Tb 



e (4)ee- 



eepeps' pev^ielo 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Interests of Hor|eL) Producers. 



$L00 A YEAR. 



W. Z. HUTCHINSON, Editor and Proprietor. 



VOL. IX, 



FLINT, MICHIGAN, MAY 10. 1896. 



NO. 5. 



Work at IVIicliigaii's 



Experirneiital 



^piarv. 



K. L. TAYLOR, APIAKIST. 



@ 



LESSONS IN WINTERING. 



iNE of the ex- 

 p e r i 111 e 11 1 s 

 made during the 

 past winter was 

 planned for the 

 purpose of bring- 

 ing out as prom- 

 inently as pof^si- 

 V)le the compar- 

 ative advantages 

 of wintering bees 

 in the cellar and 

 out of doors with- 

 out protection. In addition to that the 

 same experiment was madetoseive another 

 purpose. A bee keeper of long experience 

 advised me that bees would winter well 

 without other protection if placed against 

 the south side of a building where the sun 

 does double duty. I confess that influenced 

 by former experience I had a strong lean- 

 ing to that opinion myself. Accordingly I 

 selected five colonies on the whole in every 

 respect better than the average except that 

 two were in eight frame Langstroth hives 

 ina.;ead of Heddon hives in which all the 

 others destined to till the out door part of 



theexpeiiment were. These were placed 

 about three feet up from the ground against 

 the south side of my honey house and 

 barn which extended beyond them on 

 either side about twenty five-feet. 



These bees flew out at rather frequent in- 

 tervals during the winter. On two or three 

 occasions when the air was still and the sun 

 bright they came out about the hives with the 

 thimometer at so low a point in the shade 

 as;5i)% apparently without loss of bees. 

 S >metimes surrounding objects were spotted 

 slightly. Nevertheless both the colonies 

 in L mgstroth hives died about the middle 

 of March and one of those in Heddon hives 

 early in April, leaving plenty of stores and 

 showing moderate evidence of dysentery. 

 The two other colonies came through in 

 good condition every way. 



This raises the question whether it is 

 true that frequent flights prevent disastrous 

 results from dysentery during the wit.ter 

 months, aud also whether it is not worth 

 while to inquire whether hives composed of 

 two shallow sections are not better for the 

 wintering of bees than hives with frames no 

 deeper even than the Langstroth. 



The five hives in question were weighed 

 on the 2l'>th of November, at the time the 

 rest of my beas ware placed in the cellar, for 

 the sake of making a cou.parison of the 

 amount of stores consumed by bees winter- 

 ed out of doors with that consumed by 

 those in the cellar. They were weighed 

 again the 14th of April when those taken 

 from th) cellar were re-weighed. The bees 



