189'J 



(JLEANIN(;s IN BEE CULTURE. 



415 



CHAFF BOXES AND WINTER LOSSES. 



IN KAVOK OF AH.SOKBKNT8. 



I liave boon much intoiostod in tho artielos 

 on wintering with soalod oovors. and wa.'^ voiy 

 Moarly of tlio opinion tiiat the only way to win- 

 tor hoes was to seal iicnnotit'aliy the fovor to 

 tlio hivo wlion I road ('. V. Dadant's articio on 

 pago 198. and it oarriod mo hacl< (montaily) to 

 tlio wintors of 1S71 and IS?;?. At tliat lim(\ not 

 liavinfi otdiar room for our itoos, wo wore ol)]ig- 

 od to wintor a pai't of thiMu on tiioir suminor 

 stands. Tho most of tiioso outsiders woro in 

 ciiatT donbio-wallod hivos, covorod witli a box 

 of thin lumi)or six inches doop. with a bottom 

 of burlap or similar coarso cloth, and no top. 

 This cloth bottom was lacked socuroly to the 

 box. and filled witii dry oat chatf. Tho honoy- 

 board was removed: two sticks, half an inch 

 square and 12 inches long, wore placed across 

 the tops of the frames near the center of the 

 hive, to form a boo- passage over the combs. 

 The box was placed over the tiees: and a cap 

 with gabh> roof, with a I'j-inch hole in each 

 end. covered with wire cloth, to admit air. was 

 placed on tho hive. Results wore as follows: 



On removing the caps on any usually cold 

 winter day. a hoar frost could bo found cover- 

 ing the inside of the roof-boards. By passing 

 tho hand down carefully through the chaff, a 

 very comfortable warmth could be found next 

 the bees: and if the box was lifted from the 

 hive, the bees would lioil up over the top-bars. 

 ready to fly out and die in the snow if the chaff 

 box was not at once replaced. Water in saucers 

 froze hard when put on top of the chaff only 

 five or six inches above the cluster of bees. In 

 very cold weather, 10 to 25° below zero, the frost 

 on the insidt,' of roof-boards was very thick. 

 At times a very little frost would gather on the 

 top of the chaff, only to disappear when the 

 weather became mildei-, and combs and bees 

 came out dry and clean in the spring, with a 

 loss of less than half of one per cent. The 

 chaff was left on those hives until the beginning 

 of May. when, noticing the ground in front of 

 one or two hives covered with chaff, we began 

 moving the boxes, as the boos were eating the 

 cloth and working chaff down among the 

 combs. Night overtook us before the job was 

 finished; and next morning we discovered the 

 bees busy at the task of removing chilled brood 

 from nearly all the hives that were minus chaff 

 boxes, and none of the others. We took the 

 hint, replaced the chaff, and left it until cool 

 nights were the exception and not the rule. 



In the winter of which we more particularly 

 speak, 1871, the loss was very heavy in our sec- 

 tion. Colonies perished by the hundred, leaving 

 hives heavy with stores, and reeking with 

 dampness and tilth, not only on the summer 

 stand, but in the collar. Our own loss was fully 

 80 per cent in a special wintor repository, from 

 diarrhea. Had our apiaries been chaff-packed 

 throughout, our loss would have been merely 

 nominal. 



Now, this may sound like extravagant praise 

 for chaff hivos and absorbents. I use neither 

 the one nor the other, and have none to sell. I 

 abandoned the chaff hivo with genuine regret, 

 as one takes leave of an old and tried friend. 

 But I will say, that, were I to return to outdoor 

 wintering, my own experience of nearly a 

 quarter of a century in the apiary, to say noth- 

 ing of that of men like the, Dadants and others 

 who have grown gray in the business, teaches 

 me that I cotild winter safely by using properly 

 constructed hives and an absorljent over each 

 hive, that, while retaining the warmth of the 

 colony, would allow the dampness to escape 

 from the interior of the brood-chamber; and 



while, as friend Dadant says on page l",t8, you 

 can bring your b(>os througlia mik! winter with 

 a sealed cover, just try the experiment in a 

 hard wintor on a largi^ scale, with sealed covers 

 and chad' l)oxes side and side. .1. A. Nash. 

 iMonroe. Iowa, March :.'l. 



SHOULD BEES BE ALLOWED TO MAKE WAX ? 



KXPEIitMKNTS IN FKANCK. 



Do Layons. a prominent French bee-keeper, 

 gives in L' A piculteur & detailed account, oc- 

 cupying ton pages, of experiments with 18 colo- 

 nies, allowing half of tht^m to build combs, and 

 sui)|)lyiiig the other half with combs ready 

 built. Each half of the 18 colonies were, as 

 nearly as possible, of the same strength, with 

 the same amount of brood and honey. M. 

 de Layens says the object was not to find how 

 many pounds of honey were consumed to make 

 one pound of wax. Previous experiments had 

 satisfied him that <').3 pounds of honey were 

 necessary. 



Right here ho gives a blow to the long-estab- 

 lished method of reasoning on this matter. 

 The orthodox thing has been to say, " If G 

 pounds of honey make one of wax, and that 

 (■) pounds of honey will bring 40 cents at whole- 

 sale, while the pound of wax will bring only 30 

 cents, then it is a clear case that it is better to 

 sell the honey and not allow the bees to build 

 wax." But M. de Layens says the question of 

 how many pounds of honey make one of wax is 

 not a question of importance at all. But he 

 says, and says truly, the practical question is, 

 whether the harvest of wax and honey produced 

 by a colony is of more value than the harvest of 

 honey from the same colony furnished with 

 ready-built combs, and thus prevented from 

 secreting wax. 



The 9 colonies, furnished only with starters, 

 produced almost exactly the same amount of 

 honey as the other lot. and built 31 combs, thus 

 making a clear gain of 31 combs over the colo- 

 nies which had no combs to build. 



One might readily conclude, that, if it is 

 economy to allow the bees to secrete wax, it is 

 useless, or worse than useless, to give them 

 foundation. Not so, says M. de Layens. The 

 gain in preventing drone comb is so much, in 

 addition to having combs promptly ready for 

 the grand harvest, that it is true economy to 

 have all the frames which the bees are to fill 

 with wax. completely filled with foundation. I 

 suppose his plan would be, to melt up con- 

 stantly the poorest combs, to be replaced by 

 those newly built. 



Looking just alone at his experiments, it 

 seems a pretty clear case that we are astray in 

 not giving our bees a chance to build plenty of 

 comb: but there remains something to be satis- 

 factorily explained away. How does it come, 

 if building comb has some effect upon the bees 

 to mak(; thorn harvest more (for it must be 

 remembered that they harvest the honey that 

 is used in building the combs), how does it come 

 that a greater yield of extracted than comb can 

 be obtained ? 



On the whole, I should not feel sorry if obliged 

 to believe that M. de Layens is right in his 

 views, for it would be a very nice thing to be- 

 lieve that wo could readily ciiange from one 

 style of frame to another without any pecuniary 

 loss, and that when, for any reason, a brood- 

 comb did not exactly suit us, we could make 

 money by melting it up. 



But I can not say that I am willing to swal- 

 low his conclusions without making a wry face 

 over them. His conclusions are, that, to obtain 



