ISO-; 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



iOl 



or chaff hive, which, I think, are large- 

 ly imaginary points of vantage. He 

 holds closely to the orthodox belief 

 that to winter bees successfully the 

 hive must be double walled, packed 

 with chaff, or if a single walled hive 

 is used, it must be placed in some re- 

 ceptacle large enough te admit of 

 packing being put on the outside of 

 hive. This, according to my way of 

 thinking, is a blunder that has cost us 

 American bee keepers many thousands 

 of dollars. It is a blunder that is as 

 old as the frame hive itself, one that 

 has been stuck to and upheld with a 

 tenacity that is simply surprising. It 

 is not surprising that father Lang- 

 stroth should have invented this mis- 

 take along with the frame hive, be- 

 cause when father Langstroth was in- 

 venting the frame hive his work was 

 purely experimental and without the 

 guiding hand of former experience. 

 His first hive consisted of a case large 

 enough to hold the frames. This was 

 placed inside a larger case, and be- 

 tween the walls of the two cases was 

 considerable space to be packed with 

 chaff. This packing was intended to 

 make the new hive a superior hive to 

 winter in than was the old box hive 

 then in use. 



It was in line with the theory then 

 in vogue that Avarmth was one of the 

 main requisites to the successful win- 

 tering of bees. 



This hive was no sooner tested than 

 it was seen that the bees did not win- 

 ter nearly so well in it as in the old 

 box hive. Then started a series of 

 experiments and inventions which has 

 lasted for more than thirty years, and 

 has flooded the country with hives and 

 frames of nearly every conceivable 

 size and shape. The prime object of 

 all has been to improve on the winter- 

 ing qualities of the eailier fi-ame hive 



and if possible equal that of the old 

 box hive. Through nearly all of their 

 experiments the old original blunder 

 of side packing has played a promi- 

 nent part, and is adhered to today by 

 the majority of the bee keepers. But 

 that same majority will acknowledge 

 that their double walled hives do not 

 winter bees as did the old box hives 

 of their fathers. 



Now, my friends, I consider it not 

 warmth but dryness that is the abso- 

 lute requisite to successful wintering, 

 and I argue that bees can be kept dry- 

 er in a single walled hive with a good 

 top 'packing, than they can in the best 

 e/icyf hive ever made. I have winter- 

 ed my bees on the summer stands in 

 single walled hives, with extra heavy 

 packing on top of the frames, for a 

 number of years and have had the 

 best possible results. My bees always 

 come out in the spring as strong or 

 stronger than my neighbors' bees that 

 are wintered in chaff hives or in the 

 cellar. My bees are always built up 

 strong enough to swarm as soon as any 

 bees around here, and are ready for 

 the honey flow when it comes, and get 

 as much honey as anybody's bees. My 

 hives only cost me about half as much 

 and are not nearly so unwieldly and 

 cumbersome as the chaff hive. 



I never lost a colony of bees in a 

 single walled hive since I have kept 

 them that way until this winter. I 

 have lost seven up to date, but I can 

 attribute the loss to other causes than 

 the single walled hive. It goes a lit- 

 tle against the grain to tell it, but 

 three out of the seven starved to death. 

 I lost the other four as a result of the 

 covers blowing off and the bees get- 

 ting a good soaking rain ia February, 

 when I was away from home. It 

 turned suddenly and 1 lost them. 



Franklin, Pa. 



