I3E"VOTEX> E:x:CX.XJSI"VE3L,-2' to bees wA.:iSriD HOZSTE^" 



voim. 



MARCH, 1, 1875. 



No. in. 



REMARKS ON IN-DOOR WINTERING. 



BV .)AMES BOI.IX. 



sj^jRIENl) XOVICE: While I ircely endorse the 



m" most that is contained in the article on. How to 

 i^j Condnct an Ayiiary. in the Dec. Xo. of Gi^ean- 

 INGS, I will have to dissent from a few of your conclu- 

 eions, even at the risk of being accused of heresy 

 ajrain. 



For instance: that the position that keeping bees 

 warm etc., will save them, will have to be given u)), 

 and. Since our wintering troubles, * » » ♦ nothing that 

 has been done has amounted to a row of pins, [Beg 

 pardon, we meant tow.ard curing sick ones.— Ed.] ex- 

 cei)t fine weather etc. Now the above may be true in 

 the case of your bees, but I cannot think it will a|i|5ly 

 to many. Ihave pretty stronsr evidence that keeping 

 my bees warm and quiet, did save them, as most of 

 those ill this neighborhood that were not wintered in 

 warm depositories have perished with the bee disease, 

 during the last two or three winters. Keeping mine 

 w.arrii has, in my opinion, amounted to a pretty long 

 row of pins— a longer one in fact than any one "would 

 need, unle«s they wished to start a notion store, and 

 even tiien thcv misrht be overstockeil. 



1 do not think that I have ever claimed that cold 

 was the o«?i? but merelv the main cause of the losses 

 that have occurred. The want of dryness and dark- 

 ness in the winter depository has no' doubt had con- 

 siilerable to do, in some instances, with the loss of 

 boos that were housed, while disturbance, caused by 

 faking a light in the room, looking at the bees, admit- 

 ting strong currents of air, by opening the door at 

 nicrht, and introducing artiilcial lieat lias no doubt 

 killed more bees than anything else, except cold. A 

 prominent bee-keeper remarked last spring, that he 

 regarded artificial heat as being indispensilile in win- 

 tering bees; right in the face of the fact that he had 

 lost about eight-ninths of his bees by its use, or at 

 le.ast, while using it. Rather a poor argument in its 

 favor, I think. But I may be too practical in my views. 

 Bees are very sensitive, and <a slight jar, taking a light 

 into the room etc., will often excite them to an injuri- 

 ous activity. I have frecpiently seen the advice given 

 to open the door of the winter depository at nigrht to 

 cool and purify the air, but if the ventilators are ar- 

 ranged as they" should be, I would much rather depend 

 on them and keep the door shut. 



You remark on page 1:W of Dec. Gleaxivgs, that 

 openine the door and windows of your cellar only 

 seemed to make the bees warmer, it no doubt had 

 .iust that effect, as the bees were stirred up by feeling 

 a <-urrent of air different from that in the room, [but 

 v,'\a.t should we have done?— Kd.] and strong stocks, 

 \i 'len disturbe<l, generate an immense amount of heat. 

 I b id a pretty fair samjile of what they can do in that 

 li'ie two years ago when I put my Ijees in the house. 

 Wi' had "a cold "south-west wind at the time. The 

 tliermonieter stood at about zero in the open air, an-', 

 at :U'^ in the hon.^e when I began carrying the bees in. 

 By having the door open it sunk to 20'^ in the liouse, 

 bv the time I had them in. I put in 88 swarms,— then 

 shut the door lor two hours,— when I went in again 

 and they had run the thermometer up to tt^, being IP 

 higher than it was before the door was opened to put 

 them in. It remained about the same all the time out 

 of doors. By letting them alone, they soon became 

 ifulet ami the temperature of the room fell to about 

 40 . lvee))ing Ijees too warm will excite them, and will 

 have the sanvc effect as kec|)iug them too cold, cause 

 ihem to lill themselves with honey, and if the excite- 

 ment is kept up long, the result will be the same— they 

 will be effected with the dysentery. 



The thermometer bi my bee lionse staiuls at i-P at 

 . this date, Dec. llth, 1874, aiid a person on entering the 



room would almost think there was not a live bee ii'. 



it, they are so still. 

 That the Editor, and all his readers, may succeed ir. 



carrying all their bees safely through the jiresent. and 

 ; all subsequent winters, is the wish of .James Boi.in. 

 I AVest Lodi, Ohio. 



OITR OWxN APIARV. 



''E meiitloiied last month that wc gave 

 the bees in the forcing house a brisk flj 

 on the 17th, to accomplish this more eflectually 

 we removed the covers to all the hives, and 

 this was one reason whj- only four bees re- 

 mained on tlie sash. They saw their comrades 

 just beneath them and of course "hopped down" 

 among them. To avoid giving any erroneous 

 impression we may remark that we spend the 

 greater part of our Sundays with our books 

 and papers in the forcing house, and on sunny 

 days even tlie rest of the familj^ find it an 

 agreeable sitting room. Of course we do not 

 mean to work with our bees on the Sabbath 

 and should be very sorry to have any of our 

 readers get such an opinion of us, yet it must 

 be admitted that it so came about, that the 

 bees instead of being allowed to rest on the 

 Sabbath, rested su days, and on the seventh 

 were expected to turn out and have a fly if 

 nothing else. If they would not otherwise, we 

 uncovered the hives etc., as above. Very likely 

 friend Bolin will expect this treatment to kill 

 them whether or no. Nevermind: they would 

 probablj' submit with resignation if they knew 

 it was solely in the cause of science. On the 

 23rd, we warmed the house in the afternoon 

 and made search in nearly all the hives for 

 eggs, but none could be found. We were anx- 

 ious to report brood in Jan., in our Feb. No., 

 and so kept the room at a favorable tempera- 

 ture all day the 24th, and next day were 

 delighted to tind that the Queens had laid pro- 

 fuse!}', even to the lamp nursery which 

 contained less than 100 bees with the Queen at 

 this time. By the way we can see no difficulty 

 in wintering any number of Queens with a tea- 

 cupful of bees each, in this way. Oiy 

 last form was to be printed on the 27th, and to 

 get larvae before this time reciuired careful 

 work, so we kept the room warm until the last 

 item was set up, but "not a larvaj' could we 

 see, and we dolefully sent you your papers 

 with hardly a parting note in regard to our 

 experiment. On the 28th we looked again and 

 were cheered with the sight of whole patches 

 of larvix^, so large it seemed we must have been 

 hast}- the day before. And now for pollen. 

 Few of the colonies had any at all, some of 

 them jiositively none, and the worst of it was 

 the bees would take no notice of the <i»'jt where 



