THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



131 



to have a supply of virgin <iueeii8 on hand, 

 to introduce at each visit until I have gone 

 over the whole yard; and, besides, I have all 

 the other work to do in eacli yard, such as 

 putting on and taking off sections, looking 

 after the nuclei in which I have many queens 

 fertilized for the market, caging and mailing 

 queens, etc. In this way I can attend to six 

 out-apiaries by going to each once a week. 

 The seventh, being the home apiary of only 

 (30 colonies, I can look after nights and 

 mornings, or as I can best catch the time. 

 By this method I can prevent swarming and 

 dispense with high-priced help; and, more- 

 over, I am sure that each colouy has a young 

 queen in the fall." 



Mr. Manum proposes to sell a good share 

 of the queens that are removed. It is possible 

 that where the queens can be sold readily, 

 the removal of the queens to prevent swarm- 

 ing can be made profitable. In his foot 

 notes, Mr. Root thinks that Mr. Manum will 

 not get along very well if the flow should je 

 bounteous and long continued. Mr. Root re- 

 fers to an apiary of 100 colonies that he saw 

 in Wisconsin where the bees were crowded 

 out of the hives because the combs were so 

 full of honey, and the owner could not take 

 it away fast enough. It is not necessary, 

 usually, to take away honey to give bees 

 room, simply raise up the supers and give 

 the bees more surplus room. If the supers 

 were all ready, the sections in the cases, and 

 foundation in the sections, as it ought to be 

 in the case where one man is to manage so 

 many bees, every colony, in an apiary of 100 

 colonies could be supplied with a super each 

 in one hour''s time. I doubt if bee-keepers, 

 in general, fully realize the possibilities in 

 the way of managing a large number of bees 

 by using the right methods and appliances. 



Side Packing Apparently of Little Value 

 in the Spring. 



You know that I have been very vehement 

 in urging the spring protection of bees, but I 

 earnestly desire that the truth shall be known, 

 that both sides shall be heard, hence I copy 

 the following from Gleaninys: 



"In the spring of 1890 I concluded to test 

 thoroughly the advantage of spring protec- 

 tion for single-walled hives. My bee-yard is 

 laid out in three circles of .">0 feet diameter 

 with a smaller circle within each large one. 

 The hive-stands, holding two hives each, are 

 placed around these circles, ](> on the outer 

 circle, 8 in the inside smaller one, and all 

 facing outward. This is the most satisfac- 

 tory arrangement I have ever tried, as it 

 gives a distinct individuality to each stand. 

 In setting out the bees in the spring, I select- 

 ed one of these circles and tilled the 24 stands 

 with 48 of my best swarms as nearly equal 



in (luality as possible. I then took lath and 

 made 1*2 handsome outside cases large 

 enough to set over two hives, with foui-inch 

 space on all sides for packing, and six inches 

 on top. I placed one of these cases on every 

 other stand, leaving one-half of the hives 

 unprotected. The cases were then filled 

 neatly with excelsior sawdust from the sec- 

 tion machine. There were double bottom- 

 boards, and bottom protection to the packed 

 hives. The cases were made in four pieces, 

 so that, by tacking four small finishing nails, 

 one in each corner, the whole case coul i be 

 knocked down in a moment and laid away 

 in the flat when not in use; and when the 

 12 stands were packed in their neat cases 

 and securely covered with a waterproof roof, 

 I said to myself, "Well, this is just splen- 

 did." The 24 other hives were left entirely 

 unprotected, except that each hive was cov- 

 ered with a shallow rim three inches deep, 

 with building-paper nailed on one side for a 

 bottom. Each of these shallow boxes were 

 filled with sawdust. A square of burlap was 

 spread over each hive, the boxes set on these 

 and covered with a good roof. The spring 

 was exceedingly cold and late — just such a 

 one as would give spring protection its best 

 chance to prove its value. I then gave 

 watchful care to all alike, and awaited re- 

 sults with great interest. I resolved at the 

 start that I would let all those bees swarm 

 naturally, and then keep strict account of 

 the time of swarming as well as the honey 

 produced by each class of swarms. They all 

 did swarm somewhat late, as the season was 

 the poorest for honey in all my 45 years' ex- 

 perience. 



I will not lengthen this article by giving 

 details of the results of this experiment. It 

 is suQicient to say, that, while the cost of 

 material for making the cases was only 2.5 

 cents each, and the work of making them 

 was not very great, yet the increased result 

 was not great enough to warrant this small 

 outlay. I shall try t he same experiment with 

 some new ones again this year and again 

 note results. But my present impressions 

 are, that plain hives, cellar wintering, with 

 spring protection in the shape of warm 

 bottom-boards, and warm covers for the top 

 of the hives, are the thing. The bottom is 

 where the cold enters, and the top is where 

 the heat escapes. Both of these points 

 should be carefully protected. My observa- 

 tion has led me to fear that the danger of 

 enticing the bees to leave their warmly pack- 

 ed hives on unsuitable cold days, and perish- 

 ing in the cold winds will counterbalance all 

 the good they will do. 



Baknett Taylor. 



Forestville, Minn., March 23. 



[Look here, B. Taylor. You have given 

 us the result of a very valuable experiment 

 just now; but as you prepared your bees, I 

 am sure they all wintered pretty well, for, in 

 fact, both those that were chaff-packed and 

 those that were not, were in very good shape 

 for winter. You have omitted to say to our 

 readers that you have them in these shallow 

 half-depth frames; but the fact is, in those 

 shallow brood chambers, with a good warm 

 bottom-board, and your chaff packing on 



