288 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



perature was constantly from 4r> to hO de- 

 grees, and I never had bees winter better. 

 I think every swarm came through alive, 

 there was no dysentery, and I never had bees 

 build up better in the spring. These bees 

 were in hives containing ten trames G^4 

 inches deep and 13 inches long inside the 

 frame, the hive containing but SUO inches of 

 comb space. 



I favor a small hive well tilled with sealed 

 stores of at must any kind of natural honey 

 for safe wintering. In a large hive there is 

 much space left vacant outside the cluster, 

 here the air stat-'tiates, damimess accumu- 

 lates, the combs become mouldy and the air 

 of the whole hive is poisoned. The honey 

 absorbs water, becomes thin and innutri- 

 tions. The bees have to eat a large quantity 

 of this impure and bulky food. Proper 

 digestion is interfered with and dysentery 

 sets in, the combs are from necessity de- 

 filed, rendering the habitation still more un- 

 healthy and the colony finally dies. Human 

 beings would contract disease under the 

 same conditions and die in the same way. 



I believe all life is akin and that every 

 thing that breathes needs pure air. 1 have 

 fitted my winter cellar with a larye heating 

 stove. It is surrounded with a brick wall so 

 as to let ofiE the heat slowly. I shall cement 

 the bottom of the cellar and there is a venti- 

 lating shaft opening near the floor and con- 

 necting with the stove pipe to give good 

 draft. Many times this summer I have made 

 a good fire to keep the cellar from becoming 

 damp and mouldy, and for some days before 

 I put the bees in this fall I shall keep up a 

 fire so the cellar will be perfectly dry and 

 warm when the bees are put in and once in a 

 while throutrh the winter I shall make a lit- 

 tle fire and keep the air moving and pure. 

 Every hive will have plenty of upward venti- 

 lation, plenty of sealed stores, and with the 

 hive so small that strong colonies will cover 

 nearly every comb. With such prer)aration 

 I have no fears of dysentery even if the hive 

 contains inucli pollen. It is natural for the 

 bees to store |)ollen and 1 do not believe that 

 nature makes mistakes : we only fail to un- 

 derstand and misfortune follows to help us 

 to learn. I use to talk about good and evil ; 

 I believe everything is good when rightly 

 understood and that what we call evil equally 

 with good helps us to learn our lessons. 

 And now, brother bee-keepers, when we lose 

 our bees in wintering we should blame our- 

 selves, and our lack of industry and knowl- 



edge, and learn to say less and intelligently 

 do more, and if heavy losses lead us to do 

 this they will not be in vain. 



I have noticed that bees that die from 

 starvation in the cellar, nearly always defile 

 their hives and combs Ijefore they die, re- 

 gardless of what kind of honey it was, and 

 this leads me to think that lack of stores has 

 much to do with the bees dying with dysen- 

 tery. In such cases it is not pollen or poi- 

 sonous honey, but the lack of any kind that 

 causes the trouble. Let us be sure that our 

 bees have plenty of sealed stores of their 

 own gathering, put them into such quarters 

 as I have described and in the way men- 

 tioned, and I believe you will find the vexed 

 question of dysentery largely settled. 



In my house apiary as soon as the weather 

 begins to get freezing cold I will pack the 

 hives on all sides with from three to eight 

 inches of sawdust level with their tops. On 

 top of each hive I will put a slatted honey 

 board with the bee space turned down so 

 there will be three-fourths inch over the 

 frame. There will be one tiiickness of light 

 sheeting tacked over the top of each honey 

 board and in the center of each a feeder that 

 I have made for this especial use will be 

 placed right over the brood nest so the bees 

 can take feed even in the coldest weather. 

 These feeders are six inches high, ana I will 

 at this time cover the hives with sawdust two 

 or three inches thick. This will be early in 

 ( )ctober, and I will feed each colony five or 

 six pounds of thick sugar syrup. About No 

 vember 1st the hives will be covered with 

 sawdust entirely over the feeders and the 

 bees will now be left in quiet until about 

 April 1st, when the sawdust will be removed 

 enough to uncover the feeders and in the 

 evening of each day each colony will be fed 

 two or three ounces of sugar syrup, and this 

 will be continued until \Yhite clover blooms. 



Yon will say that this is getting away from 

 the question of dysentery, but these bees 

 will have the entrance to their hives left 

 open at all times so they can have a cleans- 

 ing flight whenever the weather is warm 

 enough outside to invite them to do so. Last 

 winter I treated the colonies in my twelve- 

 colony house in this way and the hives, 

 combs and bottom boards remained as clean 

 and bright as in summer, and I do not ex- 

 pect my bees in the new house to have the 

 dysentery the coming winter or spring. 



FoKESTViLLE, MlnD. Sept. 13, 1893. 



