358 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



spring, when the combs are full of 

 brood, and, perhaps, only a scant 

 number of bees to take care of it. 



Colonies in sing-le-walled hives need 

 all the protection it is possible to give 

 them. 



WINTER STORES MUST BE OF THE BEST. 



We are having forced upon us, more 

 and more, every year, the importance 

 of quality of winter stores. Those 

 who have kept track of my previous 

 wintering know I have had quite a 

 large experience with bees in differ- 

 ent localities, thus having a chance to 

 test the different kinds of honeys for 

 winter stores, such as clover, bass- 

 wood, raspberry. buckwheat and 

 asters. During several years I have 

 had, each year, yards of bees winter- 

 ing on these different kinds of honey; 

 that is, one yard would have white 

 honey, another aster or buckwheat. 

 So you see, I could compare the results 

 each springs, and, as the winters were 

 the same in each yard, the results 

 could be figured out easil}', with a 

 little allowance for outside protection, 

 as the case might be. Now for the 

 results: "Did the bees all live with the 

 best stores ?" "No." "Did they die 

 with the poor stores?" "No." But 

 the percentage was very much in favor 

 of the white, early honey for winter 

 stores, every time. With a mild win- 

 ter the difference is not so great, but a 

 cold winter, like last winter, or like 

 one we get every two or three years. It 

 is almost sure death to a colony if 

 they have nothing but this poor fall 

 honey to winter on. 



WINTER STORES MUST BE OF THE BEST. 



I do not think I can do better tlian 

 give some figures, showing the results 

 from two yards, otherwise the same, 

 only one was fed ten pounds of sugar 

 syrup per colony, in addition to what 

 natural stores they already had. 

 These yards were the Eldred, and the 

 Pine Lake. Both yards had the same 

 grade of honey, part buckkwheat and 



aster and a part white early honey. 

 As there was no honey extracted from 

 the brood-nests there was no difference 

 in the quality of these stores that I 

 know of. We fed the Eldred yard 150 

 pounds sugar syrup, all to light stocks, 

 as thej' needed this amount to carry 

 them through the winter. The Pine 

 Lake colonies were all fed 10 pounds 

 each in addition to what natural stores 

 they already had. This feeding was 

 done the last of September, about the 

 time the brood was getting pretty well 

 hatched out, and, as it is natural for 

 bees to carry the outside honey into 

 the center of the brood-nest at that 

 time of year, it would be natural that 

 thev would store this sugar syrup 

 there also, just where wanted for 

 their winter consumption. These two 

 yards contained 98 colonies each, a 

 year ago, all in chaff hives, with 

 about the same outside protection. 

 You will remember that last winter 

 was very severe on bees, especially 

 those wintered out side. The result 

 was that the sugar fed bees came out 

 with 80 good fair colonies alive, while 

 the other had only 65; and a part of 

 these so weak that they did not amount 

 to anything for our early harvest. I 

 will carry the crop report of these two 

 yards out in dollars and cents, then 

 we can better understand what I con- 

 sider that I realized on an investment 

 of less than $50 in sugar. As the 

 honey is all sold I find that the Pine 

 Lake yard (sugar fed) credited with 

 S658, while the Eldred has a credit of 

 only $320. In addition, the winter 

 losses were all made up at the sugar- 

 fed yard, while there were only 25 

 made at the Eldred. Had I have made 

 up the balance of the winter loss, these 

 figures would have been lowered to 

 quite an extent. 



WINTERING BEES IN CLAMPS. 



You will remember I told you above 

 that we were locating a yard of bees, 

 inclosed on three sides with light sand 



