THE BEE- KEEPERS' UK MEW. 



247 



stands duriu}^ the spriufj, because he saves 

 stores by wintering in the cellar. This is 

 not true. I have demon striiled this by a test 

 of fourteen years, wei^hiny a whole apiary 

 twice each year. The scales show a pound 

 or two in favor of the cellar wintered bees, 

 but those wintered out doors always Hew 

 and ooniiuenced breedintr before the cellar 

 bees were set out and were that much better. 

 Experience and facts v)rove that a weak or 

 inediuni colony consumes as much or more 

 food during winter us a strong one does 

 when neither one rears any brood, (^uinby 

 in his Masteries of Bee Keephuj recommends 

 uniting two weak colonic.^ in the fall because 

 they would not consume iiiiich more stores 

 double than each would separate. 



Had Mr. Hutchinson written these pages 

 telling bee keepers how to keep their colon- 

 ies strong and in good condition all the year 

 and advised them to take no chances on let- 

 ting them become weak we would have had 

 no occasion to criticise. If we pack bees in 

 the spring with sawdust we i>revent their 

 receiving the warmth of the sun. The only 

 way to protect them profitably and make 

 them do their best is to protect them with 

 sugar syrup and have them on good deep 

 S(|uare frames. Sugar syrup is a good non- 

 conductor of heat, and if on the first of 

 April we put the feeders on and let the bees 

 fill the combs above the cluster, side edges 

 and side combs next to the brood, we tlien 

 have them in the best poss^ible condition to 

 .stand a freeze. The Viees have only to clus- 

 ter between the combs around the out edges 

 of the brood, and with the aid of the syrup 

 or honey can easily keep comfortable, and 

 as fast as they grow in stretigth and the 

 weather becomes more mild they will move 

 the syrup from around the edges of the cir- 

 cle of brood putting it farther out so they 

 can increase the brood. 



When the weither is warm and the sun 

 shines the liees leave the hive, and the brood 

 and hive are warmed up by the sun: if cool 

 and cloudy the bees cluster in the hive and 

 keep all comfoi-table. With sawdust packing 

 the sun heat would not reach the brood dur- 

 ing the day. The great point I wish to make 

 and l)riug out is that it is just as, important 

 to feed to keep the bees warm as it is to 

 supply necessary food. Every bee keeper 

 will be convinced if he will slop and consider 

 for a moment how much better colonies 

 breed during April and ^I ay that have the 

 combs well filled with stores, than tho<5e that 

 only have sufticient for daily use as food. 



Really, a colony of t>ees with plenty of 

 stores in April does not seem to ever need 

 any advanced bee culture to get the workers 

 ready for the season. I suppose it i^ in- 

 tended only for those that have been worked 

 on the advanced contraction brood chamber 

 system during the fall. I (!au see under such 

 circumstances how a visiontiry man would 

 see the need of boxes, sawdust packing, 

 quilts, cushions and a host of other worthless 

 trash." 



Hosmer's plan of wintering was to reduce 

 each colony to about a pint. If there were 

 more bees than that he shook them off. All 



that I said that would entitle me to be ac- 

 cused of advocating the Hosmer theory was 

 that by cellar wintering it was not necessary 

 to have such strong stocks for wintering, 

 that it enabled the bee keeper to reduce the 

 number of consumers Q)ees) during the non- 

 producing time of the year, but I had no 

 idea of reducing any colony to a ])i)it of bees 

 or anything like it, and no one would get 

 that idea from reading the book. I would 

 have each colony in a good, healthy condi- 

 tion in the fall, not weak in numbers as 

 that term is understood, but with perhaps 

 half or one-third as many bees as there are 

 in the hive at swarming time; and then by 

 cellar wintering and by "special fine man- 

 ipulation and spring protection bring them 

 up in spring in time for the surplus honey 

 yield." In the wintering of bees in the open 

 air a weak colony may consume nearly as 

 much food as a strong one, because with the 

 greater p ^pulation of the strong colony the 

 requisite amount of heat is more easily kept 

 up, while the weak colony must consume 

 more food in proportion to its numbers in 

 order to keep up the temperature. When 

 the i)ees are in a warm cellar not so much 

 food is needed as fuel, and the difference in 

 the amount of food used by a weak and a 

 strong colony is quite marked. 



I have not kept bees so long as has Bro. 

 Hill, neither have I resorted to so careful a 

 system of weighing, but this I have done : 

 weighed the bees in the fall and fed all that 

 needed feeding, giving those to be wintered 

 out of doors (protected) five pounds more 

 stores, and both classes would come out in 

 the spring with about an equal amount of 

 stores. Sometimes I have taken honey from 

 the cellar wintered bees to help out those 

 wintered out of doors, but never the reverse. 

 The saving of five pounds of honey pays 

 four times over the cost of cellar wintering, 

 but this is not the most important point; 

 cellar wintering in northern latitudes is more 

 certain of bringing the bees through in bet- 

 ter condition. I well know that in some 

 localities, and in open winters, bees winter 

 as well, if not better, in the open air, but on 

 an average they do not. 



Bro. Hill speaks about those bees that are 

 wintered out of doors flying and beginning 

 breeding in the spring before the others are 

 set out. One of the reasons why I would 

 protect the bees after setting them out is 

 that it allows them to be placed upon their 

 summer stands as soon as there are occasion- 



