Gleaning:s in Bee Culture 



hive is small and the bees are wdl protected 

 kty packing, but is rapidly lost with an en- 

 trance in the winter and spring, 1 in. by 14 

 inches. The heat passing away more rapid- 

 ly compels more heat to be generated, which, 

 as Mr. Miller rightly states, "Remember 

 this— that increased heat is expended ener- 

 gy—bee life plus honey." If we have a stove 

 (the cluster) in a room (the hive) it makes 

 a vast difference if we open tlie window half 

 ;an inch or take the window out altogether 

 (my winter entrance in contrast to Mr. Mil- 

 ker's) . 



ft seems to me that, however sound the 

 Argument may seem to some, an overcoat to 

 keep out the cold is a good thing to keep 

 out the heal, or that no overcoat is a good 

 thing in the morning because the sun can 

 strike us better later in the day to warm us 

 up As with us, so with the bees— the nat- 

 ural heat of man and bees has to be consid- 

 ered. 



SPRING. 



In spring, hives protected as mine are, the 

 bees are active in the hive feeding brood, 

 and the queen laying, when in unpacked 

 hives about all they appear to have the en- 

 ergy to do is to turn up their tails slowly, 

 let their stings protrude, and give the well- 

 known accompanying buzz. Perhaps in 

 Mr. Miller's locality the temperature does 

 not range very low nor last for any length 

 of time. The protected entrance also al- 

 most entirely prevents robbing, and also 

 keeps the bees from coming out on the 

 least provocation. 



Brantford, Ont., Canada. 



THE RESULTS OF SOME EXTENDED EXPERI- 

 ENCE IN CANADA. 



Colonies in Thin Hives Wrapped with Paper Died, 

 while Others, Wintered in the Same Yard in 

 Packed Hives, came Through in Good Condition. 



BY J. L. BYER. 



I have had some considerable experience 

 in the matter of wintering bees outdoors in 

 our severe Ontario climate; and whatever I 

 shall say will, of course, be based on that 

 phase of the subject. And right here let 

 me say that I know nothing of what the 

 climatic conditions of Rhode Island may 

 be, and, for aught I know, Mr. Miller's pa- 

 pered bee-hive may be all right for that 

 State, and countries in a similar latitude. 

 At the same time, I can not understand 

 how it is that what is good for us in a cold- 

 er climate would not to a lesser degree be 

 good for a milder one, where, even if the 

 thermometer does not go as low as it does 

 here in Ontario, there are nevertheless very 

 sudden changes from cold to warm, and 

 vice versa. 



As Mr. Miller says, some few years ago he 

 boomed the papered-hive idea in the Amer- 

 ican Bee-keeper. Well, I myself was one 

 •who tried to save a few dollars at a time 

 •when a silver quarter looked as big as a 



"cart-wheel," and asa result I got "stung " 

 in good shape. In glancing at the sub- 

 heads of Mr. Miller's article I notice the 

 phrase, "Thin hives covered with black pa- 

 per better than expensive chaff hives," and 

 the thought came to me that, if such is the 

 case, a number of bee-keepers who have no 

 money to throw away are making fools of 

 themselves in going to the trouble of giving 

 lots of protection to their bees when a com- 

 mon hive wrapped with a few farthings' 

 worth of paper would answer the bill better 

 than all the protection (?) we are giving 

 them. Among the number, the names of 

 McEvoy, Holtermann, Sibbald, and Miller 

 come to my mind, and these four men win- 

 ter colonies by the hundreds outdoors. 

 Counting in my bees, the five of us winter 

 probably 2000 colonies, so the expenditure 

 in tlie way of protection, as we now under- 

 stand the term, amounts to no small sum 

 in the aggregate. Many others might be 

 named, but these names happen to come to 

 my mind as being associated with outdoor 

 wintering quite prominently. 



Now, as I have already intimated, I pro- 

 pose to speak on this matter from the stand- 

 point of experience; and in order to get di- 

 rectly at the svibject I will at once tell how 

 the plan as advocated by Mr. Miller worked 

 here in Ontario during a winter such as our 

 grandparents designated an "old-fashion- 

 ed " one. Having a number of colonies in 

 single-walled hives that had to be looked 

 after in some way in order to carry the bees 

 over tlie winter, friend Miller's plan that 

 appeared in print just at that time was 

 eagerly taken advantage of as a method 

 that would help me out and at the same 

 time solve the question of winter protection 

 when I had no money to buy winter cases. 

 The hives were prepared (about 20) as near- 

 ly as possible according to Mr. Miller's di- 

 rection, with the exception that not quite 

 as large an entrance was given as he speci- 

 fies in his present article. As a matter of 

 fact, he says an entrance should be not less 

 than one by fourteen inches, and of course 

 this would be impossible in an eight-frame 

 hive. However, I want to be perfectly fair 

 in the matter, and I will admit that the en- 

 trances I gave were not as large as they 

 coulcl have been in an eight-frame hive. 

 Indeed, an entrance one inch deep, full 

 depth of hive, would allow the hives to be 

 pretty well filled witli snow during some of 

 the storms we have sometimes. The hives 

 used were eight-frame; but the frames were 

 somewhat deeper than even the .lumbo size 

 — a circumstance that favors outdoor win- 

 tering more or less, as the deeper frames are 

 generally conceded to be somewhat better 

 for wintering than the standard L. frame. 



As nearly as I can recall from memory, 

 the entrances were one inch deeji, and va- 

 ried from five to eight inches in width; but 

 I can not for a moment think that a few 

 inches more in size of hive entrance would 

 have made any radical differences in the 

 wintering results. 



As already stated, the winter was a very 



