Feb. 1, iyi2 



cold one, so 1 had abuiulunt facilities for 

 testing the two styles of winter i)rotection as 

 mentioned by Mr. Miller, as in the yard were 

 also about SO colonies wintered in packed 

 hives. After quite a long spell of cold 

 weather it was found on examination that 

 the sides and ends of the paper-packed hives 

 were coated with frost very heavily, while 

 in the iiacked hives very little was found 

 on any hives, while naany showed none at 

 all. Sow, I am well aware that a cluster of 

 bees, to a wonderful degree, can prevent ra- 

 diation of heat from the cluster, yet aonv 

 heat must leave the cluster, else how could 

 the condensed moisture on the sides and 

 ends of the hives be explained ? Then if 

 the packed hives were no warmer than the 

 papered ones, why the absence of frost on 

 the sides and ends, when on the walls of the 

 papered hives the frost was so much in evi- 

 dence? Mr. Miller says that, if moisture 

 does collect in the hive, the first mild and 

 sunny day will dissipate much of it. On 

 the hives I have under discussion, when a 

 mild day came the moisture would run in 

 streams out of the entrance and would often 

 freeze there toward evening or at a time 

 when the sun would not strike the front of 

 the hive. All wanter they gave me trouble, 

 and before the winter was half over I knew 

 that it was all up with the most of them, 

 and the following May only five or six w^ere 

 alive, and they were only weaklings at that. 

 How' about the other 80 colonies wintered in 

 packed hives? Writing from memory, the 

 bees wintered in perfect shape with only 

 the loss of three or four colonies from queen- 

 lessness, etc. Why the difference in re- 

 sults, if the manner of packing was not the 

 main essential in the transaction? At the 

 time, I said something about my experi- 

 ence, in one of the journals, and ^Ir. ^Miller 

 said that he did not recommend the plan 

 for our Ontario climate. In his present ar- 

 ticle he makes no exception to climatic con- 

 ditions: and as thousands of colonies are 

 wintered outdoors in our latitude, he proba- 

 bly thinks the plan he recommends will be 

 all right wherever bees are wintered success- 

 fully outdoors. 



Regarding the temperature of the hives 

 away from the cluster, it seems quite rea- 

 ronable to believe that the air would be as 

 cold inside as outside in a hive with no pro- 

 tection except paper, and with an entrance 

 14 inches long and 1 inch deep. That is on 

 a par with opening the door of our living- 

 room during zero weather. 



When it comes to protected hives, then I 

 will assume the "show me" attitude till I 

 am convinced. Go to one of the winter 

 cases with four colonies jiacked close togeth- 

 er inside, as described by Mr. Holtermann 

 in a recent article in Gleaxings. Lift ofT 

 the packing from the tops of the hives and 

 note all four clusters in a circle around 

 where the four hives meet one another. See 

 the entire absence of frosty walls (provided 

 there is amjile protection of dry material 

 between hives and case) and dry condition 

 of the combs; and if you are not convinced 



77 



that the air in such hi\es is warmer than 

 that outside of hives, it will only be when a 

 theriuometer under proper conditions has 

 pro\ed otherwise. As to the absence of 

 frost on the walls of the hives. |)0ssiblv the 

 absorbent material around them accounts 

 for the difiference. The main thing I look 

 at is that it /.s absent, while on the papered 

 hives it is always present in \erv cold 

 weather. 



I have tried the black paper for spring 

 protection; and when I say that, besides 

 the bees wintering outdoors, I have ;'.00 col- 

 onies inside, and would not thank anybody 

 to paper the whole outfit gratis when they 

 are taken out in the spring, anybody can 

 understand my position on the question 

 without going into detail. My main objec- 

 tion IS that the black paper around the 

 hives warms up the hives too much during 

 sunshine and causes undue disturbance 

 the bees flying out only to perish outside! 

 Mr. Miller covers this point by insisting on 

 large entrances; but as I do not like an en- 

 trance in the spring as large as specified by 

 him, the difficulty I mention could not be 

 overcome. Some packing over the brood- 

 nest in the spring is, in my estimation, 

 worth more than many sheets of jfaper 

 around the sides and ends. I have winter- 

 ed bees in hives prepared as he says, even 

 in our climate, and they sometimes came 

 through fairly strong. But when such was 

 the case, the winters were not as severe as 

 the one during which we lost so heavily. 



Another important matter is that every 

 colony wintered with the minimum of pro- 

 tection consumed a maximum of stores, so 

 in the end any apparent saving in the cost 

 of winter cases was more than made up in 

 increased consumption of stores and weak- 

 ened vitality of the bees. For seven years 

 in succession I wintered a strong colony in 

 a very large hive, with no protection except 

 packing over the top inside of a super. A 

 hole near the top of the hive w^ould allow 

 me to see the cluster in zero weather, and 

 they wintered well every winter in spite of 

 no protection; but they always consumed 

 about twice as much stores as the protected 

 colonies. While seasoned bee-keepers in 

 climates like ours are not likely to try doing 

 away with protection for their bees, there is 

 danger of some fellow doing as I did some 

 years ago; and all such I would urge to go 

 slow, and test the matter well before risking 

 too much. 



Very strong colonies with a very large 

 amount of good stores will winter any old 

 way; but, generally speaking, the apiaries 

 given the best protection during the winter 

 and spring will give the best results in the 

 honey-flow; and I feel pretty sure that, if Mr. 

 Miller were in our locality, and wintering 

 outdoors, he would soon modify his state- 

 ments as to the relative values of papered 

 hives, and hives in cases with abundance of 

 dry material to i)rotect from the cold winds 

 and take up any moisture that may collect 

 in the hives. If experience proved other- 

 wise, I would be one of the first to quit 



