THE j^3IERICAN APICULTURIST. 



183 



unprofitable as compared with the 

 rest, supersede such queens at once. 

 It will not pay to keep them. When 

 the nights are chilly contract the 

 entrances of the hives ; it will pay. 



EXCHANGES. 



The Principles op Protection, 

 BY L. F. Abbott. — No one need 

 get fidget}' at the title of my sub- 

 ject. This essay isn't based on 

 the political bearing of tariff pro- 

 tection as the first thought might 

 naturally suggest. I am a believer 

 in protection, however, in every 

 sense of the word, and especially 

 where the rights of the farmer or 

 the farmer's bees are concerned, 

 the latter of which more directly 

 concerns us at the present time. 

 It is not my purpose to discuss 

 each point exhaustive!}', but rather 

 introduce propositions which seem 

 to me to be established as facts 

 and leave the discussion of the 

 various points to wiser, if not older, 

 heads. 



DEFINED. 



Proposition first : — The meaning 

 of " protection." Not to be too 

 critical, we will declare it to be 

 guarding against extremes of tem- 

 perature both in winter and summer. 

 Protection may be afforded in 

 various ways at both seasons, but 

 all forms may not be equally effica- 

 cious in accomplishing the desired 

 end. We may use single-walled 

 hives loosely constructed for our 

 bees, then leave them out-of-doors 

 through the winter months, placing 

 a few evergreen boughs or corn- 

 stalks around the hives and call it 

 " protection," and it would be, but 

 I think not the best kind. We 

 can also use such hives as I have 

 named and place the bees in a 

 good cellar and call that " protec- 

 tion," and this I have often done 

 witli good results, but neither of 



these ways, I am convinced, is the 

 right kind of protection for our 

 bees. 



Protection then, is something 

 more than guarding against cold ; it 

 protects from cold, from humidity, 

 from sudden changes induced by 

 atmospheric influence, and also 

 prevents the production and reten- 

 tion of deleterious gases and other 

 influences incident to non-ventila- 

 tion. 



EXPLAINED. 



Proposition second : — Why is 

 protection necessary ? Our bees are 

 subject to unnatural conditions in 

 the frame hive. To explain : bees 

 left to follow their own course sel- 

 dom fill the hive with uniform 

 straight combs. This change has 

 been brought about b}' the skill of 

 the apiarist. Bees in a natural 

 state never had wired foundation, 

 running from front to rear of the 

 hive, in beautiful and exact sheets 

 upon which these little insects could 

 continue the work so deftly begun 

 and left by the foundation machine. 

 A hive without bars or frames, 

 occupied by bees, will, as a rule, 

 be filled with combs of many forms, 

 placed irregularly, some running 

 at right angles with others, forming 

 nooks, corners and galleries where 

 the bees can find ample room to 

 cluster in during the winter, and 

 thus find protection from their 

 mode of filling their hives with 

 combs, which instinct leads them 

 to adopt. On the other hand, the 

 higher intelligence of man comes 

 in and directs the work of the bees, 

 who now produce perfectly straight 

 and true combs, subject to cold 

 drafts of air from the entrance up 

 through the narrowly spaced frames 

 and out by the loose joints of ill- 

 constructed hives. Protection, 

 then, is needed to restore the equi- 

 librium, destroyed by this abnormal 

 condition to wliicli our bees are 

 subjected by the advances, of what 

 is esteemed, apicultural science. 



