178 ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. • 



short distance above the box, for ventilation; yet the snow would not 

 get in to any great extent. There was a sort of vestibule in front of 

 the entrances, and this vestibule was kept closed by means of a 

 board; it being removed only when there came a day warm enough 

 for the bees to fly — something that rarely occurred in the winter. 

 So warm and comfortable were the bees when so snugly housed that 

 they even brought the dead bees out and dropped them in the vesti- 

 bule. I suspect that the thorough protection, combined with the 

 perfect ventilation, allowing no accumulation of moisture, is the 

 secret of this wonderful success. 



Another instance was that of two ladies who began bee-keeping 

 in Northern Michigan before the iron horse had invaded that region, 

 and who were uniformly successful, for a long series of years, in 

 wintering their bees out of doors, packed in chaff. Like Mr. Bartlett, 

 they furnished abundant upward ventilation, above the packing. 

 An opening a foot square was cut in the top of the box containing 

 chaff that was placed over the colony, and this opening was covered 

 with wire cloth to keep out mice; and then, over all, to keep out the 

 storms, was a large roof. So successful were these ladies, that, from 

 first to last, I have paid them nearly $1,000 for bees. 



It does not seem as though the question of whether bees should 

 be protected, here in the North, need receive any consideration 

 whatever, yet it has been objected to on the grounds that the pack- 

 ing becomes damp, that it deprives the bees of the warmth of the 

 sun, and that they sometimes fail to fly in the winter, because the 

 outside warmth is so slow in reaching them, when bees in single- 

 wall hives may be in full flight. There is occasionally a still, mild 

 day in winter, upon which the sun shines out bright and strong for 

 an hour or two, and bees in single-wall hives enjoy a real cleansing 

 flight, while the momentary rise in the temperature passes away ere 

 it has penetrated the thick walls of a chaff hive. On the other hand, 

 there are days and weeks, and sometimes months, unbroken by 

 these rises in temperature; and the bees must depend for their ex- 

 istence upon the heat generated by themselves; and the more perfect 

 the non-conductor by which they are surrounded, the less will be the 

 loss of heat. When bees are well protected, there is less necessity 

 for flight than when the protection is slight. If a bee-keeper thinks, 

 however, that bees in a chaff hive ought to fly on a warm day, and 

 they don''t fly, he has only to remove the covering over the bees, and 

 allow them to fiy from the top of the hive. 



For several winters I left a few colonies unprotected; and I dis- 

 continued the practice only when thoroughly convinced that, in this 

 locality, the losses were lessened by protection. In mild winters 



