142 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Voices from Among the Hives. 



A. H. Hart, Appleton, Wis., writes: "I 

 have to report a loss of bees wliere wintered 

 •out of doors, witli dysentery; while those 

 in cellars or suitable quaiters came out all 

 right. I lost four out of eighty swarms. I 

 tind that bees can't stand as much cold aa a 

 white bear." 



RoBT. T. Jones, Flat Rock, N.C., writes : 

 "Bees have wintered well here. All win- 

 tered on their summer stands. We have 

 not had more than one week at a time but 

 "What bees could rty. Bees commenced to 

 gather pollen from the elder on Feb. 2(5, 

 from the soft maple March 10, and are still 

 at in the bee meadow; fruit blooms will be 

 In in a few days." 



A.Wilson, Marcellus,N. Y.,writes; "My 

 bees wintered good. I put 13 liives in the 

 cellar, aiid left 13 out on tlieir stands. They 

 all came out in good condition, except two 

 hives where the boards were warped and 

 let in cold air; and they froze. Those in the 

 •cellar came out all right. 1 have used two 

 kinds of patent hives but have laid them 

 aside for some of my own invention, which 

 .■are more convenient to handle and contain 

 about 2000 cubic inches." 



G. F. Merriam, San Diego, Cal., writes: 

 "I have taken a long trip among bee-men 

 and find that the bees are in good coiulition. 

 A frost about the tirst of April cut otf many 

 flowers, and put back swarming and reduced 

 the honey-cup materially. A majority seem 

 sanguine of success, but many are discour- 

 aged. It is fearfully dreary here to an 

 eastern man, and costs a fortune to 

 come here and get started in the business. 

 November is the best time to come. Have 

 seen Mr. Harbison and one of his large api- 

 :aries." 



H. F. Putnam, Galesburg, 111., writes: 

 "My bees swarmed in April and went into 

 other hives. They all had plenty of honey; 

 from 10 to 20 lbs. each. I have had 10 

 swarm out this season. They were winter- 

 ed in a house built for the purpose, and 

 came out strong on the last of March. 

 They had good queens and brood, but not 

 a particle of pollen. The combs were clean 

 and free from mould and worms. Lang- 

 stroth hive, no upward ventilation. The 

 result was that the combs were free from 

 mould, and less honey was consumed thaji 

 when I gave them upward ventilation." 



R. M. Anderson, Hopkinsville, Ky., 

 writes: "I have 14 full stocks and all came 

 through the winter safely. 1 left tliciii on 

 their summer stands, with no protection 

 except a section of i)lanks built together 

 ^ ft. scpiare and stood up on the north side 

 of the hive to break the cold wind off, and 

 I find this a great benefit. I use the Lang- 

 stroth hive and want no other, for I tliiiik 

 it superior to all. I took last year 4(io lbs. 

 ■of honey from (> hives and if this season 

 proves as good as last, I hope to rei)ort 

 nuudi better results. Success to the Bkk 

 Journal." 



J. P. ISIooRK, Hinghamton, N. Y., writes : 

 "In article on page 103. A. B. J., left hand 

 colunni, 12th line from the toji, reads, '1 am 

 now usingucomb I()xl7 inches,' (instead of 

 10x12.) The mistake is probably due to my 



imperfect chirography. If you will correct 

 as above, I will be very much obliged, as 

 the tendency of the article goes to show that 

 I am in favor of large frames, and I certain- 

 ly cannot subscribe to a frame as small as 

 10x12. There are some things in Mr. Coe's 

 article on page 112, that I think would 

 be likely to mislead those who have had no 

 experience with the apiary house. I have 

 used a house similar to Mr. Coe's for the 

 past two seasons. 



I cannot say that I prefer to handle bees 

 out of doors, when the sun is shining 

 bright, nor do I think that the house can be 

 build as cheaply as the same room in out- 

 door hives. A house for 20 hives could be 

 built perhaps for ^ti.OO per hive, though 

 mine, a substantial house, cost, two years 

 ago, .S12..50 per hive. 



I think well of the apiary house, where 

 increase is not desired, and where the ex- 

 tractor is not used mucli, and also where we 

 wish the bees more safe from petty thieves. 

 Bees are doing well in breeding, up here, 

 considering the weather. We are liaving 

 a great deal of cold north wind. Fruit 

 blossoms not open yet." 



Henry Claussen, Mishicott, Wisconsin, 

 writes : "We haye had a very hard winter, 

 but bees that were housed in a good cellar 

 have wintered well. My bees were carried 

 into the cellar November 10th, and removed 

 to their summer stands April 6th. From 143 

 colonies that were put into our cellar, two 

 were found dead. The cause was, some 

 mice found their way into the cellar and had 

 eaten through the straw mats (which I use 

 for honey boards) and this I believe destroy- 

 ed them. We only had a lew days this 

 month that bees would fly, it has been cold 

 all the time ; some days the temperature 

 fell 20 degrees below freezing. 



Dr. J. R. CoLBUBN, Chicago, 111., writes : 

 "I set my bees out of their winter quarters 

 on Monday evening, March 29th, (four colo- 

 nies out of seven), two died in cellar, and 

 one was (|ueenless. I examined them Tues- 

 day evening, March .30th, and found thattwo 

 colonies hat! decamped or left their hives 

 having "bwarmed out" probably Tuesday, 

 p. m., as it was a very warm, bright, pleas- 

 ant day. I found one queen and about a 

 pint of bees hanging on the rear end of a 

 hive (not their own) and took them and 

 united them with the (lueeiiless stock above 

 mentioned ; but was unable to discover the 

 other missing colony, and as it was growing 

 dark, I did not look any further. Well — 

 Friday about noon, the missing colony was 

 dis( overed about 300 feet from the hive 

 clustered on a few dried weeds near the 

 ground having evidently remained there 

 from Tuesday afternoon until Friday, about 

 three nights and three days. But the 

 strangest ])art of it, was that the Wednesday 

 night intervening, the cold was such as to 

 freeze the ground hard, as I noticed Thurs- 

 day morning. I cannot say what the tem- 

 perature exactly was, but the ground was 

 frozen solid in the morning, when 1 went to 

 my business, and I should judge the tem- 

 perature must have been aslow as ten de- 

 grees below the freezing point. This they 

 withstood without any ai>i)arent harm, 

 either to the bees or queen, as on an exami- 

 nation afterwards I discovered a goodly 

 (Hiantity of eggs in the brood chamber of 

 the hive. I put them in." 



