industry as in a healthy condition when 

 compared with other pursuits. 



C. B. Smith, Leslie, thought bee- 

 keeping no more uncertain than raising 

 wheat or stock. 



Do Bees Winter best when Crowdedlon a few 

 Combs in a Roomy Hive ? 



The Secretary read two essays on the 

 above subject; the first, from Rev. A. 

 Salisbury, Camargo, 111., as follows : 



The question : " Do bees winter bet- 

 ter crowded on a few combs, or in a 

 roomy hive ?" should be answered in 

 the affirmative. Bees winter better on 

 a few combs, than many. Where they 

 spread out all over the hive they largely 

 lose the effect of the animal heat upon 

 one another, small groups in the ex- 

 treme part of the hive are lost the first 

 cold night that the mercury sinks 10° 

 below freezing. There is no settled 

 rule as to the correct number of frames 

 that a colony of bees should have when 

 put into winter quarters. The number 

 must vary in proportion to the size of 

 the colony. In a small, or medium-sized 

 nucleus, three frames of honey, hung 

 in the center of a standard hive, one 

 inch between the combs, allowing the 

 bees to cluster on the center combs, and 

 then placed in a good warm cellar with 

 a temperature of 45° or 50° — success is 

 almost certain. No cushion is ever 

 needed in a good cellar. Small colo- 

 nies must have a warmer temperature 

 than large ones. A few frames should 

 never be placed in a correspondingly 

 small hive, just large enough to hold 

 the frames. The vapor arising from 

 the bees, that should condense remotely 

 on the outer walls of the hive, is con- 

 fined among the bees, unless well 

 cushioned, and cushions are necessary 

 only to correct blunders already made. 



In proportion as bees live through 

 the winter in a damp, cold hive, dysen- 

 tery and spring dwindling is a legitimate 

 result. I have 100 fine tested queens 

 for early spring use — bees with queen, 

 on from 3 to 4 frames, hung in the cen- 

 ter of a standard hive, and in winter 

 quarters, and results will be no doubt 

 as heretofore, satisfactory. 



From R. M. Argo, Lowell, Ky. : 



The above question will only admit of 

 a conditional answer. If the question 

 had been " will bees winter better in 

 small than large hives?"from 20 years ex- 

 perience I would say that they will win- 

 ter better in small hives. An average 

 colony of bees crowded on a few combs 

 with sealed honey on the top and ends 

 of each comb, with the brood-nest, or 

 lower part of the center of the frames, 

 empty, and with winter passages cut 



through each comb, will winter far 

 better than in a large and roomy hive : 

 but, if the large and roomy hive should 

 be very tight, admitting of no upward 

 ventilation, and filled with combs at 

 least 3 years old, with sealed honey, and 

 the lower part where the bees cluster 

 should be empty, and sufficiently so for 

 a large cluster, they will winter about 

 as well as in a small hive. The hive 

 being full of sealed honey above and 

 around, the cluster will form what is 

 almost equal to dead-air spaces. If 

 crowded on a few combs in a large hive 

 with open space either at the side or 

 above, they will hardly winter at all ; 

 but if these few combs with the above 

 conditions are placed in the center of a 

 large hive, with a partition board at 

 each side and a cloth spread over the top 

 of the frames, and the empty space on 

 the sides and above filled with dry straw, 

 fine hay or chaff, they cannot be wintered 

 better, either in cellar or on their sum- 

 mer stands. This is equal to wintering 

 in a straw hive and I have found it to 

 excel packing the hives in straw on 

 their winter stands. I must be under- 

 stood as speaking of wintering on sum- 

 mer stands as I have never tried cellar 

 wintering. 



I have successfully wintered four 

 colonies for the past 8 or years in a 

 large double-floored and double-walled 

 box 2 feet deep ; the top being also 

 double- walled. These colonies remain 

 there the year round, and I wish I had 

 my whole apiary in such boxes. 



" Will the natives or the Italians win- 

 ter the best without protection or feed- 

 ing in the fall ?" 



This question was answered emphati- 

 cally in favor of the Italians in 1868, 

 the worst honey year I ever experi- 

 enced, except the present. Now, I 

 wish all to take an impartial survey 

 during the coming winter and report at 

 the next meeting. From a close in- 

 spection of bees in my neighborhood 

 during the last 6 weeks, I predict that 

 where no feeding was done no natives 

 will be alive in April. As my neigh- 

 bors are not feeding their bees, I antici- 

 pate a splendid opportunity for rear- 

 ing pure queens next season with no 

 native drones within 10 miles. I pur- 

 chased 4 colonies of black bees last sea- 

 son and Italianized three, forgetting 

 one, and that one had not a pound of 

 honey a month ago. I united the bees 

 with an Italian colony. I had 41 colonies 

 at home and 14 in the country, which 

 I have reduced to 54 as put up for win- 

 ter. I had to feed about half of them ; 

 those that needed none were generally 

 the purest colonies. Some years the 

 blacks will do as well as the Italians 



