Mar. 1, 11112 



127 



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J. L. Bykk, Mt. Joy, Ont. 



The old question as to whether we should 

 shovel snow away from the entrances of 

 hives or not will be puzzling many at pres- 

 ent. We eleareil snow from in front of some 

 of the hives, and since this terrific cold spell 

 has come we have been wishing we had not 

 done so. A few days ago I went to the 

 Cashel yard intending to clear the entrances; 

 but on lifting up the })acking from a num- 

 ber of colonies, and seeing them so quiet, I 

 decided to leave them alone. Needless to 

 say, the decision has not been regretted. 

 As long as the entrances are clear of ice, I 

 believe that good rather than harm will re- 

 sult by leaving the snow around the hives 

 during extremely cold weather. 



Mr. Davison, of Unionville, a very suc- 

 cessful beekeeper in this locality, has a con- 

 trivance that fits over the entrance some- 

 thing like a vestibule, which prevents clog- 

 ging of the entrance, and at the same time 

 insures an air space around the hive, and 

 will allow the bees to carry out their dead if 

 they wish. Then if the snow does not drift 

 over the fronts he pilcN it there doing cold 

 weather. Last week I visited the yard, and 

 the hives look like snow mounds more than 

 any thing else. He is one of our best win- 

 terers, and for a year like this the plan is 

 all right. Even without the snow, the con- 

 trivance is an excellent feature in that it 

 prevents the wind going directly into the 

 hive, and also keeps the sun from enticing 

 out the bees during cold spring days when 

 they are better inside. 

 ■^^ 



On page 90, Feb. 1, I notice that the Board 

 of Supervisors of Imperial Co., Cal.. has 



Eassed an ordinance forbidding bringing any 

 ees into the county. This is certainly dras- 

 tic enough. I wonder whether the law 

 would stand the test of a higher court. If a 

 law of that kind were passed for the purpose 

 of keei)ingout diseased bees, well and good; 

 but from this distance, as the law is worded 

 in <iLEAMNOS, it looks like a very arbitrary 

 measure. Suppose a man were moving into 

 the county for good reasons, and with no in- 

 tentions of going into beekeeping on a large 

 scale. He has a few colonies of bees in good 

 healthy condition; but because of the law 

 sujiposed to be in force he is forbidden to 

 bring them in, even if they are just over the 

 "townline" of the said county. It would 

 be human nature to try to test the validity 

 of such a law, and I really should like to see 

 some with enough ginger in them to see 

 what would hajjpen if they dared to take in 

 a few perfectly healthy colonies. 

 4^ 

 Regarding that article of mine on finding 

 qut-cns, p. (519, Oct. 15, some have wondered 

 why I did not use a taller tent, so that I 

 could have stood erect while at work instead 

 of being forced to be on my knees all of the 



time. In explanation I will say that the 

 apiary is in a yard that is full of cherry and 

 other low trees, and it was very didicult to 

 use the tent I had in some cases, to say 

 nothing of one much taller. Some other 

 friends have suggested the idea of getting 

 rid of the field bees before starting to hunt 

 for the queens; and while I had thought of 

 this before starting the work, the robbing 

 tendency of the bees at the time I was there 

 made me fear to demoralize unduly the col- 

 onies for fear there would be trouble after 

 the work was done. As intimated in the 

 article referred to, many plans that will 

 work when no robbing is to be feared, are 

 not practicable at a time when no nectar is 

 coming in, and the bees will go wild if hives 

 are opened when not under cover. 



When sending in notes for Feb. 1st Glean- 

 ings 1 stated that the weather up to time of 

 writing (Jan. 5th) had been very moderate. 

 Since then we have had the most severe 

 winter on record, and the official figures 

 from the Toronto observatory state that Jan- 

 uary of 1912 had the lowest average temper- 

 ature they have recorded. Since Jan. 5 we 

 have had nothing like a thaw; and this 

 morning, Feb. 10, the thermometer is 25 be- 

 low zero — the lowest I have on record for our 

 locality. With six weeks of steady cold 

 weather, certainly things are not looking 

 any too well for bees which have been win- 

 tered out of doors; but an examination shows 

 that the bees in packed hives are wintering 

 well so far as external conditions indicate. 

 By the way, I have 20 colonies wintering 

 outside in hives made of double boards 

 with cardboard between — no packing on 

 sides or ends of hives, but an abundance 

 over the frames. There will be a different 

 story to tell about them; and for the present, 

 suffice it to say that they are veritable ice- 

 boxes, and I am having a big time to keep 

 the entrances free from ice. At a later date 

 I hope to say more about these, for just at 

 present I would have to do too much guess- 

 ing to give any thing like a reliable report. 

 Yesterday the thermometer stood at 14 be- 

 low, and, as already stated, this morning it 

 is 25 below. As I had not looked at the 

 thermometer inside the hive for over a week 

 I thought it would be well to see how things 

 were going after two days of such very cold 

 weather. The reading was 31 above, which 

 makes a difference of 56 degrees between 

 the outside and the inside of the hive. The 

 thermometer was at the outside of the hive 

 about ;; inches from the side of the cluster, 

 and was suspended in the hive with the 

 toi) slightly below the io\m of the frames. 

 Possibly the difference between Medina 

 readings and mine may be accounted for by 

 the dei)th the thermometers hang in the 

 hive; for, the lower they hang, the colder 

 they will register. 



