gone off with that quarter in his pocket, 

 or spent it for something else. If any 

 one is disposed to laugh at this, all I ask 

 of him is to watch himself closely for 

 some time, and my word for it, he will 

 catch himself frequently being influ- 

 enced by these trivial things. 



The fact is, the man who is able at any 

 time to buy a prize box for 40 or 45 cts., 

 will just as readily buy one or more of 

 my 1}{ lb. boxes, while the poor one will 

 invariably give mine the preference. I 

 also think it is much easier to get 20 cts. 

 per lb. for honey in my box than in one 

 either smaller or larger. The price, 25 

 cents, is so easy, and money of that 

 size is so plenty, that if a man has any 

 at all, he probably has a 25-cent. piece 

 in his pocket, and will lay it right down 

 without a word or thought for the honey. 

 My frames are 10x15 inches inside ; 7 

 frames in brood-chamber containing 

 1050 square inches. On each side hangs a 

 case of the same size as the frame, con- 

 taining 6 sections, with 24 sections on 

 top ; making altogether 36 sections, 

 which hold from 45 to 46 lbs. of honey. 



White Hall, 111. 



Journal of Agriculture. 



Preparation for Wintering Bees, 



N. CAMERON". 



We have advocates for wintering in 

 cellars, for wintering in bee-houses, for 

 wintering in clamps, for wintering in 

 double-walled hives, and for wintering 

 on summer stands without protection. 



All these ways require expense and 

 labor, except the last. It is no small 

 job to winter a large number of colo- 

 nies in the cellar, even when you have 

 the cellar. But we find there are other 

 disadvantages. The most noticeable is 

 the rapid diminution in the spring after 

 removal from the cellar, called "spring 

 dwindling." So fatal is this malady 

 that in many cases from one-fourth to 

 one-half of the colonies perish in a very 

 short space of time after removal, and 

 those that survive are very much reduced 

 in numbers, and take a long time to 

 recruit up. The cause of this dwindling 

 is probably on account of the bees com- 

 mencing operations too soon, from be- 

 ing in a warm cellar. It is claimed by 

 some that the bees wintered in a good 

 bee-house or cellar will not consume 

 more than one-fourth as much honey as 

 if wintered on their summer stands. If 

 this is true, it would be a convincing 

 argument in favor of winter protection. 

 And while I have not tested this as to 

 the amount it takes to winter on sum- 

 mer stands, I am skeptical as to there 



being much difference. If six pounds 

 of honey will winter a colony with good 

 protection, and it will take 24 pounds to 

 winter without, then it would be advis- 

 able to give protection, even if there 

 was no other advantage, provided there 

 was no disadvantage, such as result, in 

 many cases from cellar wintering. 18 

 pounds to the hive will more than pay 

 for giving the bees good protection. 

 The saving of honey I regard as of more 

 importance than the saving of bees. I 

 intend to test it this winter as to how 

 much honey will be consumed to the 

 colony on their summer stands, and I 

 hope others will do the same. It is not 

 generally understood of how little 

 value the bees are in comparision to the 

 honey and comb. Mr. Hosmer, a noted 

 honey producer of Minnesota, in giving 

 his method of wintering said that before 

 putting his bees away for the winter he 

 shook off all but a pint in the snow. 

 I am not advised as to whether any one 

 else has tried this plan, but I believe 

 that the apiarist might with profit 

 destroy one-half or more of his bees as 

 soon as the honey gathering failed in 

 the fall, taking all the lightest colonies 

 for that purpose. Mr. Hosmer's theory 

 was that the old bees were shaken off 

 that would have died any way before 

 spring, and the honey that they would 

 have eaten saved. 



Whether it is true that the old bees 

 can be shaken off, and the others left, I 

 am not able to say. But if all the bees 

 that die from the time they cease to 

 gather honey in the fall and the time 

 that winter sets in could be disposed of 

 at the close of the honey season, there 

 would be a great saving of honey, for 

 there is more honey consumed in the 

 fall months than in the winter ; and in 

 the meantime the colonies reduce in 

 population at least three-fourths. 



Here nature goes a long way to estab- 

 lish the Hosmer theory of reducing for 

 the winter. I would never advise going 

 any farther, however; would rather 

 strengthen if anything. I like strong 

 colonies with plenty of honey for win- 

 tering. While there is no doubt that 

 this is a wise provision in the natural 

 reduction of the large summer colonies 

 down to a very small one, in^comparison, 

 for wintering, there undoubtedly is a 

 limit beyond which it would not be 

 advisable to go. The large summer 

 colony, if they all lived during the fall 

 and winter, would be apt to consume all 

 the stores, and starve before the honey 

 gathering of next season . While on the 

 other hand, one too small would not be 

 able to generate sufficient heat to hatch 

 brood to establish a normal colony, be- 

 fore they would be all dead with old 



