17. 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



THE WINTER PROBLEM. 



An article upon the above sub- 

 ject may not be considered exactly 

 seasonable, still it is one of the 

 greatest importance, and one to 

 which too much thought cannot be 

 given, and of which none too much 

 can be written. In this article I 

 propose to deal solely with tlie 

 question as it relates to New Eng- 

 land and its climate, but believe 

 that whatever is ai)plicable to a 

 New England winter will apply 

 equally well to any changeable cli- 

 mate ; and I "say as a matter of fact 

 that 1 have solved the problem to 

 my own satisfaction at least, and 

 that satisfaction is owing to the 

 fact, that during the last sixteen 

 years, wintering on summer stands 

 with the temperature showing from 

 40° F. above, to 20° F. below"o,and 

 with from ]30 to 175 days when 

 bees could hardly iiy, I have not 

 lost a single colon_y that had stores 

 enough on which to live, dui-ing the 

 period above stated. And, further, 

 that during that time, only two 

 colonies were lost, and those could 

 have been saved had not illness 

 confined me to the house from 

 Februar3' to June, preventing me 

 from caring for my a[)iary as I 

 should. Duiing the whole time I 

 have kept bees, 1 have experi- 

 mented largely in this matter, and 

 in the course of those experiments 

 have used hives of ail kinds, shapes, 

 and sizes, and have found that 

 ■while there is a great difference in 

 hives in the matter of economy, 

 there is but little in the mere mat- 

 ter of safe wintering. For reasons 

 that I need not explain here, I will 

 say incidentally, that the ten frame 

 " L " hive is the one 1 i)refer to all 

 others, and is the one I recommend 

 for that reason. I have experi- 



mented with single and double- 

 walled hives, with chaff filling, and 

 dead air spaces, with sides l.| inch 

 to ^ inch thick, and I find no trou- 

 ble in wintering in any of them. I 

 do find, however, that a double- 

 walled hive, with walls from ^ to 

 f inch thick, and with a dead air 

 space of 1 to 1^ inch, gives the 

 best results, in the matter of econ- 

 omy in use of winter stores ; but, 

 even in this matter, I have not 

 found that degree of regularity, 

 that one would suppose should 

 exist. The smallest amount of 

 stores consumed in my own a[)iary 

 was in the winter of 1885-86, and in 

 a single walled f inch ten frame "L 

 hive," the bees having free access 

 to all the frames ; the amount con- 

 sumed from October 15, 1885, to 

 Feb. 20, 1886, being 11 1 lbs. and 

 tiie colony came through in the best 

 of condition, and gathered 72 lbs. 

 of honey from apple blossoms in 

 four days in the following May. 

 I don't consider that there is any 

 l)aiticular quality either in myself 

 or in my bees, that should produce 

 the results stated above ; but 1 do 

 believe that these results were 

 brought about by the careful meth- 

 od of management I have adopted, 

 and which is the same that I 

 have made public many times dur- 

 ing the last few years, and will be 

 lound in the " Api," with those of 

 several others. I am forced to the 

 conclusion that, vvliile perhaps a lit- 

 tle honey can be saved by " cellar 

 wintering," take it all in all, 

 the safest place is the suunner 

 stands ; that is to s;iy, bees will 

 '•spring" better wdien kept on 

 suunner stands, than when win- 

 tered inside, and as a rule will live 

 till spring no matter liovv packed 

 for winter, if they have stores 

 where they can reach them. I am 

 convinced, too, that chaff-hives af- 

 ford no better real protection than 

 do single walls, and that in spring 

 they are far less safe ; and then 



