278 T'H® MHiBMicMff mmi 



WINTERING. 



Preparins Bees for Winter— A 

 Simple Bee-Feeder. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 



BY ROBERT CARVER. 



la this part of the country, the sea- 

 son of 1889 was a poor one, as far as 

 surplus honey was concerned, many of 

 the colonies putting in none at all, and 

 not only so, but when time to pack for 

 winter, many of them were short of 

 stores ; to malie up this deficieucy, I 

 fed the weak colonies with the over- 

 plus from the supers of the best colo- 

 nies, and about 500 pounds of confec- 

 tioner's standard A sugar, and so put 

 them in condition, as 1 thought, to 

 last them until March. 



I packed them in boxes on the sum- 

 mer stands, four hives in a box, two 

 facing the east, and two facing the 

 west, alternately. My hives are all of 

 the same pattern, 8-frames about 8xl6J 

 inches ; over each hive I put a case of 

 chaff about live inches deep, and the 

 same size of the hive, with a cloth bot- 

 tom to come next to the bees ; but be- 

 fore placing the case over the bees, I 

 lay two strips of wood about J-inch 

 thick across the frames to hold the 

 chaff up, so that the bees can pass over 

 from one frame to another to get their 

 stores. Tliese strips of wood should 

 be nearly two inches apart. I then 

 put the board cover on top of the chaff 



case the upper end of the cover to be 



held lip from the case about the thick- 

 ness of a shingle-nail, so that the 

 sweat and daiupness can escape from 

 the chaff. Then all over and around 

 these. I pack with dry planer-shavings 

 from 4 to 6 inches thick, then over all 

 1 put a good double-board cover, which 

 makes them secure, except at the en- 

 trance. 



From the hive to the outside of the 

 box 1 leave an entrance-way 3 inches 

 wide by 5-inch deep, which is left open 

 all winter. I next put on a storm- 

 porch on each side of the box, long 

 enough to cover the entrance of both 

 hivesT and giving the bees an air-space 

 of nearly one cubic foot of space for 

 each hive, and tight enough so that the 

 bees cannot get out, and snow and 

 mice cannot get in. 



The bottom of the storm-porch is 

 ' about an inch lower than the entrance- 

 way, so the bees cau carry out their 

 dead and drop them down into tlie 

 porch ; and the bees can walk out in 

 moderate weather. 



Next, I cut a nicely-litting hand-hole 

 in front of each hive, so the apiarist 



can open occasionally to keep the en- 

 trance clear of dead bees, or to give 

 the bees a flight, and to close the bees 

 in during bad weather in the spring, 

 when it is not safe for them to fly. 



I have had doubts as to whether bees 

 need water in winter confinement, 

 when they are kept in without an op- 

 portunity of a flight from November 

 until April, but I think that I have 

 proved the fact that they will do well 

 confined for that length of time. 



I packed my bees last fall about the 

 last week in October, and closed them 

 in about the middle of November, and 

 tliey were not out again until April 2, 

 1890. I had, after selling a few colo- 

 nies, 217 colonies, fall count, some of 

 which were put into winter quarters 

 quite light as far as food was con- 

 cerned ; and March being the hardest 

 month of the winter, it was difficult to 

 get at them in that month, so I let 

 them go until April ; the result was 

 that several colonies run out of food 

 and died, a few others proved to be 

 queenless, so they are quite light, but 

 aside from these, I have about 190 

 promising colonies, except that many 

 of them will need to be fed some to 

 bring them through to flowers. 



I am now feeding nearly 200 colo- 

 nies each day, and for the benefit of 

 some one, who, like myself, may at 

 some future time be under the neces- 

 sity of feeding, I will describe a cheap 

 feeder which I am using, and I must 

 say that, after using various kinds and 

 styles of feeders, at quite an expense 

 of time and labor, this gives the best 

 satisfaction for early feeding, of any 

 that 1 have used. 



It is simply a shallow tin dish, 3i 

 inches long by 2 inches wide, and J 

 inch deep ; placed across the frames 

 over the bees, and under the chaff" 

 ease, with a strip of wood laid across 

 the top of the dish from end to end to 

 hold up the cloth, so the bees can have 

 free access to it. 



After the dish is placed, and the case 

 adjusted properly, to get the food into 

 it I used this plan : I had on hand 

 some sap-spiles about 4 inches long, 

 made of maple timber, and turned to 

 drive after a t-inch bit, with a hole 

 bored through the spile about the size 

 of a cell of worker-comb. I then took 

 a piece of paste-board about U inches 

 siiuare, through which a |-inch hole 

 had been bored ; the spile will project 

 tlirough this paste-board about 1 inch. 

 Now remove the chaff down to the 

 feeder, cut a hole through the cloth 

 close to the A-inch piece that is laid 

 over the dish or feeder, put the spile 

 through the cloth, with the paste-board 

 1 restiu'^ on the piece that is laid across 

 and over the cloth. Pack the chaff 

 I around the spile, and it is done. 



Next, have a large spring-bottom 

 oil-can, and a tea-pot full of hot syrup 



as hot as can be, and not burn tlie 



bees. I use a common market-basket 

 to carry them in, so that I can set them 

 down to raise and lower the cover to 

 the box as I go along (I have fed 32 

 colonies in 16 minutes, including open- 

 ing and closing the covers). Have a 

 short piece of wire to reach down into 

 the feeder of very weak or doubtful 

 colonies, to ascertain whether tliey 

 have eaten it up clean. All good col- 

 onies will devour it in a hurry. A 

 little testing of the •'can" before you 

 begin, will tell you the quantity that 

 you want in each feeder. 



Manton, Mich., April 9, 1890. 



SUPERS. 



A New Super for the Open-Side 

 Sections. 



Written for fheAvierlcan Bee Journal 



BY JOSHOA BOLL. 



On page 232, Mr. M. M. Baldridge 

 calls " foi- something better than what 

 we have been using" in the line of 

 section supers. Now I would like to 

 say to all interested in this subject, 

 that I use a super (a device of my 

 own), which I call "The Victoria 

 Super ;" it combines nearly all the 

 features which Mr. B. mentions as 

 desirable, and one important point 

 which he does not speak of, and may 

 not have thought of, viz : It is es- 

 pecially adapted to the use of open- 

 side sections. 



This super is provided with slats in 

 the bottom for the sections to rest 

 upon, the bottom slats being made 

 just the pattern of a one-piece section 

 before it is folded up, so that when the 

 sections rest upon them in the super, 

 the bottom of the section is completely 

 protected from the bees; then by 

 means of " followers " in one side and 

 one end, and thumb-screws to adjust 

 them, the sections are tightly pressed 

 too-ether, both sidewise and endwise, 

 solihat it is not possible for the bees to 

 inject any propolis between them. 



Everv section is held perfectly true 

 and sq'uare, and so firmly in place 

 that the super can be turned bottom 

 uiiwards, and tumbled around in 

 almost any shape, and the sections 

 will not move nor get out of place. 

 The sections are completely protected 

 from the bees on all sides, except the 

 top It can be used with or without 

 separators, at the option of the 

 operator. 



The Victoria super was first devised 

 for the express use of open-side sec- 

 tions, but it is equally well adapted to 

 anv other kind. When open-side sec- 



