THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



165 



bees a winter passage over the top 

 bars of our frames. This is a great 

 mistake. For the last two winters 

 my nearest neighbor has successfully 

 wintered his bees with no other pro- 

 tection than the enemeled sheet. 

 This winter (just passed) he wintered 

 a number of colonies in a single sim- 

 plicity brood chamber with enameled 

 sheets glued down tight to top bars, 

 with no winter passage unless caused 

 by burr combs, and protected from 

 the weather by a simplicity 

 cover — nothing else. A few days 

 since I was talking with L. L. 

 Hearn, the originator, introducer 

 and noted breeder of the celebrated 

 "Golden 5 Banded Italians." and in 

 speaking of his heavy losses this 

 winter, incidentally mentioned a weak 

 colony, which last July, had an un- 

 proliflc queen. He destroyed the 

 queen, gave them a queen cell, and 

 placed an enameled sheet over them 

 and left them. In packing his bees 

 for winter he placed burlap over them 

 (but neglected to put any chaff on 

 them), except this one hive which 

 was overlooked and left all winter 

 with no protection other than the en- 

 ameled cloth. Twenty- five packed as 

 above died — every one of them. In 

 overhauling his bees in March this 

 one was again overlooked, About 

 the first week in April he discovered 

 bees working in this hive and was 

 suprised to find, on examination, 

 that this hive was strong with bees 

 and had plenty i>f honey. Here was 

 a hive that had wintered well with 

 no protection, which friend H. ex- 

 pressed as something strange. The 

 facts prove to my mind that bees 

 winter better when upward ventilation 

 is prevented, and that passages over 



bars is not a mistake. They should 

 have a passage way but it should be 

 through the top bars,, not over them; 

 and with frames made thus, the de- 

 vice, loose sticks, etc, are a nuisance. 

 But when hot summer days come, 

 and the bees in box hives, sealed air- 

 tight as above stated, begins to "lay 

 out" in large clusters our box hive 

 brethren are placed at a great dis- 

 advantage. This "laying out" is 

 taken as a "sign" of swarming, but 

 after a week or more when the cluster 

 increases to a good sized swarm, not 

 even going in on accouns of rain, the 

 " notion " is taken that the bees are 

 ''too rich to swarm." The head is 

 pried off and the bees "robbed." After 

 the "robbing" the bees go to the inside 

 and resume their work. Then the 

 owner "knowed" his "notion" was right. 

 'There was so much honey in that, 

 'gum' that the 'king' drove the bees 

 out so the drones could have a chance 

 to lay eggs." So far as it relates to 

 being "too rich" to swarm, this 

 "notion." in some cases and to some 

 extent, may have been true, as too 

 much honey in the combs would cur- 

 tail the egg laying privilege of the 

 queen, because of want of room, but 

 I have drawn the conclusion that this 

 is seldom the case, and in all cases the 

 foul stagnant air in the hive was so 

 stifling to the poor bees that they were 

 forced to the outside to get a " fresh 

 breath," and to keep the brood from 

 being smothered, and when the head 

 was taken oft' the sealing of propolis 

 was broken so the air currents could 

 pass up through the hive, giving suf- 

 ficient ventilation as to enable the 

 bees to return inside and go to work. 

 I have observed that the 10-frame 

 L. hive is both too lara-e and too small. 



