150 



THE AMERICA* BhhKEEFER. 



How I Wintered by Bees. 



i;v s. P. HARDEE. 



I made a trench 8 inches deep, with 

 plow and shovel, and 3 feet wide and 

 30 feet in length. This trench I filled 

 with oat straw, stamped down, and on 

 this straw I set ray .bees. The hives 

 remained on the bottom-boards or 

 stand I use in summer. I use a bot- 

 tom-board the same size of hive except 

 in front, which projects four inches, 

 and is beveled to shed water. The 

 bottom-board is nailed on two pieces 

 of 2x4 stuff, each 14 inches Ion-: at 

 front and rear, even with edgi 

 bottom-board. I set hives on straw 6 

 inches apart, leaving wide bottom en- 

 trance open, and laid bent pieces of 

 tin acmss top of frames to make a 

 winter bee passage, covered the hives 

 with mats made of one thickness of 

 cotton batting covered with sheeting, 

 and on top of cotton mats I put the 

 upper frames — just the outside frames, 

 and then put on the hive covers, thus 

 giving little or no top ventilation. 



I then placed boards on the sides of 

 the row of hives, leaving the boards 

 against the hives so as to form air 

 spaces, and also laid boards over the 

 tops of hives and then covered with 

 straw, say four inches thick, and then 

 covered the whole with ground. 



This was done Nov. 26. Opened up 

 my bees April 14, 1891, a nice warm 

 day, and found 11 swarms out of 13 

 all right and two dead, one from mice 

 getting in, and one from lack of honey, 

 evidently. 



After letting them fly awhile I look- 

 ed them over and changed frames to 

 even up the honey supply and bees 

 also. 



After that time we had some very 

 bad weather, with severe frosts, even 



the night of the 16th of May freezing 

 ice \ inch thick. 



I protected my hives by covering 

 them in cold weather with carpets, 

 oil cloth and boxes. 



My plan of wintering as above 

 scribed 1 believe much more sue 

 ful than cellar or out-door wintering. 



In this vicinity the losses have been 

 nearly one-half in cellars and outdoors. 



Eminence, N. Y. 



E i )iT< m A m ericahi Bee Keeper, 

 Dear Sir : In "Progressive Bee Cul- 

 ture," page 130 of the Bee-Keeper, 



Mr. Robinson says that Mr. Weeks 

 "invented a hive that aside from sec- 

 tional movable comb hives is the best 

 ever in use." Mr. F. B. Miner, for a 

 number of years publisher of the Mural 

 American and author of rather alarge 

 work on bees, The Bee Keepers' Man- 

 ual, about 1848, I think, invented a 

 hive that by practical experience I 

 deem far superior to Weeks' hive. 

 The combs being invariably straight 

 and true, and superior to the movable 

 frame hive only for what is deemed 

 indispensible in modern apiculture, 

 the facilities for transferring combs 

 from one hive to another. Yours, &c, 

 Sylvan Beach ,JS.Y. P . W . Leete . 



Editor American Bee-Keeper, 

 Dear Sir: Please find inclosed 50c for 

 which send me the American Bee- 

 Keeper for another year. I love to 

 read your paper. 



Bees are doing well this summer. I 

 had one colony that has increased to 

 six, and took off over 200 lbs. of white 

 comb honey besides, and the honey 

 flow is not over yet, It will last until 

 frost. Yours, Ac., Otto F. Semke. 



Harrison, Kan*. 



