94 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



what my conclusions are after so long a 

 time for thought and investigation. I soon 

 found that cold cellars, houses above ground 

 of any kind where an even temperature of 

 40° to 45° could not be maintained throughout 

 the winter, were usually more destructive to 

 colonies of bees than when left on summer 

 stands without any protection except the 

 inch walls of the hive. I discerned that such 

 a colony in a common box hive, sealed up 

 tight on top and raised up % of an inch 

 from the bottom board by blocks under each 

 corner, would stand cold weather much 

 better than when set tight down on the bot- 

 tom board, and the reason for this I discov- 

 ered was that cold did not kill the bees, but 

 the melting of the frost, during the iirst 

 thaw, that had accumulated in the hive in 

 four or six weeks of zero weather, was what 

 chilled the brood and killed the bees. You al- 

 ways put the lid on if you want the cream to 

 freeze in an ice-cream freezer, and you 

 should be just as careful to raise up from the 

 bottom a hive that contains frost, that the 

 frost may melt without freezing the bees. I 

 protect colonies on summer stands to- pre- 

 vent frost forming on the inside walls of the 

 hive and between the combs. A little straw 

 or corn fodder set up around a hive, or a box 

 set over it, does not amount to anything at 

 all for this purpose during zero weather, 

 but rather has a tendency to kill the bees 

 quicker than if nothing of the kind had been 

 put around the hives, because if we have two 

 weeks of very cold weather followed by a 

 slight thaw the hives exposed to the sun get 

 rid of the frost within them, while that in 

 the slightly protected one remains, and the 

 following periods of cold weather keep add- 

 ing to it, until when the warm weather 

 comes there is so much frost that it chills 

 the brood aiid kills the bees while melting. 

 Damp air and damp frost at 31° to 33° 

 around a cluster of bees will reduce its tem- 

 perature faster than dry air and frost at 25° 

 below zero : because the former condition is 

 an excellent conductor of heat and the latter 

 is not. 



To protect colonies of bees on summer 

 stands by means of boxes, chaflf quilts or 

 cushions sufficient to keep all frost out of 

 the hive, is too much work and expense to 

 be profitable or practicable, hence I give a 

 large opening at the bottom of the hive with 

 protection sufficient for fall and spring, and 

 depend on the snow banked around the hives 

 during December, January and February to 



keep the frost out. New York, Wisconsin, . 

 Michigan and Canada are excellent States I 

 for wintering bees, because the snow comes * 

 in the fall and remains all winter. Ohio, 

 Indiana and Illinois are the very worst 

 localities because the snow cannot be de- 

 pended on, and more protection must be 

 used than farther north or south. An outer 

 case sealed air-tight on top, surrounded two 

 or three inches thick with dry clover chaff is 

 the least that can be used with any safety in 

 such a latitude. I find by a test of eleven 

 CQnsecutive years, which involved the care- 

 ful weighing of 597 colonies of bees, that 

 the average shrinkage on summer stands 

 when protected in this manner from Novem- 

 ber 1st to April 1st was 12 pounds and 14 

 ounces. During three years I put about half 

 of the bees in an excellent cellar and I found 

 the average shrinkage for the same time to 

 be about Ija pounds less, but the bees win- 

 tered out of doors were more thrifty and 

 seemed to have more brood. I do not think 

 the cellar has any advantage over out door 

 wintering when properly done. 

 Kendallville, Ind. March 1, 1891. 



The Wax Experiment. 



OHAS. DADANT. 



fWAS glad to see, in the February num- 

 ber of the Review, that Mr. Hasty is a 

 better chemist than I had inferred from 

 his unfit comparison of evaporating molasses 

 with the production of wax ; yet I cannot 

 receive, without rejoinder, the lesson on 

 manners that he gives me, and which he 

 closes with the phrase: "Let us have one more 

 inch of reform about the shanty." It seems 

 to me that a professor of deportment ought 

 to give a good example first ; while Mr. 

 Hasty can copy the old parson of my village, 

 who used to say : " Do as I say, don't do as 

 I do." 



If I was deficient in good manners in say- 

 ing that he was not a good chemist, what 

 am I to think of his manners when he writes 

 that we have supported a falsehood for our 

 self interest ? Besides, in his article of De- 

 cember 10, page 213, he writes : "The cur- 

 rent statement that it takes 20 lbs. of honey 

 to make one of wax is not, if I am right, 

 the result of an agreement of experiments. 

 It is the result of a mere substitution of the 

 ratio of twenty to one for a very much 

 higher ratio which the experiments gave. 

 . . . . By common consent the writer 

 came down to the twenty to one ratio, in, 



