Mr. Bacon had found his cellar too damp 

 for wintering successfully, and he had 

 accordingly built an above-ground house 

 which he kept at about 40\ If he could get 

 two nights, one in January and one in 

 March, he felt perfectly safe. In his bee- 

 house he had 107 colonies last fall and had 

 lost but 4. He did not like cellars; upper 

 houses could be as warm and were far dryer. 



Mr. Betsinger had come to the conclusion 

 never to winter out doors again ; he had lost 

 perhaps 100 colonies the past winter. 



Mr. Clarke liked the above ground style of 

 wintering in a house frost proof ; packing 

 the same with dry earth was better because 

 the earth would receive the moisture. 



Mr. Bacon examined every day the state 

 of the thermometer in his bee-house, and 

 opened or closed the ventilators as necessary. 



Pres. Root did not disturb bees at all in 

 the winter, and he paid careful attention to 

 temperature. 



Mr. Snow had succeeded well for 10 years 

 in out door wintering ; this winter had 150 

 colonies outdoors and he has thus far found 

 them all right, his hives had double walls 

 and were packed with shavings and 

 thoroughly ventilated; he gave every oppor- 

 tunity for the persperationtogetoff through 

 the packing and thus kept his bees dry and 

 warm. 



Pres. Root gave his ideas at length mainly 

 agreeing with Mr. Betsinger. 



Mr. Snow suggested that plaster was good 

 to absorb moisture ; he found that his bees 

 came out in the spring, even if they did eat 

 more honey, with more comb ready for the 

 queen to commence laying in. 



Mr. Bacon said he saved in honey enough 

 each winter by indoor wintering to pay for 

 the cost of his house; if there were too 

 much honey in the combs in the spring as 

 the result of wintering in-doors he could 

 easily take it out with the extractor. 



The president gave the results in weight 

 showing how much honey different hives 

 would consume in different months. 



Mr. Snow found that his bees did not 

 dwindle in the spring as much when they 

 were wintered out of doors ; if wintered in 

 depositories the queens might commence 

 laying early and then when a cold day came 

 on the bees would not cover the eggs. 



Mr. House believed the time would come 

 when out-door wintering would be adopted. 



Spring Management. 



Mr. Bacon liked to take them out of his 

 house once and give them a good liy and 

 then keep them in perhaps till May. The 

 time of setting out would differ with the 

 season. 



Mr. Jones wintered in a cellar and usually 

 brought his bees out three or four times in 

 the winter to fly ; this winter he had not 

 been able to take them out until lately ; he 

 had not lost any for four or live winters. 



The Pres. saw several objections to giv- 

 ing bees a winter flight. If they have the 

 right conditions they do not need it. 

 Dysentery can be produced in five minutes 

 if bees are taken out of a warm place into 

 the cold. So those who now take their bees 

 out may expect to see symptoms of dysen- 

 tery. He thought as a rule bees are taken 

 out of winter quarters too early. Where 



they were left late he had found them in 

 better condition. 



At the request of Mr. Bacon the President 

 gave his method of packing for winter. He 

 placed a quilt over the frames simply. 

 When he had used a cap he found trouble 

 from moisture. 



Mr. Betsinger thought that as a rule, 

 about the first of May he should commence 

 to stimulate brood rearing by placing in 

 empty combs, or changing combs — not too 

 often— say once a week, till the middle of 

 May or first of June. 



Mr. Lloyd's experience was similar to Mr. 

 Betsinger's. 



Mr. House's experience was also similar, 

 but he thought great care should be exer- 

 cised or more injury than good might be the 

 result. He advocated keeping the bees as 

 warm as possible, by protection over frames 

 and by contracting the entrances when 

 necessary. He thought if the weather con- 

 tinued warm he would leave them out for 

 for two or three days to clean up— dry up a 

 little. 



Mr. Everett planned to set them out in 

 one row in spring, made a temporary shed 

 over them, protecting the hives with straw, 

 and so kept back their tendency to fly. He 

 thought spring protection as necessary as 

 winter. 



Mr. Van Deusen indicated the time by 

 reference to the bloom indifferent localities. 



Mr. House wanted his bees to breed early. 



Mr. Jones urged that bees could not be 

 quiet and breed at the same time. 



Mr. House hardly thought that brood 

 rearing made his hives uneasy. 



Pres. Root said there was no particular 

 advantage in rearing one bee and losing 

 two; all his attempts to stimulate early 

 breeding had resulted in failure, hence he 

 did not place his bees on the summer stands 

 till May ; bees ought not to commence 

 breeding until the same would be uninter- 

 rupted ; he enlarged the brood chamber as 

 rapidly as the colony permitted. 



AFTEKNOOJJ SESSION. 



Messrs. Marks, Betsinger and Jones were 

 appointed a committee to examine and 

 report on implements on exhibition. 



The next order of business was announced 

 to be the election of officers which resulted 

 as follows : 



President— L. C. Root, Herkimer Co. 



Vice President— W. E. Clarke, Oneida Co. 



Secretary— Geo. W. House, Onondaga Co. 



Treasurer— R. Bacon, Oneida Co. 



The President announced the following 

 honorary Vice Presidents: B. O. Everett, 

 Toledo ; J. Van Deusen, Sprout Brook ; 

 Samuel Snow, Fayetteville. 



Mr. Clarke invited the convention to meet 

 at Utica, for its next session. 



The next annual meeting was fixed for 

 Utica, and the time was made the 11th day 

 of February, with a three days' session. 



Controlling Swarms. 

 Mr. Bacon. When a swarm came out that 

 he did not wish to have remain, he cut out 

 all the queen cells from the parent hive ; 

 then he allowed the sw"ann that came out to 

 remain out till night; then he replaced them 

 in the home hive and they did not come out 

 again. 



