32 



Besides these essentials some protection for the outside of the hive is 

 desirable. It has been customary for years to winter bees in long, low 

 sheds or tenement hives. These are expensive and cumbersome and are 

 apt to harbor mice, which sometimes destroy the bees. Better satisfac- 

 tion is generally obtained by the use of chatf or double walled hives. 

 Still further in the direction of simplicity, Mr. Arthur C. Miller, of 

 Providence, R. I., has worked out the plan of wrapping the hives in 

 four or five thicknesses of paper, covering top, sides and ends. Tarred 

 roofing paper is preferred for the outside layer because waterproof and 

 black, the color serving to absorb heat. Mr. Miller has found that bees 

 may be wintered safely in any single-walled hive, even a quarter inch 

 in thickness, Avith this .simple protection. The paper is held in place by 

 strips tacked around the bottom. 



Cellar-wintering is another method, little practised in Massachusetts, 

 yet of great value in Canada or the West. After being in some dis- 

 repute for several years, it is now coming to the front again as a 

 successful method for cold and exposed locations. A dark, dry cellar, 

 with good ventilation, in which the temperature can be kept at about 

 45° F., is suitable for the purpose. The hives are set on timbers, with 

 the bottom board removed for ventilation. They are put in after settled 

 cold weather begins in the fall and are not brought out until spring is 

 well arrived, many leaving the bees in winter quarters until the first 

 of May. 



The Bee Moth or " Wax Worm." 

 Probably the greatest of all losses to bee keepers in the past have been 

 caused by this insect. It is said to have been chiefl}" responsible for the 

 decline in bee keeping dui'ing the past century. In the earlier days of 

 the industry in America farmers kept their colonies in any receptacle, 

 regardless of uniformlt}'. Sometimes bees wei'e hived in straw skeps, 

 as was the old custom in Europe ; moi'e frequently they were kept in 

 old boxes of odd dimensions, or even in barrels or kegs. Again, if a 

 swarm was found wild in the Woods, the tree was sawed off above and 

 below the colony, and this section was then taken home and. set up 

 among the boxes and barrels. Such an apiar}' certainly could not pre- 

 sent the neat appearance of the modern uniform hives. When honey 

 was taken the whole colony had to be sacrificed, being usually " brim- 

 stoned." In such hives, if the wax worm gained entrance, the colony 

 was usually beyond recovery before the owner knew what was going 

 on. Even later in the century, when bees came to be kept generally in 

 uniform " box-hives," there was no way of gaining access to the combs 

 and hence the wax worm could be controlled no better than in the hollow 

 log. The moth increased unchecked, and until the movable frame hive 

 was invented, nothing could be done to save the industry. 



At bottom the diflBculty was that bee keepers did not study their enemy 

 and from a knowledge of the life history of the bee moth discover some 

 means of cliecking its attacks. Even at present, with all the devices 

 which make the control of the pest .so easy, no bee keeper is safe who 

 cannot recognize the insect at a glance in any of its different stages- 



