The sessions were crowded with important 

 papers ajid questions, and the interest was 

 always intense; but the thing of greatest 

 value, as we see it, was the paper by Dr. 

 Pliillips, on outdoor wintering of bees. 

 Does it not seem remarkable that a young 

 man like Dr. Phillips should go before 

 old and experienced beekeepers and have 

 them willingly and thankfully preserve the 

 attitude of an A B C class? There is a 

 leason: Dr. Phillips, with the aid of his 

 associates and the means provided by the 

 government, lias been able to solve ques- 

 tions that could not be solved by individuals, 

 no matter how willing or painstaking they 

 were. 



It now seems to the writer that beekeeping 

 is almost to be revolutionized. We have 

 been ready to make the claim that dysen- 

 tery is a worse scourge than American fonl 

 brood. Think of the enormous drain on 

 the industry through winter losses! We 



have also been accustomed to figure winter 

 losses as based on the number of colonies 

 that die outright during winter; whereas we 

 should have figured on depletion of colo- 

 nies. Strong colonies in the fall that come 

 out of winter quarters mere nuclei cannot 

 be said to have wintered successfully. Dr. 

 Phillips shows that, with proper wintering, 

 there would be practically no dysentery in 

 the colonies. Protection we must have, and 

 it must be better than we have been provid- 

 ing, even if we are to keep not more than 

 half the number of colonies. Dairy cows 

 protected in winter as poorly as we have 

 been protecting our bees would pay no in- 

 come. What we lacked was conclusive evi- 

 dence regarding proper wintering condi- 

 tions. This Dr. Phillips has furnished ; and 

 if we don't follow instructions we may just 

 as well turn our live stock out in a cold 

 northern winter without protection. 



Some years ago the writer wintered a 



number of colonies in hives having an outer 

 shell which provided four inches of dry 

 packing on all sides, and as much on top as 

 one wished. We usually placed about eight 

 inches of dry leaves over the top super. 

 Some of these hives produced good crops of 

 honey for ten years at a stretch without 

 swarming or dying out during that time. 

 We wish to have bees again in such hives, 

 but would place two colonies in one house 

 and provide a space of six inches instead 

 of four for dry packing. Would that be 

 about right in my location? 



One thing that has caused beekeepers to 

 take too many risks in wintering has been 

 tlie accidental or occasional wintering of 

 colonies under very adverse conditions. We 

 placed too much stress on these isolated 

 cases and drew too much from them. 



As an example of how tenacious of life a 

 small colony of bees can be, in the spring 

 of 1885 we bought some bees in hives that 



had a deeper and shorter frame than the 

 Langstroth. It was about like tlie Gallup 

 frame. In transferring these combs the 

 bottom part was cut off to the depth of a 

 Langstroth frame to which we wished to 

 transfer, and the strips of comb that were 

 left on the frames contained a few cells of 

 brood and a few eggs. The old hives were 

 set back against the fence and let alone. A 

 few bees gathered on the stubs of comb, and 

 in due time each built queen-cells and 

 hatched queens which were fertilized. The 

 little colonies built some comb during the 

 summer. The middle combs reached nearly 

 to the bottom-boards, while the side combs 

 were not larger than ones hand. The hives 

 were allowed to remain where they were. 

 No protection was given. They did not 

 have even a quilt over the frames. The 

 cover fitted only loosely, and I had no idea 

 they would live after freezing weather came 

 on. However, they both lived thru; and 





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