40 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Novice on Wintering, etc. 



Dear Bee Journal: Permit us to 

 thank M. Qiiinby for his excellent and 

 opportune article on Wintering, and al- 

 so for the ver}^ fair and gentlemanly 

 way in which he expresses it as his 

 opinion that our views of the Bee dis- 

 ease are not wholly correct. If we 

 have not been as respectful in express- 

 ing our views of some of the suggestions 

 that he has advanced, and Ave fear such 

 has been the case, we sincerely crave 

 his pardon. In regard to the unkind 

 Avay in which some other writers have 

 persisted in treating us and perverting 

 our language, we have nothing to add, 

 more than that we shall never take the 

 trouble to set them right. If the ma- 

 jority of our readers have misunder- 

 stood us in that way it is certainly time 

 our regular contributions gave place to 

 something more valuable. 



In regard to Bees suffering with dys- 

 entery when properly housed, we will 

 mention our own experience, first given 

 in the Journal, Vol. 4. Thie month of 

 February that Winter was so warm for 

 days together, that we could not reduce 

 the temperature of our cellar below 50°, 

 even by opening the door and windows 

 nights, and every warm spell, it seemed 

 to us then, only aggravated the disease. 

 When we could reduce the temperature 

 to 35°, the Bees became quiet, but noth- 

 iug else we could do would keep them 

 in their hives at all. A part of them 

 were placed in the cellar in November, 

 but the majority remained out until 

 December. After placing them on their 

 Summer stands, matters seemed no bet- 

 ter, for they flew out and kept dying 

 until May. Those who have followed 

 our writings will remember that we 

 have had such colonies every Winter 

 since, more or less ; and they have been 

 invariably those that were allowed to 

 have natural stores. Perhaps the Win- 

 ter of 1869-70 may be considered an ex- 

 ception ; for we then wintered every 

 colony and they all had natural stores, 

 which happened to be wholesome, as in 

 years before. 



Now in directing attention to those 

 who have lost Bees carefully housed, 

 in cellars. Bee houses, etc., we cannot 



give a case where these repositories 

 had been warmed by a stove, for we 

 had no record of such an experiment. 

 The principal trouble we apprehend is 

 that Bees will leave the hives, even in 

 the dark, when the room is warmed to 

 50° or thereabouts. In fact we have 

 always had the most trouble in Winter- 

 ing during warm spells. Last season 

 we lost quite a number of small nuclei, 

 which died under circumstances that 

 convinced us that some kind of artifi- 

 cial heat might have saved them — i. e., 

 during times of very cold weather, such 

 that the interior of our Bee house show- 

 ed at times not more than 25°; but at the 

 same time our ^strong colonies seemed 

 to lose nothing. 



After the coldest spell we have had 

 this season, the weather changed sud- 

 denly, so quickly in fact, that while the 

 walls, hives, etc., were near 32°, a 

 stream of warm, damp air was pouring 

 in through the ventilator to such an ex- 

 tent that everything was damp. A 

 friend of ours, who has entertained the 

 same opinion as Mr. Q., built a fire in a 

 stove he had provided for the purpose, 

 and raised the temperature quickly to 

 80° or more, and then let the fire go 

 down before the Bees had time to be- 

 come aroused. He says the result was 

 quite satisfiictory. His Bees, like ours, 

 were confined to the hive with wire 

 cloth. It may be that some such course 

 will enable us to winter Bees safely, on 

 natural stores even ; and we shall be 

 pleased if such prove to be the case. 



' We presume that Mr. Quinby, in 

 speaking of the latter method, has tak- 

 en into consideration the fact that Clov- 

 er Honey now sells by the barrel at 

 twenty cents, and that sugar syruj) 

 equally thick, costs not over eight centw. 

 If a Bee-keeper had his honey in a bar- 

 rel, and his colonies needed food, would 

 he hesitate before deciding which to 

 feed ? 



We would refer Mr. Quinby, to arti- 

 cles found in back numbers of the 

 Journal, to prove tbat Bees die, even 

 when carefully buried, housed, or put 

 in a cellar. Please see pages 5, 206, 

 253, 254, 261, A^ol. v ; 286, Vol. vi ; 264, 

 Vol. vii ; 34. 92, 93, 248, Vol. viii. We 

 call attention especially to the report of 

 Mr. .lohnsor, page 248, Vol. viii. Mr J. 



