076 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



WINTER CASES MADE OF DRYGOODS BOXES 



BY LEWIS L. WINSHIP 



I have bad the best results in prepaidug 

 bees for winter by the plan shown in the 

 picture. In the late fall, which comes here 

 in New York along the last of October or 

 first of November, bees should be protected 

 for winter. My method is to get drygoods- 

 boxes, which most storekeepers will give 

 away for the asking, and cut them down 

 until, Avhen placed over a hive, about six 

 inches space will be left on both sides and 

 ends. It should be left open at the top and 

 boltom, although a strip should be nailed on 

 the bottom, around the edges of the box, so 

 that, when it is over the liive, the jDacking 

 will not slip out on the ground. 



When this box is done, a cover should be 

 made out of the box-top to set on the case. 

 When the framework of the cover is made 

 it should be covered Avith any thing handy, 

 such as tarred paper, a sheet of tin, or gal- 

 vanized iron. This covering need not be 

 nailed on if a weight of some kind is placed 

 on it. 



The packing should be done the latter 

 part of October or first of November. A 

 layer of straw, leaves, excelsior, or planer- 

 shavings should be placed in the six-inch 

 space between the box and liive. The more 

 compactly this space is filled, the better. 



When the sides and ends are filled to the 

 top of the hive, a chatf cushion should be 

 placed over the frames, the cover replaced, 

 and the packing material spread evenly over 

 the top of the liive to the top of the box, 

 tlien the outer cover should be put on, and 

 a heavy stone or brick placed on each corner 

 of the cover. 



Bees will winter in these boxes with less 

 loss, and less consumption of honey, than 

 in (he ordinary way. These boxes, when 

 made, may be kept from winter to winter, 

 and any one, even if not an expert with 

 tools, can make them with very little work. 

 They keep the bees as warm and dry as they 

 are in the summer. 



Spring-ville, N. Y. 



CELLAR WINTERING IN NORTHERN QUEBEC 



Wiuteriirag with Unaform Success Year After Year 



BY H. HAELEY SELWTN 



In view of the fact that wintering bees in 

 northern latitudes is an undertaking so often 

 fraught with loss and disappointment, and 

 that for a series of years now, marked suc- 

 cess has attended our efforts along this line , 

 it seems to me that a short description of 

 our methods and the cellar in question would 

 be in order for this special issue of Glean- 

 ings, dealing, as it does, iDarticularly with 

 that topic. 



In so far as we are concerned I have not 

 the slightest hesitation in saying that our 

 wintering problem is solved, and that it is 

 now more a question of " Will the clover 

 yield this season? " or " Will the weather be 

 favorable during the basswood flow V These, 

 it seems to me, are questions where the real 

 doubt and precariousness of beekeeping as a 

 business exist, not in managing to tide colo- 

 nies over from season to season. 



In order to give a fairly comprehensive 

 understanding of our methods of wintering 

 it will be necessary to say a few words in 

 regard to fall management ; for as surely as 

 good wintering means a quick spring up- 

 build, so does proper fall preparation, to a 

 large degree, insure good wintering. 



We make it a point to requeen each fall 

 with the best queens it is possible to raise, 

 the reason being readily apparent to those 

 who have watched and contrasted the laying 

 capacity of a young and old queen at this 

 late season of the year. Where an old queen 

 is ready to reduce her work to a minimum 

 a newly mated virgin will revel in her pow- 

 ers of reproduction, and fill the hive with 

 thousands of young workers upon whose 

 longevity the gathering of the honey crop 

 indirectly depends, because it is these bees 

 the following spring whose labors wall brood 

 and rear the army of workers for the main 

 flow of the year. 



It seems almost unnecessary to dwell long 

 on the question of fall feeding, especially as 

 space is limited, as so much has been said in 

 this regard. Feed wherever colonies seem 

 light, and where you have deprived them of 

 the majority of their surplus. One might as 

 well save himself the trouble of carrying 

 light colonies into winter quarters, as they 

 will surely snuff out before the spring is 

 half reached. Be sure to have each colony 

 so heavy that one has to strive in lifting it. 

 Young queens and plenty of a good quality 



