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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAt-. 



Do not write anything for publication 

 on the same sheet of paper with business 

 matters, unless it can be torn apart without 

 interfering with either part of the letter. 



Wintering Finely So Far. 



The weather has been extremely cold 

 here. The thermometer registered be- 

 low zero for 30 days continuously dur- 

 ing the month of January. Bees are 

 wintering finely so far. 



J. D. Goodrich. 



East Hardwick, Vt., Feb. 13, 1893. 



Bees Have Used But Little Honey. 



There is plenty of winter here yet, 

 with occasional signs of spring. Bees 

 that were left on the summer stands un- 

 protected are in a very bad condition 

 for early swarms. My bees wintered 

 best with supers on. The bees con- 

 sumed a comparatively small amount of 

 honey until the present. My best col- 

 ony stored about 37 pounds in the su- 

 pers last year. D. O'Connell. 



Cooperstown, Ills., Feb. 20, 1893. 



Season of 1892— White Clover. 



Last year I commenced the season 

 with 70 colonies, and put 71 into win- 

 ter quarters. I did not have a swarm 

 myself, but one came to me. I got 

 3,500 pounds of comb honey, or some- 

 where near that amount, making almost 

 50 pounds per colony. 



My bees had to-day their first good 

 flight for three months. The colonies 

 are all strong, and made the air just 

 boil about noon to-day. It was 50° 

 above zero at one o'clock. They are 

 packed in wheat-chaff in chaff-hives of 

 my own construction. I claim to have 

 the secret for wintering bees in Mis- 

 souri. 



The clover never looked better ; It is 

 coming through all right. 



I do admire the Bee Journal's way 

 of talking in regard lo the adulteration 

 of honey. J. W. Blodgett. 



Empire Prairie, Mo., Feb. 19, 1893. 



Bttving Swarms on Drawn Combs, Etc. 



Allow me a few words in behalf of 

 Mr. Orville Jones' comments (page 184) 

 on Mr. W. Z. Hutchinson's article about 

 hiving swarms on drawn combs or on 

 starters. I think that Mr. Jones was 

 unfair, both to Mr. H. and to advanced 

 apiarists, should he be taken for au- 

 thority. Please give Mr. Hutchinson's 

 article another close study, then if you 

 know Mr. Hutchinson's plan, and how to 

 work it, and have bees and nectar in the 

 field, I can't see any reason why you 

 should not get comb honey. But what 

 can one do with the old-fashioned hives, 

 with hanging frames, etc., tight bottoms 

 and their like ? S. M. Cablzen. 



Montclair, Colo., Feb. 15, 1893. 



An Old-Fashioned Winter, Etc. 



According to the request in a late 

 issue, I will say that I have the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal from Vol. I, No. 1, 

 to the present time. I have 16 volumes 

 nicely bound. 



We have an old-fashioned winter in 

 Western Pennsylvania, but the bees 

 seem to be wintering fairly. Long live 

 the "old reliable" American Bee Jour- 

 nal. W. J. Davis, 1st. 



Youngsville, Pa., Feb. 16, 1893. 



Bee-Keeping in Minnesota. 



Bees are wintering well so far, as far 

 as I can learn in this locality. The win- 

 ters are long and very cold here, the 

 mercury often falling to 30° or 40°, 

 and sometimes to 50° below zero, and 

 sometimes have two months at one time 

 that the mercury does not get above 

 zero. Bees are generally wintered In 

 cellars here, but there is one man that 

 has a dark, unused chamber where he 

 has wintered his bees very successfully 

 for several years. 



There are not many bee-keepers here, 

 and no very large apiaries — the largest 

 I know of is about 30 colonies ; from 3 

 or 4 up to 12 or 15 colonies is the num- 

 ber usually kept. I have 3 colonies in 

 my cellar that are very strong and 

 healthy at the present time. One of 

 these colonies was found in a bunch of 

 grass in the field of one of my neighbors, 

 where he said they had been for two 

 days. As soon as he told me, I went and 

 hived them, and in a very short time 

 after I placed them on the stand they 

 were at work as I never saw a young 

 swarm work before in my nearly 50 

 years' experience with bees. 



