188 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 





No Trouble in Wintering.— J. W. 



Eckmaii, Rielimoiid.o,Tex., on March 

 8, 1S8.5, writes thus : 



My bees commenced carrying in 

 pollen on Jan. 29, but we had so much 

 cold and wet weather in February, 

 that tliey did little towards breeding 

 up. Since March 1, they have been 

 doing Unely. I had drones flying on 

 March 1. We have no trouble down 

 here in wintering bees; but our 

 greatest trouble is, how to manage 

 them successfully in the summer so 

 as to keep down excessive swarming. 



Sever Wintered Better. — A. A. 



Pierce, Westport, (^ N. Y,, on March 

 13. 1885, writes : 



I am wintering GO colonies of black 

 bees all in the cellar, and they seem 

 to be wintering well. All are alive 

 and quiet, the mercury in the cellar 

 ranging from 40° to 45° above zero. 

 The weather here has been extremely 

 cold since Feb. 1, the mercury rang- 

 ing, on several occasions, from 10° to 

 36° below zero. I have kept bees for 

 the last ten years, usually having 

 from -to to 80 colonies, and I have 

 never known them to winter better 

 than they have so far this winter. 



Great Loss of Bees.— H. Clark, Pal- 

 myra, ? Iowa, on March 13, 1885, 

 writes as follows : 



The snow is mostly gone, and white 

 clover looks beautiful and green. 

 There are but few of the little bees 

 left, this winter's mortality among 

 them far exceeding that of 1880-81. 

 1 have lately asked 10 bee-men in this 

 neighborhood how their bees are, and 

 the best answers I got were, 4 colonies 

 left out of 12, and 7 from 90 ; my own 

 report is, 20 put into the cellar, and 1 

 left; 40 packed in straw and hay, and 6 

 left. The cause seems to be diarrhea. 



Bees in Splendid Condition.— A. J. 



Hatfield, South Bend. 5 Ind.,on Mar. 

 14, 1885, writes : 



Bees are in splendid condition in 

 the cellar. I have 195 colonies. I am 

 moving ray apiary from New (Carlisle, 

 Ind.. to near this place. 



the near future. But notwithstand- 

 ing the wintry prospect, and snow and 

 ice everywhere, the first robin put in 

 an appearance yesterday. Where not 

 properly oared for, the loss of bees 

 will, no doubt, be heavy. 



Good Weather Needed.— Jno. A. Bu- 

 chanan, Holiday's Cove, 5 W. Va., on 

 March 13, 1885, writes : 



Winter still continues. On two or 

 three nights lately the thermometer 

 indicated as low as 8° above zero. 

 Bees need good weather, and they 

 need it Ijadly, The first few days of 

 this month were tolerably fair for 

 opening liives, and I overhauled my 

 home apiary of 65 colonies. All were 

 in reasonably fair condition save 5 

 colonies, which were found queenless. 

 The bees were pretty restless for a 

 flight when the opportunity came, as 

 honey-dew, in some degree, consti- 

 tuted their stores. Young bees are 

 now hatching quite^as fast as the old 

 ones disappear. We think that we 

 are "out of the woods" now, but we 

 might feel better if more moderate 

 weather would come to stay. Gen- 

 erally speaking, the losses in this part 

 of the country are heavy. 



Still Cold and Bees Uneasy. — W. J. 



I)avis, \'oungsville,x) Pa., on March 

 IG, 1885, writes thus: 



The weather in this locality is still 

 cold, and the ground is frozen 4 feet 

 deep, and covered with from 3 to 4 

 inches of snow and ice. Bees have 

 not had a flight in 4 months. The 100 

 colonies which I placed in the cellar 

 on Xov. 15. 1884, are not only quiet, 

 but to all appearances with bodies as 

 attenuate as they were 4 months ago ; 

 but the 100 colonies placed in my 

 wintering house from Nov. 6 to the 

 20, are getting uneasy, their bodies 

 are becoming distended, and one col- 

 ony shows signs of diarrhea. Their 

 great need now is a cleansing flight, 

 and there is but little prospect of it in 



Bees Storing Honey. —8— W. S. 



Cauthen, (79—79), Pleasant Hill, 6 S. 

 C, on March 11, 188;'), says : 



We have had a long, cold winter, 

 but it is warm at last, and the bees 

 are storing honey lively. Maples and 

 tag-alder are just in full bloom, but 

 generally they bloom in January. 



Bees Swanninfr, etc.- Harry G. 

 Burnet, Alva,? Fla., on March 3, 



1885, writes : 



I wonder what our frozen-up north- 

 ern fellow bee-keepers will think 

 when I say that we are busy here 

 hiving swarms, extracting honey, 

 rearing queens, etc. Quite a contrast 

 to the state of affairs in the North. 

 A fellow beekeeper at the North, 

 writes me that " it seems strange to 

 hear of 'bees swarming;' about here 

 they are feezing to death— the coldest 

 winter on record." I know by bitter 

 experience how it is to have bees 

 " frozen to death," for 14 years among 

 Iowa blizzards, indelibly impressed 

 that on my mind ; but I found a happy 

 and plea.sant solution of thedifticulty 

 in coming here. There are no winter 

 or spring losses here, and a never- 

 failing honey supply. No more bliz- 

 zards for me. 



I had 12 colonies in the "Simplicity " 

 hives, some in the chaff hives, and 

 the remainder in box-hives. On Feb. 

 16, 17, and is it was severely cold, and 

 5 of my best colonies froze, the bees 

 being drawn up between the frames 

 by the frost, while the other colonies 

 were all right. With a small pair of 

 tweezers 1 cleaned them all out, as 

 some of them were down in the cells, 

 and they had at least 20 pounds of 

 honey. While it was 18° below zero, 

 the coldest that we have had here this 

 winter, the other colonies were all in 

 good condition, and there were no 

 signs of bee-diarrhea w'hatever. My 

 hives are all on the north side of my 

 house, and they are very much shel- 

 tered from north and west winds. 

 Some bee-keepers in this section have 

 lost all their bees this winter, and 

 some of them had plenty of honey. 



Do Bees Ever Freeze ?— Wm. Ander- 

 son, Sherman,o+Mo., writes as follows : 



I notice that some are of the opin- 

 ion that a colony of bees will not 

 freeze; but I think they will. Last 

 fall I prepared 30 colonies for winter, 

 5 of them having been late swarms, 

 and the remainder being strong cold* 

 nies with plenty of stores. On Jan. 

 30 and 31, and Feb. 1, they had good 

 flights, and I examined them, and 

 found them in good condition, ex- 

 cepting 2 of the 5 colonies were dead, 

 and the other 3 were short of honey. 

 I fed them, and they are still alive. I 

 use the " Simplicity " chaff hives, and 



"Northwestern" .at Detroit.— James 

 Heddon gives his opinion on the sub- 

 ject as follows : 



I vote " no." and President Miller 

 says that the reasons for our prefer- 

 ences are in order. 1 give mine as 

 follows: ]. Because the National 

 and the Michigan State do not need 

 us as a convention, and will receive 

 nearly every one as an individual at- 

 tendant that would go if the " North- 

 western " were adjourned. 2. So far 

 as I can learn, the " Northwestern " 

 is much the best, and most practical 

 and instructive body, and the consoli- 

 dation proposed would be like empty- 

 ing the contents of a large dish into 

 a small one — there would be a muss. 

 3, Chicago is so easily and cheaply 

 (about hi rate) accessible to so many 

 practical honey-producers who have 

 business there other than that of at- 

 tending the convention, that I think 

 I see a loss in throwing up our ap- 

 pointment there next October. 4. 

 Any series of meetings to grow and 

 have good attendance, must be regu- 

 lar in their maintainance. 5. We all 

 intend to go to Detroit, that could 

 possibly go if the " Northwestern " 

 were adjourned, and for one, I hope 

 to attend both. Let us resolve to 

 " hold fast that which is good," and 

 go to both places. 



Bees Have Starved.— L. J. Diehl, 

 Butler,,^ Ind., on March 15, 1885 

 writes as follows : 



This has been the hardest winter on 

 bees for many years, and in this 

 locality at least two-thirds of the bees 

 are dead, the trouble having been the 

 long continued cold which caused 

 strong colonies to starve with plenty 

 of honey in the hive. I have ex- 

 amined a great many of the hives in 

 which the tees were dead, and 9 out 

 of 10 had starved. Starvation with 

 plenty of stores, but out of reach on ac- 

 count of continued cold, has been the 

 cause of loss here. This will be a 

 good year for those having bees to 

 sell, for in nearly every case, where 

 bee-keepers have lost all, or nearly all, 

 they intend to buy more, if they can 

 find out where to get them. What 

 bees are left on the summer stands 

 are very weak. I cannot say what my 

 loss is, as yet, but I will report later. 



