THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



803 



my liito iuvcntion; juul that is so much l>et- 

 tor that any apiarist who tiiorouyhly under- 

 stands it and knows how io use it can handle 

 doublo tho nunilior of colonies with thu same 

 labor required with auj other style of hive. 

 Are tho alcove statements any too strong, if 

 true':' Now let the future decide: and wlien 

 it comes, don't forget the past, I pray you. 

 •I AMES Heddon. 

 DowAGiAO, Mich., July 22." 



Tho great trouble with Mr. Heddon's pro- 

 phesies is that they are made so far in 

 advance of their fultillment that they are 

 forgotten before fulfilled. 



Securing Workers for tho Harvest,— Hill's 

 Review of This Topic. 

 Bro. Hill, of the Guide, copied ray last 

 reply to his criticism upon this chapter from 

 Advanced Bee Cultufe. My first reply he 

 has not noticed. Here is what he has in the 

 October Guide: 



"It is true that Ho.^mer did talk about 

 reducing the colonies to a pint or quart of 

 young bees but we never got it down to ex- 

 periments on so fine a scale, and the idea 

 wo wished to convey was that any manipula- 

 tion of boes that tended in this direction 

 was unprofitable and undesirable. Keep the 

 colonies strong at all times is our motto and 

 then they are always ready for business. 

 We never found any profit in wintering a 

 five comb hive well filled with bees. We 

 could seldom l^uild them up sufficiently to 

 store surplus on the bassv/ood bloom, besides 

 the risk was double that of a good, strong 

 colony on nine combs or frames. 



We do not care what experience Mr. 

 Hutchinson has had. ^Ve have weighed too 

 many colonies of bees fall and spring and 

 too many years in succession to have any 

 respect for the assertion that there are five 

 pounds of honey saved par colony by winter- 

 ing in a cellar. Neither have we any more 

 respect for the statement that bees are win- 

 tered safer in the cellar in northern districts 

 than protected on summer stands, because 

 in the northern States and Canada we have 

 the snow to aid in their protection. Wliat 

 wo call a protection is a hive and cap one 

 inch thick, the cap to telescope down over 

 the hive with a dead air space between, and 

 the cap to be so tight that it will hold water 

 when inverted, no uppei- ventilation or quilts 

 or cushions, this to be surrounded with three 

 inches in thickness of dry clover chaff, the 

 bottom board four inches from the grotind 

 with an opening dire tly under the cluster of 

 bees 7x7 inches, covered with a wire cloth, 

 eight wires to the inch : tliis arrangement to 

 be covered with snow so deep, as soon as it 

 comes, that potatoes would not freeze in tlie 

 hive. This is what we call protecting the 

 bees on summer stands, and anything less 

 than that is simply lal)or wasted, as half 

 protection kills or injures the bees quicker 

 than no protection at all. 



^Ve did not expect he would agree with us 

 in regard to protecting the bees with honey 



or sugar syrup, because he can't do it in the 

 hives he recommends in his book. It re- 

 quires a square, dtcp frame to get good 

 results. The honey or stores do not protect 

 the bees very much on a frame eight inches 

 deep as there can be no honey above the 

 cluster where it is needed most. \Ve are not 

 sure but if colonies in hives with combs 

 twelve inohes deep were fed an alnindance of 

 stores sealed air tight on top with plenty of 

 ventilation below (raising the hive up from 

 the bottom board '4 of an inch) they would 

 be as safe to winter as in any other manner 

 even with the temperature below zero. We 

 have noted some remarkaVdo cases where 

 bees have wintered safely in this condition, 

 during some very severe cold winters. 



We have protected our bees in the fall and 

 usually leave it on urlil May first, so that 

 we have had a great C-erd of experience in 

 protecting bees during April as recom- 

 mended by Mr. Hutchinson, and we know 

 that what he says is simply theory and 

 speculation. It will not pay to protect the 

 bees for the month of April alone with any- 

 thing else but feed. Plenty of stores will 

 enable an ordinary colony to stand any 

 April weather. ^Ve think anyone will get 

 better results if they spend the cost of spring 

 packing in buying sugar and feeding the 

 light colonies. Packing around the outside 

 of the hive is too far from the edges of the 

 circles of brood to do any good. The feed 

 is put right in the spot where it is needed. 

 The sun then warms the hives and brood 

 during the day while the bees are at work, 

 and when they are at home at night and 

 during the cold spells that Mr. Hutchinson 

 tells about, they, with the aid of plenty of 

 stores, can keep all snug and warm. It is 

 plain that we do not agree at all in this 

 matter. We leave it now for the readers to 

 draw their own conclusions as to what is 

 right. — Editoe." 



The above is a pretty fair criticism. The 

 most glaring unfairness that I see in it is 

 where he says : " We do not care what ex- 

 perience Mr. Hutchinson has had." I should 

 not expect to prove that I was right by re- 

 marking that I did not care what exiierieuce 

 Mr. Hill had had. In keeping with the 

 above is the following : " Neither have we 

 any more respect for the statement that bees 

 are wintered safer in the cellar in Northern 

 districts than protected on summer stands, 

 because in the Northern states and Canada 

 we have the snow to aid in their protection." 

 I am acquainted with and have met most of 

 the prominent bee keepers of the Northern 

 States and Canada, and the majority favor 

 cellar wintering. 



I most heartily agree with Bro. Hill that 

 "half protection kills or injures the bees 

 quicker than no protection." Something 

 that shuts off the sun's rays yet has but little 

 effect in confining the heat that radiates 

 from the colony is a damage. 



