406 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



October 



in Andover in 1836, Gould in Wen- 

 ham a few years later, Alley in New- 

 buryport and later in Hamilton, Chaso 

 in Gloucester and Maiden, Knight in 

 Haverhill, and others, all doina; excel- 

 lent work and worthy of remem- 

 brance. 



Massachusetts. 



PACKING FOR WINTER IN COLO- 

 RADO 



By J. A. Tracy 

 A fine way to fix for winter in our 

 most severe weather is to use a 10- 

 frame hive, and reduce to 8 frames, 

 with a division board on each side, 

 and pack the space between them and 

 make a slight frame to fit, bee-space 

 high, with fly screen on the top. Make 

 a small hole in the center of the 

 screen if you wish to feed them in 

 winter. Put on a super or oody and 

 fill with sacks or rags, and tl e bees 

 will be warm enough to coiitinue to 

 raise a little brood, even in Ihe dead 

 of winter. A small can, crown top, 

 with one hole made in center of lid 

 with the point of a two-penny nail, or 

 lath nail, will make a better feeder 

 than you can buy. Don't puncli a lot 

 of holes. They can take th-; syrup 

 plenty fast through just one such 

 hole. You can open the top or such a 

 hive any time in winter and give them 

 syrup, if they are short of stores. The 

 screen, bee-space high, over Ihe bees, 

 to hold the packing up, is a great ad- 

 vantage in that it allows the bees a 

 means to get up over their frames in 

 winter, instead of going around the 

 colder sides. Try it. 



WINTERING IN ONTARIO 



By J. F. Dunn 

 I am sending you a photo showing- 

 how we winter our bees in Southern 

 Ontario. In the center will be seen 

 our light double-walled hive. We 

 say "light" because it weighs, ready 

 for bees, scarcely more than the ordi- 

 nary single-walled hive of % inch 

 lumber. By using a thin re-saw, v/e 

 get three boards from 1-inch lumber, 

 and both the inner and outor walls 

 are of % inch stuff. This miy seem 

 rather light construction, but when 

 insulated with very heavy waterproof 

 paper on both walls next the p.'.cking. 



it gives just as satisfactory results 

 as we formerly got from % inch walls 

 not insulated with pa|ier and with 3 

 inches of sawdust or planer shavings 

 between walls, and the hive is so light 

 we can, when the colony is fed up for 

 winter, pick it up and carry it with 

 no more effort tliat with a single- 

 walled hive of % inch lumber. We 

 are in Niagara district (the fruit dis- 

 trict of Ontario), where the ther- 

 mometer seldom reaches zero and 1 

 inch of packing between walls is all 

 that is necessary here. If we v.ere us- 

 ing any other packing than regranu- 

 lated cork 1 inch would not be enough. 

 We live but a few miles from one of 

 the few cork factories in America and 

 know the "cork board" process from 

 the raw cork to the finished product. 

 "Cork chips," about which we read so 

 much in the bee journals is simply 

 raw cork broken up fine, and while it 

 is rated high in insulation, it 's in no 

 way to be compared with what is 

 known as "regranulated cork." Re- 

 granulated cork is a by product of 

 "coi'k board." The raw cork as it 

 comes to the factory is broken up into 

 blocks and then pulverized into what 

 is called cork chips. Cork chips is 

 untreated cork, and contains volatile 

 substances and some moisture. In the 

 manufacture of cork board, the cork 

 chips are treated to remove all the 

 volatile substances that lessen insula- 

 tion. It is then put under immense 

 pressure and formed into large 

 squares to fit between the walls of 

 steel vaults or in large refrigerators. 

 It is then passed very slowly through 

 the ovens until it is thoroughly baked, 

 and with the previous treatment every 

 bit of moisture is driven out of it. 

 While the raw cork will take up some 

 moisture the treated product v.ill not. 

 After coming from the ovens the 

 large blocks of cork board are squared 

 up with special machinery and the 

 trimmings are ground almost as finely 

 as flour. Exhaustive experiments at 

 one of our agricultural colleges placed 

 this product just where we have al- 

 ways considered it, at 100 per cent, or 

 the vei'y highest in insulation. We 

 have tested it for years alongside al- 

 most all known insulators and in our 

 opinion it stands at the head. 

 The Barrel Winter Nest 

 At the left stands the barrel pack- 



I iiinni winter jil.-iil!,. 



ing case. It is some larger than the 

 ordinary flour barrel and just right 

 for a ten-frame hive placed en end. 

 If packed with forest leaves it will do 

 very well if given a coat of regular 

 waterproof roof paint, but if any 

 other packing material should be used 

 I would wrap the barrel with water- 

 proof paper. At the bottom of the 

 barrel will be seen the strip of tin 

 (showing white) that covers the fly 

 hole % in. wide and 3V2 in. high, cut 

 in the stave. The tin extenc5s below 

 the fly hole to shut out the di-ift and 

 prevent clogging with sleet. Before 

 the hive, shown at top of barrel, is 

 let down into the barrel (entrance 

 first) a wire is passed around the hive 

 to life it out by when unpacking. The 

 hive rests on cleats 8 inches above the 

 bottom of the barrel and forest leaves 

 are packed in the bottom before the 

 hive is put in. A "bridge" connects 

 the entrance of the hive with the fiy 

 hole and the hive entrance is about 

 1 V2 inches above the top of the fly 

 hole. No drafts, no matter how 

 hard the wind blows, ever touch the 

 inside of the hive. We can buy the 

 barrels for .50c and sometime-: less. 

 We pack the barrel to the top with 

 forest leaves and round the packing 

 up at the top, tie a waterproof paper 

 over the top, and we have about as 

 snug a winter nest as could bo given 

 a colony of bees. 



The Community Hive 



How do you like it? Before they 

 were converted they were just ordi- 

 nary single-walled hives like their 

 neighbor, setting on top the bai'rel. 

 Well, we are in love with them and I 

 guess we shall run a whole apiary Dn 

 the community plan. We call it the 

 community hive because the-re is no 

 reason why there should not be a 

 whole quartet of them, side by side, 

 instead of a duet. The hives are ex- 

 actly level and entrances may be re- 

 versed, every other colony. Like the 

 old darkey's trap, it is "sot to ketch 

 'ern goin' or comin." The front and 

 rear of each hive are double walled. 

 The sides are single walled and of % 

 lumber. The hives can be used for 

 supers or brood chambers. Bottom- 

 boards are the ordinary ones for sin- 

 gle-walled hives, except that we pack 

 them with cork and insulat-^ them 

 with paper. We want the front of 

 our bottom boards enough shorter 

 than the fronts of the hive, that no 

 ice or sleet ever touch the entrance. 

 On the "weather side" of each out- 

 side hive we remove two brood- 

 frames, wintering on eight frames. 

 The empty space is filled with a cork 

 packed (2 in. thick) dummy, the sides 

 of which are covered with heiivy card- 

 board (shredded wheat biscu't cartons 

 are fine), and the cardboard i)ainted 

 with shellac; or, better still, melted 

 propolis. This dummy is of ''s lum- 

 ber and hangs in the hive like a brood 

 frame. We make it three-sixteenths 

 inch shoi-ter than the inside of the 

 hive, front to rear, and cut the card- 

 board sides one-quarter longer 

 than the inside measurement of the 

 hive, and we crowd it tightly against 

 the inside of the hive wall. .\ No. 12 

 soft wire is then passed around the 



