THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



149 



over their success in bringing pleas- 

 ant and remunerating employment to 

 thousands of their fellow beings ? 



If the business of beekeeping 

 turns out to be more precarious as a 

 pursuit than at first portrayed, by 

 the writers on the subject, the facts 

 cannot be long concealed. Those 

 who invest their money and time 

 in the business will be first to find it 

 out. In conclusion I wish to say 

 that the average beekeeper does not 

 necessarily need as high salary as a 

 ''first-class clerk" does. His life 

 need not be so expensive as that of 

 the latter. Besides, "first-class" 

 clerks are not numerous, and "places 

 of fatness" for such are full and 

 running over. The apicultural field 

 is as wide as land and sunshine. 



Christiansburg, Ky. 



'BIEA'ENZEITUNG'' NOTES. 



Bt J. M. Hicks. 



M. BoTTNER in the Bienenzei- 

 f//ng states that he has learned from 

 his experiments in endeavoring to 

 prevent swarming, and in wintering 

 his bees economically, the following 

 results : 



I. In wintering bees it is needless 

 to be so exceedingly anxious and 

 careful, if they are well supplied with 

 stores, and their hives can shield 

 them from the severity of the weath- 

 er. Placing them in some wintering 

 repository is a useless and superflu- 

 ous labor, and is less conducive to 



their health and comfort, than when 

 wintered out of doors. For twelve 

 years past, I have wintered my bees 

 alternately in a cool, dark, dry, and 

 quiet cellar, and in the open air. 

 When housed, many died, dysentery 

 prevailed among them, and the stocks 

 were weak in the spring. When left 

 in the open air, on the other hand, 

 none of these evils were experienced. 

 2. Water dearth is a mere imagi- 

 nary trouble, for the colony had 

 overhead no covering on which va- 

 por or moisture could condense. 

 The window recess is only four inch- 

 es broad, and all the rest was 

 covered with woollen blanketing, 

 which certainly absorbed all moist- 

 ure. During the last fourteen years, 

 I have kept my bees in top-opening 

 hives. In the first four years, I did 

 not close the interstices between the 

 slats forming the honey board, leav- 

 ing open such of them as the bees 

 had not closed ; merely placing 

 thereon a sheet of thick paper and a 

 cushion filled with hay, and they 

 wintered well. Then the idea oc- 

 curred to me that it might be better 

 to close all these interstices thor- 

 oughly. Adopting the notion, I 

 plastered them shut with clay. But 

 the bees did not jvinter any better 

 than before. As this plastering in 

 the bee house was so inconvenient, 

 I omitted it during the last four 

 years on the six colonies wintered 

 there ; and these not only passed the 

 winter as well as any of the others, 

 but came out last spring as true co- 

 lossal colonies. I had merely, as in 

 former years, placed a sheet of thick 

 paper on the honey-board, laid an 

 old coffee bag on that, and covered 



