THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



309 



HIVES. 



They sliouUl be made of good material, 

 well jointed and painted, so tiiat there be 

 no place for admission of air, moths, etc., 

 except by the regular entrance for tlie bees, 

 the Lan<jjstroth si/.e of hive is the nearest to 

 a standard for capacity, and is tlie most 

 popular hive in use. Tiiey should be two 

 stories, top and bottom close fitting. En- 

 trance for hives full width for summer and 

 one-fourth for winter. Hives should be 

 protected from the weather by a shed eight 

 leet wide and closed up on the west, north 

 and east so as to protect them from wind 

 and rain. If there be good wind breakers on 

 the sides named, and high enough to break 

 all north and west winds, then the shed 

 could be dispensed with. Weak colonies 

 should be put in th? cellar or the so-called 

 bee house. I do not propose, nor aim in 

 this essay,to advise the Keei)ing of a number 

 of colonies in various conditions, but to 

 give directions for wintering good colonies 

 —vet 1 will refer to wintering queens. 



In my own apiary, and in tliat of many 

 others, "where the colonies were properly 

 prepared they came through the winter all 

 right. There are so many variations in the 

 conditions of colonies that it re(iuires great 

 care to have all the different points noticed, 

 for one out of twenty would ruin the colony 

 if unobserved. 



PREPARATIONS 



should begin about twenty days before the 

 usual time for frost. Examine the queen 

 and see that she be prolific; she should have 

 at least as many as three combs in which to 

 deposit eggs, four will not injure them. If 

 she have not room then take out combs of 

 honey and give empty ones placed in the 

 middle of the hive; should you not have 

 empty combs then use the extractor on 

 those that are least capped. Should the 

 hive contain too many bees and they be 

 hanging outside— then brush them off and 

 unite them with a nucleus in the usual way 

 of uniting colonies; close up the entrance 

 and give plenty of ventilation, and on the 

 evening of the fourth day open them. 



Should you leave too many bees in the 

 hive at this time of the season, it will 

 hinder brood rearing by crowding out the 

 queen; then you have old bees to winter 

 with. It is my experience that old bees can- 

 not generate as much heat as young ones, 

 then in the spring, soon after your bees 

 begin to fly they die off, and your colony is 

 so reduced that brood rearing cannot be 

 carried on sufficiently; the hive becomes so 

 weak that it perishes during a cold spring 

 night, and if it does not perish, then it is too 

 weak to swarm or gather much honey; then 

 much depends on the age of bees for win- 

 tering. With these preliminaries you will 

 begin the winter preparations. Notice the 

 hive every ten days; see that it is progress- 

 ing as it should. 



Buckwheat and golden-rod will now fur- 

 nish honey for brood rearing and winter 

 stores, and as soon as 



FROST OCCURS 



to cut off the honey supply, then make a 

 thorough examination of all the colonies; 

 see that they have a queen; clean out the 

 hive; see that they have seven full (and cap- 

 ped) combs of honey, or combs full at least. 

 Where stocks are not strong unite them 

 with others. Make openings through the 

 combs so that the bees may pass through 



for honey in cold weather. Holes to be cut 

 should be three inches from the t(»i) bar, 

 equal distance apart and from each end. Cut 

 two holes in each comb with a tin tube 

 five-eighths in diameter, see that they still 

 have two or three combs for brood. In ex- 

 tracting at this time, do it about the middle 

 of the day and return the cond)s after the 

 bees (juit flying; close one-half of the usual 

 entrance. If all have not seven frames 

 of honey, then feed them; some hives may 

 have too much while others are short, 

 equalize them, and should you still lack, 

 then feed sugar syrup. 



Take of crushed sugar, two ft s.; water, 

 one ft., boil, skim and set away to cool. 

 Have empty combs ready, have a board H5x 

 34 inches. Take a counnon 'A ft. fruit can, 

 perforate the bottom with holes, made with 

 a lOd. nail, lay your board with four inches 

 slant, lay on it your comb. Now have the 

 syrup milk warm, add one teaspoonful of 

 flavoring extract of lemon to each half gal- 

 lon of syrup, stir gently. Now hold your 

 tin can about a foot or more above the 

 comb and with a tin cup pour syrup into 

 this can, passing it around over the comb 

 and as soon as full, turn the comb over; as 

 soon as filled hang it up and let the syrup 

 drain off before putting combs in the hives. 

 In this way you save 20 per cent, of the 

 syrup over the old tin pan or any other way, 

 for it is already in the comb and" ready to be 

 sealed up. Your bees are now to 



REMAIN QUIET 



until about the middle of Nov. or about the 

 time that freezing begins; do not wait until 

 the great frosts come. But what shall be 

 done with colonies that are still weak ? 

 Unite them. We often have queens in 

 nuclei that we will need in early spring; , 

 these may be wintered out-of-doors, if they ' 

 are not too weak. Make a hive with four 

 apartments; have the two middle rooms 

 with an entranee for one in front and the 

 other in the rear, the two side ones with an 

 entrance at each side. In this hive you 

 may winter four queens if you have three 

 pints or more of bees to each queen. Have 

 the divisions made of wire-cloth, the en- 

 trances one inch by three-eighths, each de- 

 partment to hold three combs, two of honey 

 and one of brood. Protect this hive by 

 wrapping it up with old clothes during 

 severe cold. A noted bee-keeper has adop^ 

 ed this method after trying many times the 

 house apiary and various other plans. 



If you have properly cared for your bees, 

 they are at this time in a fine condition, 

 sucn as plenty of young bees, plenty of 

 sealed honey and .a prolific queen — at the 

 middle of November. 



Now procure some bagging or old, coarse 

 coffee sacks; if near a cotton mill, then get 

 the bagging which is cheaper. Also some 

 oat chaff, cut oat straw or fine leaves (chaff 

 is the best), also some sticks half an inch 

 square and the length the same as the width 

 of the hive inside. With these preparations 

 you will now finish your 



WINTERING. 



Open your two-story hives, take out all 

 the combs and empty frames in the second 

 story, if there be any honey brood remove 

 it, put on three sticks across the frames, 

 equal distance apart and open each end. This 

 is to give the bees a chance to pass over the 

 combs. Now cut a piece of bagging J^ inch 

 larger than the inside of the hive; if it be 



