.334 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



December 



PEODUOING OOMB EONEY. 



[From an address delivered by Mr. B. 



Taylor, at Toronto, Ont., Sept. 5, 1895.] 



I am quite certain I can winter 

 with certainty in almost any kind of 

 hive, provided it is filled with a large 

 colony of young bees, and plenty of 

 natural sealed stoi'es at the commence- 

 ment of winter, and I give intelligent 

 care as to winter quarters ; this I will 

 give by putting my colonies in a dry, 

 dark, well-ventilated cellar, and keep- 

 ing them at a temperature as near 40 

 degree as possible. Each colony will 

 be covered with soft felt, sheeting 

 paper, or a quilt or two more thick- 

 nesses of burlap or cotton sheeting, 

 and these fastened down tightly to the 

 top of the hive (the cover being re- 

 moved), so as to retain the natural 

 heat of the bees, for I am now con- 

 vinced, by repeated experiments, that 

 the colonies should be covered warm- 

 ly, even in the cellar. I will let the 

 bottom-boards of the hives remain, 

 but will have a wide entrance (the en- 

 tire width of the hive), both in front 

 and rear, left open. 



The bees will be put into winter 

 quarters when real winter has appar- 

 ently come. 



I have some second swarms that 

 came late ; these will be at once sup- 

 plied with heavy combs of natural 

 stores, which I have in stock, regard- 

 less of the flowers yielding fall honey, 

 for I want those young colonies to be 

 stimulated to rear all the brood possi- 

 ble, and this they will not do if stint- 

 ed for stores ; the second swarms will 

 make my best colonies for next year. 



FALL TREATMENT. 



Thi'- fnl] T wiP five strong coVniPS 

 all the supers of sections filled with 



full sheets of moderately heavy found- 

 ation ; they will partly or wholly draw 

 it out, and if any brood chambers 

 should be light in stores when these 

 cases are removed, I will give them 

 heavy combs of honey to make them 

 rich in winter stores and spring food 

 for rearing early the army of workers 

 that are to gather a great crop of clovi- 

 er and basswood honey next year. 



PROVIDING FOR THE FUTURE. 



The sections of honey stored this 

 fall will be extracted, and then set out 

 some fair afternoon so the bees may 

 clean them of every particle of honey. 

 During the winter and spring the 

 combs will be leveled to uniform 

 thickness on a combleveler, and then 

 returned to the section-cases, with one 

 of my slotted handy separators be- 

 tween each two combs, and then set 

 in a proper place until 10 days before 

 clover blooms next year, when I will 

 put one case on each strong colony 

 previous to swarming ; in the cases 

 the bees will have no combs to build, 

 and they will fill them as speedily as 

 a set of extracting-combs ; the sections 

 will have the comb built solid to them 

 on all parts, the honey will be very 

 white, and the combs the smoothest 

 you ever say. If I do not have 

 enough drawn combs to hold my crop 

 I will use full sheets of foundation in 

 sections to supply the deficiency, put- 

 ting the sections with foundation in 

 the center of the supers, and drawn 

 combs on the outside. 



SPRING TREATMENT. 



Next spring, as soon as there is a 

 fair prospect that hard winter weather 

 is passed, I will move ray colonies to 

 the summer stands. Each will be ex- 

 amined on the first fai" day after they 

 have had a good flight, to ascertain 



