Nov. 1, 1911 



665 



half of the frames exposed. Then in the 

 center of this exposed space I invert a 1-lb. 

 butter-dish, and place an empty super on 

 the hive. If there is more •honey on one 

 side of the hive I place the dish a little to 

 that side. This ijiakes a clustering-i:)lace 

 for nearly a quart of bees, where they can 

 generate and retain their natural body heat, 

 and also enables them to reach the honey 

 by going over the tops of the frames, and 

 prevents a few getting caught between two 

 combs, and perishing, as they sometimes 

 do in sudden snaps of very severe weather. 



Next, over this half of the hive, and over 

 the inverted dish, I place a piece of old 

 coarse carpet, or gunny sack; tuck it down 

 carefully around the edges, and then fill the 

 super with dry wheat or oat chafif. 



Now I carefully fit on the cover; and if 

 there is any possibility of its leaking rain 

 or snow water I cover it with a piece of roof- 

 ing so as to be sure that no water will work 

 in at either top or sides. 



Then I raise the rear end of the whole 

 hive at least two inches, letting it rest upon 

 a couple of bricks or stones so that rain or 

 melting snow will speedily run away from 

 the entrance, and not work in so as to freeze 

 and clog the entrance, or keep the bottom- 

 board wet or damp. 



There is but one more source of loss to 

 contend with. We often have warm sunny 

 days toward spring which will induce the 

 bees to come out while snow is still on the 

 ground, on which many will alight, become 

 chilled, and not be able to return. When I 

 have empty supers to spare I sometimes 

 place one under each hive, which puts the 

 bees so far from the entrance that they are 

 not so quickly incited to emerge on account 

 of a little sunshine. This may also be ac- 

 complished by shading the entrances. 



Sometimes when, on a very warm day, 

 they will come out in large numbers, I spread 

 straw or waste hay thinly on the snow for a 

 rod or two in front of the hives, and most of 

 the bees will alight on this rather than on 

 the snow, and then they get back without 

 much loss. 



If the hives are not in a naturally shelter- 

 ed location it is well to protect them from 

 the winds by standing some corn fodder or 

 straw against the north and west sides. 



When I find a colony dead in spring I in- 

 variably discover either that they have died 

 from lack of stores, or, more frequently, that 

 the cluster of dead bees is wet and moldy. 

 If packed so that the moisture will escape, 

 yet their bodily heat be retained, we never 

 have weather cold enough to freeze them. 



If it is desired to remove or change loca- 

 tion for a short distance, some old bees are 

 sure to be lost, and it is much better that 

 this should occur in the late fall; for as these 

 are old field bees it is, perhaps, an advantage 

 rather than an actual loss to dispense with 

 them now, rather than feed them two or 

 three months or more and then have them 

 die of old age before beginning work in the 

 spring. 



Factoryville, Pa, 



GLASS -FRONT SHIPPING - CASES FOR SHOW- 

 CASES. 



BY WESLEY FOSTER. 



John Welton had the largest grocery bus- 

 iness in Spring City. Whether he had the 

 finest show-cases, the biggest cash-register, 

 or the finest display in the show-window is 

 another matter. John's customers were not 

 of the social set, neither were they from 

 among the very poor. John never had a 

 call for a nickel's worth of flour nor a quarter 

 of a dozen of eggs. He was doing a good 

 business with carpenters, teamsters, and 

 tradesmen of various pursuits. His rent 

 was not excessive, for he was off the main 

 street, though on a good corner where most 

 of his customers got off the car when com- 

 ing from work. 



He told me to size up his situation, and 

 see how near I could come to estimating 

 correctly the amount of honey he could sell 

 a month. I estimated that he could sell 

 lots of honey in quart, half-gallon, and 

 gallon iiails, and a good amount of comb 

 honey if it was not too high-priced, say a 

 fair weight of No. 2 honey that he could re- 

 tail at 15 cents straight. 



I went home and made up a shipment of 

 a dozen gallons, a dozen half-gallons, two 

 dozen quarts, and four cases of nice No. 2 

 comb honey. I wrote to him that it would 

 be a good idea to make a window display of 

 the honey for a fewdrys, arranging the pails 

 in a nice pyramid on top of the cases of dou- 

 ble-tier packed comb honey. The comb 

 honey in those cases sold right along, about 

 a case a week, and he wrote for more, for he 

 wanted enough to make a little showing all 

 the time. I had some corrugated-paper 

 shipping-cases, and I thought I would show 

 John something in a case that would ship 

 without cracking a single capping, so off 

 went four more cases. Back came a letter 

 saying that he expected to get the honey in 

 the same kind of cases he had had before, 

 and that, when it came, as he had used 

 the other cases to disjilay peanuts, wal- 

 nuts, dried fruits, and raisins, he had to 

 empty all of the fruit and nuts out and put 

 the honey from those homely, awkward old 

 paper cases into the wood cases to display: 

 and in getting the honey out his clerk had 

 broken two and run his finger through three 

 more. He did not have any breakage in 

 shipment, but called attention in terms 

 more picturesque than polite that there were 

 other considerations than freight-handling. 



John has been supplied with comb honey 

 in his choice glass-front display cases for over 

 a year now; and, as fast as emptied, nuts, 

 dried fruit, etc., go into them. He says 

 they are nice and handy. I do not object, 

 for my advertisement is on every one, and 

 one of John's customers said one day, "Why, 

 don't you sell any thing but honey?" So I 

 think it pays to put honey in a glass-front 

 case. It certainly pays John and me. 



Boulder, Colo. 



