OEVOTED TO BEE« A1SD HONEY, AND HOME INTERESTS. 



Vol. VII. 



OCTOBER 1, 1879. 



No. 10. 



A. I. ROOT, ) Published Monthly. (TERMS: ll.OO Ter Annum in Ad- 



Publisher and Proprietor, > < vance; 3 Copies for S2.50; 5/or $3.75; 



Medina, O. ) EstaTbllsliecl in 1873. ClO oi more, 60c. each. Single Number, lOc. 



SCRAPS AND SKETCHES. NO. 10. 



LOTS OF BEES AND CHAFF CUSHIONS. 



S'N the autumn of '78, I commenced preparing- my 

 bees for winter, in Oct. My hives are of such 

 shape that I can take out four~or five frames, 

 turn the remaining- six or seven frames half way 

 around, and then put a chaff cushion on each side of 

 them. I not only put a chaff cushion on'each side, 

 but I put on an upper story, and put a thick chaff 

 pillow on top of the frames, and then banked saw- 

 dust around the hives until it reached half way to 

 the top of the lower story. Before the bees were 

 packed, however, they were made very strong- by 

 uniting- nuclei, and doubling up swarms. I have 

 taken bees that were "strangling round" on 23 

 frames, and crowded th^m on to six frames; the 

 last ones to enter had to]use their "elbows" pretty 

 freely to get in, but they did it. I tell you, one who 

 has never tried it will bo astonished to see in how 

 small space a large swarm of bees'can be packed. 

 By the way, I think that about as good protection as 

 bees can have, is feces. The above method of winter- 

 ing bees seems to answer very well, but it jrequires 

 too much "fussing and bother," and costs too much 

 for cushions; so I am going to give the chaff hives a 

 trial the coming winter. 



WINTER DWINDLING. 



One colony (formed by uniting two^others) com- 

 menced, in one sense, to dwindle even before cold 

 weather began. It was a strong swarm, with plenty 

 of honey, and was well packed; but, every morning, 

 I would find a handful of dead bees in front of the 

 entrance. During the winter, the snow lay about 

 the hives a foot deep, and the warm air from the 

 hives melted the snow around the entrances, until 

 there was a little cave, as large as a'half bushel, in 

 front of each hive. The bees brought their dead 

 bees out into these caves, and, whenever I made an 

 examination, I seldom found more than a handful 

 of dead bees in front of any hive, unless it was the 

 "dwindling one;" from that, two or three times, I 

 took away as much as a hatful of dead bees. One 

 warm day in March, I opened the hive and'took an- 

 other "hatful" of dead bees from the bottom board, 

 and I don't believe the hive contained a "hatful" of 

 live bees. I put them upon three frames, and pack- 

 ed them up well, but the last cold "snap" was too 

 much for them. 



SPRING DWINDLING. 



Early in April, I examined my bees, and found 

 them in good condition; but, when I looked at them 



a week later, I found that one stock had "spring 

 dwindled" to almost nothing. The queen was alive, 

 and I tried to save her and the few remaining bees, 

 by giving them two frames of bees and brood. I 

 caged the queen two days, but the weather was cold 

 for a few days after I released her, and when it was 

 warm enough to open the hive, I found the bees 

 building queen cells. I shoak the bees in front of 

 the weakest swarm, and returned the brood frames 

 to the hives from which they were taken. I had two 

 more swarms that dwindled, but I saved them by 

 changing places with them and two strong swarms. 

 I do not know whether it paid or not. I should have 

 united the dwindling swarms, but I wanted to save 

 the queens. 



To sum up, I went into winter quarters with twelve 

 swarms, and came out with ten; and these are the 

 only bees I have lost since I commenced keeping 

 bees in movable-comb hives. Most of the bee-keep- 

 ers in this vicinity lost, at least, half of their bees, 

 while many lost them all. I attribute my'success to 

 "lots" of bees and chaff cushions. 



Perhaps some of you think, if I commenced with 

 four swarms two years ago last spring, I ought to 

 have more bees. Well, if I had not~sold"any, I.pre- 

 sume I would now have, at least, 40 or 50 swarms; 

 but I find it fully as profitable to raise bees for sale, 

 as to raise honey. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Mich. 



There, friend Bolin, will you just telljwhat 

 made friend Hutchinson's bees die as they 

 did, if there was no disease in that hive V I 

 can think of but one reason, and that is that, 

 in uniting, he secured a large colony, but of 

 bees of too nearly one age, and that they 

 died off as they did, of old age and nothing 

 more. If the colonies that composed these 

 were all of them rearing brood briskly up to 

 the time of uniting. I do not know but that 

 I shall give it up. 



WO DEES CHOOSE A LOCATION BEFORE 

 SWARMING* 



fjjHEKE has been much said pro and con on this 

 question, and it is still far from being settled 

 in my mind. I have been familiar with bees 

 for fifty years. lean just remember when my fa- 

 ther brought the first bee skep or colony home, I 

 being just four years old. He got them of a near 

 neighbor that kept about 30 or 40 hives, and was 

 always looked up to as law and gospel on the bee 

 business. He did nothing but keep;; bees and teach 



