298 



AMERICAN BEE JUURNAL 



Septeniher 



If we make sure of plenty of stores 

 and plenty of brood in September, we 

 will liave the best possible conditions 

 for wintering. 



As to the methods of pacl<ing the 

 bees for winter, I would prefer to 

 leave that to each man, according to 

 his experience. Cellar wintering is 

 certainly excellent, wherever the 

 winter is severe enough to keep the 

 bees confined to the hive for more 

 than four weeks at a stretch. But 

 wherever the spells of cold weather 

 are interspersed with occasional 

 warm days, during which the bees . 

 can have a flight, it is best to winter 

 out-of-doors. Packing the bees must 

 be done early, so as not to disturb 

 them during cold days. 



Whatever we do, let us remember 

 that a colony should not l)e compelled 

 to winter with a lot of empty space at 

 the side or at the top of the cluster. 

 They need pure air, but should not 

 be compelled to keep warm an 

 amount of space which they do not 

 occupy. I have heard of colonies win- 

 tering beautifully with 2 or 3 empty 

 supers right above the brood-combs. 

 But I conjecture that they would have 

 saved a great deal of honey and many 

 bees if there had been a chaff cushion 

 right over the brood-frames. It is the 

 same with empty frames at the side. 

 If we remove the dry frames, use a 

 division board, and fill the space out- 

 side of it with some dry, non-con- 

 ducting material, our bees will have 

 just so much better chance to keep 

 warm. 



These directions are intended for 

 the average Middle States conditions 

 of fall and winter. But the man in 

 the South cannot lose anything by 

 •looking after wintering conditions, 

 even if his winter problem is of less 

 magnitude than ours. 



The quality of the honey which our 



bees have in the brood-chamber for 

 winter, has much influence upon the 

 result. Honeydew, sorghum juice, ap- 

 ple or grape juice are well-known as 

 fatal to the bees, in long confinements. 

 In 1879, we were cursed by those of 

 our neighbors who had vineyards and 

 cider or wine presses. Our bees had 

 about sufficient stores, but September 

 was a bad month and, as they had 

 nothing to gather in honey, they 

 stored a lot of grape and apple juice 

 and greatly annoyed the neighbors. 

 The result was that, instead of mak- 

 ing a profit from our neighbors' fruit, 

 as they suspected us of getting, we 

 lost bees heavily during the cold 

 weather. But our evident ill-luck 

 pacified those who had' accused us of 

 making an unfair profit. All that 

 fruit juice should have been extracted 

 before winter. 



The Monthly Crop Reporter of the 

 United States, for May, 1920, gives out 

 a winter loss of over 14 per cent, av- 

 erage, on bees in the United States, 

 for the past winter, the heaviest loss 

 having been sustained in Connecticut, 

 with an average in that State of 39 

 per cent. We should improve upon 

 this, and it will be done, if the bee- 

 keepers prepare their bees in advance, 

 in accordance with the requirements 

 that past experience indicates. 



ARRANGEMENT OF COLONIES IN 

 THE APIARY 



Written by Dr. C. C. Miller on his 

 89th anniversary 

 In "Arrangement of Colonies in the 

 Apiary," page 194. do you think you 

 sufiiciently emphasize the advantage 

 of putting hives in pairs in order to 

 get a large number on a given space? 

 To be sure, you speak of the Maquo- 

 keta apiary, and say, "two hives being 

 generally placed very close together, 



D D D D 



00 



3 ^ 



□ 



Different pltns of apiary arrangement. 



with a greater space hetween them 

 and the next." But it is well to tell 

 the beginner plainly, "Set yoij^r hives 

 in pairs and you may double tlTe num- 

 ber on the same space." Suppose you 

 have a row of hives uniformly spaced, 

 like upper figure in diagram. 



If now you set another hive by the 

 side of each of these, you have dou- 

 bled the number of hives without at 

 all increasing the danger of having 

 bees enter the wrong hive, as. second 

 row in diagram. 



A bee belonging to No. 5 knows its 

 hive as being at the left side, and if 

 it enters a wrong hive at all it will be 

 more likely to be No. 3 or No. 7 than 

 No. 6, because 3 and 7 are left-hand 

 hives like its own. 



The ground occuijied by the 160 

 hives in the Maquoketa apiary was 

 50.X6.S feet, or 3,250 square feet. That 

 was 20.31 square feet for each hive. 



Now suppose we put them in pairs 

 in straight rows, each two rows back 

 to back, as lower figures illustrate : 



The parallel ABCD represents the 

 space occupied by each group of four 

 hives. There will proliably be no un- 

 due crowding if the line .'VD be 5 feet 

 long and the line AB 10 feet long. 

 That makes 50 square feet for 4 hives, 

 or 12.5 feet per hive, or 62 per cent 

 more hives on the same ground than 

 allowed at Maquoketa. 



Of course irregularity makes for 

 safety, but when Missouri wants to 

 occupy a limited space he may safely 

 be told to put his hives in pairs, in 

 straight rows, two rows back to back. 

 While it is true, as said on page 

 193, that "Long rows with exactly uni- 

 form spacing, are most objection- 

 able," jiutting in pairs, and putting 

 rows back to back takes away most 

 of the objection. A very little trou- 

 ble will still further work for safety. 

 Bees note very small landmarks, and 

 a fence-post or a little tree 5 feet 

 high, here and there, will be a great 

 help in inarking locations. 



I can speak approvingly of this plan 

 of placing hives after having given it 

 an actual trial for 40 years, only, hav- 

 ing room by the acre, I allowed a 

 space of 14 feet between the two 

 double rows of hives. Likely this is 

 no better for the bees, but pleasanter 

 for the beekeeper. ' 



In the American Bee Journal for 

 July, page 226, Dr. G. F. White speaks 

 of an arrangement in which "hives 

 placed in pairs alternate with a single 

 one. I think I never saw this plan 

 mentioned before. It will not allow 

 quite the same number of hives to be 

 crowded upon the same area, as com- 

 pared with the plan of having all 

 liives in pairs, I)Ut is considerably 

 safer against having queens or work- 

 ers enter wrong hives. When all hives 

 in the row are in pairs, the bees of 

 No. 5, for instance, are not likely to 

 inake the mistake of entering their 

 nearest neighbor. No. 6, but are more 

 likely to enter Xo. 3 or No. 7. Now 

 suppose the hives are 17 inches wide, 

 with 2 inches between the two hives 

 of each pair, and a sitting-room of 24 

 inches between the pairs. That will 

 inake the bees of No. 5 go 60 inches 

 to enter either No. 3 or No. 7. Sup- 

 pose, again, that pairs alternate with 



