THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



163 



caused by uneasiness, which is al- 

 ways the case. My bees have win- 

 tered, so far, better than they did last 

 winter, on account of not being so 

 long confined ; they had a fair fly 

 the early part of last January, which 

 they did not have one year ago. The 

 spring so far has been very unfavor- 

 able, as the weather was not quite 

 warm enough, when they were shov- 

 elled out, for them to have a good 

 fly which I think very essential, as 

 they will then return and be con- 

 tented for some time ; while as it has 

 been this spring they keep coming 

 out, never to return, every time the 

 cold lets up a little. We are now 

 having one of the coldest spells of 

 weather Ave have had this winter. 



It is a wonder to me that so 

 many of our best apiarists suffer 

 such losses. I have always claimed 

 I could winter bees as safely, accord- 

 ing to the number kept, as other 

 stock. I stated this to Prof. Cook at 

 the State convention at Lansing last 

 winter. He said "there is time enough 

 yet." I have wintered six winters and 

 I think we have had a fair average ; 

 should I lose, I would say I am lia- 

 ble to lose other stock, as I lost 12 

 sheep this winter out of 75 by some 

 unknown disease. 



I have had the misfortune to lose, 

 by fire, my honey house and shop 

 combined, consisting of 1,100 lbs. 

 of comb honey, 150 of extracted, 

 the surplus to 75 Doolittle hives, all 

 of my tools which were not few, 7 

 saws, 7 planes, 3 draw shovels, 2 

 coal chisels, augers, bits and chisels 

 from 2 in. down to | in. ; in fact, I had 

 almost everything a person needs to 

 carry on an apiary. The morning of 

 the sixteenth I went to the shop, 

 started a fire and returned to do 

 a few chores at the house while it 

 was getting warmed up. I did not 

 think I had been in over five min- 

 utes when I noticed the smoke. I 

 think it started where the pipe en- 

 tered the chimney, as that was the 

 only place where fire was to be seen ; 



everything was supposed to be per- 

 fectly tight, unless something fell 

 from above and knocked the pipe 

 out. I have no clew as to how it 

 happened. I only know it did. It 

 burned very quickly, as it was well 

 filled with hives and other dry ma- 

 terial. I lay the damage at ^1,000, 

 insurance $375. I do not wish to 

 be placed in the "blasted hopes" col- 

 umn, although I feel as though I 

 could make but little headway 

 this season ; still I shall try and raise 

 enough honey for our own use, as we 

 are very fond of it. I have the ma- 

 terial on the ground for a new build- 

 jng and have got my tools to-day, so 

 that as soon as the weather changes 

 we shall put up the building and 

 then I can proceed to business. 



P. S. I am very much pleased 

 with Vols. I and II of "American Api- 

 culturist." I think it well deserves a 

 place in every beekeeper's library. 

 A. P. Cowan. 



Grattan, Mich., 

 March 20, 188 J. 



NEW YORK AND FLORIDA. 



Our bees in New York state were 

 set on their summer stands after a 

 confinement of one-hundred and 

 fifty days terminating Apr. 19, 1885, 

 in much better condition than we had 

 reason to expect. Our loss of bees 

 in cellar was four per cent, but after 

 setting out it was necessary to unite 

 several colonies which increased it to 

 eight per cent. The bees came out 

 with little or no brood, which with the 

 cold weather that came, the last of 

 April, made it very bad for the colo- 

 nies that had to wait for the young 

 bees to hatch to replace the loss 

 caused by the old bees dying. And 

 as a natural consequence, by the first 

 of May our bees were much reduced 

 in numbers. 



The past experience in wintering 

 has taught me that in order to win- 



