THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



2G5 



to the capital reriuired, tlie location, anil 

 the suitability of the enijiloynient to ones 

 temperament. To-ilay it is possible for the 

 inteiulinK bee keeper to serve an actual 

 and willing apprenticeship beforeembark- 

 Ing in the business, in the yards of well- 

 known aiul successful bee-masters. I 

 need not dwell upon Ihe advautajjes of 

 this plan, for they are obvious. 



To the enthusiast with but small ex- 

 perience, 1 would say, " Go slow !" Read 

 the good bee-literature now so easy to be 

 obtained, and never he above learning 

 from others. dVisit bee-keepers wlierever 

 yon can enjoy the privilejie, attend bee- 

 conventions, and gradually a store of 

 knowledge will be gathered upon which 

 you will draw with profit later on. 



Profitable bee-keeping as a pursuit is, 

 to my mind, the (uit-come of the nnion of 

 two great factors— "talent " and "tact;" 

 for "talent is power, tact is skill; talent 

 is wealth, tact is ready money ; talent 

 knows what to do, tact knows how to do 

 it; talent makes the world wonder that it 

 gets on no faster, tact excites astonish- 

 ment that it gets ou so fast; talent may 



ment of i:i(l days. Six out of 10(1 colonies 

 starved, but tlie rciuainiler. with a few ex- 

 ceptions, arc in iinnd condition, althouijh 

 they have coiisniiicd luucli fooil. 'I'hrite 

 colonies are alive from llie ST which wi're 

 in my heehouse that buiiicd dcjwn on Jan 

 :a. riiis was a grievous loss, hut by it I 

 have gained much valuable information 

 concerning the condition of my bees at 

 that time of the year, as I got all the hives 

 out before it had entirely liurneil down, 

 and 1 could see the exact condition of all, 

 which 1 will describe. 



The 87 colonies were in fine condition 

 before the fire, liut from all appearances, 

 the condensed smoke for three days in the 

 bee-honse, had driven the bees out of the 

 hives npon the sawdust, which was on the 

 Hoor and bnrned, thus leaving most of the 

 hives withcnit any bees in them ; but in 40 

 liives there were more or less li\ c bees, and 

 they were put into another bee-honse near 

 l)j-, and in a week from that time there 

 were only 7 alive, and at present onh- .3 of 

 them. 1 examined the most of the coud)s, 

 and extracted the honey, and I foiuul the 

 following : Fortj -eight colonies had more 



APIARl OF H\MBAUGH & STONE bPRING ILL 



obtain a living, but tact will make' one. 

 Talent convinces, tact converts; talent is 

 an honor to the profession, tact has the 

 knack of slipping into good places, and 

 keeping them; it seems to know every 

 thing without learning anything; it has 

 no left hand, no deaf ear, ho blind side, 

 with a full knowledge of the Pythagorean 

 doctrine, ' that a man ought rather to be 

 silent, or say something better than 

 silence.' " 



I submit these remarks to my fellow 

 bee-keepers, being painfully conscious of 

 many short-comings from the high stan- 

 dard of excellence that man should at- 

 tain to, who in these days goes into " bee- 

 keeping as a pursuit." 



(Jermantown, Pa. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



How my Bees have Wintered, etc 



17— C. TIIEILMA.N'X, (100—19.5). 



Another long and severe winter for the 

 bees closed here on March ti(i, which was 

 the first day warm enough for the bees to 

 have a cleansing Hight. It was .54 degi-ees 

 above zero at noon in the shade, and the 

 bees enjoyed it very mudi, after a confine- 



or less sealed brood, 5 of them had brood 

 in 5 frames, 3 had brood in 4 frames, and 17 

 had more or less eggs and larviie in the 

 combs ; the rest had neither brood nor 

 eggs. All the condis were nice and clean, 

 and there were no signs of disease. The 

 most of the time the temperature was 40 

 degrees above zero, thougli a number of 

 times in .January it fell to -30 and 28 de- 

 grees above, when the temperature was at 

 35 and 38 degrees lielowzero on the outside. 



1 have wintered part of my bees tor three 

 years in the same bee-house, with about 

 the same temxierature, and apparently the 

 same condition, with but little loss ; but if 

 brood-rearing were the cause of bee-diar- 

 rhea, as some writers clainij 1 wouhl i^rob- 

 ably have lost over two-thn'ds of my bees 

 every year, for this sad experience shows 

 that 'breeding had commenced before Jan. 

 15. and as long as there is any food in the 

 hives, they will siu'ely keep at it all win- 

 ter ; it proves, too. that it is not necessary 

 for a young bee to have a cleansing fUglit 

 soon after it emerges from the cell ; i. e., 

 witlnn a week or "so : for, if it was true, 

 evcj'y colony that would rear brood for 

 75 to 85 days' woidd be of no value in the 

 spring — the old bees would be worn out 

 and the young ones woidd be dead. 



i do ncjt want to be understood to say 

 that brood-rearing in confinement is any 



benefit, but on the contrary, if 1 could con- 

 trol it, I would not have hecjs bre(!d before 

 March 1, in this latitude. I have experi- 

 lucnlcil lor the |jasl 13 winters to find out 

 how 1 I'ould prevent m.\ bees from breed- 

 ing in wiid-er. anil at the same time have 

 them warm I'lioiigli to winter well, but as 

 yet I have not entirely overcome the dif- 

 ficulty, although 1 have come somewhat 

 nearer to a successful method of wintering 

 my bees. I have tried oiit-ilonr and in-door 

 wintering; rhalf-parkiiig and snow eover- 

 ing; frame-s|ireading, and holes through 

 the combs for passage- \va.\s ; iiiuicr and 

 lower ventilation ; side-hill anif above- 

 gi-omid bee-houses, and for the past two 

 winter I have wuitered part of my bees in 

 a cave ; i. e , a hole in the gronn'd 7 feet 

 deep, and 3 feet of earth over the roof, a 

 ventilating pipe under ground, and one 

 with an elljow through the top to regulate 

 the temjierature in the fall and towards 

 sin'ing. From what 1 have observed with 

 this cave, I believe that it is the best, 

 cheapest and safest way to winter bees in 

 our northern climate. The outside tem- 

 perature during the two winters, for over 

 thrre iiiiinfhs in the coldest weather, did 

 not affect the inside of this cave more than 

 3 degrees ; 40 degrees above zero was what 

 the thermometer indicated inside of the 

 cave when the temi^erature was 35 degrees 

 below zero on the outside ; and at 3.5 de- 

 grees above zero outside, for six days, the 

 mside tenijierature was 43 degrees above 

 zero. 



The 60 colonies which were wintered in 



is cave came through in fine condition, 

 ■xoepting 3 which starved. They were 

 put in on Nov. 17, 1884, without any prep- 

 aration, excepting that an S-penny nail 

 was imt under eacli corner between the 

 honey-board and the hive. Also the bees 

 that '1 had in the cave last winter came 

 thronnh nicely. Hereafter 1 intend to 

 \\ inter all of my bees in caves, regardless 

 of hibernation, pollen, and brood-rearing 

 in confinement. 



As Mr. Doolittle lias given such an in- 

 teresting article on " The temperature of 

 bees in winter." jiage 181,1 will give my 

 observations of the movements of the clus- 

 ter in the hive in winter confinement. Last 

 fall I put 40 colonies in a side-hill bee- 

 house, making a row 3" tiers high around 

 the inside of "the house. They were pre- 

 pared in the same manner as those in the 

 cave, except that 7 of them were stored 

 among the others without anything over 

 the frames, and the entrances were also 

 left wide open. One of the 7 was placed 

 near the door on the top row, and one on 

 top at a back corner ; the other .5 colonies 

 were in the middle and lower tiers, with a 

 space 1% inches wide between the frames 

 and the hive above them. 1 could not see 

 the movements of the 5, but 1 did see the 

 3 on top ever\- time I entered the bee-house. 

 Before this I 'had an idea that the cluster 

 would stay in one place as long as they 

 had plenty of food, out I discovered that 

 it was otherwise. 



During the first month the cluster staid 

 in one place near the centre of the hive, 

 but after that (I wish that Mr. Clarke 

 could have seen their movements, for it 

 siu-ely would have cured him of bee-hiber- 

 nation) they commenced to move very 

 slowly to the left side and toward the back 

 part, across to the right side, thence toward 

 the front and again to the centre, and then 

 made tlie same" round till I put them out 

 on the summer stands. The.\' were very 

 quiet all the time, but when my breath 

 would come in contact with them, they 

 were instantly upon the alert. A small 

 part of the cluster was always on top of 

 the frames. They cohsuurmI but little 

 lionev, as the honey all around the outside 

 was still sealed when I putthem out. The 

 colony on the bade corner acted nearly like 

 the o'ne near the door. The 7 colonies 

 came through in good condition, but some 

 of them consumed more food than others, 



