re 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



April. 



stronger than the others, and gave 

 much more suii)lus. 



In his own apiary Mr. Pincot will 

 not hive a swarm singly unless it 

 weighs about 8 pounds. He does that 

 with both natural and artificial 

 swarms. — From the Rucher Beige. 



Knoxville. Tenn., March 11. 1904. 



RESULTS OF SOME EXPERI- 

 MENTS IN WINTERING. 



By Arthur C. Miller. 



I HAVE long contended that the 

 successful wintering of bees out of 

 doors was dependent on the con- 

 dition of the colony rather than on the 

 amount of protection afforded. I have 

 frequently enunciated the necessary 

 conditions as a populous colony of 

 young bees and an abundance of stores 

 supplied early enough to enable the 

 bees to properly ripen them and store 

 them as their instincts dictate. I base 

 my contentions on the results of many 

 years of extensive experiments, cou- 

 pled with a painstaking analysis oT 

 the results. 



Last fall I started some experiments 

 along extreme lines, details of which 

 follow. Eighteen colonies were se- 

 lected, six of which were rather weak, 

 six medium and six strong. Some of 

 each type had an abundance of ripe 

 .stores, some had many of their combs 

 only partly filled and capped. All were 

 in unprotected hives, none uf them 

 having even the tarred paper wrapping 

 which I have advocated. All hives 

 were of the divisible brood cliamber 

 type, with frames five and one-half 

 inches deep. Some colonies had two 

 sections, some three and one had four. 

 To this latter I wish to call particular 

 attention. It was a Bingham type of 

 hive, with end bars of frames one- 

 fourth inch thick and side panels of 

 the same thickness, so the sole i)rotec- 

 tion afforded the bees was one-fourth 

 inch of pine wood. Also it should be 

 noted that the brood nest wa,s cut by 

 three of those "fatal, horizontal 

 spaces." The colony was a medium 

 good one, with plenty of ripe stores. 



All hives had flat covers, some air 

 spaced, some with "paper and cloth" 

 top. All entrances were wide span, i 

 e., 14 inches by one-half inch. The 

 winter has been the worst on record, 

 and from the most relial)le soui'ces. 



The temperature held low with hard- 

 ly a break, dropping at one time to 26 

 below zero and keeping close to zero 

 for a week at a time. Over five feet of 

 snow has fallen, but at no time did it 

 drift enough to protect the hives, 

 which are on stands a foot above the 

 ground. 



Bees flew early in Decemoer and 

 not again until early In Maich, and 

 then only once for a snort time. 



As to results: All of the weak col- 

 onies died, apparently froze to death; 

 which is to say, the clusters were too 

 small to maintain the necessary heat. 

 All the medium colonies succumbed, 

 some from starvation, some from diar- 

 rhoea. One of the oig colonies also 

 went from the latter trouble. Quite 

 a proportion of their stores were im- 

 sealed and the honey shows signs of 

 fermentation. The remaining five col- 

 onies are strong and healthy, and with 

 ^In all but one case — honey enough 

 to carry them through until the new 

 crop. The colony in the Bingham hive 

 is in perfect condition. According to 

 most theories concerning bees under 

 such conditions they should have died 

 a most noisome death. But they 

 didn L. 



From the results of the experiments 

 I am still more nrmly satisfied that 

 my theories, as to what constitute es- 

 sentials for safe wintering, are sound 

 and are fully supported by facts. But 

 I also believe that it is not the best 

 of economy to subject bees to such 

 extreme conditions for the consump- 

 tion of stores is too great. Had those 

 colonies been protected with tarred 

 paper, they would have been warmed 

 enough on the sunny days to have ma- 

 terially lessened the consujnption of 

 honey. I have observed that in my ex- 

 periments witn tarred paper. 



To summarize: I believe we ma.v 

 safely and profitably dispense with ex- 

 pensive double walled hives and trou- 

 blesome packing and use any type of 

 single walled hive and a black wrap- 

 ping, provided we only piit into winter 

 quarters strong colonies, with sound 

 stores supplied early. 



The experiment was costly, but it 

 paid. 



Providence. R. I.. March 16. 1904. 



I have taken a great interest in The 

 Bee-Keeper, and greatly enjoyed 

 reading it. 1^. J. Quantrell. 



