PRACTICAL HINTS REGARDING THE SUCCESSFUL 

 MANAGEMENT OF THE APIARY. 



We promised the purchasers of this work certain essays upon 

 the subject of bee culture. In compliance with that promise the 

 rea4er will find the following pages devoted to matter of great 

 interest to those who keep bees. 



We present no theory, but actual facts— all the result of long 

 experience and by those beekeepers who are well known to 

 every reader of this book. What they recommend and advise 

 will be accepted and generally practised. 



One of the most important subjects connected with bee culture 

 is the wintej problem. How to winter bees and have each col- 

 ony strong in numbers at the commencement of the honey har- 

 vest is an art that but few beekeepers have acquired. Yet there are 

 those who winter their bees successfully year after year. Just how 

 it is done and the methods practised may be found in the essays 

 given on the following pages. 



The first essay is by Dr. G. L. Tinker, of New Philadelphia, 

 Ohio, a beekeeper of long experience and an authority upon 

 any question connected with apiculture. 



The Winter Problem or How to Winter Bees. 



With the knowledge of this subject gained within the last five 

 years, there should be no difficulty in wintering bees. It is true 

 there is still diffeience of opinion on minor points but the prin- 

 cipal requirements on which success depends I believe are now 

 quite generally agreed upon. The first of these is protection 

 which involves the question of temperature. The writer is known 

 to most beekeepers as the champion of the doctrine that cold is 

 the primary cause of most of our winter losses as against that 

 most fallacious of all the theories that have been set forth of first 

 cause, viz., the pollen theory. But I am pleased to-day to re- 

 cord that my position on this question has been almost unani- 

 mously conceded. Protection from cold is now regarded as 



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