1911 



GLKAXIXCiS IN UKK CULXrilE 



OLD-STYLE TWO-STORYCHAFF HIVE 



APIARY, THE OWNER OF WHICH 

 AWAY. 



LIVES 5UU MILES 



THE OLD TWO-STORY CHAFF HIVES GOOD 

 FOR WINTERING. 



BY F. W. DE TEMPLE. 



For the past ten years I have been a trav- 

 eUng salesman. My residence is oOO miles 

 from my apiary, which is located 25 mies 

 east of Buffalo, N. Y. I have found that 

 this long-distance bee-keeping can better be 

 done with the old-style two-story chaff hive 

 than with any other style I could use, as, 

 under the circumstances, outdoor wintering 

 is necessary; and where but few visits are 

 made during the year, the two-story hive 

 answers my purpose best, although 1 know 

 there are other hives more convenient for 

 the ordinary bee-keeper. 



Last season 1 practiced the Dooliltle i)lan, 

 working for comb honey; and while this 

 style of hive necessitated much extra han- 

 dling of frames, etc., I secured a crop of 

 nearly 3000 pounds of comb honey from -15 

 colonies, and controlled swarming to two 

 natural swarms, and from several of the col- 

 onies took as high as 126 pounds of salable 

 honey each. 



The photo was taken in August, on a 

 very hot afternoon, during a dearth of hon- 

 ey, which accounts for the clustering of the 

 bees on the outside of the hives. I built 

 most of those hives myself, and enlarged 

 the entrance to %X10 iiiches, the old-style 

 entrance being Hxs inchts — too small for 

 summer ventilation. As fall approaches I 

 have a plug that is inserted, which was fit 



ted when the hives were built, which re- 

 duces the entrance to y^XG inches, and 

 when visiting the apiary about Nov. 1, as 1 

 usually do, I reduce the entrance to 'sX-J or 

 Vsy2, according to the size of the colony. 

 I find that the larger entrance, %X10, has 

 the advantage of preventing dead bees from 

 clogging the entrance in winter; for while 

 the front or outside entrance is reduced to 

 small dimensions, the space at the inside 

 remains %X10 inches, and there is little 

 danger of dead bees piling up over such a 

 space. There is great danger of their doing 

 so over a ^X 8-inch entrance. As the bees 

 always cluster immediately over the en- 

 trance in forming their winter nest, and the 

 old bees usually die early in the winter, the 

 danger of clogged entrance is great, espe- 

 cially when cold winter weather sets in ear- 

 ly, as it did last fall, about Nov. 1. The 

 larger entrance also retards swarming to a 

 great extent. 



My winter losses are usually not over five 

 per cent; but the winter of 1909 was an ex- 

 ceptionally severe one, and the combs con- 

 tained much honey-dew, so that the loss 

 was about twenty per cent — the heaviest I 

 have had for years. I use absorbents over 

 the frames for winter packing. On the 

 frames I put heavy Brussels carpeting, cut 

 to fit the hives 16X20 inches, and over this 

 a sack of for. st leaves. The bees are always 

 dry and warm. 



The old Root chaff hive has answered my 

 purpose well; and, although rather clumsy 

 and unhandy at times, I shall use them un- 



