786 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAi.. 



summer stands (about 100 colonies). 

 He had but 4 colonies alive, and these 

 he declared would yet dwindle and die. 

 All his hives were turned over on their 

 sides, leaving the tops and bottoms ex- 

 posed to the atmosphere. Although a 

 nice sunny day no bee could be seen 

 stealing honey from these open hives, 

 and some of them were half full of 

 honey. One weak colony living had 

 brood in three combs, and were about 

 out of honey. I tried to make him be- 

 lieve that it would pay to put a few good 

 combs of honey in place of empty ones, 

 but he insisted that if they could not 

 take the honey into the hive when it 

 was all about them, they might fizzle. 



He had a good cellar and an extra 

 cave, and left every hive out. He said 

 that for the last five years he had win- 

 tered bees out-of-doors successfully, and 

 had given up any special preparation for 

 wintering bees. 



It is a very common thing to see a 

 stack of empty bee-hives in a yard in 

 Iowa, and not a live colony in the yard. 

 In one county in the north central part 

 of the State, I found one bee-keeper 

 who had wintered his bees in long, deep 

 troughs, packing eight hives in a box 

 with six inches of chopped straw on each 

 side, and about 12 inches on top. He 

 simply bored a two-inch auger-hole for 

 the entrance of each colony, correspond- 

 ing to the entrance of the \Aves. This 

 man lost one colony in springing, caused, 

 he said, by a large mouse going into one 

 of the auger-holes and entering into the 

 hives. 



I believe for wintering, springing and 

 building up in the spring, no method is 

 so nearly perfect as the trough-packing 

 method. 



Colesburgh, Iowa, May 30, 1893. 



^^■^ 



Sugar Syrup vs. Honey for Win- 

 tering Bees. 



Written for tfie American Bee Journal 

 BY M. W. TUBES. 



After three years of unprecedented 

 failure in both increase and surplus, the 

 silver lining of the dark cloud began to 

 be discernible, and soon came forth in 

 all its radiance and splendor. After a 

 decrease in the preceding years of 48 

 colonies, the spring of 1892 found me 

 with only 17, in a light and unpromising 

 onditiou ; however, spring feeding and 

 favorable turn of wind is all that 

 oavedthem from complete annihilation, 



and brought them up to a fair standard 

 of excellence for the honey harvest. 



In the continuing processes of time, 

 Nature's laboratory of pollen and nectar 

 began to unfold, each in its turn pro- 

 ducing abundantly, and before the snow 

 had entirely disappeared, the bees were 

 briskly gathering pollen, which was 

 soon followed by an encouraging flow of 

 nectar from the pussy-willow. 



The se'ason continued favorable, and 

 after the harvest was gathered we found, 

 by comparing our stock with the unit of 

 measure, the pound, we had obtained 

 1,450 pounds of nice comb and ex- 

 tracted honey, an average of a trifle 

 over 85 pounds per colony, spring count; 

 besides increasing to 33 colonies for 

 winter, which were in fine condition 

 numerically, but not " financially," as 

 their stores had been reduced by the ex 

 tractor to the minimum in view of feed" 

 ing sugar syrup for wintering, leaving- 

 only 3 colonies with natural stores ; the 

 result of which I am about to report. 



By a careful estimate of the require- 

 ments of each colony, averaging 20 

 pounds of sugar syrup, we began feed- 

 ing for winter the first of September, 

 which was completed the forepart of 

 October, and the mats, etc., put on pre- 

 paratory for wintering, which was done 

 on the summer stands in chaflf and 

 Chautauqua hives. Their last flight 

 occurred on Nov. 24, 1892, and they 

 were not out again until March 8, 1893 

 — 104 days ; the intervening time going 

 on record as the coldest winter in 25 

 years. The mercury reached as low as 

 24P below zero. 



Had it not been for the " Old Reliable" 

 — the American Bee Journal, — we 

 would have given up in despair of suc- 

 cessfully wintering the bees without a 

 flight, on sugar syrup ; more successful, 

 however, than with honey. But just as 

 the gloom of another week's confine- 

 ment would begin to settle upon us, our 

 welcome guest would drop in, bringing 

 consolation from those who were older 

 in the experience of sugar-syrup winter- 

 ing. 



However, when at last the flight did 

 come on the 8th of March, and bees 

 from every hive sallied forth in the open 

 air, enjoying the little while of sunshine, 

 and shaking off the tediousness of their 

 long confinement, our surprise was 

 kindled to amazement, at the small 

 amount of excrement which was ejected 

 on the snow, much less than is often 

 seen after a much shorter confinement 

 on natural stores. There was no show 

 of diarrhea from any of those fed on 

 sugar syrup, while the three that were 



