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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Wintering Bees. 



Mr. Editor : — I have been much gratified to 

 see and read, in your valuable Journal, that 

 the manner of wintering bees, has, during the 

 past year, been attracting more than usual at- 

 tention. That this is so, however, seems Quite 

 natural, since it is now an admitted fact amongst 

 all, or nearly all, practical apiarians, that some 

 eight-tenths of all the colonies of bees that are 

 lost, are lost during the winter and early spring 

 months. 



It may be an interesting subject of inquiry, to 

 some writers, to attempt to account on scienti- 

 fic principles, and intelligently, for the loss and 

 for the cause and reason of the loss of this or of 

 that colony of bees. But, in a practical sense, 

 what does it amount to, so far as a very large 

 majority of bee-keepers of this or any other 

 country are concerned, to learn through the 

 columns of your valuable Journal, or from 

 any other source, what causes the loss of this 

 or the other colony of bees, after they are lost, 

 unless the means and manner of saving and pro- 

 tecting such as may survive is also learned ? 



It certainly is of no practical value to any hee- 

 keeper to learn or be informed that this colony 

 died by reason of being robbed, or that the other 

 colony was frozen to death. Nor is it of any 

 benefit to him to learn that this or that colony 

 died for want of stores or ventilation, or because 

 of too much ventilation, or of dysentery, or be- 

 cause of anything else being wrong — unless he 

 also learns from the lesson before him, or by 

 some other means, how to prevent the loss of 

 other colonies by like causes in future. 



It may be said, and it has been said by some, 

 that ordinarily it is not safe to attempt to winter 

 a colony of bees having less than from sixteen 

 to twenty pounds of stores to commence with. 

 Others have said that thirty or forty pounds are 

 absolutely required. Some writers claim that 

 the best place, all things considered, to winter 

 bees, is upon their summer stands, and that all 

 attempts to protect the hives in which the bees 

 are kept from the storms and cold winds of 

 winter, are entirely useless, if not absolutely in- 

 jurious. It will not be denied that a strong 

 colony of bees, with plenty of stores, will pass 

 the winter safely, and to all outward appear- 

 ance very well, on their summer stands, unpro- 

 tected. But, would not this same colony have 

 passed the winter better, with many more bees 

 and several pounds of honey saved, with pro- 

 per protection from the storms and cold winds 

 of winter ? 



I will admit that in a climate where the ther- 

 mometer never sinks below the freezing point, 

 and which is not subject to sudden changes of 

 weather, from quite warm to cold, that protec- 

 tion to bees in the winter season, may be and 

 probably is untirely useless. I will also admit 

 that, in climates where for days and weeks in 

 succession, the thermometer will range from 

 zero to 10°, 20°, or 30° below zero, burying 

 bees under ground, in special repositories made 

 for the purpose, or depositing them in caves and 



other places under ground, may be, and in many 

 cases is, necessary for their protection during 

 the winter season. 



And here, in eastern Ohio, in latitude about 

 4(H°, unless in a very favorable location, I am 

 fully satisfied (after an experience of several 

 years in practical and experimental bee-keeping 

 on a small scale,) that some kind of protection 

 during the winter and the early spring season, 

 is very beneficial to bees, when kept in hives 

 made of inch boards, of one thickness. I have 

 experimented in thislocation, in wintering both 

 strong and medium colonies of bees on their 

 summer stands without any protection ; and 

 also with the hives as well protected as the cir- 

 cumstances and their position would admit of. 

 I have at the same time wintered like strong 

 and medium colonies in a special repository, 

 built for the purpose, entirely above ground. 

 The results of such experiments have been uni- 

 form, as a general thing — a few exceptions only 

 — that colonies which were proteced on their 

 summer stands, wintered better than the ur pro- 

 tected ones; and that such as were wintered in 

 the special repository wintered the best of any. 

 The advantages in favor of the special reposi- 

 tory and the results thereof, have been three- 

 fold. First, in the saving of from five to fif- 

 teen pounds of stores per colony, each winter ; 

 second, as a result, the saving, in good condi- 

 tion, of several medium colonies that were some- 

 what scarce of stores and bees in the fall; and, 

 third, in having colonies both stronger in bees, 

 and with an extra amount of surplus stores in 

 early spring, and consequently earlier and bet- 

 ter swarms. 



The special respository spoken of, is a plain 

 and cheap struciure, and built entirely above 

 ground. It is nothing more than a plain wooden 

 building, eight feet wide, fifteen feet long, and 

 seven feet high, weather-boarded and lined 

 closely with inch boards, with a double floor, 

 and a common lap shingle roof. It has a door 

 at one end, and is built without any filling in 

 between the flooring or the weather-boarding 

 or lining. In a word, it is a plain out-building 

 made double below, and on all sides, with a 

 a single common lap shingle roof upon it. It is 

 such a building as has answered the purpose 

 very well here; but it is such a building as 

 might, aud probably would, be too close and 

 warm in a mild and warm climate, or too open 

 and cold in a very cold one. 



In this repository I pack away bee hives in 

 plenty of dry straw, about the first of Decem- 

 ber. Before doing this, however, I prepare 

 them as follows : Contract the front entrances 

 to about three-sixteenths of an inch of the en- 

 tire width of the hive, and open the holes in the 

 honey-board. Raise the corner or top of the 

 hive slightly — say ^ of an inch. With this pre- 

 paration, and in this out-house, I have packed 

 away colonies of bees for several winters past, 

 and wintered them with success. In packing 

 them into this repository, I have always been 

 careful to set the hives far enough away from 

 the ends and sides of the house to admit con- 

 siderable dry straw to be packed in the spaces 

 there left. In short, I have always made free 

 use of dry straw, packing it beneath, around, 



