160 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



chfitt' on top, and outside with a 

 tight shed and slant roof packed 

 with stravv, good entrance from 

 hives to front of slied. 



This spring, Avhen I first exam- 

 ined them, 1 found one swarm 

 alive, and all right, the rest had 

 starved in a land of plenty, for 

 there was honey enough in five of 

 the six to have carried them 

 through. But the bees were on 

 one side of the hive and the stores 

 were on the other, with a Hill's de- 

 vice on the top of frames to give 

 them easy access to all the frames. 

 Now, why did they starve with 

 hone}' in their hive? Of twenty- 

 five colonies lost so far this winter 

 in this place, there were half a 

 dozen different methods used to win- 

 ter them, from my way of packing 

 to leaving them on their summer 

 stands, with no packing except a 

 big stone on top ; and two-thirds 

 report finding their bees clustered 

 on side dead, with more or less 

 honey on the other side, but they 

 never got there! Why is it? 

 Now I want to know ! 



A hive that will allow bees easy 

 access to their stores is tlie kind 

 of a hive 1 want ; and if bees 

 have a desire to go up, instead of 

 sidewise, why is n't that Ideal hive 

 that Mr. J. W. Tefft had on ex- 

 hibition at the Convention at Syra- 

 cuse, N. Y., about right? He says 

 he has improved it since, in sev- 

 eral respects, by making it a 

 "double header" for a reversible 

 frame, as well as a hanging frame ; 

 can use either one, or both, 

 at the same time, as they are of 

 the same size. He says he crowds 

 his bees down to seven frames in 

 the brood chamber, with division 

 boards, puts his super on, and fills 

 it with six frames of honey, and 

 by using his reversible frame in 

 the super, can place the honey 

 that would naturally, in a hanging 

 frame be at the top, directly over 

 the brood nest, so that the bees can 



eat and follow it u[) without break- 

 ing the cluster entirel3\ 



Then what an opportunity to 

 pack them ! Fill in all around 

 them with cut straw or pine shav- 

 ings, clear to the top of super, and 

 with a cushion on top of that, they 

 ought to hold the fort. If one 

 does not want frames of honey in, 

 fix his super to hold a cushion half 

 way down, and what a neat place 

 in wiiich to put a stimulative bee 

 feeder. Lots of room and warm. 

 If any one has a better hive, I wish 

 I knew who it was ; I would visit 

 him this summer and see it. His 

 reversible section holder, or wide 

 frame, works to a charm, and if 

 simplicity is all that is needed, it 

 can't be beaten, no tip over and no 

 bracing them up. Well, I must 

 beg you to excuse this, and if you 

 can give me any liglit on the sub- 

 ject, do so, and oblige, 



J. D. Wands. ' 



Friend Wands has asked several 

 questions in the above, which are 

 important and call for answers. 

 Tliose who have carefully studied 

 the natural habits of the bees are 

 well aware that the combs in the 

 tree or box hive are seldom regu- 

 ular, nor are they so built that, 

 in cold weather, it is hard to move 

 from one portion of tlie hive to the 

 other ; on the contrary, we find 

 upon examining almost any old box 

 hive in which the bees have been 

 permitted to build their combs to 

 their own liking, that they are very 

 crooked and irregular, and in such 

 a way that the bees may cluster in 

 a compact body, and when neces- 

 sary move about from one portion 

 of the hive to the other without 

 breaking the cluster. Now, while 

 it is impossible for us to follow the 

 bees exactly in this regard, yet 

 oftentimes we fail to draw from 

 these facts all the lessons that we 

 might. 



In order to winter our bees 



