when honey-dew 

 w-as so plentiful, a colony is rarely missing 

 in the spring. This apiary has 105 colo- 

 nies, and has had 80 or over for the past 

 six years, with always the same kind of 

 wintering. 



Fig. 3 shows a corner of the home yard 

 where, as will be noted, is the board-fence 

 protection advocated by friend Holtermann. 

 Colonies in this yard never winter as well 



-Photoyrapli froin M. C. Lony, Kan-m-s City, ilo. 



