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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



among the bees when all other couditions 

 are right. 



In the winter of '60 and '67, the fir&t 

 winter that the disease appeared in epi- 

 demic form, I was living 200 miles north 

 of Hosmers' place in Minnesota, where 

 the bees are usually confliied to the hive 

 for months at a time by the cold, and dur- 

 ing some portion of this time the mercury 

 was frozen at 42 below zero, and, as Major 

 Jack Downing said, " it would have been a 

 iiood deal colder if the thermomikin had 

 been long enough." Here it was common 

 for the bees to remain on their summer 

 stands 2 or 8 feet above the ground, in the 

 open air, with no protection whatever ex- 

 cept what a single inch board aflbrded. 

 The hives were mostly the box, of the tall 

 persuasion. Some of them were made 

 w ith a chamber above for surplus. These 

 had a cloth laid over the holes above and 

 lilled in witli tine hay. Others were made 

 with a partition through the centre and one 

 apartment used for surplus. This apart- 

 ment was left empty and the passage holes 

 open at the top, middle, and bottom. All 

 had fly-holes open half Avay from top to 

 bottom. It was a very rare thing to hear 

 of any loss among bees there. An old bee- 

 keeper who had been there much longer 

 than I had, said to me " our bees are never 

 injured by the cold if they are properly 

 ventilated." But, said he, "you must 

 never depend upon lower ventilation for 

 . the moisture will condense and run down, 

 freeze and stop it up, and then the bees are 

 gone." 



We ne\er fed anything but honey up 

 there. I heard of no extensive loss there, 

 except in oue instance. One man wintered 

 60 swarms in a depository made for the 

 purpose, and lost 40, mostly after setting 

 them out in April. 



Is it natural stores that causes disease 

 among the bees V Friend Hill, who took 

 the premium for the best conducted apiary 

 at the last Cincinnati Exposition, keeps 

 from 80 to 100 swarms which he winters 

 on tlicir own stores, and has had no sign of 

 disease among, them during the last four 

 year.s. His bees winter on their summer 

 stands, and he uses a lilauket and dry 

 leaves over them in the cap. Hives sliai- 

 low, Langstroth. 



Friend Muth winters on top of his store 

 ill a bleak situation, same hive, blanket 

 and straw mat laid over the frames, a strip 

 of board an inch thick laid accross each 

 end of tiie mat leaving an inch space 

 between the mat and the cover, for the cir- 

 culation of air, to keep thiiigs dry. The 

 situation is in the business portion of the 

 city. He has near 40 swarms 1 believe. 

 All wintered on tiieir own stores, also with- 

 out trace of disease foi' four years past. 

 He wintered a swarni two veavs aiio thai 



contained less than a pint of bees, outside, 

 in a full-sized Langstroth hive, without di- 

 vision board — also natural stores. 



Friend Gano, — a wholesale hardware 

 merchant in the city, keeps about twenty 

 swarms for pleasure. Has had them for 

 many years, is very observing and well- 

 posted in their habits and needs. He is 

 situated in the suburbs, 2^ miles from me ; 

 winters out, on natural stores, and no pro- 

 tection except abundant ventilation, in this 

 wise : fly-holes open below, surplus boxes 

 removed, leaving the passage ways all open 

 through the honey toard into the surplus 

 chamber, and the caps so open as to give 

 the occupants below abundant opportuniiy 

 to see the stars. He has had no disease 

 among his bees. A portion of his hives 

 are tall and a portion, the shallow Langs- 

 troth. In cold winters he has had quite a 

 number of swarms starve to death in the 

 shallow form of hive, with ample supplies 

 all round them, but none above the cluster. 

 During the long cold spell a year ago last 

 winter, he removed the hon^y board from 

 one of these shallow hives and laid several 

 pieces of honey in the comb on the frames 

 and set up a couple of thin boards to par- 

 tially cover them inside of the cap ; and 

 they came through the winter in that con- 

 dition and made one of the most prosper- 

 ous stocks he had that season. 



Last season I kept the combs in the 

 brood-nest of all my hives clear of honey 

 with the extractor, until the last week in 

 June, and the conse([uence was, the hives 

 were crowded with bees and the combs 

 full of brood. On the 1st of July honey 

 gathering ceased almost entirely. After 

 this no brood was reared of any amount 

 except what the combs contained at the 

 time, and when winter set in they were 

 more reduced in numbers than I ever liad 

 them before in the fall, and were all old 

 bees. In October they got a little honey 

 from the aster. In November I gave them 

 a thorough examination, and estimated the 

 amount of supplies by taking out and 

 weighing a part of the combs and estimat- 

 ing the others. The heaviest stock was 10 

 lbs. Hives were numbered and the amount 

 in each noted. I then fed Ihem syrup. 



April 10th the :54 stocks were in fine con- 

 cision. Two lost their queens, oue ciueeii 

 was a drone layer, not pure, and I killed 

 her. And a few days s^inee I found a 

 queen in a knot of bees, and made a mis- 

 take and gave her to a wrong stock and 

 the (pieenless stock was robbed during my 

 absence. My bees were all in the Langs- 

 troth hive, on summer stands with straw 

 mat and ([uill or blanket over the frames ; 

 the cap on, with the cover raised i inch all 

 round by tacking on bits of thick leather 

 for the cover to rest on. M. Nkvixs. 



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