Jan. 1(), 1902 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



37 



Contributed Articles, i 



Wintering Bees Indoor and Cliaff Hives. 



I)Y O. M. DOOLITTLK. 



ACOKKESPONDKNT writes me from the State of Illinois, sayiiii;: 

 "I have kept bees for a miniber ot years, but have lust from one-half 

 to two-thinls each year in wintering. 1 have always wintered them 

 outside. If 1 cannot devise a safe method of winterinir I shall be 

 compelled to j^o out of business. I desire to construct a special repository 

 to hold about UHi colonies. Please j,^ive nie some idea how to proceed 

 size, etc. Also kindly describe your method of indoor winterin^r, answer- 

 injf throu^rh the columns of the American liee .lournal." 



I wisli (nir iMirri'spOMdeiit liiid told us wlicther ho iisrd 

 cluifl liivos, or those having only sinRh^ walls, for, should it bo 

 tlmt ho has used only sinfilc-vvallcd hivfs, thru the bost advico 

 to fi\vi^ would bo foi' liiiii to try rball'-packcd hives, for. in 

 many localitios in his State, chaiV hiv(3S sueeoed fully as well 

 as cellar-winteriufi:. even in the extreme North, and it would 

 seem that, even did he use rlialT hives, there must be some 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



fault outside of the hives, which would cause a loss of from 

 one-half to two-thirds of his colonies eacli winter. 



All undue consumption of honey dnrinfi' the period of con- 

 finement, bronsht oq l)y cold weather, seems to be the main 

 cause of winter losses. When bees remain in that ciuiescent 

 condition, which is required for safe wintering, a pound of 

 honi'y a month sullices the whole colony, and in such a condi- 

 tion a colony could pass six months of confinement with easi>. 

 But if till' same colony becomes uneasy from their confinement, 

 these same bees will eat from five to seven pounds a inontli, 

 and soil tluur hives and themselves so as to cause their loss in 

 from six weel;s to two months from the time they coratnence 

 to eat so voraciously. 



The chafT hive tends to keep the bees in the required 

 iiuiescent condition, as thereby the bees are surrounded by 

 porous walls, which carry oflf the moisture passing from the 

 bees' bodies, also retaining the warmth generated by them- 

 selves, thus keepiufj the interior of the hive at a more uniform 

 temperature than is possible without the chaff packui"', this 

 lesseninu; the consumption of honey, and enabliujr them the 

 better to throw off the larger part of the moisture contained 

 in their food, so that their bodies can contain the rest till the 

 weather shall liecome sufficiently warm for them to fly. 



In all locations where a chance to fly is likely to occur as 

 often as onci! in from three to five weeks, I doubt about there 

 bein<; any better mode of wintering than Ijy using chaff-packed 

 hives. IJut where winter holds sway for from three to five 

 months, with seldom, if ever, a day occurring that is warm 



onouKh for the t)ee,s to get out on the wliiif to relieve thftin- 

 selves friMu 1 h(^ accumulation necessary, through u constant 

 taking in of Imuey (as fuel) lo nniintalnthe warmth necessary 

 even in clialV hivi-s. then it js best lo pnivlde ihi'in with a l)el- 

 ter proteetion than thesir chalV lii\c-s can alforcl. Anil, so far 

 as is now known, cellar (or indoor) wiiiterluK. Rives the bost 

 protection for the bees that there is under such elrciitnstanccs. 



To be sure, the chaff hives have a seemiiiK advantage over 

 cellar wintering, in that the bees are allowed lo lly if an oppor- 

 tunity permits during winter, but this is offset by a niore 

 uniform tein|)eratnr<', and a consei|nent decrease in the con- 

 sumption of stores in the cellar, where the liees need but little 

 food to keep up the necessary warmth they reipjire during the 

 period of partial inactivity which winter compels them to pass 

 through. 



From all of my experiences in the past, I would notadvise 

 wintering in any special ret/ository constructed aliove ground, 

 as these are depenihuit upon the warmth created by the bees 

 for their value, and experience has proven that a number of 

 colonies do not seem to be able to keep up the uniform teni- 

 jie rat lire reipiired in any building at ove grourul, as well as each 

 would do singly in c ha IT hives. Hence, nearly all now agree, that. 

 where it is advisable to use a special repository at all, said 

 repository should he in the shape of a cellar partially or wholly 

 uiiilerground. the latter being always preferable, from the 

 fact that the temperature of the earth, at a dc|)th of live or 

 six feet, is very near the one being right for the safe wintering 

 of bei's where they must be confined for four or five months. 



A good cellar under a dwelling usually answers the pur- 

 pose required, and where it is large enough so that a part of 

 the same can be partitioned off' for the bees, making the parti- 

 tion, and the floor above, double-walled, the space between 

 the waifs being packed with corkdust, chaff or sawdust, (the 

 former excelling anything else where it can be procured), 

 there is little need of looking further for a good )ilace to win- 

 ter bees. If we do not have such it cellar under our dwelling, 

 and our winters are too severe for bees in chaff-packed hives 

 standing out. then it would be well to build a cellar entirely 

 underground, if possilile. And witli a rise of ground near the 

 apiary, or having a small hill or mountain near at hand, the 

 possibility is right at hand, as the cellar can soon be "hewn 

 out of the mountain ■' with a shovel and pickaxe. And the 

 further back in the ground you go the more even temperature 

 can be secured, and the more even tlie temperature, the better 

 the bees will winter, provided that temperature is somewhere 

 between -i'A and 50 degrees above zero. 



The entrance to this cellar should be protected by three 

 or four doors, so that the dead-air space between the doors 

 will serve to keep the cold from the outside from passing in too 

 rapidly. 



And the above, or last described, is just such a place as I 

 have used for wintering bees during the past 25 years. As 

 to size, allow 10 cubic feet to the hive, the cellar being 6J^ 

 feet deep. As to how the inside should be fixed, when to put 

 the bees in, and when to take them out, etc., almost any of 

 the bee-books will tell, to which all interested are referred. 



\ Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



Triangular Wooden Comb-Guide 

 Inventor. 



Tlie Original 



BY M. M. BAI.nRIDGE. 



On page S I find the followin? statement : James La Barre. of Ken- 

 tucky, '^ a bee-keeper of e.\tremely keen observation, and one of many 

 practical ideas," but, "he reads liitle from choice." " It is not generally 

 known that it was he who first conceived the idea of a V-shaped top-bar 

 as a comb-guide. Earlv in the "oO's he accidentally noticed that the bees 

 in a bo.\-hive in building their first comb e.xtended it along a strip of 

 wood which had been nailed on the inside of the box to cover a crack. 

 Quick to see the point, he applied V shaped strips where he wanted the 

 comb built, and the bees, true to their nature, used these as starting- 

 points." 



"In 1S77, while visiting the late Chas. F. Muth, he mentioned the 

 matter and asked him to apply the V-shaped bar to the Lanirsiroth hives 

 manufactured under his supervision. It was done, and afterward the 

 V top-bar became a fi-xed feature of the Langstroth hi ve. Several have 

 claimed this invention, but Mr. La Barre, "being indifferent as to who 

 reaps the benefit of his bee-knowledge, remained quiet, and let them fight 

 it out among themselves." 



The foregoing must be a surprise to many pioneers who 

 used the Langstroth hives prior to the year 1860._ The writer 

 became acquainted with this hive in the year 1857, and be- 

 gan using it quite extiuisively in western New York in the 

 spring of I85S, and he does not now remember the time when 

 the V-shaped wooden guide was not used therein. As Mr. La 

 liarre ■' reads little from choice,'' this may explain why he 

 now claims to be the original inventor or discoverer of the 

 triangular or V-shaped wooden guide. If he had been a reader 

 of "The Hivi- and Honey-Bee," by Father Langstroth, prior to 



