ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



goes down to freezing, or nearly there, 

 and remains so several days; perhaps the 

 ground is covered by two or three inches 

 of snow — a veritable "squaw winter." 

 More than once have I and my bees pass- 

 ed through such experiences, and to our 

 sorrow. The cold drives the bees into a 

 compact cluster in the center of the hive. 

 Halt of the brood, perhaps more, is out- 

 side of the cluster, where it perishes. 

 The newly hatched bees, if any there are, 

 are tender, like a newly hatched chicken, 

 and easily succumb to the cold. The 

 old bees have lost their vitality in bring- 

 ing into existence the hive full of brood, 

 and the cold snap is the "last straw" 

 needed to send them to the bottom of the 

 hive. Weak colonies, in passing through 

 such severe weather unprotected, almost 

 invariably die. Ordinary colonies are 

 rendered practically worthless for the 

 season, and strong colonies are not im- 

 proved. Such low temperature does not 

 usually come so late in the season, but it 

 is liable to come any year; while "cold 

 snaps, " even if not so severe, come al- 

 most every spring; while the loss that 

 may occur from an unusually severe 

 spell of weather late in the spring, will 

 be sufficient to pay for the expense of pro- 

 tecting the bees each spring for several 

 years. Several times, when protecting 

 the bees in the .spring after taking them 

 from the cellar, I have left a few of the 

 most populous colonies unprotected. In 

 the early morning, or during cool days, 

 the bees in the unprotected hives would 

 be found closely clustered, while those in 

 the protected hives would be found 

 crawling actively about all over the combs, 

 and a puff of smoke would drive them 

 down an inch or two and expose large 

 quantities of sealed brood. When the 

 honey harvest came, a majority of those 

 protected were actually stronger than 

 those left unprotected. Some have com- 

 pared this packing of bees in spring to a 

 stimulant. It is not a stimulant, as we 

 understand the word. It simply confines 

 the heat of the bees, allowing them to 

 spread out and rear and protect larger 



quantities of brood. Give them the 

 proper conditions for following their in- 

 stinct in the direction of brood rearing, 

 and no additional stimulus is needed. 



If spring protection is so important 

 that it is advisable to pack the hives after 

 taking them from the cellar, it may be 

 asked, why not practice out door winter- 

 ing — then winter protection will answer 

 for spring, and the expense of a cellar and 

 of carrying the bees in and out will be 

 avoided ? In the iirst place, the saving 

 of stores in cellar wintering will pay for 

 the expense twice over; and, in the next 

 place, and of far greater importance, it 

 is only by the cellar method that the 

 wintering of bees, in a cold climate, can 

 ever be reduced to a perfect system. By 

 a selection of natural stores, or, better 

 still, by using sugar, we can secure uni- 

 formity of food, but it is only in the cel- 

 lar, or special repository, that uniformity 

 of temperature at a desirable point can 

 be maintained. Possibly our knowledgi 

 of wintering bees will yet become so ex- 

 tended as to enable us to keep them 

 breeding in the cellar, during the spring, 

 until all danger of blizzards is past, or so 

 nearly past that no protection will be 

 needed; but as the majority of us now 

 winter our bees, they become restless as 

 warm weather comes on, and, as a flight 

 in the open air, and a little freshly gath- 

 ered pollen, honey and water seem to act 

 like a charm, putting new life into their 

 veins, I believe it is better to put them 

 upon their summer stands as soon as pol- 

 len can be gathered in abundance, and, 

 as we almost always have "cold snaps" 

 after this, I would protect them. 



Spring protection need not be an elab- 

 orate affair. Any old boards nailed to- 

 gether in the form of a box will hold the 

 packing in place. A box without top or 

 bottom, 2x3 feet in size, by 18 inches 

 deep, made of cheap, thin lumber, can be 

 set over the hives to keep the packing in 

 place. The lower edge of its front end 

 should rest upon the outer edge of a little 

 bridge placed in front of the entrance 

 and resting upon the bottom board of the 



