THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



49 



they are takeu out of the cellar. I have iu 

 use 200 of these boxes, ami 200 a great deal 

 larger and deeper, with four or live inches of 

 space around the hive and seven or eight 

 above. I prefer the smaller boxes. They all 

 have tight bottoms. My bees that are now 

 in the cellar will all be packed in such boxes 

 when they come out iu the spring. You were 

 right and I was wrong. When you oppose 

 me in anything connected witn our chosen 

 pursuit, I at once become suspicious of my 

 premises ; consequently, after the discus- 

 sion of that point several years ago, I began 

 watching closely and carefully and found 

 you were right. I forgot to mention that 

 these smaller sized packing boxes are 

 made of % material, all around, except the 

 ends, which are Ig. The cover is cleated 

 like a trunk cover and these cleats shut right 

 down over the outside, about two inches, 

 so no water can get in, as the cover board 

 covers all cleats and everything. The saw- 

 dust is poured right iu between the walls in 

 the ordinary way, and packed down wiith a 

 little board. 



Two men will pack about 100 in a day, I 

 think, if they have the sawdust all ready. 

 We have a large rain-proof shed in which 

 the boxes are stored in summer, and the 

 sawdust is left in the boxes from year to 

 year. We are highly pleased with these lit- 

 tle boxes." 



Years ago Mr. Hill of the Guide protected 

 his bees by a cap or outer case covered with 

 sawdust held in place by a band of cotton 

 cloth. From a circular lately received, I 

 should judge that he now protects them by a 

 double-wall cap, of thin lumber, filled with 

 chaff, that slips down over the body of the 

 hive. I believe -J. A. Roe of Union City, 

 Ind., makes an outside case of wood to be 

 used with packing over single-wall hives. 

 " Rambler " has advocated some sort of felt 

 covering. Cork is an excellent material. 

 It is my opinion, however, that wood is the 

 best and cheapest material of which to make 

 an outside shell for holding packing mate- 

 rial around a single-wall hive, and that saw- 

 dust or chaff — substances easily obtainable 

 in most localities — will answer every pur- 

 pose as packing material. 



I presume some of you have already no- 

 ticed, from the heading on the first page, 

 that this matter is to be made the subject of 

 our special topic for the March Review. Per- 

 haps some will wonder why such a topic is 

 taken up at this time of tlie year. It is done 

 because I wish you all to try taking some of 

 your bees from the cellar as soon as it is 

 warm enough for them to tiy, protecting 

 them until it is nearly time to i)ut on the 

 supers, and I wish to help you to make a 

 wise choice when deciding in what way that 

 protection shall be given. 



eXXRMOTED. 



Feeding Sugar and Honey in Winter. 

 Mr. Alley recouimends using the Good 

 candy (pulverized sugar and honey) for 

 feeding needy colonies in winter. He gives 

 the following directions. 



" A frame not less than two inches wide 

 should be made, one side covered entirely 

 with thin boards. The other side should not 

 be wholly covered: space should be left at the 

 top for placing the food in, also for a pass- 

 age way for the bees to reach the food. The 

 frames should be made sufiiciently large to 

 hold ten pounds of food each. The brood 

 nest should be contracted to about four or 

 five frames, and the food placed at the sides 

 of the hive with the open part of the frame 

 next the combs." 



Wood-ftueen-Excluding Honey-Boards. 



Gleanings says : — " These have been made 

 before with the slots parallel to the grain, 

 but they were discarded because of the 

 shrinkage of the wood and the consequent 

 moisture of the hive. But the G. B. Lewis 

 Co. are now making them with the slots to 

 go across the grain, and they predict their 

 success." 



I believe I was among the first, if not the 

 first, to use a wood-queen-excluding honey- 

 board. I still have some in use, but don't 

 like them. With me, the trouble is not in 

 the shrinking and swelling of the wood, 

 but the bees plug the holes with hard wax. 

 Whether they do this because of the nature 

 of the material used, or because of its thick- 

 ness, I cannot say, but think it is the latter. 

 I have often thought of chamfering off the 

 wood around the edges of the openings, 

 until the wood, at the edges, was about l-l(i 

 of an inch thick, but I never tried it, fearing 

 these thin edges would be too easily broken. 

 Perhaps making the openings across the 

 grain would allow this thinning of the wood 

 around the openings without danger of 

 breakage. 



Candied Honey Easily Scorched. 



In the A. B. K., E. E. Hasty tells how 

 easily the reputation of a honey producer 

 may be injured, at the same time his honey 

 is "scorched" in being re-liqufied by the 

 consumer. He says : 



"Nearly every one seems to think that so 

 long as honey does not boil, of course it can 

 not burn. That is an awful mistake. 



Let us consider the state of things when 

 a large can is set on a stove. What is the 

 temperature of the iron under the can ? 

 Perhaps 2.50° or :500 ". The under side of the 



