. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK AT $ PER 35tli Year. CHICAGO, ILL., FEBRUARY 7, 1895. No. 6. Cotjtributed /Kriiclcs^ On Iinportaat Apiarian Subjects, Cellar Wiutering with Chaff Hives. BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. Not long ago, a bee-keeper called and requested that he be allowed to go into the bee-cellar to see how the bees were wintering in there. Upon looking around and seeing many of the colonies having masses of bees hanging below the combs, similar to a swarm in summer, he was surprised, and seeing that most of the hives in the cellar were chaff-packed,
. American bee journal. Bee culture; Bees. PUBLISHED EVERY WEEK AT $ PER 35tli Year. CHICAGO, ILL., FEBRUARY 7, 1895. No. 6. Cotjtributed /Kriiclcs^ On Iinportaat Apiarian Subjects, Cellar Wiutering with Chaff Hives. BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. Not long ago, a bee-keeper called and requested that he be allowed to go into the bee-cellar to see how the bees were wintering in there. Upon looking around and seeing many of the colonies having masses of bees hanging below the combs, similar to a swarm in summer, he was surprised, and seeing that most of the hives in the cellar were chaff-packed, he wished to know if I did not think that the bees were protected too much in these hives. I said " ; He seemed to think that having bees in chaff hives when wintering in the cellar, was very much like a man keeping his overcoat on when in the house, thus inferring that the bees were too warm, and that this was the reason they hung down below the combs so, yet he was compelled to admit that he never saw bees as quiet, when in the cellar, as were these very bees he was look- ing at. My idea of the matter used to be the same as his, un- til I began to experiment to find out the truth. After these experiments I am prepared to say that bees will winter better in the cellar if in chaff hives, than they will in single-walled hives, providing they are fixed as they should be in the cellar. The experiments conducted were as follows : One season, several years ago, I had some quite weak colonies, formed by uniting nuclei late in the fall. They were in chaff hives, as I had intended to winter them out-doors ; but after all the rest of the bees were in the cellar, which I had intended to put in, I found that there was considerable room left in the cellar, so I decided to try a part of these small colo- nies in chaff hives, by putting them in the room left, for I feared they would not go through the winter where they were. Accordingly, I put some six or seven of them in, two
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Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, booksubjectbees, bookyear1861
