156 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



again repeated swarming may have 

 unduly reduced their numbers ; such 

 weak colonies may not be able to 

 keep up sufficient heat to drive off 

 the moisture surrounding the cluster; 

 it gathers and trickles down over the 

 combs and bees rendering their food 

 sour and themselves unable to with- 

 stand a low temperature. The sour- 

 ed food is sure to bring on dysentery 

 if the bees are confined to it for any 

 teugth of time, or the dampness of 

 the bees themselves combined with 

 chilling of their bodies will produce 

 the same effect. Or again, an un- 

 favorable season has prevented their 

 securing an abundance of stores, or 

 what they may have obtained is per- 

 haps not so located that severe weath- 

 er will find them able to reach it. Or 

 the bees may have failed to find the 

 most suitable habitation, such as 

 would properly protect them from in- 

 clement weather and permit evapora- 

 tion without great loss of heat, yet 

 give them pure air. All such pauses, 

 unaided by man, combine to exter- 

 minate thousands upon thousands of 

 of colonies every winter. A man, 

 with his interference in the brood- 

 chamber of the colony, and in the 

 surrounding conditions is often an- 

 other destructive agency. 



I cannot give here at length the de- 

 tails as to the plan of wintering which 

 has resulted from the foregoing con- 

 siderations together with ray success 

 and failures of over a quarter of a 

 century — much of the time in very 

 cold climates. The principal is, how- 

 ever, simple, and all who will may 

 apply it. Indeed, it is nothing but 

 what all have been trying to do, 

 namely : to keep the bees warm and 

 dry, furnish them with good food al- 



ways accessable and with pure air. 

 This can be carried out either in- 

 doors or out-doors, but cellar winter- 

 ing or wintering in special repositor- 

 ies introduces into the problem the 

 possibility of complications, and for 

 the majority, therefore, I feel sure 

 the out-door plan is the best. For 

 the North, however, all of the ordi- 

 nary single- walled hives are, for this 

 purpose, an abomination, and not to 

 be tolerated at all. Most of the 

 double-walled hives should be put in 

 a category near to those just mention- 

 ed. 



The brood-combs upon which the 

 bees are to be wintered, and which 

 contain the winter stores, should be 

 surrounded closely on all sides, above 

 and below, with six or more inches 

 (according to severity of climate) of 

 porous, yet warmth-retaining material 

 — woolen goods and newspapers are 

 best ; there must be several inches of 

 space between the material that is 

 over the bees and the roof of the hive, 

 and this space must be freely ventil- 

 ated ; but not a drop of water must be 

 allowed to reach the packing from 

 outside the hive ; the combs must lie 

 six or more inches above the bottom 

 packing ; the entrance or flight-hole 

 must be wide, so as to give ample 

 lower ventilation, and, where it 

 reaches the alighting-board, prefer- 

 ably ten inches below the bottoms of 

 the combs ; between the latter and 

 the flight-hole there should be a 

 screen, to prevent drafts of air from 

 rushing against the combs ; the food 

 should be well-ripened honey or prop- 

 erly-made syrup, and either case a 

 plentiful supply — stored mostly above 

 the cluster of bees ; hence if frames 

 of the Langstroth shape are used, 



