My Bees 147 



Connecticut with success. In northern New 

 England and in the northwestern States, where 

 the thermometer often falls below zero, it is 

 customary to winter the hives in cellars. 



After a pretty severe winter I discovered in 

 the first sunshiny days of March that my bees 

 were coming out of the hive freely, and taking 

 a warm day for investigation, I lifted out a 

 frame to find it full of "brood," as the bees 

 not yet out of the cell are called. As the 

 spring advanced the hive became more and 

 more lively, and when the willows blossomed 

 the noise of my bees could be heard fifty feet 

 away ; apparently I had twice as many bees as 

 in the autumn, and I looked forward to a tre- 

 mendous crop of honey. Authorities upon 

 the bee business say that the average product 

 of a good hive ought to be sixty pounds of 

 honey a year. Some bee-keepers boast of 

 having obtained one hundred pounds, and the 

 farmer who still keeps bees in a common 

 wooden box, provided with no movable frames, 

 is satisfied with twenty-five or thirty pounds. 

 May came, and I filled my hives with boxes 

 fitted out with wax "starters." The hive ap- 



