THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



45 



For the American Bee Journal. 



On Wintering Bees. 



Mr. Editor :— As tlicre is a great deal 

 said ill your Nortlu'ni journals about wiiitcr- 

 inp; lnH*'s in cellars, oaves, otc, which docs 

 not interest us in tlu' sunny South, whi're 

 we can winter them far better on their sum- 

 mer stands, perhaps it may not be amiss to 

 ?ive my way of winteriuf:; liere. If you 

 hink it will be interesting to your readers 

 you may insert it in your valuable journal. 



You niay think we need take no precau- 

 tion here to winter our bees, where they are 

 able to tly almost every sunny day during 

 winter, but observation shows me that the 

 mortalitv of bees here is as great in winter 

 as in the far North, for we do not take 

 pains here to prepare them that our North- 

 ern friends do. i5ut if every one here would 

 take a little trouble to cover tlie tops of the 

 frames with a sheet of straw wrapping- 

 paper and put a little cotton-seed on top to 

 the amount of 1 or 2 inches thick, we should 

 hear no more of bees dying in winter. The 

 above is my practice, and of 200 stands put 

 up in this "way last winter, I lost but two, 

 wliich I think died for want of honey. As 

 I kept on swarming my bees last year until 

 the 7th October. It is not strange that I 

 should loose one per cent of them in winter- 

 ing. In preparing for winter I even up all 

 my colonies, Dy taking from the strong and 

 giving to the weak, which I consider no 

 robbery. D. Staples. 



Columbia, Mauray Co., Tenn. 



For The American Bee Journal. 



Remarks on Eccentric. 



Mr. Editor : — Who is Eccentric ? How 

 do you distinguish a man who is afraid to 

 write over his full address from a coward, 

 or if this name is too hard, I take it back 

 and say "timid." I dislike to read arti- 

 cles under ficticious names, and were I 

 editor of a Bee or Poultry Journal no 

 such articles could enter into its pages. But 

 men difier ; it takes all sorts of people to 

 make a world. I am not condemning 

 at wholesale. But let us examine and see 

 what good such articles do. In reading 

 the Journal my custom is to hop clear 

 over such articles and first read our re- 

 sponsible names, and such as Eccentric's 

 last. Yet, Ecceutic's article was good, 

 notwithstanding. Let us look for the bad. 



He says : "The season just closed has 

 been rather a dull one in our locality." 



Now what good does this do the readers 

 of the Journal unless he told us where 

 or in what latitude his locality was. Is it 

 not mere idle scribble ; do we care to 

 know how the honey season was, unless 

 we know the whereats and whereofs, at 

 Black Hill or Florida ? But enough of 

 this. 



He asks where are the old brilliant wri- 

 ters of the Journal. They are all living, 

 except Dr. Hamlin, of Tenn., whom we 



miss very much indeed. The others did 

 not disappear from the Journal without 

 cause, known to themselves only. I as 

 well as Eccentric wish they would return, 

 for I want to read their spicy articles 

 again. 



Next he pitches into the City Honey 

 dealers ; there now, friend. Eccentric, 

 you are right, ''give it to em-" they have 

 no business to damage or destroy our busi- 

 ness. We who have spent seven years of 

 hard study in winter, and hot slinging 

 practice in summer to learn Bee-ology, not 

 for our own but for the benefit of coming 

 generations ; are we now after a hard toil 

 among bees, in the heat of the day, to get 

 nothing but a mere pittance for our honey 

 or be cheated out of it altogether, by these 

 City Ilouey dealers. No, this is too hard 

 for us ; we can't stand it. Something must 

 be done and that quickly. We must either 

 form a Grange, or unite with the Granges 

 and have our own Honey houses. But I 

 would say to Ecccentric, if he does not 

 already know it, that it is not all the City 

 Honey dealers who will adulterate honey. 

 Some of them are too honest and conscien- 

 tious to do such a thing, as for instance C, 

 F. IVIuth, of Cincinnati. Ihave not been in 

 Muth's Honey store, but a friend of mine 

 whose word I have entire confidence in, 

 has assured me that he has been all 

 through Muth's honey store and that he 

 buys and sells nothing but the pure un- 

 adulterated article. This is the sort of a 

 house to recommend itself. I sold my 

 honey at home at fair prices. If I had 

 any so send to a city, I would sell to no 

 other than such a dealer as Mulh. 



He next pitches into New-Idea hives. 

 True they were lauded to the skies, in such 

 a way as even to induce Argo to try em. 

 Last season was the first one that was 

 fit to try a hive, and I gave four of them 

 a fair trial, reported once or twice and 

 said : "so far, they have given entire satis- 

 faction." By the words "so far" I mean 

 so far as I had trid them. But the winter 

 trial was to come yet, and now Jan. 11th, 

 so far, I am not satisfied with their winter- 

 ing. Thus far we have never had a milder 

 winter, and yet bees do not winter well in 

 those long new-idea hives, at least mine 

 do not. The bees all crowd to the front 

 part, leaving about three-fourths of the 

 hive, or nearly, unoccupied and unpro- 

 tected. In all of Gallup's writing as to how 

 his bees wintered in them he said "splen- 

 didly." So also said Adair ; if I am not 

 mistaken. Well how is it that Gallup's 

 bees in the far and cold north cO'Uld win- 

 ter so splendidly in those long hives and 

 mine here in a much milder climate, not 

 winter at all V Will Gallup or Adair ans- 

 wer ? 



