AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



593 



the cellar, I have no desire to Ignore the 

 out-door method. 



PROTECTION AND WINTER FLIGHTS. 



It does not seem as though the ques- 

 tion of whether bees sliould be pi'otected 

 in the North, need receive any consid- 

 eration whatever, yet it has been ob- 

 jected to on the grounds that the packing 

 becomes damp ; that it deprives the bees 

 of the warmth of the sun, and that they 

 sometimes fail to fly in the Winter (be- 

 cause the outside warmth is so slow in 

 reaching them) when bees in single- 

 walled hives may be in full flight. 



There is occasionally a still, mild day 

 in Winter, upon which the sun shines 

 out bright and strong for an hour or 

 two, and bees in single-walled hives 

 enjoy a real cleansing flight, while the 

 momentary rise in temperature passes 

 away ere it has penetrated the thick 

 walls of a chaff hive. 



On the other hand, there are days and 

 weeks, and sometimes months, unbroken 

 by these rises in temperature ; and the 

 bees must depend for their existence 

 upon the heat generated by themselves, 

 and the more perfect the non-conductor 

 by which they are surrounded, the less 

 will be the loss of heat. 



When bees are well protected, there 

 is less necessity for flight than when the 

 protection is slight. If the bee-keeper 

 thinks, however, that bees in chaff hives 

 ought to fly on a warm day, but they 

 do not fly, he has only to remove the 

 covering (wer the bees and allow them to 

 fly from the tops of the hives. 



For several Winters I left quite a 

 number of colonies unprotected. I dis- 

 continued the practice only when thor- 

 oughly convinced that, in this locality, 

 the losses were lessened by protection. 

 In mild Winters the bees came through 

 in pretty fair condition. 



In severe Winters the bees in the out- 

 side spaces, or ranges of combs, died 

 first; the cluster became smaller; the 

 bees in more ranges died ; and by Spring 

 all were dead, or the colony so reduced 

 in numbers, and the survivors so lacking 

 in vitality, as to be practically worthless. 



VENTILATION. 



I have never seen any ill effects from 

 dampness, but I have always given 

 abundant ventilation above the packing. 

 When the warm air from the cluster 

 passes up through the packing, and is 

 met by the cold outer air, some conden- 

 sation of moisture takes place. This 

 moistens the surface of the packing 

 slightly, but it is comparatively dry un- 

 derneath. With a good, strong colony 



of bees, and ventilation above the pack- 

 ing, I have never know of trouble from 

 moisture. 



( HAFF HIVES. 



In the giving of protection, chaff hives 

 have the advantage of being always 

 ready for Winter, and of doing away 

 with the labor and untidiness of packing 

 and unpacking, but they are expensive 

 and cumbersome. It is some work to 

 pack bees in the Fall and unpack them 

 in the Spring, but light, single-walled, 

 readily-movable hives during the work- 

 ing season are managed with enough 

 less labor to more than compensate for 

 that of packing and unpacking. 



Then there is another point. The 

 work of packing and unpacking comes 

 when there is comparative leisure, while 

 the extra work caused- by having great, 

 unwieldy hives, is brought in at a time 

 when the bee-keeper is working on the 

 "keen jump." 



CORK DUST FOR PACKING. 



For packing material, I have used 

 wheat chaff, forest leaves, planer shav- 

 ings and dry sawdust. I have never 

 used cork dust, but it is probably the 

 best packing material. Its non-con- 

 ductivity is nearly twice that of chaff, 

 while it never becomes damp. The only 

 objection is that it is not readily ob- 

 tainable, and usually costs something, 

 while the other substances mentioned 

 cost nothing. What they lack in non- 

 conductivity is easily made up in quan- 

 tity, and this brings up the point of the 

 proper thickness for the packing. 



I have often thrust my hand into the 

 packing surrounding a populous colony 

 of bees, and found the warmth percepti- 

 ble at a distance of four inches from the 

 side, and six inches from the top. This 

 would seem to indicate the thickness 

 when chaff or sawdust is used. I pre- 

 sume that packing has often been con- 

 demned when it was not more than half 

 hand — that is, when not enough material 

 was used. I do not appreciate the 

 argument of those who advocate thin 

 packing. I do not believe that the 

 benefit of the heat from the sun can 

 compensate for the lack of protection 

 during the months of extreme cold. 



DEAD-AIR SPACES. 



Hollow walls, with no packing, have 

 their advocates ; and it has been asked 

 if these dead-air spaces were not equally 

 as good non-conductors of heat as those 

 filled with chaff. They are not. In the 

 first place, the air is not " dead," it is 

 constantly moving. The air next to the 

 inside wall becomes warm and rises; 



