THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



201 



I bought five slocks in box hives early 

 in April, one of which died, making six 

 stocks to begin .the season. These I in- 

 creased to nineteen, and I think I took no 

 honey. With the number of empty combs 

 I had on hand, there was nothing to exult 

 over in this increase, especially as the 

 stocks were not in the best conditon as 

 to strength. 



December 7th I put the bees in the cellar 

 and cellar and house were locked up for 

 the winter, myself aud family spending 

 the winter in Cincinnati, from which 

 place we did not return till late the follow- 

 ing May. A neiglibor who was an old 

 bee-keeper, took out the bees on March 31, 

 in bad condition, and wiieu I reached home 

 in May, I found three stocks left of the 

 nineteen with which to commence the 

 season of 1873. From this time forward 

 my business kept me in Chicago, with only 

 a few days through the summer to see my 

 bees, and in 1873 I increased the three to 

 eight in fair condition, and took perhaps 

 60 pounds of honey. These eight were 

 put into the cellar on November 10th, and 

 December 10th my wife gave the cellar a 

 good airing, and then closed up the house 

 to spend the wnnter in the city. March 

 30th, 1874, I went out and took them out 

 of winter quarters, and was delighted to 

 find them in splendid condition, the 

 whole eight alive, aud hardly a (eacupful 

 of dead bees in all. These eight I in- 

 creased to 23, taking 390 pounds of honey. 

 Of course tliey were increased b)^ arti- 

 ficial swarming. I attributed. the previous 

 winter's success partlj^ to their having 

 been taken in earlier than ever before, so I 

 decided to take them iu still earlier, and 

 went out for thatpui'pose on October 29th. 

 But the bees decided they would not be 

 taken in, aud whenever I attempted to 

 take them in they bnlted out. So, like 

 many others I had to give up and let them 

 have their way, and left my wife to get 

 them in when the weather was cool enough 

 for them. On November 19th, they had a 

 good fly, and November 20th they were 

 taken in by Mr. P., who is a farmer with 

 at least the average knowledge of bees, 

 and Jeff, who is one of the liveliest speci- 

 mens of the African race that ever jumped, 

 with considerably more than the average 

 fear of bees. On December 12th my wife 

 gave the cellar a good airing and then it 

 was closed up for the winter. 



Last winter will long be remembered as 

 an intensely cold winter, and I felt some 

 anxiety about the bees The last of Feb- 

 ruary my wife went out aud warmed up 

 the house and cellar, findingthe bees some- 

 what uneasy, but after being warmed up 

 they become quiet. Then the house was 

 again closed up, and they were left till 

 April 6th, when Mr. P. and'Jett" took them 

 out. Three of the 22 had died, leaving 

 19, and I had high hopes of what I would 

 do this summer. I thousrht it would be 



best to increase them to about 40, as I in- 

 tended to get two stocks from Adam Grimm, 

 and thereby imjirove my stock, as some of 

 my bees were nearly black. On May 10th 

 these two stocks were received from Mr. 

 Grimm, and May 27lh I went out and saw 

 my bees for the first lime this year. I didn't 

 find them very strong. Two of them liad 

 gone up from queenlessness, so I had 19 to 

 begin the season with. I did not find them 

 covered up in tlie very best manner — in 

 fact, one of tliem had the cover on in such 

 a way that the bees did not use the bottom 

 entrance at all, but came out and went in 

 at the top of tiie hive. I still adhered to 

 my resolution not to increase to more than 

 40, as I wanted to be sure to have all strong ; 

 and as this would only be about doubling 

 them, I thought best to spend their extra 

 strength in getting a crop of honey and 

 getting a second story filled with combs 

 on most of the hives. Two weeks later, 

 June 10th, I went out again, and was disap- 

 pointed in not finding much gain in 

 strength. A few of the strongest had 

 gained, the others had not. I had taken 

 the queens from the Grimm hives on my 

 first visit, and expected to have plenty of 

 queen cells, but found very few, and those 

 not nice large ones, so that I only got two 

 or three queens in all from this first opera- 

 tion. 



Again, June 2;jth, on going out, I found 

 some of the weakest colonies with less 

 numbers than when taken out of the cellar, 

 but they appeared to be working quite 

 lively, aud prospects began to look a little 

 brighter for the season. In all my experi- 

 ence, no season up to the last of June had 

 ever been so unpropitious. 



My next and last visit was July 7th, and 

 as I shall not be able again to go out till 

 late in August, my study was to leave the 

 bees in such shape as not to do anj^ swarm- 

 ing during my absence. One swarm had 

 come out a few days before, but as the 

 queen's wings were clipped, they went back 

 and there was no danger of their going off 

 to stay, till a young queen was able to go 

 with them. I had oulj' made seven new 

 colonies, and five of these had already 

 laying queeus. By taking away all honey 

 and leaving three or more empty frames 

 in the center of each hive, I could feel 

 pretty sure there would not be much 

 swarming. The frames of brood and comb 

 taken from the center of the hives could 

 be used to strengthen the young colonies 

 and to put in the upper stories. Some 

 three or four had already second stories on 

 them aud from these I expected a good 

 yield of honey, but from some of the weaker 

 ones I expected very little. In order to 

 get along as fast as possible, I had a hand 

 ready to do the uncapping, and Jeff was 

 instructed to whirl the extractor, leaving 

 me to get the frames out of the hives and 

 put them back. When all was extracted I 

 had a sum total of about fifteen pounds ! 



