SEPTEMBER 1, 1912 



557 



ill the winter of 1909, and the results were 

 very unsatisfactory, for the dirt frozen 

 solid not only left the bees virtually packed 

 in ice, but there was little chance of getting 

 rid of surplus moisture, so that many col- 

 onies died of dysentery on sealed combs 

 of honey. 



Most of the bees, however, were packed 

 above ground in clamps of six or eight 

 colonies each, with the small entrances fac- 

 ing opi^osite. and a deep super of leaves 

 on top of each liive. Leaves were piled 

 above and packed between; and a tight 

 roof of tar felt covered the Avhole. A pole 

 or board for a ridge gave the proper slant 

 to the covers, and tar felt was brought 

 clear to the ground on all sides, and banked 

 with sods to hold it in place, the entrances 

 being cut through the felt. The results 

 were fair to poor, the princi^Dal difficulties 

 being that, first, the heat absorbed by the 

 felt caused the bees to fly too much and 

 get lost on cool days; second, the strong 

 colonies drew the bees from the weaker 

 ones so that tlie strong grew stronger and 

 the weak dwindled out. The bees seemed 

 to think that all of the big black thing 

 was their own liive. 



I have also tried packing in single long 

 rows; in fact, I've tried dozens of varia- 

 tions such as standing hives on end, pack- 

 ing several hives deep, etc. The first win- 

 ter, that of 1910, proved 

 quite a success for the 

 long-row system. Three 

 long strips of felt for 

 back, toji, and front of 

 the closely packed row 

 covered tlie whole, in- 

 cluding supers packed 

 Avith leaves. The winter 

 had been steadily cold, 

 and the spring was 

 cloudy much of the time. 

 Encouraged by my suc- 

 cess, I repeated the meth- 

 od during the open vari- 

 able winter of 1910, and 

 I lost altogether too 

 many bees. It seems that 

 the heat of the felt must 

 liave caused the bees to 

 fly too much on days 

 which were bright but 

 too cool. The strong 

 colonies drew unmerci- 

 fully from the weak, and many a colony did 

 I find reduced to a handful of bees, Avith the 

 queen on a generous patch of brood, which 

 showed what I might have had if the bees 

 had stayed in their proper hives. Of 

 course I saved a sj'reat number of weak 



colonies by the Alexander plan by putting 

 them above the strong colonies over an 

 excluder and drawing brood from below 

 where necessary. I had failed during the 

 three years to winter bees as I knew they 

 should winter; my queens were not at fault. 

 The stores had been carefully arranged, 

 and I had worked so hard, and fixed them 

 up so nicely, to no avail. 



Tliinking it all over I decided to aban- 

 don tarred felt and use a better packing 

 than leaves above, for I realized that my 

 bees had not wintered as they should win- 

 ter for three years. That I must be pre- 

 pared for a severe cold or mild and varia- 

 ble winter was evident. 



Forthwith last autumn I left the major- 

 ity of the hives two-story with most of the 

 stores above. A deep ^uper was packed 

 with clover chaff, not leaves, and the cover 

 put on. The entrances ranged from %x6 

 to full width; and in some cases % by the 

 width of the hive was left. The results 

 seemed in favor of a sealed cover over 

 the bees. A well-propolized quilt came 

 next best, and a loose burlap was the i^oor- 

 est. I prefer % by full-width entrance for 

 two-story single-wall hives. The yg-iii^^b 

 entrances were not so bad, except that tl:e 

 mice got in where they were not screened. 

 We had severe weather, i^rolonged cold, 

 with the thermometer often 16 to 20 below 



The Cavanagh tenement winter case. 



zero. Some of the outdoor colonies packed 

 as above showed signs of dysentery, it is 

 true; but many wintered perfectly. The 

 importance of good packing shoulcl be im- 

 pressed; as Avhere hay, leaves, etc., were 

 used in place of clover chaff or similar 



