BEE KEEPING. 101 



them in the garret and the temperature was possibly from 30 above 

 zero to 30 below. L,ast year I took 28 pounds again from the same box. 



Question. What was the cost of your hive ? 



MR. E. F. STEPHENSON. I think $10.00. 



Question. Did you feed them anything 1 . 



MR. E}. F. STEPHENSON. Nothing- during the winter. 



PROF. BAIRD. I see Mr. Gunn, a bee keeper, here and we would like 

 to hear from him. 



MR. GUNN. Well, Mr. Chairman, if it is experience you want I 

 can give you some. The first time I had bees was eleven years ag-o. In 

 this eleven years I have had as much experience as the average man. 

 I had about three times as much experience as honey, but we got honey 

 too. From the one colony that we started with, we went up to thirty 

 and down to three or four. L/ast year was our most disastrous year. 

 They gave very little honey and wintered badly. We kept them in a 

 stone cellar. We put in eighteen colonies and took out seven. They 

 increased during- last summer to fourteen and from these fourteen I 

 got nearly 100 pounds a hive. They are now in flue shape, experience 

 becoming- less and honey more. I think the cause of death of so many 

 of the colonies on our hands was too much moisture. This winter I 

 took a look at them and found a great number of dead bees, so I put 

 some quick lime in the cellar and I think that takes up the moisture. 

 I looked into the cellar the other day and they seem to be very vigorous. 

 I have known our cellar to go below freezing- point several times. As 

 for summer treatment of them we let them take care of themselves. As 

 to the experience, we began to realize that it was best to leave the bees 

 alone. We have never taken any trouble about having them face east- 

 ward, in fact we have them nearly always facing the South. Ours, 

 when they swarm do not look for the low trees but for the very highest 

 oak trees on the farm. They seem to want to get up in the world. 

 Now we trouble ourselves about nothing but extracted honey. As to 

 the quality of the honey it seems to be generally known that the Mani- 

 toba article is superior to any other. I have found it so in selling 

 honey and I have frequently met people from other places who say 

 that it is first-class and much better than what they get at home. 



MR. BEDFORD. From the experience we had two years ago I was 

 led to believe that the trouble with our bees was caused by Ihe honey 

 they had stored for winter and that they had got among other things 

 the honey-dew so one year I gave them candy instead of honey and 

 they never wintered better. Candy is also cheaper than honey and 

 when you once understand how to feed it, it is very easy. 



MR. GUNN. The season of 1896 was a bad season from beginning 

 to end, and so we got discouraged about extracting honey. As a 



