158 



THE AMEEICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



crawled in. All -was still as death, and I con- 

 cluded my bees were surely dead; but when I 

 rapped each hive they quickly responded. A 

 truant mouse had tried to gnaw into the entrance 

 of one hive. I supposed he was hungry and 

 Avanled something to eat ; so I prepared a dish of 

 corn meal and arsenic, and for his convenience, 

 lest he should be thirsty after dinner, I set a dish 

 of water handy, and closed the cave again. 

 The bees were left thus till the 20th of March, 

 when the frost was all out of the ground, and my 

 other bees flying livaly. I opened the cave, all 

 was quiet ; but the bees soon run to the door to 

 see if it was indeed daylight. I set them on their 

 summer stands, all alive and well, with combs 

 clear of mould and in good order. Two large 

 rats and about a dozen mice had dined on the 

 prepared meal, and laid down to rest. 



As the bees were gathering pollen from the 

 willows and elms, I did not have to feed any in 

 the spring to get them through. They filled up 

 their liives during the summer, and were strong, 

 heavy stocks in the fall, with nearly as much box 

 honey as any of the rest of the hives. 



I was satisfied that protection had saved these 

 bees. I therefore, the next winter, built a house, 

 fourteen feet by eighteen, weatherboarded and 

 ceiled, with a ten-inch wall filled in with sawdust, 

 floored overliead, with ten inches sawdust on top, 

 and carpeted Avith four inclies of sawdust. Two 

 ventliating pipes, four inches by six, were inserted 

 — one from the upper floor up ; the other from top 

 of sawdust, over the upper floor, down to within 

 a foot of the bottom of the room. In this room 

 we kept our canned fruit, apples, potatoes, cab- 

 bages and bees, for the last two winters, with 

 success. I have just put them up in it again for 

 the winter, except a few hives which I have left 

 out for experiment. I am satisfied that protec- 

 tion pays. 



Now, Mr. Editor, if you think this article will 

 add anything serviceable to the already large 

 correspondence in the Journal on protection in 

 winter, and thei'eby induce other novices to house 

 or cave their bees during the cold weather in the 

 North, you can put it in print if you like. So, 

 hurrah for protection, tlie Amekican Bee Jotrn- 

 NAL and the successes of 1870 ! Enclosed find 

 the needful for three old and three new subscri- 

 bers. 



A. V. CONKLIN. 



Bennington, Ohio, Nov. 18G9. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal.] 



Bees in Jefferson, Wisconsin, in 1869. 



The entire economy of the hive seems to ema- 

 nate exclusively from the two most prominent 

 attributes of instinct — that of self-preservation, 

 and tliat other more important axis of the vast 

 wheel of creation, the secured perpetuation of the 

 kind by the conservative and absorbing love of 

 the olTspring. — Shuckard. 



" If you listen by a hive about nine 'colock, 

 [on a summer evening,] you will hear an orato- 

 rio sweeter th;in at Exeter Hall. Treble, tenor, 

 and bass are blended in richest harmony. Some- 

 times the sound is like the distant hum of a great 

 city, and sometimes it is like a peal of halle- 

 lujahs." — Rev. Wm. C. Cotton. 



I commenced wintering out the stocks of my 

 home apiary on the 28th of March. They had, 

 all of them, consumed a very small amount of 

 honey, and came out nearly as strong as when 

 put in the cellar. In most of the hives no brood 

 was found, and those that had any, had very little. 

 On the od and 4th of April a cold snow storm 

 occurred, witli a spell of cold weather for three or 

 four days, during Avhich time one of my strongest 

 colonies perished for want of honey near the 

 cluster, though having plenty of honey in the 

 hive. This^was the fourth colony I had lost out 

 of three hundred and sixty-five, since winter- 

 ing them in. Good, warm weather did not set 

 in till the 16th of April, and a few days later 

 the bees commenced bringing in some pollen. 

 Between the 6th and 12th of May, large numbers 

 of workers hatched, and everything relating to 

 bees gave promise of a good honey season. 

 On the 10th of May I found some colonies that 

 had their hives full of honej^, brood, and bee- 

 bread to the last cell. They were very strong, 

 and had built queen cells, so that it was evident 

 they could not keep together long. But the 

 weather became unfavoraljle again, and the bees 

 could gather little from the blossoms of hard 

 maple. On the 20th the weather changed, and 

 the fruit blossoms furnished fine pasturage for the 

 bees. My fiist swarm issued on the 2yth, and 

 on the cid of June I had three more swarms. 

 Nearly all my colonies had become strong by 

 this time, and I had reason to expect numerous 

 swarms. White clover never appeared more 

 abundant, and was just getting into bloom, and 

 there were fourteen acres of Alsike clover sowed 

 within half a mile of my apiary Avhich was also 

 just beginning to blossom. Nearly every colony 

 had a good supply of old honey, besides some 

 lately gathered. If ever things looked promising, 

 it was now, but, alas, the prospect suddenly 

 changed. Cold wet weather set in, and rain lell 

 on twenty-three days in June. Neither white 

 clover nor Alsike yielded any honey. The 

 swarms I got during the month of June had to 

 be fed continuously to. keep them from starving. 

 They could build no combs, and all the progress 

 they made was in rearing some brood in the 

 combs I had given the.m. The stores of honey 

 in the hives gradually disappeared, and about 

 the 10th of July— the time when the basswood 

 usually begins to bloom — I had to feed nearly 

 one-half of my old colonies to keep them alive. 

 But as all my stocks were quite populous by this 

 time, I had not lost courage yet — thCj^basswood 

 might 3'et supply sulBcient winter stores to my 

 hungry colonies. There were, however, only a 

 small number of trees that blossomed, and those 

 yielded honey abundantly only one day, and less 

 abundantly lor only two days more. With the 

 failure of the basswood blossoms vanished all 

 prospect that the bees of my home apiary could 

 gather a winter's supply. On examining a large 

 number of colonies I became satisfied that not 

 one had secured stores enough to carry them 

 through the winter — having less than five pounds 

 of honey per colony. It was now evident that I 



