!S(r-^MrF*vB^ier -s.^ * 



ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KIEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



129 



know whether the bees were wintering 

 well or not, but under one of these 

 dry-goods boxes he would be sure they 

 would winter as well as they could 

 winter. 



Mr. Whitney: I would recommend 

 the beginner to adopt the double-wall 

 chaff hive. I have wintered them out- 

 doors. 



Mr. Kannenberg: I think for my 

 part, or the beginner's part, if he has 

 only a few colonies of bees, it would 

 be well if he would make a box and 

 put planers' shavings in it, and put it 

 on the super on top of the hive, and 

 have it so the bees can crawl from one 

 of them to another, give them access 

 to all the frames, and the heat and 

 moisture will go into the cushion, and 

 it will save a lot of going to work and 

 carrying them in and out and back and 

 forth. If he does that way, I think the 

 bees will keep fine. ' 



Mr. Kennicott: I will give you the 

 way I have wintered bees, and I have 

 had considerable success for a good 

 many years. I put on supers, with a 

 canvas or thin sheeting cloth on top 

 of the frames, and fill in the super 

 with dry leaves. Leaves are better 

 than straw or chaff or anything of 

 that kind, because they keep in the 

 heat better and are warmer. The 

 leaves will take off the moisture per- 

 fectly. Then I bank my hives with 

 leaves from behind and over the top. 

 I have wintered bees several years in 

 that way perfectly. I didn't lose a 

 colony last winter, not one, and I had 

 pretty nearly thirty that I wintered. 



Mr. Wheeler: What kind of leaves 

 do you use? 



Mr. Kennicott: Any kind. 



Dr. Miller: I think we have a ques- 

 tion here that will bear a vote. It will 

 be of interest to know how many pre- 

 fer outdoor wintering and how many 

 prefer cellar-wintering. 



President Tork: How many prefer 

 outdoor wintering? (Thirteen.) 



President Tork: How many indoor? 

 (Seven.) 



Mr. Taylor: Now, it will help us 

 further if we can find out what the 

 location is of those who are wintering 

 bees outdoors, for instance, as far 

 south as Mr. Dadant and Mr. Baxter, 

 there will be no question, but when 

 you come to this locality, there is a 

 question, and it will be Interesting if 

 you can find out what proportion of 



those who are, say, as far north as 

 Chicago, or even twenty-flve miles 

 farther south, are wintering outdoors. 



Mr. Kennicott: I live about eighteen 

 miles northwest of here. I have had 

 more or less to do with bees for the 

 last fifty years, and we have rarely 

 ever lost any bees when wintering out- 

 doors on the stands that we give them. 

 We set them down near the ground, 

 probably six or eight inches above the 

 ground, and my hives are twelve inches 

 deep, and I find that the deeper the 

 hive, the better you can winter the 

 bees. There may be something in that. 

 The cold does not affect bees at all, I 

 think. I have wintered them inside 

 two or three times, once in a cellar 

 and twice in an outbuilding, and I 

 have lost them by their coming out 

 and losing their strength, losing a good 

 deal of their vitality by going out- 

 side, and I have lost a good many bees 

 that way, I presume; but I think that 

 outdoors they will take care of them- 

 selves a great deal better, and get a 

 chance to fly occasionally that they 

 won't inside. 



President York: There were twenty 

 that voted. How many of those twenty 

 who voted before, live within twenty 

 miles south of Chicago or twenty miles 

 north of Chicago, and winter bees out- 

 side? (Seven.) 



President York: Hov/ many are 

 further north than twenty miles who 

 voted before to winter outside? 

 (Three.) 



Mr. Macklin: I winter both indoors 

 and outdoors. I take the ver>' heaviest 

 colonies and pack them outdoors. I put 

 in one cloth over the brood-frames, 

 several thicknesses of loose paper over 

 that, and then the cover over that, 

 and then cover that with leaves. The 

 lightest colonies I put indoors, in the 

 cellar. I live one hundred and twenty- 

 five miles due west of here, in the 

 same temperature, or perhaps colder 

 than here. The thermometer is lower 

 with us than given in the Chicago 

 papers. I have had better success with 

 outdoor wintering than with those in 

 the cellar, but that is hardly fair 

 when I put the lighter ones in the cel- 

 lar. 



Mr. McClure: I work for B. Walker, 

 who has some two hundred and twenty- 

 five colonies of bees. We use a double 

 brood chamber, then put on another 

 story, then put a device over the 

 frames, put a carpet over the device. 



-9 



