AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



279 



they are all the time trying to gnaw out 

 every time the weather slacks a little, 

 so they can stir out a peg. I have a fine 

 screen tacked over the entrance, so they 

 cannot get out. An old bee-keeping 

 friend told me that he never had good 

 luck in wintering a colony of bees when 

 they acted like that; they always died 

 out in the spring ; so this somewhat dis- 

 courages me. If any other bee-keepers 

 have had such experience, I would like 

 to hear from them through the Bee 

 Journal. Chas. C. Chamberlin. 



Romeo, Mich., Feb. 4, 1893. 



Pretty Cold for the Bees. 



I started last fall with 90 hives well 

 stocked with bees. They had a flight 

 the last of November, and since then 

 there have been very few days that the 

 temperature has been above 40°. It 

 has been so cold that the ice has formed 

 in the hives so that I cannot poke the 

 dead bees out as I usually do. This 

 morning the temperature was 2^ below 

 zero, with the wind in the west, and 

 blowing quite hard. If this weather 

 continues, I think there will be a market 

 for all the honey the bees gather the 

 coming season. Edwin Hutchinson. 



East Avon, N. Y., Feb. 8, 1893. 



Colonies in Good Condition. 



I have kept bees for 15 years, but 

 previous to my sending for the Bee 

 Journal, three years ago, I knew little 

 about caring for them, except what I 

 learned by experience. I had them in 

 old-fashioned hives, and got little honey; 

 now I have all in Langstroth hives. I 

 have 25 colonies in "good condition in 

 the cellar, in a room partitioned off on 

 purpose for the bees. I have a good 

 cellar, and have always had good luck 

 in wintering them in the cellar. We 

 got no surplus honey last year, and this 

 was the third poor honey season. I 

 could not keep bees very well without 

 the Bee Journal. Every bee-keeper 

 should take it. L. A. Stickney. 



Plainview, Minn., Jan. 30, 1893. 



Coldest Winter in Tennessee. 



We have to record the coldest winter 

 here for years. The thermometer, in 

 places, has registered as low as 28° be- 

 low zero. Hundreds of colonies of bees 

 have been lost by freezing. In this lati- 

 tude bees are generally wintered on the 

 summer stands, without any extra prep- 



aration for winter, but this season shows 

 the necessity of more attention. So far, 

 I have lost none. I began the winter 

 with 30 colonies, on the summer stands, 

 packed with chaff division-boards on 

 each side, with a device similar to the 

 Hill device, and chaff cushions over the 

 brood-chamber. The estimate now is 

 that from 40 to 50 per cent, of the bees 

 of this section have frozen. The tem- 

 perature here very rarely goes to zero. 

 The lowest last winter was 10° above 

 zero. H. F. Coleman. 



Sneedville, Tenn., Jan. 27, 1893. 



Commencing to Keep Bees. 



Bee-keeping here is only just com- 

 mencing in the country. There have 

 been bees in the neighboring towns, but 

 for the most part they have been more 

 ornamental than profitable. The bees 

 themselves have lately been trying to 

 break into the country. I gathered 4 

 colonies out of the woods last summer (a 

 small strip of timber along a creek) on 

 my farm, and on an adjoining ranch 

 within 2 miles there are 100 acres of 

 alfalfa, besides red clover. Our mer- 

 chants supply their customers with Chi- 

 cago honey, and I see no reason why we 

 cannot produce our own honey if we 

 give bees the same care and intelligent 

 attention that we do other stock. 



D. J. Eraser. 



Peabody, Kans., Feb. 6, 1893. 



More than Made Expenses. 



Three years ago I started with 3 colo- 

 nies of Italian bees, which increased to 

 18 during the last three summers. My 

 best colony, last summer, gave me a sur- 

 plus of comb honey in sections of 54 

 pounds, and 80 pounds of extracted 

 honey. The poorest colony gave me no 

 comb honey, and 20 pounds of extracted 

 honey. Bee-men around here say the 

 last two summers were poor for bee- 

 keeping. I had my own honey and made 

 expenses. For my work I have 18 colo- 

 nies on movable-frames, in two story 

 double-walled hives, with plenty of 

 stores, in good condition for winter. 

 Henry Bohlmann. 



Defiance, 0., Jan. 30, 1893. 



"Wintering Nicely — Late Queens. 



My 200 colonies of bees are wintering 

 nicely. We have had a very severe 

 winter. Bees were confined to their 

 hives^without a flight for six weeks or 



