THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



77 



year, and so arranged tliat I can regulate it at 

 pleasure. At first I was afraid that I had given 

 the movable comlt hives too much ventilation; 

 but the result will show tliat I did right. 



I visited them everj^ two weeks. Soon after 

 I put ihem in, I b^gan to see tliat my cellar 

 was too damp. Mould began to collect on the 

 Avails, dead bees, and damp places on the roof; 

 but I could give them no more ventilation with- 

 out giving them light also. I examined a few 

 honey boards and found the under sides covered 

 with large drops of Avater, which I thought at 

 the time indicated a bad condition. After this 

 I felt anxious as to the final result of it all. But 

 the worst had not yet come, for on going to ex- 

 amine them one day about the middle of March, 

 after a thaw', I found a stream of water issuiug 

 from the drain, and the bottom of the cellar 

 covered to the depth of one or two inches. Now, 

 I thought, my bees are " gone up " surely. I 

 could not take them out until the loth of April ; 

 and before this they had become quite restless 

 from the high temperature of the cellar. When 

 I took them out, however, instead of finding 

 them a rotten mass in each hive, such as one 

 might expect would be produced by go much 

 heat and moisture, I found only two mouldy 

 combs in sixteen movable frame hives ; while 

 a few old box hives, to which I could give but 

 little upward ventilation, contained considerable 

 mouldy comb. 



All my hives, but one, contained brood in all 

 stages and plonty of bees and honey. Not a 

 hive was lost out of fifty-five, which included 

 some of my neighbors'. My opinion is that 

 they could not have been wintered better, and 

 be in normal condition. Now I believe the 

 Avliole matter of ventilation is this : If bees are 

 wintered in a damp cellar, give plenty of up- 

 ward ventilation. 



This season has been quite unfavorable for 

 bee-keepers lipre, who depend on surplus honey 

 for profit. The weather was rainy and cloudy 

 the greater part of the summer ; and the bees 

 lost, nearly all the clover season. Yet, notwith- 

 standing the bad season, I have increased my 

 stocks from tw^euty to sixty-one, both by natur- 

 al and artificial swarming; and I shall have 

 about four hundred pounds of surplus honey. I 

 have practiced three methods of aitificial 

 swarming, and shall practice artificial swarming 

 exclusively next year. 



1 use movable comb hives, thirteen and a 

 half inches by sixteen, inside measurement, and 

 t(-n inches deep — "the shallow things!" I 

 like them so well that I intend to make one 

 hundred of them for next summer's use. 



Don't you think, Mr. Editor, that tight-fittin 

 frames and movable top bars show a retrograde 

 movement ? (" Pitch in," but quietly, friends 

 Hastings and Benedict.) What do you think, 

 Elisha ? For my part I am sorry to see any 

 person trying to do away with frames. 



Georgu; Cork. 



Bloomfield, Ontario, Canada, September 

 2, 1869. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal ] 



From Canada. 

 "Wintering Bees ; and a Wintering House. 



Artificial operations of all kinds are most suc- 

 cessful when bee -forage is abundant. 



Mr. Editor : — I have been an attentive rea- 

 der of your valuable paper for the past three 

 years, and have been much profited by the in- 

 formation received, through its columns, from 

 your many obliging correspondents. I often 

 think what an improvement it would make in 

 the agricultural papers if farmers were a little 

 more communirative and obliging to each 

 other ; in short, if they would follow the exam- 

 ple of the apiarians, in tliis respect, their papers 

 would not be so dry and tasteless as they fre- 

 quentl}^ are. 



As it is now approaching winter, perhaps 

 there is nothing I could say that would be more 

 interesting than to describe a wintering bouse 

 that I have in course of erection feu- my bees. 

 There is nothing more important, after all, than 

 to be able to keep our bees in good condition 

 through the winter; and on this particular 

 point I feel myself weak. I still require infor- 

 mation, and I fear there are many others like 

 myself in this respect. 



Some advise wintering on their summer 

 stands ; some in cellars ; and some say bury m 

 the snow, or in the sand, or in a clamp ; while 

 others say, build a house above giouud express- 

 ly lor the purpose. All may be right, and 

 doubtless are in their special locality, as the 

 climate varies much in the territory over which 

 the Journal, circulates. This may, in some 

 measure, account for the diff'erent opinions ex- 

 pressed. I have tried nearly all the plans above 

 enumerated, and have found serious objections 

 to nearly all of them. This winter I propose 

 to winter my bees in a repository above ground, 

 built on purpose. My objection to cellars is, 

 they are frequently too damp, and it is difficult 

 to move the hives down and up ; and the bees 

 are liable to be disturbed frequently by persons 

 going down for potatoes, apples, &c. I have 

 tried wintering in a clamp or pit. I find that, 

 in that m ay, the bees eat less, but the combs 

 come out mouldy, and sometimes worthless. 

 Wintering on the summer stands requires more 

 honey, nearly twice as much, as the bees are 

 roused to activity every fine day ; and a great 

 many are lost in the snow, while many others 

 are frozen stiff in the hive during long-continued 

 cold weather. Besidt-s being hazardous, it looks 

 careless, to winter thus. 



The house I am building is 12^ feet by 14J : 

 sills raised on posts 8 inches from the ground. 

 The lower joists are 3 by 10 inches, and run 

 lengthwise. The centre ones are 1 inch lower 

 than the sills A rough floor is laid on the 

 under side, then filled with saw-dust to the top 

 of the joists. I have a double inch floor on the 

 top. The floor is cut in two in the centre and 

 the two parts do not meet by one inch, which 

 opening will answer the double purpose of win- 

 ter ventilation and as a vent to let water off 

 from snow that I intend to pile in towards 



