84 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



Some of my neighbors and myself have been 

 wintering our bees pretty successfully for several 

 years. I have been waiting for some of my 

 neighbors, more able than myself, to communicate 

 their experience in wintering; but as extreme 

 modesty, apparently, prevents them, I will with 

 your permission, give my way of wintering and 

 the result. 



In the first place, I take good care that by 

 the time of getting my bees ready for winter, all 

 of the frames, as near as possible, have honey 

 sealed or unsealed, in the upper part of the 

 comb and that the lower part is empty or has 

 brood in. I cut winter passages through all of 

 my combs and prefer to winter a strong swarm 

 to wintering a quart of bees. But I have win- 

 tered several times successfully less than a pint 

 of bees in Langstroth's hives with ten frames of 

 comb and without a partition board. 



All frames with brood are put together, of 

 course, and the unsealed honey as near the center 

 as possible. I don't believe we are hurting our 

 bees by overhauling them at any time of the 

 year, even in winter, the weather permitting. 

 The exchanging of places with the frames is 

 often beneficial and may save the swarm. 



After arranging all the frames in a proper 

 manner, the brood as near the center of the 

 brood chamber as possible, I cover them up 

 with a woolen blanket which is lined with 

 muslin. Small strips are layed under the 

 blanket to allow the bees a passage over the top 

 of the frames. The second cover is a straw 

 mat lined with a double thickness of a coffee 

 bag. The straw mat is of the size of the old 

 fashioned honey board, completely covering the 

 brood chamber. On top of the straw mat in 

 front and behind, I lay two one-inch strij^s and 

 on these strips the cover of the hive. I use 

 the Langstroth hive exclusively. The woolen 

 blanket and the straw mat retain the necessary 

 heat and keep the bees comfortable while at the 

 same time they act as an absorber and the air 

 passing directly over the mat dries up the 

 moisture. We know that the old fashioned 

 straw hive is the best hive for wintering and 

 with my straw mat arrangement I have the 

 principle of it. 



I had not a square inch of mouldy comb in 

 any one of my hives, no dysentery among my 

 bees and I lost none. Without the second 

 story on, the hive is easier uncovered and every 

 one of us knows that the handier we keejj our 

 bees the oftener we look at them. This done 

 with discretion is very beneficial. 



The following will illustrate the quality of 

 the straw mat as an absorber and the necessity 

 of an air passage al)ove the mat. Early in 

 March when I wanted all the heat to be retained 

 in my hives to promote breeding, I removed the 

 strips from above the mats to let the cover rest 

 flat on the same. The result was that the combs 

 became mouldy in every one of my hives. A 

 readjustment of the strips under the cover and 

 the mould disappeared. 



Would not my bees have dysentery if I had 

 permitted the mould to grow, and would not 

 in this case a good many of our brethren have 

 attributed the cause of it to the poor quality of 

 honey ? I have, last spring, examined the bees 

 of several of my neighbors, aflfected with dysen- 

 tery and found invariably the combs and in- 

 sides of the hives mouldy. I was speaking of 

 some of my neighbors as able bee-keepers. One 

 of the most prominent is friend Hill, in Mt. 

 Healthy. His apiary is undoubtedly one of the 

 best in the state of Ohio in regard to profit and 

 pleasure both. He also winters out doors very 

 successfully, lost no swarms last winter and his 

 loss winter before was very small indeed. His 

 way of wintering difi"ers from mine but the 

 principle is the same. The same is the case 

 with another party, out door wintering is no 

 trouble to him. I hope that they will tell their 

 own story some of these days. In my own case 

 I must state yet that I have double sides on my 

 Langstroth hives which at least serves a great 

 deal to break the cold winds. 



Chas. F. Muth. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



''Sundry Items." 



" Spring Feeding." — Although the results 

 from one hive is no criterion to go by, still it 

 may not be out of place to give its yield, and I 

 hope yet to be able to report from a large num- 

 ber. I commenced feeding on three hives, early 

 in March, but soon found that two were not 

 gaining any strength. Upon examination found 

 the queen in one a drone layer, the other barren, 

 (both were old queens, and should have been 

 replaced by youug queens last fall). I stopped 

 feeding them, but fed the other one regularly. 

 As soon as all the combs were well covered 

 with bees, I removed a comb of brood to one of 

 the queenless stocks, supplying its place with 

 empty comb, and in a few days removed 

 three combs from queenless stocks, _ putting 

 them between combs of brood in the hive I was 

 feeding. Increasing it to eleven sections, and 

 reducing queenless stocks to five sections, which 

 was about this time supplied with a queen. 

 The 30th of May the hive I was feeding was 

 very full of bees, they being clustered on side 

 walls which I removed, took oflf three sections 

 of combs, put on sixteen boxes, shook off bees 

 from combs removed, returning combs to hive 

 I had taken them from. The result on hive fed 

 was, that by reducing size of chamber and then 

 putting on boxes, I had bees clustered in them 

 at once, and building comb in twenty-four 

 hours. 



July 4, all the boxes were well filled with the 

 exception of capping over of lower edge of out- 

 side comb in two or three boxes. I had 107| lbs 

 " prime clover honey." This would make the 

 yield three pounds per day for thirty-five days. 

 The weak colony, which was supplied with 



