Nov. 29, 1906 



984 



American ^gg Journal 



if do to pick them up now in Novem- 

 ber and move them to their new 

 place? Connecticut. 



Answer.— If you could know what 

 day they will take their last flight be- 

 fore settling down for the winter, 

 there would be nothing better than to 

 move them quietly on the afternoon 

 or evening of that day. The trouble 

 is that you can't tell about the time 

 of their flights; but for the sake of 

 having something to go on, let us 

 suppose that their last flight is to be 

 Dec 1, and that they will not fly again 

 till Feb. 15. It will be all one whether 

 they are moved the evening of Dec. 

 1 or anv time up to and including Feb. 

 14, or even the morning of Feb. 15 

 before they fly, except as to the mat- 

 ter of disturbance. On the evening of 

 Dec. 1, and for several days after- 

 ward, they will not be easily stirred 

 up, and will hardly notice being 

 moved. Gradually, as their imprison- 

 ment continues, they will take more 

 notice of any jar, and after they have 

 continued long enough the disturb- 

 ance might cause some of them to 

 fly out to their death. But if you wait 

 till the morning of Feb. 15, there will 

 be no need of gentle handling; in- 

 deed, all the better if you bump them 

 pretty hard when setting them down 

 in their new places, for they will have 

 a chance to relieve themselves in a 

 few minutes. 



In addition to the precautions you 

 have mentioned, it may be well to 

 shut the bees in the hive before mov- 

 ing them on the morning of Feb. 15, 

 then when the thermometer in the 

 shade shows 45 or 50 degrees, the air 

 still, and the sun shining, pound on 

 the hives, giving each hive four or 

 five good knocks in turn, and after 

 making the rounds thus two or three 

 times open the entrances. Have 

 everything in the old location cleaned 

 up, and changed as much as possible. 

 so that any bees that do go there will 

 find nothing homelike. Don't think of 

 waiting till fruit-bloom, if you are 

 not obliged to do so. 



a nail passing from the outside to 

 the inside of the hive— a necessary 

 precaution— as such metallic conduc- 

 tor during a low temperature outside 

 will attract a thick coating of frost 

 within. Do manufacturers generally 

 make chaff -hives in this way? 



4 What is the best plan to adopt 

 in an effort to winter bees on the 

 summer stands? New Yokk. 



Wintering Bees on the Summer 



Stands in Air-Spaced or 



Chaff Hives 



After a careful reading of "Forty 

 Years Among the Bees" I have con- 

 cluded that you consider a suitable 

 cellar as the best place for bees in the 

 winter. It would save a great deal of 

 trouble and labor if bees could be suc- 

 cessfully wintered on the summer 

 stands, and it seems to me that a 

 hive-body could be made that would 

 do it. 



1. In this latitude, can bees be 

 successfully wintered on the summer 

 stands, if air-spaced or chaff hives are 

 used? 



2. Are air-spaced hives, with the 

 air-chamber rendered impermeable to 

 air by a lining of resin-sized building 

 paper, preferable to chaff-hives? 



3. I understand that there is but 

 one manufacturing concern making 

 an "air-spaced hive", and they lay 

 stress upon the fact that there is not 



Answek.— I wonder if by some 

 means you are not overestimating the 

 trouble and labor of cellaring bees. 

 Mv bees average a distance of some- 

 thing like 5 rods from the cellar, and 

 it is no more than a day's work for 

 one man to take in 200 colonies, and 

 another day's work to take them out 

 I think most methods of wintering out 

 would take more time and labor. I 

 think however, that you are not so 

 much comparing indoor with outdoor 

 wintering, but seeking a hive that 

 will require no trouble and labor to 

 prepare for winter, but will be all 

 right just as it stands the whole 

 year round. You are not the first one 

 who has felt a longing for just that 

 sort of a hive, and years ago the 

 search for it was more earnest than 

 at the present day. If we had mere- 

 ly the wants of the bees to consult, 

 without anv reference to the wants of 

 the bee-keeper, we probably would go 

 back to the old-fashioned straw-skep. 

 than which no modern invention af- 

 fords for the bees a better all-the-year- 

 round home. Chaff-hives were in high 

 esteem for a time, but they are un- 

 wieldly, and that they did not fulfill 

 what they promised probably ac- 

 counts for the fact that not much is 

 said in their favor nowadays. So, 

 keeping in mind past history, it 

 might be advisable for you, if you 

 think of trying double-walled hives, 

 to make the trial on a small scale at 

 first, no matter whether you winter out 

 or in. Thus much by way of general- 

 izing; now for specific answers: 



1. Yes, bees can be wintered in 

 double-walled hives successfully on 

 the summer stands in your latitude, 

 or in single-walled hives, either— in- 

 deed they were thus wintered before 

 double-walled hives were thought of. 

 Nor are vou to take it that because 

 the cellar is the best for me it is 

 necessarily the best for you, although 

 we are in precisely the same latitude. 

 I think you don't have it so cold as 

 here But that doesn't make the great- 

 est difference. You don't have such 

 strong winds. Neither does that 

 make the greatest difference. The 

 special point of difference is that 

 a New York wind doesn't have 

 the staving qualities of an Illi- 

 nois prairie wind. It doesn't blow 

 all day long with never a let-up 

 of a minute to take fresh hold. It's 

 the steady, long-continued blow that 

 grips with icv clutch the heart, of man. 



2 1 don't know; I think they 

 might be a little better if made en- 

 tirely air-tight. And yet under some 

 conditions it is possible that entire 

 lack of porosity in hive-walls might 

 not be best. 



3. I am not sure whether any nails 

 in chaff-hives are allowed to pass 



through so that the same nail would 

 be exposed at the outer and the inner 

 surface; but there need be no difficulty 

 in avoiding such a thing. 



4 It might be worth while to try 

 side by side both single and double 

 walls. Of as much importance— per- 

 haps more— are the surroundings I 

 would rather trust a single-walled 

 hive in a protected place, sheltered by 

 buildings or trees, than a double- 

 walled hive fully exposed to the sweep 

 of the winds. If no other protection 

 is at hand, go back to that of our 

 grandfathers. Make a shed, under 

 which the hives stand in a row, only 

 a little higher than the hives, closed 

 on all sides but the side of the en- 

 trances, and then pack straw in all 

 the vacant space inside the shed. Even 

 corn-stalks piled about a hive wig- 

 wam-shape, produced quite good re- 

 sults with one man not 5 miles from 

 me. 



Building Up a Nucleus Into a Full 

 Colony in Winter 



I wish to try the experiment of 

 starting with a nucleus (a part of a 

 colony and old queen; I have a 2- 

 story hive with a queen in each story 

 divided by excluder), and build up 

 during the winter to a strong colony 

 bv spring, by feeding sugar candy or 

 syrup or honey, and meal. Can it be 

 done' Bees work here at times all 

 winter. I saw mine bringing a little 

 pollen last January, and for the last 

 4 days they have got to work short- 

 ly after sun-up, and about 10 a. m. the 

 pollen would begin coming in, but not 

 before 10, and about 3 the pollen car- 

 rving stopped. About 40 to 50 per 

 cent of the bees coming in would 

 have pollen during the time from 10 

 to 3 I think there will be at least 10 

 or 15 davs out of each 30 of the next 

 120 during which bees will be able to 

 fly and gather anything available. So 

 much for climate, temperature, etc. 



I expect to place the hive with nu- 

 cleus to be built up, against the south 

 wall of my dwelling and shelter it 

 above. Please give the main points of 

 procedure and mistakes to be avoided 

 in order to build up as above indi- 

 cated. ,, 



On page 562, in answer to " Meeker, 

 ( "that's me") you say a nucleus is not 

 the proper place to have a queen-cell 

 started Well, the 2 divided (making 

 4) colonies made as described by 

 "Seeker," started 2 (yes, over 2 dozen 

 times 2) queen-cells and reared 21 

 queens, and each of their colonies made 

 about 100 pounds of comb honey, all 

 told and this in a poor season for bees 

 I have heard of only one better yield 

 per colony in the neighborhood, viz., 

 130 pounds total. It looks to me as if 

 Dadant's Langstroth (page 263, para- 

 graph 513) in recommending a com- 

 paratively weak" colony to rear queens 

 (true it doesn't say "start queen- 

 cells" but doesn't it imply that?) is 

 against your position as stated above. 

 What is the difference between a 

 "comparatively weak colony" and a 

 "nucleus?" Why is a nucleus not a 

 fit place to start queen-cells? I ve 



