164 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



favorable as possible we can let our 

 bees keep such stores as they may 

 have from year to year, and still suc- 

 ceed, after a fashion The fashion is 

 notavery satisfactory one, to be sure — 

 tot) many losses, some of them very 

 heavy ones — but still we can main- 

 tain our apiaries, and produce honey, 

 and that without buying bees. Warm 

 double walls, well packed with chaff, 

 else a good cellar, tight roofs, (say 

 those two words over several times.) 

 wind - breaks, natural or artificial ; 

 chaff cushions above, and the bees ac- 

 tually up close to the cushion to be- 

 gin with ; snug chamber, free of cracks 

 and draughts, and not too big ; inch 

 or two of dry sawdust underneath to 

 drink up slops from the thawing of 

 winter frost ; these be the syllables by 

 meaus of which, even without sugar 

 syrup, we can pronounce the phrase 

 "suc-cess-ful win-ter-ing." 



And now one more thing. Ye con- 

 fiding students look out for yourselves 

 lest ye be seduced by ruinous non- 

 sense ; for this is a matter I am al- 

 most the only writer to maintain — 

 the place for all stores over ten or 

 twelve pounds is in the comb closet, 

 not in the hive. Assign them a 

 thousand pounds per colony if you 

 want to, but don't require them to 

 keep it partially warmed up all win- 

 ter by their own bodily heat — lose by 

 it if you do. Besides the fact that 

 honey is cold stuff, and that excess of 

 it in the hive at one time is too much 

 like taking a million silver dollars to 

 bed with you on a cold night. There 

 is an accidental circumstance that ag- 

 gravates matters. Our hives are al- 

 most all of them so constructed that 

 with extra stores, that is to say, with 

 30 or 40 pounds, the cluster must be 



formed (or at least will be) low down 

 in the hive, and much of the honey 

 will be directly above them. Think 

 a moment what the inevitable result 

 of this will be. During spells of 

 zero weather the empty spaces above 

 the cluster condense large amounts of 

 moisture in the shape of frost. This 

 state of things one can hardly fail to 

 notice if he will open a hive under 

 such circumstances. When a mild 

 spell of weather comes this mass of 

 frost can do nothing else than melt, 

 and run down and drench the bees. 

 Worse yet, the severe spell may con- 

 tinue SO long that the bees are com- 

 pelled to warm up things themselves, 

 in order to take sufficient food and 

 keep from starving. This they do by 

 muscular action and returning to the 

 active state. But midway of the try- 

 ing effort the frost ovei their heads 

 melts, and comes down upon them as 

 cold water. Dear bee-brothers, don't 

 fix things in such a stupid way as to 

 have this occur. 

 Richard*, Ohio. 



Bee Notes. 



BY M. H. I)E WITT. 



We have given the New Improved 

 Hoffman frames a fair trial this sea 

 son in our apiary, and I think they 

 are a great improvement over the old 

 style. We have had no burr combs 

 built on them, and my combs are not 

 all braced together as they were with 

 the old L-frames — so much so that 

 when I was manipulating them 

 the honey was continually running 

 down from where the brace combs 

 were fastened together. I shall dis- 

 card all other old style frames and 

 have all my combs built on the new 

 Hoffman frames. 



