Feb. 1, 1912 



If I have to feed, and have only a Umited 

 number of t-olonies to prepare, 1 would not 

 feed until dose to the time when we m<(y 

 have permanent cold weather. I would give 

 a syrup made of '1% lbs. of granulated sugar 

 to 1 lb. of water brought to a boil; and if I 

 wanted to do what I felt sure would be the 

 best, I would add a teaspoonful of tartaric 

 acid to each gallon of syrup. There is then 

 little need of evaporation by the bees, and 

 they would store the syrup in the mi(lst of 

 the cluster. No better stores can be provid- 

 ed for bees during winter confinement. In 

 my estimation, if a bee-keeper has only an 

 early surplus-honey How such as clover, his 

 bees are really never in a proper condition 

 for best wintering without feeding: because 

 if they have enough stores in the hive (which, 

 as a rule, is not the case) , it is not in the 

 place where the bees can keep it in the best 

 condition. 



TEINIPERATTTRE AND ENTRANCE. 



Mr. Miller says, further: "Outside of the 

 cluster — before, behind, or beside, the tem- 

 perature will be about the same as out of 

 doors. If external temperature has been 

 nearly level for a day or two, the internal 

 temperature will be not over one or two de- 

 grees higher. Just above the cluster the 

 temperature will be but a few degrees below 

 that of the cluster center " (italics are mine) . 

 This, he states, is 6S° to 72°. This, no doubt, 

 will he correct if the bee-keeper follows out 

 his direction as to size of entrance, "which 

 should be left open to a size not less than 

 one by fourteen inches." The object in 

 leaving the large entrance as stated by Mr. 

 Miller is, " If the entrance is small, moisture 

 may collect." Just so; and that is one rea- 

 son why I do not want the water-proof pa- 

 per over the hive, for it means that the 

 moisture and foul air must all come out at 

 the entrance, or in part condense on the 

 stores. The fresh air and foul air, by this 

 method come out at a common low-down 

 entrance. In other words, the oxygen to 

 assist the fire to burn, and the smoke and 

 exhaust air, all go in and come out at the 

 damper of the stove. Such a system is not 

 based on scientific principles. 



The entrance of the hive can be very small 

 in winter. The entrance to my hive is lj4^ 

 inches deep by the full width of the hive, 19 

 inches. I used to keep, during hot weather, 

 a pair of wedges, Ys in. deep, at the front of 

 the hive, running to nothing an inch from 

 the back, these placed between thesidesofthe 

 bottom-board and the side of the hive. They 

 were removed when the robbing season set 

 in. I now have them as a permanent fix- 

 ture the year round, and contract the en- 

 trance to suit my needs by a reversible en- 

 trance-board to fit lightly between the sides 

 of the portico, 2>^ in. deep, and % in. wide. 

 Dividing this board by an imaginary line 

 parallel to the bottom-board into two equal 

 jiarts we have two parts, each \% in. wide. 

 The one has on the outer edge an entrance 

 <) in. long by % in. high. The other, nut- 

 side, an entrance 4 in. long by % in. wide, 

 and three holes next to the imaginary line 



—one in the center lengthwise, and the 

 other two one at each side about 1}4, in. from 

 the center hole. These holes are y% in. in 

 diameter. During the fall I turn next to 

 the bottom-board the (Much entrance. 

 When I pack for winter I turn the 4-inch 

 entrance down. The three H-inch holes 

 now come just below the front board of the 

 hive. Before, with the 6-inch entrance, they 

 were closed|by the front board of the hive, 

 as they are not in the center of the board. 

 Dead bees can not close these round holes 

 until they accumulate to the depth of one 

 inch on the bottom-board, which does not 

 happen as long as the colony is worth sav- 

 ing. 



By putting a piece of lath in the bridge in 

 front of the entrance I can, by reaching 

 with a wire through the three ?^-inch holes in 

 the outer case, close the lower 4-inch entrance 

 quite or almost entirely. 



The fresh air in moderate quantities en- 

 ters the well-protected entrance (the holes 

 in the outer cases are not on a level with the 

 ^-inch holes in the entrance board or block 

 to check drafts) . It ascends about the bees; 

 and as it is being warmed it keeps rising, 

 taking with it moisture and impurities, final- 

 ly passing out of the hive above. The ex- 

 it is expedited by a queen-excluder resting 

 on each hive, with a cloth on the queen-ex- 

 cluder. In this matter I have followed the 

 advice of Jas. Armstrong, one of Ontario's 

 efficient inspectors. The air with the con- 

 tained moisture and impurities passes, 

 through the leaves, 8 to 10 inches deep 

 above, and condenses on the cold j^-inch 

 cover, with roofing-paper outside above, or 

 passes out of the case through ventilators 

 for the purpose. 



With such a method no one need tell me 

 that the temperature inside the hive, about 

 the cluster, is, in a more or less short time, 

 the same as that outside. I am quite free 

 to admit that much (almost all) the advan- 

 tage of packing is lost when a heavy cold 

 wind strikes the entrance of the case. But 

 I have an <S-ft. fence about a small piece of 

 ground, and I feel very stronglj^ that any 

 other method of caring for bees outside is a 

 mistake — sometimes a calamity. 



LOSS OF HEAT, THEREFORE VITALITY OF 

 THE BEES, PLUS HONEY. 



Mr. Miller himself furnishes an excellent 

 foundation for opposing his conclusions in 

 the statement, "If a blizzard has been rag- 

 ing, or strong winds with a low temperature 

 have prevailed for several days, and then 

 there follows a still sunny day with a con- 

 siderably milder temperature, the inside of 

 that nice warm chalT hive is not pleasant to 

 contemplate;" and he tells us, "Just above 

 the cluster the temperature will be but a few 

 degrees below that of the cluster center." 

 There is th( point. This is clear proof that 

 there is a certain amount of heat given ofT 

 by the cluster of bees. From Mr. Miller's 

 experiments I find it is even more than I 

 expected it to be. This heat given off by 

 the cluster has an elTect upon the hive, and 

 a much greater elTect if the entrance to the 



