THE AMERICAN A PIC UL TUB 1ST. 



» 101 



A unifonn temperature of 45°, 

 or any other uniConn temperature 

 is most unuatural, aiul 1 sliould 

 think that any living thing wouUl 

 wear out under its inlUiences, ex- 

 cept in a stute of profound liibor- 

 nation. Reasoning from this 

 standpoint, I have had a tiieory 

 for several years tliat a better way 

 to winter bees under such circum- 

 stances would be to keep them in 

 a low teni|)erature, perhaps just 

 above the freezing point in very 

 cold weather, and at intervals of 

 about ten days raise the tempera- 

 ture in the repository to a summer 

 temperature and kee[) it up for ten or 

 twelve hours. My theory was that 

 such a "warming up" would en- 

 able the bees to discharge by ex- 

 halation all surplus moistiu-e from 

 their bodies, external and inter- 

 nal ; in other words, liave the 

 same effect as does a winter flight. 

 In order to test the matter, at 

 the beginning of last winter I 

 placed a small colon}' of bees in a 

 fruit and vegetable cellar where 

 the temperature goes down to near 

 the freezing i)oint, and at intervals 

 of about ten days the hive was 

 carrieii in to my office where the 

 temperature was kept all through 

 the day at a summer lieat. The 

 pad was removed from the top of 

 the brood-chamber, so that nothing 

 but a thin screen cover was left on 

 to keep the bees in place. As the 

 warm air of the room would be- 

 gin to be felt b}^ the bees they 

 would gradually rouse themselves, 

 and in a few hours they would 

 send up a loud roaring like hot 

 summer time. Just before night 

 the pad was re[)laced and the hive 

 was returned to the cellar for an- 

 other interval of repose. The ex- 

 peri inent covered one hundred days 

 or till the fifteenth day of March, 

 when the bees in the yard began 

 to gather pollen from the Elm. On 

 that dav the hive was taken to the 

 yard and placed on the summer 

 stand, and the heroic little band of 



workers were carrying in pollen in 

 an incredibly short time. These 

 bees wintered perfectly, though 

 they were sidijected to the severest 

 tests for experimental pnr|)ose8. 

 In the early part of February they 

 were fed on warm syrup in which 

 flour had been stirred wdiile the 

 syrup was hot, to try what effect 

 such impure food would have on 

 the bees in their confinement ; and 

 although the experiment was re- 

 peated several times, the bees were 

 able to overcome every difficulty 

 by means of the " warming up 

 process." This experiment leads 

 me to believe that bees can be win- 

 tered with perfect success in any 

 tolerabl}^ close room, if so arranged 

 that it can be heateci up at the will 

 of the apiarist. Perhaps a fur- 

 nace could be constructed under 

 the room so as to heat it more ev- 

 enly than in any other way. The 

 hives should be covered with wire 

 cloth screens so as to give perfect 

 upward ventilation when the pads 

 or cushions are removed for the 

 heating-up process. 



To test the matter more thor- 

 oughly, I extended the experi- 

 ment to four little nuclei with not 

 more than a pint of bees each, al 

 ready enfeebled by the first shock 

 of winter, and by my new |)rocess 

 I have brought them safely through 

 the winter. They had no sealed 

 honey and hence none fed on a 

 mixed syrup, at intervals through 

 the winter. The " warming-up 

 process" solves the wintering prob- 

 lem." 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



From American Bee Journal. 



PRICE OF IIOXE Y—HO W TO 

 CONTROL IT. 



M. M.Baldkidge. 



Having for the past thirty 3'ears 

 had more or less experience in 



