255 



strong colony, and should have the 

 boxes put on immediately. The colony 

 removed loses nearly as many bees as 

 if it had swarmed, and will rarely at- 

 tempt to swarm after such removal. 

 The parent colony should have the 

 queen-cells cut as before directed. An- 

 other plan, and the one we at present 

 prefer, especially as we have plenty of 

 empty comb, is to make one new colony 

 from two old ones ; namely, about 12 

 days before basswood (or your honey 

 harvest, whatever it may be) go to No. 



1 and shake all the bees and queen 

 from their combs into a hive filled with 

 empty combs placed where the old one 

 stood, and put the boxes from the old 

 hive on the colony thus made. Thus 

 you have a strong stock containing all 

 the bees and queen from a populous 

 colony, a hive full of comb and the 

 part-filed boxes from No. 1, they being 

 ready to take advantage of the honey 

 harvest when it comes. Now take the 

 combs of brood taken from No. 1 to No. 



2 and set them on No. 2 stand, having 

 previously moved No. 2 to a new stand 

 a rod or two away. Go to your nucleus 

 (all bee-keepers should have nuclei 

 with laying queens on hand at this sea- 

 son of the year. If you don't know how 

 to make a nucleus any of our bee books 

 will tell you) and get the comb the 

 queen is on and take it, bees and all, 

 and shake them off in front of the hive 

 on No. 2 stand, and let them run in. 

 Put on boxes and the work is done. 

 Thus you have a colony composed of a 

 full hive of combs and brood, a good 

 young queen and workers to protect 

 her, and all the working force from No. 

 2 which make a big, strong stock, and 

 as far as my experience goes, one that 

 will produce a large quantity of honey. 

 No. 2 has a hive of combs and brood, 

 their old queen and boxes partly filled, 

 but have lost their working force. In 

 from 8 to 12 days they are stocked up 

 with workers again and are also in fine 

 shape for the harvest. We have de- 

 scribed this plan at length as we con- 

 sider it the best plan of artificial swarm- 

 ing extant. 



Borodino, N. Y., May, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Wintering Bees in Kentucky. 



R. M. ARGO. 



Until the past winter I thought I un- 

 derstood every principle necessary to 

 the successful wintering of bees, and 

 that I could safely winter any number 

 of colonies in any sort of winter, in this 

 latitude, on their .summer stands. My 



experience the past fifteen years had 

 convinced me of this, but the past win- 

 ter has convinced me to the contrary, 

 and left the subject of safe wintering 

 still an open question. 



To be brief, I will just give my expe- 

 rience during the past winter. I had 

 82 colonies last October ; some of the 

 strongest, I let alone. The rest I pro- 

 tected in different ways, but left all on 

 their summer stands. I would here say 

 that we only have about one such win- 

 ter in twenty-five years. Consequently 

 it was unlooked for ; else I might have 

 protected them and lessened the loss. 

 The resiTlt of this experiment was that 

 down to the first week in March 19 col- 

 onies — over 20 per cent. — was gone. 



Some left plenty of honey ; some with 

 plenty to have wintered on, but out of 

 their reach ; some had starved, but all 

 had left large clusters of bees, and one 

 of the unprotected colonies had left 

 honey enough to winter two colonies. 

 All had the winter passages, and the 

 loss was equally among the protected 

 and the unprotected. None had up- 

 ward ventilation except absorbent ven- 

 tilations through quilts and chaff. 



Last October I prepared 4 colonies 

 for winter for a neighbor in the old 

 Quinby hive, containing 16 frames and, 

 partition boards. These four colonies 

 stood about 20 inches from the ground 

 on the north side of a steep hill, ex- 

 posed to the cold north wind. I left 

 them about 25 lbs. of honey ; cut win- 

 ter passages, and adjusted the top and 

 honey board so as to fasten up all up- 

 ward ventilation. On April 21, 1 went 

 up to transfer them to new hives for 

 him. I expected to find them very 

 weak, if not gone, but to my no little 

 surprise I found each of them very 

 strong in bees and honey, and with live 

 drones, the first I had seen this spring. 

 They had consumed very little honey, 

 and three of them had managed some 

 way to get ventilation on the top. Two 

 of the colonies had made an entrance 

 at the top. These old hives were 20 in. 

 square, 12% in. deep, and had good inch 

 bottoms and partition boards, though 

 setting at a very cold, exposed place for 

 winter. They were under a shed but 

 had very little protection against the 

 winds. I have wintered 4 colonies in a 

 box 5 feet square and 2 feet high, for 

 eight years, with entire success. I 

 think if a stand was put in a dry-goods 

 box it would winter safely. 



The long protracted winter was 

 doubtless the cause of the loss, in not 

 giving the bees a chance to fly out for 

 seven weeks at a stretch here, and only 

 one or two days in nine weeks. 



Lowell, Ky., May 6, 1879. 



