April 17, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



245 



Convention Proceedings. 



The Chicago Convention. 



Report of the Semi-Annual Convention of the 



Chicag-o Bee-Keepers' Association, Held 



Dec. 5, 1901. 



BY A BUOmilAND HKI'OKTKK. 



iContluued from pajfe 229.) 



GROUND COKK KOIt WINTKK PACKING. 



" Is fjrouiid cork as good, or better tlian sawdust for win- 

 ter packing ? " 



Mr. CosRshall — Where can ground cork be obtained ? 



Dr. Miller — Wherever they sell grapes that are imporli^d 

 from California. 



Mr. Coggshall— It is safer than sawdust, but it is hard to 

 obtain. I have been inquiring- for a year or two. 



Mr. Chapman — There is a place here in the city wliore 

 they manufacture corks, lint I get my supplies entirely where 

 Dr. Miller suggests — from the grocer. I get it from "the im- 

 ported grape.-, that come from Spain— they come in casks. 1 

 find it is an excellent material. It is impervious to moisture 

 and allows for considerable circulation of air. I find it an 

 excellent packing material, the best that I have been able to 

 find. J have used excelsior and ground cork-dust, and I con- 

 sider the latter much the better. 



Mr. Coggshall — Sawdust is good enough for me. Of course 

 it is very cheAp, but you must have it dry. I have used it for 

 years, and I don't care for anything better. Mice won't work 

 in it, because it will tumble down. It don't give them a 

 chance. 



Jlr. Dadant — In regard to sawdust, there is a good deal of 

 difference. Sawdust, where they saw logs, is very coarse, 

 pieces of wood, really, but the sawdust of rip-saw is altogether 

 different from the other sawdust. It is in line, long strings, 

 not exactly excelsior, but something similar. It holds to- 

 gether and will keep put the heat or cold. Sawdust from a fine- 

 cut saw is very good. Has any one ever tried the fine sawdust 

 as compared with the other sawdust for keeping ice'? That 

 will tell you as well an anything. If it will keep the ice cold 

 — compare that with the coarse sawdust and you will find hnw 

 much less quantity will keep your bees warm, or the ice cold. 



Dr. Miller — Mr. Coggshall, what kind do you use ? 



Mr. Coggshall — Hardwood. Set the saw so as not to cut 

 too big a chip, consequently it will be finer than if a larger 

 chip is cut; 1 endeavor to get the finer sawdust. 



Dr. Miller — Do you have any preference for hard or soft 

 wood ? 



Mr. Coggshall — No, doesn't make any difference. I don't 

 pay any attention to that. We all know that in cutting bass- 

 wood, pine or hemlock, they set the saw so as to take a chip a 

 little over an eighth of an inch, while in cutting hardwood they 

 can't set the saw so as to take as large a cut, and it makes 

 finer sawdust. 



Dr. Miller — How do planer-shavings compare? 



Mr. Coggshall — They are too loose. 



Mr. Dadant — Too dusty. 



Mr. Hintz — How thick a covering do you put on for winter? 



Mr. Coggshall — Well, on some I have on three, four, five 

 inches, and with two inches I have wintered them. My pack- 

 ing l)Oxes won't allow more than two inches with "a heavy 

 Brussels carpet before the dust is put on. These Brussels car- 

 pets — you might think I was extravagant, but I can get them 

 at two cents a pound at any junk-shop, and they are some- 

 thing worth knowing about to bee-keepers. They will last for 

 years. Two cents a pound is nothing, you know. 



Mr. Clark — Do you use a Hill's device over the frames ? 



Mr. Coggshall— Xo, sir. 



Dr. Miller — I think we will be interested if Mr. Coggshall 

 will tell us how he packs his Ijees for winter. 



Jlr. Coggshall — There are usually some holes so itgives the 

 bees a chance to go through over the top-bars. Sometimes I 

 pick up a little stick about a quarter of an inch through, and 

 tack that on top, and lay the carpet on that. 



Mr. Moore — Mr. Coggshall, how many colonies have you 

 in winter quarters this year ? 



Mr. Coggshall— 1600 or 1700, I think. 



Mr. Moore — What is your percent of loss? 



Mr. CoggslialK-Klglit or ten percent, because I don't re- 

 qncen. Young queens are the k<'\ to a good record. 



Dr. MllliT — I would like ;i word concerning packing over 

 lh(^ frames. I never use cork nr -awdust, but of later years I 

 use planer-sliavings altogether. If [use tliese shavings five 

 or six inches deep it is too inucli. If I use about two 

 inches,!'/^ to 2'4 inches, il is just right. In my locality. If 

 the sluivlngs arc too di'Cp they liecr)m(^ dampetud, gel wi-t on 

 the top, and don't dry out. If I leave only I'/i to 2 inches I 

 have never known them to gil damp. Tliey keep dry. and 

 keep the bees dry. I have now :i(JO colonies wintering in that 

 way. 1 built a cellar purposely to winter liei^s, 3fix4U feet. I 

 don't use it at all now. I lose from one to tlire<- percent of my 

 bees during the winter, and, as Mr. Cogeshall says. It Is 

 usually from neglect of putting in good queens in the fall. Too 

 much ('liatf can be put over tlii^ lic^es for winter, and I suppose 

 too much sawdust or too mucli ground-cork could be put over 

 tlieni. 



Mr. Sylvester — Do you use a cushion? 

 Dr. Miller— .lust about three thicknesses of burlap over 

 the coml)S, and then put the shavings riglit in. There is one 

 other thing I want to mention- al)0ut mice. The man who 

 will let mice get into his hives doesn't look close enough to his 

 work, I think. .Some hives, of course, are old, and thi^y have 

 decayed bottoms. .Such hives should be set on a good, solid 

 board, and the entrance sliould be so guarded that mice can- 

 not gnaw it. I tack a piece of tin on the l)ottom-board and a 

 piece above on tlie hive so that mice cannot get in — they can't 

 gnaw in. If I don't, they will gnaw in and destroy the bees, 

 and cut the comb down and make bad work every way. 



Mr. Whitney — I use planer-shavings for packing my bees. 

 The last two years I haven't lost a colony in wintering I use 

 a burlap sack with the planer-shavings packed in it about 

 three inches thick. I pack it down solid and then press it 

 down into the upper part of the hives. I have never liad any 

 trouble since I commenced using planer-shavings, after pack- 

 ing down solid so they would remain compact. I think, how- 

 ever, if I could get hold of cork-dust I would use it, or that 

 kind of filling. 



Mr. Hogge — Do all who have spoken use the chaff hive? 

 It seems to me there is nothing spoken of but top packing. Is 

 there no side-packing ? 



Mr. Riker — Xo side-packing in my packing. I have used 

 chaff hives to my detriment. In our locality tlie weather sets 

 in cold, and cold enough for ice to collect in those chaff hives, 

 and it doesn't melt if the sun should shine for a day or two : 

 but in the thin-wall hives — just the single one-inch lumber or 

 %, the sun can work on them and melt the ice, so we let the 

 sun get right on it, where in chaff hives my experience is it 

 remains there too long. 



Mr. Whitney — X^ot quite pertinent to the question, perhaps, 

 but I am a little sensitive and I have used two or three kinds, 

 and I don't want anything but the chaff hives. 



Mr. Josephson — I have not so many colonies of bees, but 

 three years ago many bees died in the country. In my local- 

 ity there was one bee-keeper who had 5(3 colonies in winter 

 quarters and took out -t in the spring. I had 27 in chaff 

 hives, with about six or seven inches of packing (planer-shav- 

 ings), and I took out 26 colonies in the spring. 



Mr. Whitney — That's my experience. Last year I put in 

 about 58 colonies and took out just as many. I use planer- 

 sliavings for packing in the top, in the second story. 



Mr. Dadant — We have been wintering our bees for years 

 in hives that have double boards on the north side — which is 

 always the back with us — doubled on one side, division-board 

 side, and we pack the top of the hives full of leaves. When 

 my father began keeping bees here, which is about 58 years 

 ago, he noticed that in a deep gully of the woods where there 

 was six inches of leaves, if the leaves kept dry you could al- 

 most dig any time in the hardest winter, and that gave him 

 the idea. We keep our bees under trees, and gather the 

 regular leaves whenever dry, which is very often in the month 

 of X'ovember. sometimes December. We have of late years 

 wrapped up the hives with the same material by making slat- 

 work with lath — common plasterer's lath — which we wrap 

 around the hive, and afterwards we rake it full of leaves on 

 all sides but the front: that shelters them on all sides but the 

 sunny side. Now as to the chaff hives: I agree with Mr. 

 Riker. We had SO, years ago. ^Ve sold some of them. We 

 have 20 or 30 of them now. They don't average wintering as 

 well as the others. Xot that they are not good in certain sec- 

 tions, but if we have a very cold snap that will last two or 

 three weeks, and the weather gets mild and remains mild, the 

 chaff-hive bees will come out best: but six or seven weeks of 

 cold, and one warm day, during tliat warm day they are still 

 cold, and they don't know it is a warm day. The others find 

 out as soon as there is one bright day, and they have a flight. 



