48 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



the hives by outside packing. I have seen 

 the mercury remain at 35° for a week at a 

 time in May, after there had been three 

 weeks of fine weather and the combs were 

 filled with brood. Some fair colonies (un- 

 protected) actually starved; being clustered 

 closely upon the brood which they were un- 

 able or unwilling to leave to bring honey 

 into the cluster. It doesn't seem to me that 

 there need be any doubt that spring protec- 

 tion is beneficial, that it is often needed, 

 and, if it can be secured cheaply enough, 

 always profitable. 



I know some are now ready to ask, if 

 spring protection is so important that it is 

 advisable to pack the hives after they are 

 taken from the cellar, why not winter the 

 bees out of doors, giving them the needed 

 protection in the fall, thus saving the expense 

 of a cellar and the labor of carrying the bees 

 in and bringing them out ? The saving in 

 honey, by wintering in the cellar, will pay 

 for the expense twice over ; besides, taking 

 one winter with another, the cellar has prov- 

 ed to be the safer place in this locality. In 

 a severe winter the cellar is superior ; in a 

 mild winter it is no worse than in a cold 

 winter ; but out-doors may be, usually is, 

 a better place for bees in a mild winter. If 

 we only knew in advance what the winter 

 would be we would know just what to do ; 

 put the bees in the cellar if it is to be cold, 

 leave them out if it is to be warm. But we 

 are obliged to take our chances ; and, while 

 my choice is the cellar, I wish to say that it 

 by no means has all the advantages. What 

 kills our bees in winter is the overloading of 

 their intestines. Sometimes one winter 

 flight, that may be secured if the bees are in 

 the open air, is their salvation. If this 

 flight doesn't come, then the advantage is 

 with the cellar. At the recent meeting of 

 bee-keepers in Detroit, Mr. Heddon said : 

 "J. B. Hall said, at Brantford, last year, 

 that scarcely anyl)ody wintered their bees 

 out of doors. ' One man puts all his bees in 

 one big cellar ; another builds a little cellar 

 over each colony. What's the difl'ereuce 'i ' 

 I tell you, frieuds, there is a big difference. 

 Ttiat little cellar built over a colony has an 

 entrance. A week ago my bees on their 

 summer stands had a flight. As I under- 

 stand it, their term of confinement for the 

 winter dates froui that flight." 



But this is digressing a little. We are not 

 to spend very much time discussing cellar vs. 

 out- door wintering, but narrow the question 



down to. shall we protect our bees out of 

 doors in permanently packed chaff hives, or 

 with temporarily protected, single-wall 

 hives ; if the latter, what shall be the style 

 of the protection ? Probably enough has 

 been said, in this leader, upon all these 

 points, unless it is the last mentioned. 



I have for several years wintered a few 

 colonies out of doors, and protected others 

 in the spring, by setting a rim of cheap 

 lumber, six inches larger, each way, than the 

 hive, over the hive, filling the space around 

 and over the hive with dry sawdust, putting 

 on a cover and weighting it with a stone to 

 keep it in place. It will be seen from an 

 item in the Extracted Department that the 

 Roots are experimenting with a similar pro- 

 tection. For this locality I think the space 

 for packing ('^4 inch) is insufficient. I hard- 

 ly know what to think of the plan of having 

 the packing material enclosed in a long, 

 thin cushion to be wrapped around the hive 

 before the outside shell is slipped down over 

 the hive. It will save the scattering of litter, 

 and will, I think, expedite the labor of pack- 

 ing and unpacking, but it will also add a 

 little to the expense. 



When I first advocated spring protection 

 for bees wintered in the cellar, Mr. Heddon 

 was my opponent. Knowing that he had since 

 changed his views upon this point, I wrote a 

 few days ago and asked him to describe the 

 boxes in which he packed his bees, and also 

 to tell how the work of packing was done. 

 Here is his reply : — 



" The boxes are two inches bigger, all 

 around, (three inches in front, in order to 

 accommodate the alighting board) inside 

 dimensions, than the hive is outside meas- 

 ure. There are also l^i inches under the 

 bottom in front, which is necessary on ac- 

 count of the front cleat, and 2 or 2}2 inches 

 l)ehind, because the hive has a tip forward 

 in the box. ( )n top tliere are thi'ee or four 

 inches of space packed with sawdust as solid 

 as we can pack it. The cover is made abso- 

 lutely water tight and weighted solid on the 

 sawdust on top, so that the sun's rays on top 

 can be felt right through. The whole busi- 

 ness faces the south, and the packing box is 

 tipped forward towards the south, and in 

 my opinion this is the best packing material, 

 the best thickness of it, and the best arrange- 

 ment of it that I know of. Of course we use 

 the bridge arrangement for the passage of 

 the bees. We want our hives heat-reflecting 

 in summer, so we paint them white or near- 

 ly so, and in winter, you see, we use the 

 dark color which is heat-absorbing. 



Now I have become a convert to what I 

 once opposed you in : that is, in packing the 

 bees in just such packing boxes as these after 



