September 20, 1883 ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
261 
1 
HE BEE-KEEPER. 
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WINTERING BEES. 
A fortnight ago the readers of this Journal were advised as to 
the treatment of sleeps in order to prepare them for passing through 
the winter. They were told to strengthen all weak stocks by joining 
to them the bees from stocks which were to be taken up, or from 
those too weak in numbers to be left to pass the winter. We have 
on former occasions tried to impress the necessity for strong colonies 
of young bees at the close of the summer season, and whether bees 
are to winter in skeps or in bar-frame hives the same rule holds good. 
Have your stocks strong. After the skep has thus been well peopled 
with bees, and it is seen that sufficient food is stored to give the 
winter supply, its outer protection should be attended to. Nothing is 
neater than the ordinary straw hackle well secured by a stout stake, 
and so made that all drip is carried away well below the floorboard. 
Entrances should be narrowed and so arranged that mice and other 
vermin cannot get into the hive. 
With bar-frame hives, which are so much more directly under the 
management of the bee-keeper than skeps, autumn preparations differ 
somewhat. In Heather districts there will still perhaps be supers on 
the hives, and finished or unfinished frames of sections on the sides 
or at the back of the brood nest. The hive must therefore be over¬ 
hauled, and all honey which can be spared taken away ; where zinc 
separators have been employed these should be now withdrawn 
and -wooden dummy frames put in their place. We purchased some 
time ago several sheets of Abbott’s wooden foundation. These are of 
course well known to all practical bee-keepers. They are simply sheets 
of thin wood upon the faces of which have been stamped the ordinary 
wax foundation. The wood thus forms the midrib of a comb after 
the bees have worked out the sheet. We have found them to be 
excellent dividers or dummies for winter use. In order to prevent 
warping and sagging we have tacked strips of wood along the bottom 
and sides of the sheet, and let the top into a bar of wood similar to 
the top bar of our other frames. Strips of list or salvage of flannel 
fastened down the sides and along the bottom make them fit close, 
and at the same time easily. The bees have in many instances filled 
these sheets with honey and pollen, but even where the frames are 
empty the slags of stiff comb act as capital dummies superior to the 
ordinary wooden ones with their hard cold surfaces. With these 
dummies we are also able to contract the space to be occupied by the 
bees to a minimum, since the bees can cluster in the cells should they 
wish to do so. 
It will be readily seen that it is of the utmost importance to con¬ 
tract the space to be occupied by the bees in winter. Our modern 
bar-frame hives are so constructed that the bee-keeper has the means 
of almost unlimited expansion, and it is this power which enables the 
bar-framist to obtain such fine harvests of comb or extracted honey 
when the season is favourable. But when all these store-rooms are 
not required he must shut them off from the warm living-room where 
the unemployed workers are to be kept during the winter. The 
spaces previously occupied by frames or sections can be either left 
empty during the winter or filled with dry clean oat chaff. Our own 
hGes are mostly constructed so that the frames may run parallel with 
the entrance during winter, and in these hives we draw the frames to 
be occupied by the bees towards the centre of the hive, placing a 
dummy with a slit at the bottom corresponding with the hive entrance 
in front of the frames, and so arranging a tunnel that the bees may 
pass in and out, placing over this tunnel and filling the space between 
the dummy and front of the hive with the dry chaff. Where cork 
chips are obtainable they are perhaps better than chaff. 
We find that a very strong colony can be pressed into the space 
occupied by seven or eight frames. Over the top bars we place a 
■sheet of ticking, and on this either several quilts of flannel or drugget, 
or, what is better and clean and handy, a chaff cushion, made by a 
framework of quarter-inch wood 2 inches broad—thus. Over the 
bottom of the frame we tack 
-a sheet of canvas, cutting out 
F. All the compartments 
■excepting f are filled with 
dry chaff, and another sheet 
of screen canvas tacked over 
all. We make a pad to fill 
up F when feeding is not 
acquired. A flap is left re¬ 
moveable at pleasure in the 
ticking to correspond with f. 
We found that hives over 
which this cheap and easily 
constructed quilt was used last winter were perfectly dry and warm, 
yet superfluous moisture can readily escape through it. When feeding 
is necessary over F the pad is withdrawn, the bottle inserted on a zinc 
feeding stage, and cotton waste or bits of flannel pressed in round 
the body of the bottle to keep all warm, the flap in the ticking having 
been previously lifted. Where hives are kept under cover nothing 
further will be needed over the hives ; but where they are kept in the 
open now is the time to overhaul the hive covers, to give a good coat 
of paint, and see that all is watertight from without, with ample 
accommodation for the escape of the moisture from within. Covers 
should never be so made that the inner part touches the quilts, other¬ 
wise the condensation will drip upon and be reabsorbed by them, 
and they will in the course of the winter months become a mouldy 
mass. 
Much has been written and spoken against the use of wooden 
hives, and in favour of skeps as winter receptacles for bees, and 
undoubtedly the straw skep is better adapted to the welfare of a 
colony in ihe hands of one who wishes to give as little attention as 
possible to his bees ; but where the extra care can be given the bar- 
frame hive (so much more suited for summer use, and for the 
obtaining of remunerative harvests) can be made as safe and as snug 
a winter residence as the straw hive. It is the careless and let-alone 
system adopted by many who have commenced and thrown up in 
disgust the culture of bees, that, but for the opposite testimony borne 
in their favour by careful and intelligent bee-keepers, would have 
brought bar-frame hives into discredit. With ordinary care and 
attention the bar-frame hive may be put into a condition which will 
bring the bees safely through the most trying winter. Damp is the 
great enemy to be combated. No amount of cold will work such 
havoc as damp or want of proper ventilation, and these are the 
enemies to be provided against. If the bees are strong, have sufficient 
food, and the instructions we have tried to give be followed out, 
then good results are certain to follow. The bees will be healthy and 
powerful in early spring, and will have a fair start for another 
working season.—P. H. P. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
James Smith & Sons, Matlock, Derbyshire .—Catalogue of Trees and Shi ubs. 
Thomas S. Ware, Tottenham, London .—Bulb Guide. 
Hogg & Robertson, 22, Mary Street, Dublin .—Catalogue of Hyacinths and 
Tulips. 
Daniels Bros., Norwich .—Catalogue of Bulbs. 
Arthur Jeffries & Co., Westerham, Kent .—Catalogue of Bulbs. 
Martin G-rashof, Quedlenburg .—List of New Flowers. 
Dammann & Co., Portici, Naples.— Catalogue of Vegetable, Plant, and 
Flower Seeds. 
Cranston Nursery and Seed Co., Hereford.— Catalogue of Bulbs. 
George Neighbour & Sons, 127, High Holborn, and 149, Regent Street.— 
Catalogue of Improved Bee Hives ( illustrated ). 
%* All correspondence should be directed either to “The Editor’' 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon • 
dents, %s doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Books ( North Herts). —We know of no hook on Roses by the author you 
name, and if there is one you would derive no more information from it 
than from those you possess. You might well add to your library the 
■works of Mr. William Paul of Waltham Cross. 
Digging, Trenching, and Draining (T. S.). —You will find full parti¬ 
culars concerning the cost of this work in the “ Gardeners’ Year Book,” 
published at this office, price 1*., post free Is. 2d. 
Cranberries (G. J. B., Netherlands). —The Cranberry most used in 
England is the fruit of Oxycoccus palustris. They are largely imported from 
Russia for using in tarts, but not for mixing with preserves. The American 
Cranberry most esteemed is the large round one produced by Oxycoccus 
macrocarpus, and called in America the Cherry Cranberry. 
Sewage Water ( F'. R.). —It is good for everyth ng, but probably weak 
F 
Fig. 50. 
