300 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



November 



ists favor wintering them in cellars. 

 Dry pure air and a proper and uniform 

 temperature are the two essentials for 

 successful wintering. These in ray 

 opinion cannot be so perfectly con- 

 trolled out of doors as in some suit- 

 able place in doors. The best place 

 is a dry cellar, warm enough to pre- 

 vent freezing, and provided with suffi- 

 cient ventilation to allow the gasses, 

 which are generated by the bees, to 

 pass off. The temperature should be 

 about 45 degrees. The ordinary oil 

 stove of today is an excellent thing 

 for warming cellars when it is neces- 

 sary to do so in extremely cold weather. 



Every bee-keeper should have a 

 separate apartment for his bees, where 

 he should place them as near together 

 as possible. I think they remain more 

 quiet when they hear the soft hum- 

 ming of their neighbors. I think bees 

 are naturally friendly and confiding 

 with each other. The human family 

 could learn a lesson from these insects, 

 Hives can be set as closely together as 

 possible out doors and each one will 

 attend to their own business, working 

 diligently for their own home and in- 

 terests, and seldom will they ever rob 

 each other unless led to do so by hives 

 being left open, or combs or honey 

 scattered around. 



We live in a progressive age, and 

 the bee-keepers must be progressive 

 in bee-keeping as in other things. The 

 diligent are crowned with success. 



Sherburne, N. Y. 



Feeding Bees in Gold Weather. 



BY ED. JOLLEY. 



Of the various plans for feeding 

 bees in cold weather, I have never 

 seen one in print which could be so 

 safely and easily applied by the inex- 



perienced as one which I had occasion 

 to use the first winter I kept bees, 

 which was in 1889. 



Owing to early frosts the fall flow 

 of honey for that year was a failure. 

 I noticed there was not very much 

 honey in the hives when I packed 

 them for the winter, but thought 

 there was probably enough to carry 

 the bees through. But on lifting up 

 the quilts one mild sunny afternoon 

 in February I found the hives to be 

 very destitute of honey ; four or five 

 out of the seven colonies I then had 

 did not show a single cell of sealed 

 honey. I knew then that I would 

 have to feed, and that very shortly; 

 but how and what to feed I did not 

 know. 



I went to H. S. Sutton, an old and 

 successful bee keeper, of whom I had 

 bought my first bees the spring previ- 

 ous, and laid my case before him. 

 He asked if I had any frames of hon- 

 ey ; to which I replied I had not as 

 much as one ounce of honey about my 

 place excepting what the bees had 

 themselves, and that was verv little. 

 He told me to buy about eight or ten 

 pounds of section honey for each col- 

 ony, and to lay the sections flat on 

 top of the frames, and to tuck the 

 quilts and cushions in tightly to keep 

 the heat from getting out, and let 

 them alone. He said there would be 

 honey enough in the underside of the 

 sections to last them until it was time 

 to take off the cushions and quilts 

 some afternoon, and I could then 

 score the top capping with a table 

 fork, and put the hive cover on and 

 leave the quilts off awhile, and the 

 bees would carry the honey down to 

 their combs. After getting the above 

 directions, and a good lecture thrown 



