236 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



of the country, and of those wintered 

 out-doors in the old-time way, very few 

 will be left. I notice by looljing over the 

 reports, that the winter losses are almost 

 invariably attributed to honey-dew which 

 was stored in such unusual quantities last 

 season. I have demonstrated to my own 

 satisfaction that honey-dew is not neces- 

 sarily fatal when used as winter stores, 

 as it constituted the principal part of the 

 stores upon which my bees nave wintered 

 so nicely. I wished to make the matter 

 very clear in my own mind, and among 

 other experiments I fed up several colo- 

 nies last August on the genuine "bug 

 juice," first removing all combs, and in 

 one colony I only supplied empty frames 

 so that the combs were also built up from 

 this questionable food. These colonies 

 came out in as fine condition as the very 

 best, although 1 had others upon which I 

 was experimenting, that were fed up 

 wliolly on sugar syrup. 



Report, from Wilson Sherman, 

 Chester Centre,© Iowa, on April 4, 



18*5: 



After a confinement of 131 days, on 

 March 26, 1 took my 13 colonies of bees 

 from the cellar, and 10 of tlie 12 were 

 alive and in splendid condition ; 2 had 

 died with the diarrhea. The cellar in 

 which they were wintered was dug last 

 fall, and it was walled up with brick late, 

 and the mortar did not have time to drj', 

 so the cellar was very damp. If it had 

 not been so damp I tliink that I would not 

 have lost any, as the two that died were 

 very damp and moldy. The cappings had 

 cracked, and water run in and soured tlie 

 honej', thus causing their death. The 

 mortality of bees in this part of the coun- 

 try has been very great. Those that were 

 left on the summer stands are all dead, 

 and also a large share of those wintered 

 n the cellars have perished. 



Report, from K. R. ilurphy. Garden 

 Plain.x) Ills., on April 3, 1885 : 



My bees have wintered well. I lost 

 only 4 colonies out of 130, and they 

 starved. They were wintered in a bee- 

 house. Those that we^e out-doors are 

 mostly dead, or very weak. Mine are all 

 strong colonies, having wintered splen- 

 didly. The main point in in-door winter- 

 ing is putting the bees in before there is 

 any frost formed in the iiive. During the 

 past three winters my bees have begun 

 breeding in January, and then came out 

 as strong or stronger in bees than when 

 put in. 



Report, from L. L. Triem, La Porte 

 City,© Iowa, on April 4, 18a5 : 



Wintering bees in cellars has proven 

 the best here, as far as heard from. 1 

 have 165 colonies in splendid condition, 

 each of which are occupying .5 and 6 spaces 

 in 8-frame hives. 



Report, etc., from W. L. Coggshall, 

 (250), West Groton,? N. Y., oh April 

 3, 188-5 : 



Bees had a flight on April 1. Mine are 

 packed in sawdust with 4 to 10 in a box, 

 with a slot cut in the boxes for entrances. 

 I examined the colonies in two Ijeeyards 

 of 7.5 each, and I found 3 dead. I find a 

 good many dead bees un''er the hives and 

 around the entrances. I hear the box-hive 

 bee-keepers have lost one-half of their 

 bees. Messrs. Dadant & Son, page 105, 

 expressed my views exactly on the drone- 

 trap. In my -opinion they are not worth 

 the room they occupy, to a man who is 

 producing honey. I was taught that tlie 

 best way to get along with trouble is not 

 to get into trouble, so I do not rear drones. 



Seyere Losses of Bees.— H. Hance, 

 Bryan, VD O., on March 30, 1885, says: 



The loss of bees in this section is very 

 heavy. Out of 680 colonies belonging to 

 26 of my neighbors, only 115 colonies are 

 left, many of them losing all. .So far, my 

 own loss is 39 colonies out of 72. Some of 

 my bees froze, some bad the diarrhea, and 

 some starved on account of being unable 

 to get to their stores. Bees were wintered 

 in various ways here— some were in cel- 

 lars, some were well packed, and some 

 not packed at all, but all fared about the 

 same. 1 say, do not give up ; although 

 our ship be wrecked, let us launch another 

 and endeavor hereafter to steer clear of 

 the disastrous reefs. 



Report, from H. T. Hartman, Free- 

 port,-© Ills., on April 3, 188-5 : 



At last my bees are on the summer 

 stands again. They were in the cellar i}4 

 months, and came out in much better con- 

 dition than I had expected they would. 

 Out of 82 colonies, only 4 were dead, and 

 2 of them had starved. They are nearly 

 all in good condition. Bees that were 

 wintered on the summer stands, in this 

 section, are nearly all dead. One bee- 

 keeper here only had 3 left out of 100 colo- 

 nies : and another, 3 out of 27. Some who 

 wintered tlieir bees in cellars have lost 

 quite heavily. The most of the cellars 

 were too cold. The temperature of my 

 cellar was kept at 45° above zero, by means 

 of artificial heat. I have to-day put out 

 rye meal for the bees, and it was not long 

 before it was swarming with bees. This 

 will stimulate brood-rearing, and will also 

 prevent robbing, and keep the bees at 

 home. I have always used it with success. 



Report, from J. P. Hensley, Grand 

 Island,© Nebr., on April 3, 1885 : 



I packed one colony with cliatf in a 

 Heddon hive on Oct. 26, 1884. On Feb. 26, 

 they had a good flight, and to-day I un- 

 packed them, and they are in splendid 

 condition. The mice killed about a quart 

 of bees in Febru.ary, and I unpacked them 

 and moved them into a room in my liouse, 

 where I had them for 7 days, after which 

 I returned and repacked them, and to-day 

 they are all right. 



Report, from M. E. Darby, Dexter, 

 ©Iowa, on April 1, 1885: 



From 75 to 90 per cent, of the bees in 

 this vicinity have succumbed to King 

 Boreas. My own loss is comparatively 

 light— 2 per cent, of tliose wintered in the 

 cellar, 35 per cent, of those in clamps, and 

 95 per cent, of those on the summer stands 

 unprotected. 



Report, etc., from J. O. Shearman, 

 New Richmond, p Mich.: 



I have noticed the same symptoms as 

 mentioned on page 190, in a number of 

 bee-yards during the years 1876, 1880, and 

 1881, excepting as in the sugai--fed colo- 

 nies mentioned on that page. Bees cannot 

 withstand such protracted cold on sour 

 honey, and the sugar-fed colonies might 

 have been fed syrup too thin or too late, 

 or both. So far I have lost 8 colonies (4 

 of which starved) out of 130. 



Report, from F. Searles, Marley,(^ 

 Ills., on April 3, 1885 : 



My colonies are all on the summer 

 stands again. I put them into the cellar 

 about the middle of last Novemb^, and I 

 took them out on April 1. I found that 2 

 colonies had starved, leaving plenty of 

 pollen but no honey. Last fall I put in 

 110 colonies, and 108 of them were in fine 

 condition when I took them out. I leave 

 all the bottom-boards and the caps in the 



bee-yard, taking only the brood-chambers 

 with the bees. I raise the first ones 10 

 inches from the cellar bottom, and then I 

 put some short pieces of 2x4-inch scant- 

 ling on them, and lay some boards on 

 these, and pile up the hives as high as I 

 can reach. The air can then circulate all 

 through them. I use no quilts, and some 

 of the slats are removed from every 

 honey-board. I have never lost 10 colo- 

 nies with the diarrhea in the 30 years that 

 I have kept bees. My cellar has no venti- 

 lation, except what tliere is around the 

 cells and the door, and what air gets in 

 when entering for apples, vegetables, etc., 

 which occurs from 1 to 6 times a day. If 

 tlie bees have plenty of good honey and 

 pollen, I have no fears about wintering. 



Not Lost One Colony.— Jno. L. Corn- 

 stock, (2—9), Sac City, Iowa, on 

 April 6, 1885, writes: 



My bees have wintered splendidly. I 

 took them out of the cellar on April 1, and 

 they now have young brood and plenty of 

 eggs. I thought of grinding some rye for 

 them for pollen, because I went to feeding 

 sugar syrup as soon as I put them on the 

 summer stands ; but I will not have to 

 grind any, as they go into our flouring 

 mill and help themselves. They seem to 

 get lots of pollen around the mill. 1 

 watched several of them to see them work 

 on mill-dust, on April 4. I commenced 

 last spring with 2 colonies, and I put nine 

 into the cellar. They all came through 

 strong. 



Jtpeciat ^0ticc$. 



^~ Those In want of Bees should notice 

 that the whole apiary of the late Mr. L. 

 James, of Atlanta, 111., is to be sold at 

 -\uetion next Tuesday. 



C^" Our rates for two or more copies of 

 the hook, "Ttees and Honey," may be found 

 ou the Book List on the second page of this 

 paper, -ilso wholesale rates on all hooks 

 where they are purchased '• to sell again." 



iW We want one number each of the Bee 

 Journal of August, 1800— February, 1867. 

 .\ny one having- them to spare will please 

 send a Postal Card. We will pay 50 cents for 

 one copy of each of the two numbers. 



1^' The Farmer's Account Book contains 

 1 66 pages, printed on writing paper, ruled and 

 hound, and the price is S.'J.OO. We will club 

 it and the Weekly Bee Joitrnal for a year 

 for $4.00. If you have already sent us $2.00 

 for the Weekly Bee Journal tor a year, we 

 will send the Book for another $2,00, making 

 $4.00 in all. If you want it sent by mail, add 

 20 cents for postage. 



^W" We want one number of the Weekly 

 for 1884— May 28. Will any one who does 

 not bind them, write a Postal Card saying 

 what they will take for it '/ Do not send it 

 until j'ou hear from us. that we are not al- 

 ready supplied. 



^^ The next meeting of the Union Bee- 

 Keepers' Association of Western Iowa, will 

 be held on April 2."i, 188.5, at Earlham, Iowa. 

 M. E. Darhv, Sec. 



