274 



THE BEE-KEEPEKS* REVIEW 



boiling- point was reached at a lower 

 degree of heat. 



While I have never known honeythat 

 has been thoroughly boiled to com- 

 municate foul brood, I think a better 

 plan is to use all honey of doubtful 

 safety in bakeries, where the heat will 

 destroy all germs, or else by making it 

 into vinegar. 



Out-Door Wintering of Bees. 

 If bees can enjoy frequent flights, 

 out of doors is the place to winter 

 them. If deprived of these flights, a 

 temperature of about 45 degrees enables 

 them to bear a much longer confine- 

 ment than does a temperature below 

 freezing. In the South, frequent flights 

 are assured; in the North, no depend- 

 ence can be placed upon the matter- 

 Some winters are "open," or there are 

 January thaws, allowing the bees to 

 enjoy cleansing flights, while other 

 winters hold them close prisoners for 

 four or five months. It is this element 

 of uncertainty attending the wintering 

 of bees in the open air that has driven 

 so many bee-keepers to the adoption of 

 cellar wintering. Still, there are some 

 bee-keepers who, from some peculiarity 

 of location or management, are able to 

 winter their bees in the open air with 

 quite uniform success; others are com- 

 pelled, for the present, at least, to 

 winter the bees out of doors; in short, 

 a large portion of the bees, even in the 

 North, are wintered in the open air, 

 and probably will be for a longtime to 

 come. While my preference is the cellar, 

 there is much to be said in favor of 

 out-door wintering. Let me give one 

 or two instances of success: Ira D. 

 Bartlett, of East Jordan, Michigan, 

 which is away in the northern portion 

 of the lower peninsula, began keeping 

 bees when only 14 years of age— began 

 with only one colony— and when 21 

 years old he had ISO colonies, and had 

 never lost a colony wintering them out 

 of doors. His method of protection 

 was very thorough. He packed four 



colonies in one box, putting packing 

 not only at the sides, and on top, 

 but also below the hives. The packing 

 was fine, dry sawdust, and the roof to 

 the box had eaves that extended over 

 like the eaves of a railroad station, 

 which allowed the roof to be raised up 

 a short distance above the box for 

 ventilation, yet the snow would not get 

 in to any great extent. There was a 

 sort of vestibule in front of the en- 

 trances, and this vestibule was kept 

 closed by means of a board, it being 

 removed only when there came a day 

 warm enough for the bees to fly— some- 

 thing that rarely occurred in the 

 winter. So warm and comfortable 

 were the bees when so snugly housed 

 that they even brought the dead bees 

 out and dropped them in the vestibule. 

 I suspect that the thorough protection, 

 combined with the perfect ventilation, 

 allowing no accum.ulation of moisture, 

 is the secret of this wonderful success. 

 Another instance was that of two 

 ladies wlio began bee-keeping in 

 Northern Michigan before the iron 

 horse had invaded that region, and 

 who were uniformly successful, for a 

 long series of years, in wintering their 

 bees out of doors, packed in chaflf. 

 Like Mr. Bartlett, they furnished 

 abundant upward ventilation, above 

 the packing. An opening a foot square 

 was cut in the top of the box contain- 

 ing the chaff that was placed over the 

 colony, and this opening was covered 

 with wire cloth to keep out mice; and 

 then, over all, to keep out the storms, 

 was a large roof. So successful were 

 these ladies, that, from first to last, I 

 have paid theni nearly $1,000 for bees. 

 It does not seem as though the ques- 

 tion of whether bees should be pro- 

 tected, here in the North, need receive 

 any consideration whatever, yet it has 

 been objected to on the grounds that 

 the packing becomes damp, that it de- 

 pri.'es the bees of the warmth of the 

 sun, and that they sometimes fail to 

 fly in the winter, because the outside 



