678 
<Iht RURAL. NEW-YORKER 
Honey Beats the Sugar Trust 
PART IV. 
Wintering. —Where there is no Fall 
flow preparations should be made early 
in the Autumn for wintering. Select the 
best straight combs you have in which 
brood has been reared (these can be told 
bv their dark color), and fill an empty 
body with 10 of them, or eight empty 
combs and the two heavy sealed combs 
that were put aside when the extracting 
was done. Remove the cover and queen 
excluder and place these combs on top 
under the cover. This is the easiest 
method, though we always place the 
empty body at this season of the year on 
the bottom board, lifting the brood cham¬ 
ber with the queen to the top. This ar¬ 
rangement does not allow the dissipation 
of as much heat from the cluster in 
the Fall as in the case of the empty 
body on top. 
Winter Stores. —Before doing this it 
would be well to weigh each hive t<i see 
how much honey it contained. First 
weigh an empty hive with combs, and 
allow 40 to 45 lbs. more for honey and 
bees. A good strong colony should have 
at least 40 lbs. of honey in the late 
Autumn. Some beekeepers make up this 
weight by feeding a mixture of granu¬ 
lated sugar and water in September, us¬ 
ing sugar and water in equal portions, or 
two parts water to one of sugar. The 
main point to keep in mind if feeding is 
necessary is to do it early enough in the 
season—some time during September— 
which will give the bees an opportunity 
to seal it before Winter. There are 
beekeepers who advocate feeding in the 
Spring as a stimulant to brood rearing 
though T do not think it is profitable 
to do this unless there is a real shortage 
of stores at that time. The proper time 
to feed for brood rearing in the Spring 
is during September of the^ previous 
Autumn, as already outlined. 
Feedings. —This is easily accom¬ 
plished with the Alexander feeder, which 
is placed under the hive, the bottom 
board being pushed forward far enough 
to allow of the feeder being fastened at 
the rear of the hive. When feeding is 
done merely to stimulate brood rearing, 
a small quantity of syrup, about half 
sugar and half water, is given each even¬ 
ing, a pint of the mixture being sufficient, 
but for feeding to add to the honey stores 
for wintering, the syrup should be heav¬ 
ier than this, and the feeders should be 
filled full each night till the required 
amount is taken up. Some beekeepers 
have large feeders, and give a colony as 
much as 20 lbs. of syrup in one evening. 
Do not make the mistake of thinking that 
5 lbs. of sugar and 5 lbs of water when 
fed to the colony will make 10 lbs of 
Winter feed in the hive. The actual 
gain in food will be just about the weight 
of the sugar that is fed. 
Packing IIives. — Preparations for 
wintering should be made early in the 
one-fourth inch high and three or four 
inches long. We have a neighbor who 
winters this way and is generally suc¬ 
cessful in having good colonies in the 
Spring. The safest method of winter¬ 
ing has been worked out through a long 
series of experiments by Dr. E. I*'. Phillips 
of Washington, and is very elaborately 
explained in a bulletin on “The Prepara¬ 
tion of Bees for Outdoor Wintering.” It 
will pay anyone to write to the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture, Bureau of Apicul¬ 
ture, Washington, I). C„ and ask for a 
copy. Dr. Phillips suggests a case of 
any rough lumber, constructed in such 
manner that the inside will always re¬ 
main perfectly dry, large enough to ac¬ 
commodate four colonies, two being 
placed close together, and two more 
April 3, 192 0 
would be a very poor material to use, as 
it could not be packed tight enough to be 
very effective. When packed in this 
manner, a wooden super cover is the only 
thing left on the hive. This thin cover 
the bees seal perfectly tight, so there is 
no upward ventilation whatever. A 
tunnel is constructed from the hive to 
the outer wall at the entrance, and after 
many experiments it was found that the 
correct amount of opening for the en¬ 
trance was five holes about % in. in 
d: .meter, or even % in. will not be too 
small. These five holes are all left open 
in the Autumn, and when the weather 
turns cold two or three of them are 
closed, and during the real Winter only 
one. the center one. is left open. Many 
people will think a strong colony of bees 
will smother with just one small %-in. 
hole for a breathing space, but you do 
Opt need fear any calamity if the instruc¬ 
tions are carried out as outlined in th<\ 
bulletin already referred to. There wer? 
several hundred colonies wintered in this 
manner in this county a year ago, and 
more were packed last Winter. The 
method worked remarkably well last year, 
though the Winter was not nearly as 
severe as the past one. ITp to this 
writing. Feb. 7. they appear to he in ex¬ 
cellent condition, only a very few dead 
bees being carried out so far. though 
with so much snow and several warm 
days quite a few bees were lost by flying 
out and alighting on the snow. They 
become chilled before they can regain 
their hive. We do not use the four-col¬ 
ony cases, but pack our bees in a row, as 
it is not convenient for us to have the 
entrance face east and west. We use the 
same amount of packing and have the 
same sized openings. Do not use these 
small openings if the bottoms of the hives 
are not packed, as it will be too cold for 
the liees to carry out the dead bees, and 
the small entrance will become closed, 
which will smother the colony. 
Spring Preparations. —When the 
packing is finished, with plenty of good 
stores there is nothing to do but let them 
alone till the apples are in bloom. One 
very important thing is always to take 
into consideration the location. Try al¬ 
ways to find some place where they are 
sheltered from the prevailing winds, es¬ 
pecially in the Spring. They should 
have access to a continuous supply of 
fresh water in the Spring, so they are 
not forced to go to some stream or bother 
some neighbor for it. They must have 
water for brood rearing, and placing it 
where they can get. it without being ex¬ 
posed to the cold winds will conserve 
their energy greatly. 
Advice to the Beginner. —With the 
best of attention there will be seasons 
$ 
Ki 
5 
I 
I 
£ 
-Cover 
Cross section o£ winter case 
to protect 4 hires 
v» 
<3 
* 
V) 
I 
Packing B 
Packing 
Brood chamber 
Brood chamber 
Hive body } 
JO combs 
Hive body with 
JO combs, several 
containing honey 
Packing 
space 
about 
8"wide 
B Packing B 
Packing 
B 
Packing 
*/.. » 8BBB Boards about l%“x 6 " wide to nail bottom ok cases to 
Fcve-% kales ^ ^ d A / 
/or entrance 
Horn iltc Hires are Arranged for the 11 'inter 
Fall, and the bees packed by the middle 
of October in this latitude. There are 
many beekeepers who do not pack their 
hives at all; some who leave a queen ex¬ 
cluder on top of the hive, then place bur¬ 
lap on the excluder, and on top of that 
a full depth body of chaff, and raise the 
cover at the rear a very small crack 
to allow a little upward ventilation. The 
entrance is then contracted to about 
placed at the back of these. This will 
give two entrances facing east and two 
facing west. The Winter case is large 
enough to permit 5 in. of packing under 
the bottom boards. S in. at the sides and 
ends, and 12 in. on top. 
Method and Materials. —Chaff is 
one of the best packing mediums, though 
planer shavings, or any materials that 
will pack tight, will answer. Straw 
SULPHUR FOR POTATO SCAB 
Results from experiments made by the New Jersey Agricultural Station. 
Experiments and actual practice show definitely that the proper use of sulphur will reduce potato scab 
from 50 to 80%. Commercial Flour Sulphur should be used broadcast just before planting and just after 
harrowing. The proper use of the right amount of Commercial Flour Sulphur will unquestionably safe¬ 
guard your coming crop. The following table will show actual results secured: 
SULPHUR EXPERIMENTS FOR CONTROL OF SCAB 
Conducted by the N. J. Agricultural Experiment Station 
Average of Two Experiments 
Variety—Irish Cobbler 
Treatment 
Bus. per acre 
(total) 
Primes 
(Bus.) 
Unsalable Scabby 
(Bus.) 
Seconds 
(Bus.) 
Culls 
(Bus.) 
Check 
262.0 
117.2 
116.4 
24.3 
9.0 
300 lbs. 
Sulphur 
267.2 
205.3 
• 
28.0 
28.8 
10.0 
600 lbs. 
Sulphur 
265.4 
207.5 
24.4 
31.0 
5.0 
Sulphur broadcasted with a grain drill just before planting 
Any of the following firms will give you an experimental sample and quote prices on request. Get in 
touch with one of them today. 
Beggs Bros., Inc., 95 William Street, New York City J. A. Still, 83 Ninth Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
(Nassau Sulphur Works) 
Battelle & Rennick, 80 Maiden Lane, New York City T. & S. C. White Co., 100 William Street, New York City 
(Brooklyn Sulphur Works) (Bergen Port Sulphur Works) 
