26 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



ing the month was 48° above zero. 

 Mercury in room A fell as low as 

 40° during the coldest weather. 1 

 was absent from home, and room 

 B was not tested. During the 

 warmest weather mercury in room 

 A was as high as 55° and in room 

 B 62°. 



The first day of January I 

 weighed stocks as follows : No. 



I, 35 1bs.,No.2,511bs.,No. 3, 67 

 lbs., No 4, 92^ lbs., No. 5, 39 lbs.. 

 No. 6, 117 lbs., No. 10, 50 lbs., No. 



II, 52 lbs. 



It will be noticed that the results 

 during the first month do not seem 

 to prove very favorable to doubling 

 several stocks together. It is very 

 evident that No. l,No. 3, and No. 

 6, have not been "hibernating." 

 No. 1 has consumed 17 lbs., No. 

 3, 91 lbs., and No. 6, 10 lbs., while 

 No. 2 consumed but 1^ lbs. No. 

 1 was set on top of No. 2 and it 

 is possible that honey might have 

 been carried from No. 1 to No. 2. 



A more certain test of the amount 

 of honey consumed by the stocks 

 doubled together and a single one 

 is given in No. 3 which consumed 

 9^ lbs. and No. 4 which consumed 

 only 2i lbs. No. 11 weighed 49 

 lbs. Dec. 1, and at that time was 

 fed 6 lbs., making 55 lbs. It will be 

 seen that this stock has consumed 

 but 3 lbs. of liquid honey. After 

 weighing it Jan. 1, I gave it 4 lbs. 

 of liquid honey making it weigh 

 56 lbs. No. 1 had consumed so 

 much that I filled 8 hanging frames 

 with liquid honey and placed them 

 in a hive and set it upon the top of 

 the stock. The hive, combs and 

 honey weigh 61 lbs. This added 



to the weight Jan. 1 makes all 

 weigh 96 lbs. 



Many will remember that the 

 season of 1869 was one of the 

 poorest if not the poorest season 

 known b}' any beekeeper. 



From experience gained during 

 that season I decided never to feed 

 bees to any extent at the close of 

 such a poor season when the bees 

 were all old, from brooding being 

 discontinued so early. This year I 

 found bees in about the same con- 

 dition as regards brood and as a 

 result I doubled many of my stocks. 



I do not anticipate any marked 

 success in wintering under the cir- 

 cumstances. When I give the re- 

 sults in loss of bees from Nov. 19 

 to Jan. 11 many will predict for me 

 entire failure. 



From room A, I took about one 

 bushel of dead bees, and from room 

 B about three pecks. 



Colony No. 6 has worked out 

 quite a large quantity of bees. It 

 is impossible to estimate the quan- 

 tity accurately. I notice by an 

 oversight, I omitted to weigh any 

 of the stocks in 12 Quinby frames. 

 I regret this as I desire to call 

 particular attention to the winter- 

 ing of these stocks. Many will 

 consider this far too many frames 

 for successful wintering, and it 

 certainly would prove so with any 

 other than the closed end Quinby 

 frame. I make this experiment 

 hoping to prove that one may be 

 successful in wintering with this 

 frame even with this number of 

 combs. 



Miss Lucy A. Wilkins, of Michi- 

 gan, asks if I am making observation 



