PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE W T FALCONER MANPG CO. 



VOL. II. 



F&BRUf\RY, 1892. 



NO. 2. 



Instructions to Amateur Bee- 

 Keepers. 



BY W. S. VANDRUFF. 

 [Continued.) 



If you have looked your colonies 

 over aud examined them closely you 

 have duubtlefS by this time noticed 

 quite a difference in their mortality. 

 I have some colonies of which the 

 bees have died off so much already 

 that there is not half the bees in the 

 hives that there was last fall, while 

 others seem to have lost but few, and 

 seem about as strong in numbers as 

 they were. Now I am satisfied that 

 some of my colonies that are losing so 

 in numbers will dwindle out before 

 spring. I have one or two in partic- 

 ular that are from queens I bought 

 that I feel sure will dwindle out en- 

 tirely. 



Now, why is this? 8 >me will say, 

 " Oh! they perhaps have net got good, 

 healrhy winter stores, or they are not 

 in the right kind of a hive, they are 

 not chaff packed, you have not got 

 them ' tucked ' up warm and comfort- 

 ably, or they should be in a good, 

 warm cellar, etc." Now I say, none of 

 these things will save them, with the 

 exception perhaps of having good, 

 healthy winter stores, for I have tried 



all these things, such as chuff packed 

 double walled hives, thin hives, and 

 hives packed and unpacked, in the 

 cellar and out, and instead of the 

 trouble being in these things, it is in 

 the blood, or the bees, whichever you 

 please to call it. 



If you have a hardy strain or stock 

 of bees that have good fixed wintering 

 qualities you will find that they will 

 winter well in most any kind of a 

 hive, in the cellar or out, packed or 

 unpacked, and I think a little better 

 unpacked. In proof of this I have had 

 under my observation for the past ten 

 years a strain or stock of regular Ital- 

 ian bees that have stood the test all 

 these winters under the control of a 

 party that gave them little or no at- 

 tention, and knew little or nothing 

 about bees. These bees were in single 

 walled L. hives, no packing was ever 

 used, not even over the brood frames. 

 The super or upper story was left on, 

 sometimes empty or with the empty 

 sections in them, but never were they 

 filled with chaff or any kind of pack- 

 ing, while my bees in my own apiary, 

 which were made up of all the new 

 strains that have come up for past ten 

 years and have been in all kinds of 

 hives and packings for winter, have 



