1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CVLTURE. 



271 



bees by proxy, or by lotting- them take care of them- 

 selves. If a mail can not stand and let a bee make 

 a close examination of his nose, eyes, and ears, he 

 will never succeed as an apiarian. 



It is said, that bees in large hives seldom cast 

 a swarm. I had bees winter in two of my lai'ge 

 hives, and each of them cast three swarms in the 

 month of Apri', while some of the small ones have 

 cast none. J. M. Harris. 



Cedartown, Polk Co., Ga., May 3, 1882. 



P. S.— Another swarm to-day. May 3. 



I entirely agree with you, friend II., in re- 

 gard to keeping bees by proxy. Neither do 

 1 believe in keeping bees on shares, or let- 

 ting them out on shares. It is well to hire 

 help, if you need it, but you must be on the 

 ground, with your sleeves rolled up, your- 

 self. If you want help, get your own boys 

 and girls interested, and, nine times out of 

 ten, the girls will see a queen twice as quick- 

 ly as you can, after they get a little interest- 

 ed. I wonder how many of our young 

 friends have dreamed of seeing queens, after 

 a busy day hunting them. 



GEORGE GRIMiTI'S REPORT OF WIN- 

 TERING. 



CELLAR WINTERING AND COAFF-HIVE WINTERING. 



^^OU no doubt expected to hear my report last 

 W month or before; but as I wanted to make it 

 — ' complete, I could not give it sooner. The 

 fact is, T have been losing bees constantly up to the 

 middle of May. This has been by far the worst 

 spring I can remember. Lately I saw a letter of 

 Mr. Doolittle in the A. B. J., and it made me feel 

 more contented; not but that I am sorry for Mr. D., 

 but, you know, "misery loves company." Maybe 

 he will feel easier after reading my report. Far 

 sooner would I have winters like that of 1880-'81, 

 with such a spring as that which followed, than win- 

 ters like the last, with a tail reaching into summer. 

 Such springs try my courage severely. The loss 

 during winter was light enough— even less than I 

 had hoped. The total loss in cellar was but nine 

 colouies; but since, with freezing, robbing, and 

 doubling up, there are about live nines added to it. 

 Breeding is very slow, and bees are weak, fully one 

 month behind time. It appears to me that this may 

 affect the honey c rop somewhat ! 



But as this is to be a report of wintering, I will en- 

 deavor to confine myself to that, and let the summer 

 take care of itself. Some of you will remember that 

 I had a large tank built in one of my cellars, to till 

 with ice in case the temperature should become too 

 high; and I have had a number of inquiries as to its 

 success. For the sake of the experiment, I am 

 sorry to say that I did not need it, consequently did 

 not use It. The temperature in that cellar changed 

 but little and slowly, even during the warmest days 

 of the winter. I made a mistake, and that, too, when 

 I should have known better. It has been my invari- 

 able rule to leave my bees in cellar as late as possi- 

 ble, and to give them no winter flight. But the mid- 

 dle of February brought us such beautiful weather 

 that the temptation became too strong. I took out 

 all but those in one cellai-, 123 colonies. Every one 

 said warm weather would continue, and it did look 

 like it; but every one, as usual, was mistaken. Aft- 

 er a few days, cold weather came in plenty, and left 



its mark in the shape of freezing small colonies, 

 and dwindling generally. They were returned to 

 the cellars as soon as possible, and left there till the 

 latter part of March. 



I had felt some little anxiety in regard to the 123 

 colonies that were not removed all winter, since 

 they passed through quite a siege of warm weather. 

 This cellar is five miles from my home, and I had 

 been in the cellar but twice during the winter, and 

 then only to see that the entrances were not clogged 

 up with dead bees. I took them out March 20. A 

 surprise awaited me. I had expected the usual loss, 

 as that cellar was always the poorest I had to winter 

 in; but one after another was brought out and ex- 

 amined; and when all were out, I pronounced them 

 the best lot of bees I had. One was dead, two were 

 weak and were united, and five have been robbed 

 since, when I was away. The rest rate fair to good. 

 Not a trace of dysenterj' could be found. Does this 

 not indicate that winter flights are not alwaj's bene- 

 ficial? That I did not get through this winter with 

 less loss, was certaiolj" partly owing to the fact that 

 the rest had a flight in February. Why can we not 

 let our bees alone when they are all right? 



Since speaking in favor of chaff hives, I have been 

 besieged by parties willing to help me to get what I 

 want exactly. Judging from their letters, the very 

 hive we have been long searching for has long been 

 in use. Wonder I did not know this before. Per- 

 haps they were afraid to tell mo of it, fearing that I 

 would not believe them, since I was (and, what they 

 may not know, am yet) a strong advocate of cellar 

 wintering. I thank them kindly, and will at least 

 test some of their claims. But let me assert ono 

 thing: Chaff is not victor yet, and this winter, by 

 its mildness, and the eminent usefulness of chaff 

 hives this spring, will lay a grand foundation for an- 

 other loss like that of 188J-'81 at no distant date. I 

 shall give a piece of gratuitous advice now — advice 

 that I shall follow to some extent in the future: 

 Severe winters will not average more than one in 

 three or four years. In mild winters, the advan- 

 tages of outdoor wintering are of great importance. 

 A warm double-walled hive will pay, even if used 

 only in early spring and late fall. Now, then, this is 

 what I think is advisable: Keep one-half of your 

 bees in protected hives on their summer stands, and 

 put the rest into the cellar. Loss will rarely strike 

 both at the same time. In spring, double up all 

 weak colonies into warm hives, and save the empty 

 hives and comb for the summer's increase. This is 

 " mixed farming." I fail to be convinced that there 

 is a hive in existence that will give us perfect suc- 

 cess in outdoor wintering in this climate; but with 

 one hundred colonies on the summer stands, and 

 their increase in the cellar to double up with in the 

 spring, we can always keep the original number in- 

 tact and strong at the right time. 



Is this not one solution of the problem how to 

 " keep your colonies strong"? Geo. Grimm. 



Jefferson, Wis., May 22, 1882. 



I think it is, friend Grimm, and I believe 

 it was Doolittle who first said, try half in- 

 doors and the other half out. Will you 

 please repeat, friend Grimm, just how many 

 you started in to winter with, and how many 

 you had lost (by doubling up, etc.), by the 

 tirst of May? And one more thing: I)id you 

 try keeping any in until the tirst of May, and 

 have you ever tried so doing? During the 

 severe frosts in May, there was a time when 



