308 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Wintering bees is one of the most important questions in bee culture. In 

 our northern climate many different ways have been tried and practiced 

 and much has been written about "how to winter bees successfully." On 

 the whole they are wintered with greater success late years than they were 

 ten or fifteen years ago; this shows that bee-keeping is progressing, though 

 there is still more to be learned, as some of our brethren occasionally 

 meet with heavy losses and then wonder how this comes; the answer that 

 could be given is, as a rule, that many little things together will bring 

 about this result, besides nearly every bee-keeper has a hobby of his own, 

 in which he has great confidence. This I know to be so from my own ex- 

 perience, as I used to have more than one, and, as a rule, bee-keepers are 

 alike in this respect. Sometimes when I read of these new discoveries 

 and hobbies, which I practiced years ago myself, I cannot help but 

 smile, and again a feeling of sadness comes over me when it reminds me 

 of how I have punished and manipulated my bees to death with some of 

 the "novices'" hobbies. I once killed seventy colonies when I thought I 

 was doing my best. I have tried to winter my bees in nearly all the differ- 

 ent ways and methods which we read about nowadays in our bee-books and 

 periodicals, such as "out door non-protection," "out door protection," 

 with outer cases filled with chaff or leaves, holes through the combs, 

 sticks over the brood frames, and contraction of the brood nest with "dum- 

 mies," and once I left the brood nest bare on top without anything over 

 the frames; all I had at the time was twenty-four colonies, and all of them 

 wintered nicely. 



How is this for "non-upward" ventilation? I wintered for three win- 

 ters in a double-walled frame building, filled in with sawdust; it was 

 burned by heating it artificially, and I lost eighty-seven colonies. 



All of the foregoing methods gave me a great deal of work, expense, loss 

 and much dissatisfaction, so I have abandoned them all. and for the past 

 six years have wintered my bees underground. I came to the conclusion 

 after one trial that an underground repository, rightly made, was the 

 safest place to winter bees in Minnesota. My losses have been very light 

 since; it also saves me a great deal of time and tinkering compared with 

 my former methods. All that I do to my bees now is in the latter part of 

 September, or the fore part of October, to see that each colony has from 

 twenty-five to thirty-five lbs. of stores (according to their population). 

 The cap of each hive is left on their respective stands, with the same 

 number on it as on the brood chamber, so as to know its place when set 

 out in the spring. Some bee-keepers claim that it does not make any dif- 

 ference where the colonies are put in the spring; this is a mistake, and 

 has ruined many colonies of bees, as they have not forgotten their old lo- 

 cation while in confinement. The cellar should be constructed so that no 

 frost can get in, it should be roomy, the air should be kept pure, with a 

 temperature of from 45 to 45 degrees above zero. It is rarely I water 

 my bees in confinement, though sometimes towards spring they seem to 

 get thirsty and uneasy, and I then give them a little ice or snow i n front of 

 their entrance, which seems to quiet them. For the past eight years I 

 have abandoned the cushions over the frames and have not used anything 

 but the honey board over the brood nest, which I find far better than wet 

 and moldy cushions. There are many more things which really belong 

 to "wintering bees:" I would say right here that we must work our bees 



