1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



199 



know.) Then we can really "cover the arith- 

 meiical patent-right formula" of doubling st/reZj^ 

 and safely every year for twenty years. Honey 

 paying for labor and hives, so that Mr. Apiarian 

 can then retire from active duties and live on his 

 little independence. 



If Mr. Qninby and Mr. Langstroth, both, 

 would give us their experience on wintering on 

 sugar alone (coffee or crushed sugar), we should 

 be more obliged to them than we can tell. 



Mr. Editor, our weight is now 137^ lbs., 

 (usual weight for the past ten years 125 lbs.). 

 and we suspect that our success in wintering on 

 sugar (the 5ecs we mean ; tee sliall eat the honey), 

 will add at least 10 lbs. more. 



One thing more. We fear that we have not 

 made ourselves clearly understood, judging from 

 something that Mr. Gallup says in regard to 

 answering letters ; for nothing gives us greater 

 pleasure than to answer letters like the follow- 

 ing Cnames omitted) : 



"Wis., Jan. 27, 1872. 



"Dear ,S'ir;— While in Medina last summer, I was 

 "very much interested in your apiary. The thoui^ht 

 " suggested itself to me of raising bees also, and I 

 " have now made arrangements by which I can have 

 " as many bees as cash and time will allow. 



'• If you would trive me any advice as t'^ beginning, 

 " and tell me what book or books to read, I would be 

 " much obliged. 



" Yours, respectfully.'" 



We believe we have never failed, in a single 

 instance, to answer such inquiries as fully as we 

 knew how. But when some one demands of us 

 the results in detail of our experiments for the 

 last five years, we cannot help referring him to 

 the back numbers of the American Bee Journal. 

 And when we have done so, so briefly as to per- 

 haps seem unfeeling or rude, we most sincerely 

 beg pardon, and will try and not think that we 

 would like to keep bees on *' Robinson Crusoe's 

 Island." 



Then, old Bee Journal, good-bye until next 

 month. As ever, 



Novice. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



On Wintering Bees. 

 By Rev. E. L. Briggs. 



The best mode of carrying our bees through 

 the winter is doubtless the most important 

 question now being asked by the apiarian. 



It is not the receptacle in which they are kept, 

 so much xvs it is the condition of the colonies 

 when they are put into winter quarters, which 

 determines their prosperity to the greatest ex- 

 tent, according to my experiments. If frost or 

 dampness has already accumulated among the 

 combs, by severe cold weather, and they are in 

 this condition when the hives are set in the cel- 

 lar, of course this dampness will produce mouldy 

 combs ; and this in turn will produce dysentery 

 among the bees and cause the combs to be pol- 

 luted by their untimely discharges. 



Bees should be put into their winter recepta- 

 cles long before severe freezing weather occurs ; 

 and always when the combs are free from damp- 

 ness. In the latitude of 40° to 42°, not later 

 than from the 1st to the 15th of November. In 

 such cases, if kept in a temperature of from 32° 

 to 45° F., they will remain almost dormant for 

 the next three months, and very often, for five 

 months together. But just as soon, after they 

 begin to manifest the least uneasiness, as it is 

 safe for them, they should be set out upon their 

 summer stands, and allowed to take a fly for a 

 day or two ; and then return to the cellar 

 again, to remain until spring weather permits 

 them to begin to gather pollen. I think from 

 five to eight pounds of honey will carry a colony 

 through from the 1st of November to the 1st 

 of April, under such circiunstances. But from 

 this until the blossoming of white clover, they 

 will consume, in rearing brood and from being 

 constantly active, perhaps as much as, or more 

 than they did during the five months of winter 

 confinement. 



It is very important that the bees should be 

 set out to take their winter fly, in just the right 

 kind of weather, or great loss will accrue from 

 their being chilled and never regaining their 

 hives again. I have seen the ground almost 

 covered for rods around, when set out in cloudy 

 or windy weather. It should be a clear sun- 

 shiny day ; perfectly calm, if possible ; and the 

 thermometer up to at least 50°. Then each col- 

 ony should be set upon the stand just where it 

 is to be placed when put out again in April, or 

 great loss will accrue from them returning to 

 their old entrance and never finding their way 

 home again. Several such days occur almost 

 every winter about the middle of February. 

 This is the time to .set them out. But better 

 not set them out at all, than to set them out on 

 a cool, raw, windy day ; for to reduce their 

 numbers greatly now, is almost fatal to their 

 next summer's prosperity. 



After a days joyous recreation, they will re- 

 main quiet in their winter repository, when re- 

 tvirned, thotigh breeding will go on in the hive 

 a little more rapidly than in the former part of 

 the winter. 



I have in a former article, given the best 

 mode of ventilating a cellar, which I have ever 

 seen described. But even a poorly ventilated 

 cellar will do, if these precautions are observed. 



When the combs are perfectly dry, and before 

 haid freezing weather has commenced, set your 

 bees in a dry dark cellar. Leave the fly holes 

 open as in summer ; open a small hole or crev- 

 ice, such as a half-inch bit would make, near 

 the top of each hive, for upward ventilation ; 

 leave them as quiet as possible until the middle 

 of February : set them out on a calm fair day, 

 tintil they have taken their flurry. Then return 

 them to the cellar as before ; let them remain 

 nntil bees begin to gather pollen ; then return 

 them to the stand they occupied before, and let 

 them remain for the spring and summer. 



Unless diseased from some outward cause, bees 

 will suffer next to no loss under such treatment, 

 and the combs will come out as bright as in the 

 fall, and not more than half of the honey will be 



