West Sumner, Me., Feb. 15, 1879. 

 I started on a small scale with 2 good colo- 

 nies ot Italians. 1 put them in the cellar in 

 good condition, hut 1 find in one hive num- 

 bers are dying. I put a woolen quilt over 

 the top of the frames and they are warm 

 and have plenty of honey ; the strongest 

 colony has the most dead bees. Will going 

 into the cellar with a light serve to kill 

 them ? Is it right to keep the bottom board 

 dry and clean from dead bees ? I have 

 taken nearly one quart of dead bees from 

 the strongest colony, while the other has 

 none ! Do I keep them too warm ? Is it 

 natural for so many to die through the 

 winter ? E. W. Chandler. 



[Premature death of the workers and 

 dysentery seem to be quite prevalent this 

 winter. If done very quietly, it will do no 

 harm to clear the bottom board of dead bees 

 once in a while. Some think it matters but 

 little whether it is cleared or not. Light, or 

 anything that disturbs them, will serve to 

 aggravate the disease. About 40° fahr. is a 

 good temperature for the place containing 

 bees in winter. Colonies cannot be injured 

 by the use of a blanket. Very few bees die 

 in winter, when all are healthy.— Ed.] 



Winterset, Iowa, Feb. 8, 1879. 

 Many colonies have been lost in this sec- 

 tion, owing to the long cold spell just passed. 

 Some few hives were closed up by the frost, 

 while some used up their honey and starved. 

 Some have dysentery and foul brood. For 

 two weeks quite a number have been rear- 

 ing brood nicely— considering the time of 

 year. Moses Bailey. 



Austin, Minn., Feb. 5, 1879. 

 I started last spring with 20 colonies in 

 Langstroth hives. 1 divided them till I had 

 37, and obtained a little over 1000 lbs. of 

 comb honey. I sold colonies down to 15, 

 which are now in the cellar, wintering 

 finely. The thermometer there has not 

 varied 4 from 40° all winter. The season 

 was not a very good one. Minnesota will be 

 a good honey-producing state, for the soil is 

 well adapted to white clover, which con- 

 tinues to bloom during the season. It also 

 has a magnificent ranee of golden rod. 



Frank A. Ticknor. 



Fort Calhoun, Neb., Jan. 10, 1879. 

 Up to the present time my bees have passed 

 the winter in good condition. I have about 

 90 colonies on their summer stands, in dou- 

 ble-walled hives with one or more thick- 

 nesses of carpet over the frames and under 

 the cap. I have about 20 colonies in out- 

 door cellar, so far, doing well. Bees did 

 not gather a very large amount of surplus 

 honey the past year, so that, in connection 

 with the very low price of honey in the 

 market (12 to 15 cents per lb.) the prolits of 

 bee-keeping have been rather small. Owing 

 to the low price of honey it is ceasing to be 

 looked upon as a luxury, and is becoming 

 a staple article of consumption. 



Hiram Craig. 



Visalia, Ky., Feb. 9, 1879. 

 1 am wintering bees on their summer 

 stands, by taking out all but from 4 to ft 

 frames of combs, using division boards and 

 filling in between them and the walls of the 

 hive with sawdust, and a sack of chaff on 

 top. Although the thermometer at several 

 times indicated 19 3 below zero, 1 have not 

 lost a colony. How much drone comb, in 

 proportion to worker comb, ought to be put 

 in a hive in the spring, in ordinary circum- 

 stances ? F. B. Threlkeli>. 



[The less drone comb the bees have, the 

 better.— EdJ 



Neosho Rapids, Kan., Feb. 3, 1879. 

 I began the season of 1878 with 6 colonies, 

 2 Italians and 4 blacks, which increased to 

 22 colonies. I got 300 lbs. of comb honey 

 from my Italians, but none from my black 

 bees. My bees had a good fly Jan. 18. I 

 cleaned off the bottom board, and found 2 

 dead queens and 2 colonies dead, 1 frozen 

 ^ the other starved. I think the Italians bet- 

 ter than the blacks. I increased by natural 

 swarming. 1 would not be without the Bee 

 Journal for three times its cost. I think 

 all who have bees should take it. I wish it 

 success. N. Davis. 



Augusta, Me., Feb. 12, 1879. 

 The winter has been cold here. For 2 

 years the seasons have been poor for honey; 

 the bees therefore are in poor condition for 

 winter. Many bee-keepers here do not pro- 

 tect their bees from the cold ; and such will 

 lose many. Maine has but few bees, when 

 compared with other states. Aroostook is 

 a new county, but is noted for its honey and 

 in it is raised more than in all the other 

 counties of the state together. Success in 

 producing honey lies in keeping all the 

 colonies strong and in doing the right thing 

 at the proper time. Success to the Journal. 

 Isaac F. Plummer. 



Rulo, Neb., Feb. 7, 1879. 

 We have had a very long cold spell of 

 weather. The murcury for several days 

 was 16° below zero ; and from the 14th of 

 Nov., 1878, until the 20th of Jan., 1879, the 

 bees were not able to fly. The entrances of 

 such as did not face to the south froze up 

 entirely, and a sheet of ice formed all 

 round the inside of the hives, except where 

 the rays of the sun struck them with the 

 most force, preventing all egress, and ren- 

 dering it necessary to remove the covers 

 when the weather moderated. The inside 

 of the covers was coated with ice, yet the 

 cushions had protected the bees from the 

 cold so well that we lost but 4 out of 221, 

 and these were in hives in which the center 

 frame was not well filled with comb, virtu- 

 ally preventing the bees from passing to the 

 warm side of the hive and eventually they 

 froze dead from the extreme cold. Symp- 

 toms of dysentery were developed in all the 

 colonies, and had the weather continued 

 cold, or had not the bees been released from 

 the hive when the weather became suitable 

 for them to fly, we should have had aa 

 disastrous results as formerly. 1 think 

 hereafter we should put cushions on, not to 

 absorb the moisture of the bees, but to 



