178 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



For the American Jpiculttirist. 



THE WINTER PROBLEM. 



J. E. POND. 



An article upon the above sub- 

 ject may not be considered exactly 

 seasonable, still it is one of the 

 greatest importance, and one to 

 wliiuh too much thought cannot be 

 given, and of which none too much 

 can be written. In this article I 

 propose to deal solel}' witli the 

 question as it relates to New Eng- 

 land and its climate, but belie\e 

 that whatever is applicable to a 

 New England winter will apply 

 equall}' well to any changeable cli- 

 mate ; and I say as a matter of fact 

 that 1 have solved the problem to 

 my own satisfaction at least, and 

 that satisfaction is owing to the 

 fact, that during the last sixteen 

 years, wintering on summer stands 

 with the temperature showing from 

 40° F. above, to 20° F. belovv"o,and 

 with from 130 to 175 days when 

 bees could hardly fly, I have not 

 lost a single colony that had stores 

 enough on which to live, during the 

 period above stated. And, further, 

 that during that time, only two 

 colonies were lost, and those could 

 have been saved had not illness 

 confined me to the house from 

 Februar3' to June, preventing me 

 from caring for my apiary as I 

 should. During the whole time I 

 have kept bees, 1 have experi- 

 mented largely in this matter, and 

 in the course of those experiments 

 have used hives of all kinds, shapes, 

 and sizes, and have found that 

 Avhile there is a great difference in 

 hives in the matter of economy, 

 there is but little in the mere mat- 

 ter of safe wintering. For reasons 

 that I need not explain here, I will 

 say incidentally, that the ten frame 

 " L " hive is the one I prefer to all 

 others, and is the one 1 recommend 

 for that reason. I have experi- 



mented with single and double- 

 walled hives, with chaff filling, and 

 dead air spaces, with sides 1^ inch 

 to I inch thick, and I find no trou- 

 ble in wintering in any of them. I 

 do find, however, that a double- 

 walled hive, with walls from | to 

 f inch thick, and with a dead air 

 space of 1 to 1^ inch, gives the 

 best results, in the matter of econ- 

 omy in use of winter stores ; but, 

 even in this matter, I have not 

 found that degi'ee of regularity, 

 that one would suppose should 

 exist. The smallest amount of 

 stores consumed in my own apiary 

 was in the winter of 1885-86, and in 

 a single walled f inch ten frame "L 

 hive," the bees liaving free access 

 to all the frames ; the amount con- 

 sumed from October 15, 1885, to 

 Feb. 20, 1886, being 11 1 lbs. and 

 the colony came through in the best 

 of condition, and gathered 72 lbs. 

 of honey from apple blossoms in 

 four days in the following May. 

 I don't consider that there is any 

 particular quality either in myself 

 or in my bees, that should produce 

 tlie results stated above ; but 1 do 

 believe that these results were 

 brought about by the careful meth- 

 od of management I have adopted, 

 and which is the same that I 

 have made public many times dur- 

 ing the last few years, and will be 

 lound in the " Api," with those of 

 several others. I am forced to the 

 conclusion that, while perhaps a lit- 

 tle honey can be saved by " cellar 

 wintering," take it all in all, 

 the safest place is the summer 

 stands ; that is to s:iy, bees will 

 "spring" better when kept on 

 summer stands, than when win- 

 tered inside, and as a rule will live 

 till spring no matter how packed 

 for winter, if the}' have stores 

 where they can reacli them. I am 

 convinced, too, that chaff-hives af- 

 ford no better real protection than 

 do single walls, and that in spring 

 they are far less safe ; and then 



