22 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The Packing-Case method of 

 Wintering Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY J. A. GBEEN. 



It is now near the end of December. 

 According to the advice usually given, 

 bees should have been fully prepared for 

 winter two months or more ago. This 

 advice I have frequently given myself, 

 and I am afraid that I would have been 

 inclined to call the bee-keeper careless 

 and negligent who should put ofif pre- 

 paring his bees for winter until so late a 

 date as this. Yet I did not finish pack- 

 ing my bees until last week. 



Most of them, it is true, were ready 

 for winter long ago, but 50 or more col- 

 onies were left to take their chances 

 until quite recently. This was not 

 wholly due to either intention or negli- 

 gence. First, my helper deserted me 

 just as the fall work began, and then 

 an unusual amount of work presented 

 itself. Then we sold the old home where 

 I had lived all my life, and it became 

 necessary to hunt up a new place and 

 remove to it, which was a serious under- 

 taking, and consumed several weeks of 

 time. Then I had always wintered a 

 part of my bees in the cellar. This was 

 not convenient now, so that I had to 

 make packing-cases for a number. 



These packing-cases I made on a plan 

 somewhat different from what I have 

 used before, and it is this method of 

 packing that I propose to tell about in 

 this article. 



Heretofore 1 have always packed each 

 hive in a packing-case by itself, making 

 a box, of light lumber about 8 inches 

 larger each way than the hive, without 

 top or bottom. This was set over the 

 hive, a " bridge" being placed over the 

 entrance, after which leaves, planer- 

 shavings, or some similar material were 

 packed all around and over the hive, the 

 whole being covered with a sheet of cor- 

 rugated iron for a roof. This plan of 

 protection has always proved very suc- 

 cessful with me, and with some slight 

 modifications I expect to continue it, 

 having now about 200 colonies thus 

 packed. 



There are some decided advantages in 

 having every hive entirely independent 

 of every other hive. There are other 

 very pronounced advantages in making 

 a packing-case large enough to hold 

 several colonies. Among these are a 

 considerable saving in lumber, and a 

 much greater economy of heat, as the 

 several colonies in a " tenement " pack- 



ing case mutually help to keep their 

 neighbors warm. 



My new packing-cases are made to 

 take in 4 colonies. Four hives are 

 placed close together, two facing east, 

 with their backs close against the backs 

 of another pair facing west. 



These hives are upon the Heddon hive 

 stands, which raise them from the 

 ground about 5 inches. The bottom- 

 boards are loose — I wouldn't have any 

 other kind — and the hive is raised from 

 the bottom-board, and what I call a 

 " wintering rim " placed between. These 

 rims raise the hive about 2 inches from 

 the bottom-board. The sides project 

 be:fond the front of the hive, and on this 

 projecting part is nailed a board that 

 forms a " bridge" to make a passage- 

 way through the packing material. The 

 front of this rim is so made that the en- 

 trance is at the top of the rim. This 

 .rim allows the bees to cluster in a com- 

 pact bunch below the frames, which 

 they will almost always do if they have 

 the chance. 



The bees that die in the hive drop to 

 the bottom, instead of clogging up the 

 spaces between the frames, and the en- 

 trance being at the top of the rim, it 

 isn't easily stopped by dead bees from 

 within, or snow or ice from without, as 

 there is a hall-way two inches high with 

 the entrance at its top. 



The sides of the packing-box are 

 nailed up separately, and then lightly 

 tacked together at the corners. The 

 nails holding them at the corners are 

 not driven clear in, so that they are 

 easily drawn with a hammer in the 

 spring, and the sides piled up until they 

 are needed again, thus occupying but 

 little space, and lasting much longer 

 than if they were kept nailed up in the 

 large boxes. This also makes the re- 

 moval of the packing much easier. 



As covers for these I have made roofs 

 of various styles, of boards covered with 

 shingles, tin, sheet-iron, and paper. I 

 do not like any of these very well, as it 

 is hard to make a substantial roof in 

 this way without having it too heavy to 

 be easily handled. I think that in the 

 future I shall use, as in the smaller 

 packing-cases, sheets of corrugated iron 

 simply laid over the top of the box and 

 weighted down so that the wind will not 

 blow them away. 



In these packing-cases the bees will 

 remain until next June. Those that 

 are likely to need more honey will be 

 looked over as soon as warm weather 

 comes, but all that I know have stores 

 enough, and that show by their manner 

 of working that they have a good queen 



