598 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



done here as yet ; the land is too wet, 

 and there is no prospect now for a week 

 or ten days. 

 Theilmanton, Minn., April 20, 1893. 



Bees in Virginia — Experienee in 

 Wintering Bees. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY CHESTER BELDING. 



Perhaps a little "buzzing" from this 

 part of the Sunny South will be read 

 with interest. We are here for the mild 

 winters, our home being in Orange 

 county, N. Y., where we have kept bees 

 for the past 30 years. There are quite 

 a number of bees kept in this locality, 

 but as far as we can hear they are en- 

 tirely without profit, for want of any 

 special honey harvest. They subsist 

 year after year as the winters are so 

 mild, and usually swarm frequently, 

 seemingly getting just about honey 

 enough to keep them breeding, and 

 make them self-sustaining ; and what 

 honey they do get is very poor in quality, 

 and often unpleasant to taste. I noticed 

 bees gathering pollen here some two 

 weeks ago. 



At my home in New York I left, last 

 November, 53 colonies, part in chaflf 

 hives, part with outside cases packed 

 between with leaves, and part in single- 

 walled hives. Friends inform me that 

 they had a flight on Feb. 20th, also on 

 March 12th; and a bee-keeper near by 

 there tells me his bees are seemingly 

 wintering well. 



When I first commenced bee-keeping I 

 wintered them in cellars, but I was un- 

 able to do it satisfactorily ; some would 

 get uneasy and die, others would come 

 out with moldy combs, some would get 

 the diarrhea, and succumbed to the first 

 cold snap after being put out in the 

 spring ; and then some old farmer near 

 by, who left his bees out on the summer 

 stands all winter, in box hives, with 

 their bottoms up an inch or more for the 

 air to circulate under, would have earlier 

 swarms than I could possibly get; there- 

 fore, I discarded cellar quarters, as it 

 was more work, and L consider bees 

 much more safely wintered, and breed 

 up earlier in the spring when wintered 

 out-of-doors. 



For the last two winters the percent- 

 age of loss was less in the hives without 

 any outside protection than in chaff or 

 packed hives, and we are not as particu- 

 lar to confine the bees to just what 

 combs they will occupy or cover, but 



often give one swarm two hives, one top 

 of the other, and place the brood and 

 store combs about half and half in each 

 hive, then put a dummy board on each 

 side, and fill with leaves, if you choose. 

 We think this narrow and high winter 

 quarters is a good thing, and insures 

 warmth and dryness to the cluster dur- 

 ing the winter confinement. We doubt 

 not that others have success with bee- 

 cellars, and where they have such long, 

 cold winters they may be desirable. 

 Claremont, Va., March 18, 1893. 



Wintry Weather — Using meth- 

 ods of Others, £tc. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY S. B. SMITH. 



Bee-keepers in this part of the coun- 

 try supposed that spring had come, and 

 carried their bees from the cellars to the 

 summer stands the last week in March 

 and the first of April. I carried mine 

 out April 3rd. Yesterday it snowed all 

 day, and to-day we are having a real 

 winter blizzard. As ^ look out of the 

 the window I cannot see 20 rods. There 

 is over one foot of snow now, and it is 

 still snowing. This will seem rather 

 chilly to our Southern friends who may 

 chance to read this. 



Farmers have a large amount of wheat 

 sown, but this storm will cause them to 

 suspend operations for a few days. It 

 is not very cold (30° above zero) so I 

 think it will not injure the bees. 



We have had a long, cold, hard win- 

 ter, but I have not heard of any very 

 serious loss among bee-keepers. I think 

 that every bee-keeper ought to take 

 some bee-paper (I think the Bee Jour- 

 nal one of the best), as the ideas and 

 suggestions are a great help to all of us, 

 whether old in the business or beginners. 



I have learned that in order to make a 

 success in the bee-business it is neces- 

 sary to adopt some one of the many 

 methods of our best apiarists. One man 

 makes a success extracting honey, an- 

 other with one-pound sections. In this 

 vicinity comb honey sells better than 

 extracted, therefore the apiarist should 

 work for comb honey. 



In large apiaries different kinds of 

 hives may be used to advantage, but in 

 small apiaries such as farmers have, it 

 is better to have one kind, and then the 

 brood-frames will fit any hive, and this 

 is a great advantage if we wish to 

 strengthen a weak colony with brood- 

 comb or honey. Some men succeed by 



