♦ ;LKANlN(iS IN I{Ki: CUI/niKK. 



27'.> 



I piu'U as tolldw >: I maUi' a l)o\ ol' comiuoii 

 lumber two to llirrt- i in- lies larncr than the liivr 

 all aioniiil. It lias a tit;lit liottoiii. and a e-ovci 

 slmttiup over liUf till' lid of a triinU. but witli- 

 tiut biuift's. of I'oufsi'. After taKiuir tlie bive 

 fcoMi tbc bottom stand, and placiiifr tbc box 

 ibei-t'oii. pitohiiiK it 1"' to ".'D defirccs foiward. 1 

 put a si>lid l'._.-iiifli div sawdust iii tlir bottom, 

 sft the hive inside on tin- sawdust, witli an ai- 

 ranueiutuit to maUe tlie eutfanees i'ofres|)on(i: 

 tiiop in a lifidiie to make a elosed eiitiance 

 whii-li will keep out tlie pai'kin<i: then till in on 

 all sides with sawxiust lifjhtly paeked. founded 

 up at the top. the I'ovei of the box put on and 

 weiphted down. I use no upward ventilati(ui 

 nor absorbents about the hive — just leave the 

 plain board eover srliied fast. Tbi' box ro\ er 

 must not leak, bceaiise it lies Hat and solid nn 

 the sawdust, w Inch would absorb all the water 

 that might leak through, injuring the hive and 

 \h}\ cover, but would not hurt the bees at all. 

 Now listen. Here is a favorite point in the ar- 

 rangi'ineut : My hives are painted •' dead " white 

 — white to reflect the sun's rays. luaking them 

 much cooler in simimer in the early and lale 

 part of the day. when the sun can shine under 

 my shade-board suHiciently to strike the brood- 

 chamber: •■dead." to prevent glisteiiiiig. These 

 packing-boxes, however, are painted very dark 

 to absorb the solar heat during winter and 

 spring, and the close packing without any inter- 

 spaces is what coudiu'ts tliis heat clear through 

 to the coml)s and bees. Tlie above is my luain 

 reason for not desiring a greater space between 

 the hive and outer case than from two to three 

 iru-hes. and for using material as solid as saw- 

 dust tightly and closely packed between covers. 

 as elsewhere. 



.lust here I tliink I hear soiue oiu' say, " If 

 you are going to pack like this, just for spring- 

 ing colonies taken ftum the cellar, why not 

 pack them in the fall and leave them out. de- 

 pending on outdoor wintering, and done with 

 it?" .My reply is. •■ Yes. why not? Certainly it 

 is the best, considering all trouble and expense, 

 except in extremely cold winters, compelling 

 continued confinement, and these are the ex- 

 ception and not the rule in Southern Michigan." 

 I believe the outdoor plan, with such packing, 

 which more than pays for springing alone, to he 

 first choice. 



Your readers will be able to judge from the 

 aV)ove in w hat latitudes and localities I would 

 consider this method of outdoor w intering ()ref- 

 erable. The amount of sunshine has much to 

 do with it. 



The above are my most earnest conclusions, 

 based on several years' experience and observa- 

 tions. \N'hat are yours? .Ia^. ||ki>i>o.n. 



Dowagiac. Mich.. March ".'.i. 



• We do iu)t know much about spring dwin- 

 dling—that is. w hat causes it — w hetlier it is a 

 malady peculiar to certain seasons (U' whether 

 it is due to the consumption of too much pollen. 

 In our locality we have taken no i)ains to select 

 combs without p(jlleu for w intering. and yet for 

 the last six or eight years we have had very lit- 

 tle s[jring dw indliug. 



You may be right, and you may be wrong in 

 regard to pollen: but we are certain that you 

 are nietty sotind on the wintering question. 

 While we have been making all this noise about 

 non-absorbents and si-aled covers, we presume 

 you have been using them for several years. 

 iiv the way, there has been a good deal of fool- 

 ishness shown as to who was the first one to 

 discover the sealed-cover idea. .\s the expres- 

 sion goes, it is "older than the hills." 



We have no doubt that yourwinter cases give 

 excellent results: and wf are sure that you are 

 right in advf)cating that cellared bees otight to 



be protected iifter being set out in the spring, 

 for a time at least. Our winter cases gave us 

 most excellent results. It nuiy surprise you a 

 little to know that those with dead-air spaces 

 w intered the bees just as well as those in which 

 the same spaces were i)acl<ed with chatfor jila- 

 ner shavings. It may not do so in your locali- 

 ty, but it d(H>s with us. Our winter cases, as 

 you may know, are made of •'„ lumber, and only 

 '.' inches larger inside all afouiul than the sin- 

 gle-walled hive is outside. It has no bottom- 

 it simply slides down ovei' the hive, jtadded 

 sticks being on the insid<' bottom edge to keep 

 out the cold. A '4 -inch board is then put on 

 top of the hive, and the bei^s are allowed to seal 

 it down, which they will do. of course, if put on 

 in time. Above this thin board is a chaff cush- 

 ion ■-' inches thick, aiui the w inter case is then 

 covered by the ordinary hivi'-cover. 



We remember that you once took the ground 

 that indoor wintering in your locality was bet- 

 ter: but now it is a pleasure for us to observer 

 that you decide for outdoor wintering for aver- 

 age winters. For our locality we arc; sure that 

 it is the belter w ay. We are equally sure that, 

 for verv cold localities, the cellar plan is the 

 better. ' The great trouble with localities like 

 our own. and perhai)S yours, is that bees in the 

 cellar are apt to be noisy and uneasy because 

 the weather outside is at times too moderate.] 



AKE CLOSED END BARS OF BROOD-FRAMES 

 PREFERABLE TO OPEN ONES 1 



\T rUK OHIO STATE HEE-KKKI'KKS 

 CONVENTIOX, CINCINNATI. 



I suppose that, if the question were put in oth- 

 er words, so as to read. "Are the standing 

 closed-end (,)uinby brood-frames preferable to 

 the Langstrolh hanging ones?" the general 

 verdict would be that the latter are preferable. 

 Yet tliere is undoubtedly a growing sentiment 

 against loose hanging frames: but that it will 

 ultimately lead to the adoption of a closed-end 

 brood-frame. I do not think. Although many 

 excellent bee-keep(»rs now use them, and would 

 have no other, still my faith is stronger- to-day 

 than ever that some form of the Langstrotli 

 hanging franu' will ever be the most popular, 

 and will serve to perpetuate tlu- memory of the 

 man who has done more toward the advance- 

 ment of apiculture than any other that ever 

 lived: who lifted our jjursuit from an unprolita- 

 ble and unsatisfactory investment in "straw 

 skeps " and box hives to a pursuit at once prof- 

 itable. r(»spectable. and highly fascinating to a 

 large class of our people. That this revival of 

 apiculture from the state of obscurity into 

 which it had falhui was due to the J^angstrotli 

 iuveution. there is not on<' who to day doubts, 

 'i'hat it still has merits over evi-ry other inven- 

 tion of a bee-hive, either ancient or modern, it 

 seems to me is so far proved by the liistory of 

 apiculture in the last forty years that the ques- 

 tion is hardly worth discussing: and that these 

 itu'rits lie clnelly in the superiority of the hang- 

 ing frame is e(jually apparent. So it would aj)- 

 pear. that, after the general approval of the 

 bee-keepers of the civilized world for forty 

 years, we may well conclude that the princi- 

 ples of the Langstroth hive will survive and 

 become the dominant ones in the jwpular hives 

 of the future. 



The present tendency against Idusi- lianging 

 frames is not necessarily a tendency toward the 

 use of clo.sed-end broo(i- frames, but. rather, to- 

 ward some practical method of spacing and fix- 

 ing the hanging frame. This we have had for 

 some vears in the Hoffman- Langstroth frame, 

 w hich of late has undergone a ftirther improve- 



