The American Apiculturist 



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ENTERED AT THE POST-OFFICE, SALEJI, AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 



Published Monthly. S. M. Locke, Publisher & Prop'r. 



VOL. II. 



SALEM, MASS., JULY i, 1884. 



No. 7. 



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BEE-CULTURE IN THE 

 SOUTH. 



By G. W. Demaree. 



The past winter was the hardest 

 one in many respects ever known in 

 these parts of our great country. 

 That my entire apiary of eighty col- 

 onies came through such a winter in 

 fair condition, without any protec- 

 tion except from one to three quilts 

 spread over the frames, was an 

 agreeable surprise to me. On the 

 fifth of January the temperature 

 went down with a swoop to 20° 

 below zei'o, and nothwithstanding 

 this unprecedented cold snap, some 

 three-frame nuclei survived it, and 

 came through in good health. ' I 

 have long been, of the opinion that 

 good healthy colonies of bees, of 

 the proper age to stand the confine- 

 ment incident to winter, will stand 

 any amount of cold — if kept diy — 

 provided the intense cold does not 

 17 



continue but a few days at a time, 

 as is generally the case in such cli- 

 mates as that of central Kentucky. 

 I really think it a mistaken notion 

 that bees must be kept breeding till 

 late in the fall in order to prepare 

 them for winter. I prefer bees of 

 mature age to winter successfully. 

 Last fall, owing to want of rain 

 in time to give fall pasture for the 

 bees we had but little fall honey, 

 and no late breeding. During the 

 first days of August I introduced 

 about twenty queens, daughters 

 from a fine imported Italian queen, 

 in order to supply my queen-rear- 

 ing apiary with an abundance of 

 Italian drones that I knew to be 

 pure, and I noticed that these 

 young queens laid but little, and 

 their eggs were wholly neglected 

 by the bees, because they were get- 

 ting no hone3\ The consequence 

 was, by the 20th of August there 

 was not a cell of brood in the hives. 

 I thought that period was a little 

 early for breeding to stop entirely, 

 but it did not disturb me in the least, 

 for I had seen the like before, and 

 without bad results. The last of 

 these old veterans hung on with 

 their ragged wings till white clover 

 began to blossom, living to be nine 

 months old, presuming that those 

 last hatched held out the longest, 

 which is by no means certain.* 

 (U5) 



