THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



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fine condition as I ever saw anywhere. 1 

 tliink they were put in early. The shelter 

 was ratheV defeetive, hut the walls were niaiU' 

 of earth, and the prine.ii)le was eorreet. The 

 ttoor was of earth. I lind a hee-rooni an e\- 

 rellent plaee for keeping; honey in the sum- 

 mer, and to avoid the danger of jarring the 

 floor, a eoating of saw-dust might l)e used. 

 1 began wintering in a building, and was suc- 

 cessful. 1 left some out of doors and they 

 were stronger. 1 changed in-door i)raetiee to 

 t)Ut-door wintering, and changed to straw 

 hives to winter out of doors. Straw is a good 

 conductor of nu)isture and non-conductor of 

 heat; that is what we nei d. Since we clu\uged 

 to the Quinby hive and changed the tem- 

 perature we have lost many swarms. 1 have 

 now a special bee-house. The foundations 

 are banked with earth. The floor is doubled, 

 with thick paper between. The paper is 

 made of prairie gra.ss. The frame is a balloon 

 frame, with plaster board on each side, and 

 side boarding outside, and ceiling inside be- 

 sides. The space between the studs is filled 

 with planing machine shavings. The walls 

 are " furred " out and another thickness of 

 paper so put on as to make a chamber of 

 confined air, and ceiled again inside the paper. 

 The walls contain three thicknesses of plaster 

 board, three thicknesses of boards, and six 

 inches of stuffing. The joists overhead are 

 three by eight inches. The plaster hoard and 

 ceiling board are fastened beneath the joists, 

 the space filled with stuffing and plaster 

 board, and tight flooring placed above. The 

 building is eighteen by twenty -four feet, with 

 partition through the middle, and hives on 

 shelves around the sides. I am favorable to 

 the use of dry earth in the walls. 



R. Bacon. I line with rough boards, and 

 the influence of the dry earth can be gained 

 through the cracks between the boards. I 

 will give a hundred dollars for a method 

 which, with fair management, will enable me 

 to keep bees through the winter. 



L. C. Root. The convention can afford to 

 give $5,(XM). 



G. M.Doolittle. . ]\Ir. Bacon's trouble with 

 dysentery was caused by his disturbing the 

 bees left in, and not because some were taken 

 out and others left in. I believe if a swarm 

 dies before February 1 , it was good for noth- 

 ing when it was put in. I began with Mr. 

 Quinby's method and wintered bees in the 

 cellar. They did well the first year. The 

 next year they came out well, but dwindled 

 away because of the cold spring. Isext year 

 there were many soiled combs. In the spring 

 I lost heavily. I then began out-door win- 

 tering, sweeping the snow around the hives 

 aft«r every storm. I used Novice's quilts, 

 and packed straw in the caps above. Until 

 January 1, all was well. Then they began to 

 steam up. The hive was in commotion. I 

 took off the straw, leaving only a quilt. The 



quilt is calico cloth lined with cotton. The 

 next morning they were still in Inid condition. 

 I took them into the cellar and got the hive 

 through, but it was not of much use. 1 be- 

 lieve too warm weather is more dangerous 

 than too cold. Fifty degrees 1 believe is too 

 warm. It is too warm when they begin to 

 breed. Last s])ring niy bees came out in good 

 condition. For two weeks we had warm 

 weather and the l)ees worked well. Then 

 came the cold w eathcr. After five days the 

 ]arv;e were mostly dead. Many hives had 

 only a double handful of young bees. I 

 would not have bees comnu'n(;e breeding un- 

 til after the first of February. I had a hive 

 without brood until May, raid it was the best 

 hive 1 had. I madt' forty-five dollars from 

 that hive. 



L. C. Root. Don't close your hives at the 

 bottom, so that the bees can not get out if the 

 temperature induces them to fly. 



R. Bacon. I tried shutting up hives at the 

 bottom, and supposed they were doing well, 

 I examined the bees, and found the boards 

 covered two inches deep with dead bees. 

 Don't let bees think they are imprisoned. 

 I leave a good deal of ventilation at the bot- 

 tom. 



G. M. Doolittle. I have examined my 

 closed hives, and found only five dead bees 

 under one hive, and not more than a table- 

 spoonful under another. I seal them up as 

 tight as I can get them without sealing-wax. 



N. N. Bettsinger. I Avinter bees out of 

 doors, putting straw on the top, with a hood 

 over the hole. The steam passes through the 

 straw% and freezes the hood tight. This tight 

 closing is continued from January to spring. 

 The bottom entrance becomes frozen up, and 

 the hive is almost air-tight, so far as I can 

 see. My bees are wintered on honey gath- 

 ered in September and October. 1 do not 

 believe that bees can cluster on the honey 

 without freezing. Bees can stand a low tem- 

 perature, even when away from the cluster. 

 When they die here it is because of moisture, 

 not cold. There is less moisture in the clus- 

 ter than in the honey-combs outside. I keep 

 my bees out of doors, and sweep the snow 

 around them, sometimes covering the hives. 



Mr. Bacon. I have seen bad air burst t,rom 

 a closed hive in such quantity as to extinguish 

 a candle. In opening the hives the bees were 

 found to be dying fast. I want to know how 

 bees can live in such air. 



Vice President Alexander. I have in mind 

 an instance in which bees, being much dis- 

 turbed, generated heat enough to melt the 

 comb and let the honey run down upon the 

 floor. The bees were confined. I had a case 

 of a ruined hive when closely shut in, and I 

 think it came from lack of air. 



Mr. Vandervort. If cold has caused the 

 mortality among bees, M'hy didn't it affect us 

 years ago? I have known bees on the prui- 



