THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



169 



will keep. On the other hand, if you 

 do not give them quite enough you 

 will be sure to lose both honey and 

 bees. For cellar wintering from twenty 

 to twenty-five pounds will be sufficient, 

 but give me outside wintering in pre 

 ferenee. My experience with cellar 

 and out-wintered bees for the last five 

 years has convinced me that a colony 

 well packed outside is worth almost 

 two cellar-wintered colonies, and that 

 they give less bother and worry. It 

 is a great drawback to the bee-keeper 

 to keep constant watch over cellared 

 bees for six month< or more in order 

 to see that they do not get eirher too 

 much heat or cold. Well packed out- 

 side, and with sufficient store provided 

 for them, they will watch the ther- 

 mometer themselves, and govern 

 themselves accordingly ; and the api- 

 arist, if he so desires, can leave them 

 for a few days without uneasiness. 



As the bees are now supposed to be 

 fed up well and ready for packing, I 

 presume the novice is anxious to 

 know how to proceed with the pack- 

 ing of them. There are many meth- 

 ods of packing, all of them good, pro- 

 vided they are done right. Some 

 winter their bees in a long clamp, all 

 in a row, some singly, with one colony 

 in each, but the latter method is too 

 expensive, and gives too much work. 

 I have tried nearly all the different 

 modes, and rather prefer three or 

 four hive clamps, the fours being the 

 most convenient and the easiest to 

 make. If you are going to make any 

 new packing boxes, try the fours. In 

 the first place, make the bottom, and 

 have it large enough to stand four 

 hives upon, back to back, one facing 

 north and the other south, or in any 

 other direction you please, leaving the 



hives one or two inches apart, and 

 making the boxes huge enough to hold 

 five or six inches of packing all around 

 between the hives and the outside 

 case. Nail the sides to the bottom, 

 and have them high enough to allow 

 for one or two inches of leaves or chaff 

 below the hives, and from six to eight 

 inches above. When you get your 

 outside case r-ady, put one or two 

 inches of chaff in the bottom, set the 

 hives in, then have a bridge put to 

 the entrance from a hole in the out- 

 side case to allow the bees free exit 

 and entry. 



Now, take off the cover, raise up 

 the quilt, and place some sticks accross 

 the frames to enable the bees to cross 

 over the combs, then put the quilt 

 back over the sticks, leave the cover 

 off, and pack all around and between 

 the hives as tightly as possible, and 

 the same on top. Then put on a good 

 tight cover, so that the. packing will 

 be kept perfectly dry, and I am quite 

 sure that, if you only feed and pack 

 up your bees well, you will be de- 

 lighted, upon advent of the honey 

 flow of 1893, to see the. bees rolling 

 in the golden stores. — ( Canada)!). An- 

 guish in C. B. J. Sept. 



J'.KKS FIGHTING WHEN BEING UNITED. 



I have two stocks of bees in frame 

 hives, which have not swarmed for two 

 or three years. They have not done 

 well this season, so I concluded the 

 queens were worn out. I therefore 

 destroyed ihem, with the intention of 

 uniting a driven lot of bees to each 

 Stock. Well, a few evenings ago I 

 united them in the following way: I 

 first smoked the bees in each hive, 

 and, after spraying the combs and bees 

 with essence of peppermint , shook out 



