IT'S A Modern Bee-Farm 



WINTER, 



and the next thing to be considered is whether or not 

 more warmth, in the shape of packing, is required. The 

 late Mr. Raitt, a Scottish bee-keeper, once said that the 

 best packing for bees in the winter is " bees," and I quite 

 agree with him ; in fact, I use nothing more about my hives 

 than they have had in summer, and at all times consider 

 that the most vital point is the top of the hive, where they 

 are always covered with warm material, such as chaff, or 

 cork-packed trays, pieces of carpet, or sacking. 



It is not important whether there are chaff-packed dum- 

 mies on the outsides of the brood nest, or not ; though of 

 the two I give the preference to 



Tou^h Old Combs. 



A correspondent once wrote to me saying that in 

 accordance with the advice of a certain Bee Journal, he 

 was renewing his stock combs about each other year. 

 Such teaching is amazing ; and such practice nothing 

 short of suicidal. Why, the poor man was throwing away 

 with his left hand what his right hand gave him. Show 

 me a colony wintering on tough, dark, well matured 

 cortibs, and I will show you a colony which is coming out 

 well, if only it has fair average treatment. That stock is 

 so well protected by those sound warm combs, that the 

 bees consume less food in maintaining the necessary animal 

 heat ; they need little other protection as a matter of fact ; 

 they will breed early and constantly ; indeed, you can 

 hardly open the hive at any time from Autumn to Spring 

 without finding breeding going on to some extent ; con- 

 sequently sound old combs must be looked upon as a 

 mine of wealth, which only the most reckless bee-keeper 

 would think of destroying. 



