252 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bees have Wintered Well.— C. C. 



Gentry, Miami,© Mo., on April 10, 

 ISSo, writes thus : 



I have been fairly successful with my 

 bees during the past year. On Nov. 12, 

 1884, I put Bo colonies into a cellar wliich 

 was duK in a sand-banli. They had plenty 

 of honey and pollen for winter stores. I 

 left them in the cellar for 135 days, and 

 then put them out, when they had a good 

 fliaht, and seemed to be in splendid con- 

 dit;ion. I saw no signs of diarrhea, and I 

 do not think tliat they had hibernated. I 

 am satisfied with cellar wintering. The 

 hives should be put 30 inches from the 

 cellar bottom. The temperature in the 

 cellar ranged from 35° to -tO^ above zero. 

 I have Albinos, Italians and blacks, but 

 the Albinos are ahead this spring. Last 

 season I worked 45 colonies for extracted 

 honey, and 1 obtained 3,000 pounds. Some 

 of my neighbors made failures. 1 have 

 moved my bees from Carroll county to 

 Saline county. Extracted white clover 

 honey sells for 8 l-.^ cents per pound here ; 

 comb honey, V2}4 cents. 



Report, from 75. D. Scott, Ovid 

 Centre,© N. Y., on April 9, 18.S5 : 



My bees have wintered well, and are in 

 good condition. I lost but 5 colonies, 3 by 

 disease, and 3 by starvation. They were 

 confined for 140 days in the cellar. 1 put 

 in 43 colonies last fall. The weather is 

 very cold now, ice having formed 1}^ inches 

 thick, last night. The bee-keepers who 

 wintered their bees on the summer stajids 

 have lost most of their colonies, and some 

 have lost all. 



boarded before any material was put on. 

 The ground was very damp all winter, and 

 all the colonies were more or less moldy. 

 About midwinter I lost one colony by 

 starvation, the dead bees of which I threw 

 on the cellar bottom. In March another 

 colony succumbed to the same cause, and 

 the dead bees of this one were partly 

 thrown on the fioor,where they all molded. 

 To my knowledge the mercury was never 

 up to 40=. It ranged from 33° to 38= above 

 zero, hut it was most of the time at 30° to 

 34°. During one cold spell last January 

 tlie mercury dropped from 33° to 32° with- 

 in three hours. One chimney made of 

 fence boards arose about 18 inches above 

 the cellar top, is all the ventilation that 

 was employed. I took my bees out of 

 this musty place on April 1, before sun- 

 rise, with the mercury at 39°, outside. I 

 placed them upon dry ground in the sun, 

 with a strong east wind blowing, and 

 after a four hours' flight, I liad 11 strong 

 colonies which are now cleaned up and in 

 good condition. My bees were in box- 

 hives. 



the bees in, as there was no possibility of 

 them getting in througli tlie cemented 

 room. The weather being too cold to give 

 them a flight, I examined all the hives to 

 find the mice, and at the .same time I 

 cleaned all the bottom-boards which made 

 them uneasy all winter. I have carried 

 them all out, and they are doing well, 

 even a colony in an observatory liive is 

 doing well, and I feel perfectly satisfied 

 to winter my bees hereafter in the same 

 air-tight place without ventilation. The 

 temperature was 33° above zero during 

 the past winter. I also had colonies 

 outside on my bee-scale, one of which was 

 dead, and both these and those under tlie 

 ice-house had the diarrhea. I imagine 

 that buckwheat honey caused it, as it was 

 dark in color like the feces. 



Bee-Diarrhea.— 13 — Wm. Robson, 



(ai— 20), Rolla,© Mo., on April 9, 1885, 

 writes : 



The worst form of diarrhea presented 

 itself among my bees during a fliglit about 

 Feb. 26. There were 14 colonies in single- 

 walled hives. I was much alarmed about 

 it, as they crawled out on the outside of 

 the hives and spotted them badly, and 

 the snow for lOo feet around the hives 

 was covered with the excrement. This 

 was not the case with those bees which 

 were wintered in double-walled hives ; 

 their appearance was lively and dry, and 

 at this time, as they come flying home 

 laden with pollen, it is easy to discern the 

 strongest colonies. They were all win- 

 tered on the summer stands. On account 

 of a snow-storm which continued for 3 

 hours to-day, the bees did not work out- 

 side. 



Reports on Ventilation. — James 

 Heddon, Dowagiac, 9 Midi., writes 

 thus : 



I would like to have all bee-keepers to 

 give a report of the healthful wintering ot 

 bees.^ith the least ventilation. If all 

 who have known bees to successfully pass 

 the period of confinement without any 

 change of air, or with almost none, will 

 give me, by private correspondence, a de- 

 tailed account of the conditions, etc., I 

 will from it fornuilate an article on " ven- 

 tilatioti," giving each reporter credit, and 

 thus get at this important problem. Mr. 

 Shirley says that his neighbor who tried 

 to smother his bees (as referred to in my 

 last article), kept the hives sealed for 48 

 hours. 



— Favette 

 April 2, 



Lee, 



1885, 



Scarcely any Loss, 

 Cokato,© Minn,, on 

 writes thus : 



My bees have been in the cellar for 5 

 months, and out of SO colonies only 3 are 

 dead. Some colonies had brood in three 

 combs, and some are so strong that they 

 fill every space between the combs. They 

 have consumed scarcely any honey. I 

 have rented 33 colonies, so I now have HI 

 in all. I prefer the Syrians. 



jSearly all Dead.— W. S. Bair, Rol- 

 lersville,5 Ohio, on April 6, 1885, re- 

 ports as follows : 



The past winter has been a terrible one 

 on bees in this part of Ohio. About 07 

 per cent, of all the bees are dead, and the 

 few that are left are weak and diseased. 

 I have made quite extensive inquiries of 

 the bee-men, and receive the same an- 

 swer from all— "dead! dead!" We had 

 in this county (Sandusky) about 1,000 col- 

 onies, and some of our largest apiaries are 

 extinct. Extreme cold and honey-dew ilid 

 the mischief alike to all, no matter 

 whether they were in cellars, on the sum- 

 mer stands, packed or unpacked. I had 

 28 colonies, and to-day I have 8 good ones, 

 and 3 very weak ones. I had mine packed 

 in buckwheat chatf. 



Wintering Bees in a Damp Cellar.— 



"W. M. Chapel, Kingston, (3 Wis., on 

 April 2, 1885, writes : 



Last fall I obtained 13 colonies of black 

 bees, and on Nov. 5 and 23 1 put them into 

 the following described bee-cellar: It is 

 14 feet long, wide, and 4 high— 2 feet be- 

 low tiie ground and 2 above. The soil is 

 a red clay on low ground. Tlie walls were 

 clay below the ground, and loose boards 

 above, banked up on the outside with 

 earth. It contained no floor. It was cov- 

 ered first with a layer of marsh hay, then 

 that with earth, and then the whole was 

 covered with corn-stalks. The roof was 



Bees Under an Ice-Honse.— Philip 



Week, East Camp,o, N. Y., on April 

 10, 1885, writes : 



Ventilators in bee-repositories are a 

 damage, as they cause too many changes 

 in the temperature. 1 built an ice-house 

 holding 50 tons of ice, on a side-hill, and 

 under the ice I built a room 13 feet square 

 and 7 feet high, tor storing fruit ; the side- 

 walls and floor are cemented, and on the 

 entrance in front I filled out with saw- 

 dust, and also a double door. In this room 

 under the ice I put 7 colonies in Novem- 

 ber, 1883, and in the spring I found 3 of 

 them dead, being after-swarms, and too 

 weak to winter ;.4 were alive. The tem- 

 perature was .^4° above zero. Last No- 

 vember I put 12 colonies into the room, 

 with no ice in the ice-house, the floor 

 being calked and air-tight overhead. Upon 

 examining them in Uecember, I found 

 bees lying behind the hives cut tlirough 

 the middle, and I suspected mice. So I 

 set a trap and caught three. They must 

 have gotten into tlie hives before I took 



Reversible Frames.— Albert Neu- 

 man, Rolla,© Mo., describes his re- 

 versible frame as follows : 



The inside measure of my hive is % of 

 an Inch more than the outside measure ot 

 the frames. The rabbets ot the hive I 

 make of pieces of latli H of an inch thick, 

 and 1)4 inclies wide, by cutting notches on 

 one side IK inch from centre to centre, 

 running to a point M of an inch from the 

 edge. Two of these I then nail to the bot- 

 tom of the inside (front and back) of the 

 hive, and one at the front 11 inches above 

 the lower one (my frames are 13x12: 

 inches), and into this last one I cut a M- 

 inch saw-kerf, M of an inch deep in each 

 notch, for receiving a piece of wire which 

 is fastened one inch from each corner of 

 the frame. I then slip the frames into the 

 notches, which is easily done on account of 

 the slopes of the notches, and the upper 

 front wire slips into the saw-kerfs, which 

 makes the frames perfectly steady. There 

 is no trouble to handle the frames, as they 

 are H of an inch shorter than the inside 

 of the hive, and the only place where 

 they come In contact with the hive is at 

 the two wires at the bottom and one on 

 top. To reverse them, all one has to do is 

 to take them out and put tlieni back up- 

 side down. 



Report, from A. M. Gander, {36— 

 33), Adrian, 5 Mich., on April 13, 



1885: 



The weather is still cool, and the spring 

 is backward. I notice by my note-book, 

 in which 1 note the weather and condi- 

 tion of bees, etc., that the first pollen was 

 brought in last spring, on Apiil3, andin 

 1SS3, pollen was first brought in on March. 

 1. There is great complaint ot "spring 

 dwindling" throughout this section, 

 caused, as most practical bee-keepers- 

 know, by bad wintering. The past severe 

 winter with poor stores (which consisted 

 largely of honey dew), was too much for 

 the bees, and a great many died with Uie- 

 diarrhea. Fully two-thirds, and probably 

 three-fourths, should the cold weather 

 continue a spell longer, of the bees 

 throughout this partof the country, will be 

 dead ; some bee-keepers have lost about 

 all they had, while a few saved nearly all 

 of their bees. Of my own, I have 33 left 

 out of 36 colonies prepared last fall for 

 winter. All of the 36 were alive on April 

 1, but 3 of them were so weakened by 

 diarrhea, that they have since died, and I 

 may lose 3 or 3 more yet, unless the 

 weather soon changes for the better. My 

 bees .were packed on the summer stands 

 with sawdust underneath, at the sides, 

 and at the ends up 5 inches above the 

 brood-chamber. I put silted wheat-chafE 

 on top ot the frames to absorb the mois- 

 ture. A space on top of the frames was 

 left for the bees to pass from one frame 

 to another. Their stores were mostly 

 honey, gathered after the honey-dew was 

 over with in this section, and sugar syrup 

 fed in the fall to those that were light in 

 stores. 



