230 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOUKNAL AND GAZETTE, 



brood in the transferred combs — I insert a pi^ce 

 of comb containing eggs and larva? taken I'rom 

 a pure Italian stock. The bees will immedi- 

 ate]}' start one, probably several, queen cells. I 

 examine the nucleus again on the ninth day, 

 and if I find more ihau one queen cell I provtde 

 as many nucleus hive as are needed, and so 

 divide as in the first case. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Burying Bees. 



Much has been wntten about burying bees, 

 and thus preserving them during winter, and 

 numerous experiments have been made, gener- 

 ally without satisfactory results. Probably the 

 trouble arises more from the mode of applying 

 the system than from any inherent incompat- 

 ibility. I do not propose here to take part in 

 the controversy, or to pronounce judgment, pro 

 or con, on the particular processes employed by 

 those who have either been successful or have 

 failed in this sort of winter management. My 

 design is solely to submit to the intelligent bee- 

 keeper my personal experience in the matter, 

 showing what I have done and how I did it. 



I have kept bees now more than tliirly years. 

 Long before I began 1 had heard of burying 

 bees, and the advantage to be derived from keep- 

 ing them in undisturbed repose during a variable 

 and inclement season Avere so obvious as to make 

 the theory at least inviting. But having no op- 

 portunity to see how those proceeded who en- 

 deavored to put the plan in practice, I made no 

 attempt myself to do so ; though, like most be- 

 ginners, I had plenty of weak stocks every fall, 

 sure to perish in the winter without some ex- 

 traordinary care for their protection and pre- 

 servation. Bees were scarce in my neighbor- 

 hood — they could not be bought, while honey 

 was always procurable at some price. This in- 

 duced me to hive all my swarms, even the latest 

 and weakest ; for 1 was anxious to enlarge my 

 apiary as quickly as possible, and trusted to fall 

 feeding to carry my liliputian colonies over the 

 winter. Of course I generally found mys<?lf in 

 the spring like other novices to whom hope had 

 " told her llattering tale," in possession of a nice 

 assortment of dead workers and queens. Still, 

 success in a few instances, like luck in a lottery, 

 kept luring me on, and reiterated losses could not 

 speedily wean me from the infatuation of con- 

 tinuing or renewing my unprotitabic practice. 



A few years after a weak swarm issued from 

 one of my stocks late in August. I hived it in 

 a straw eke six inches high and twelve inches 

 in diameter. It immediately clustered against 

 the top, forming a small ball scarcely larger 

 than my fist. But it was very active, carrying 

 in honey and pollen from a tield of esparcette 

 near by, then in bloom. Industrious as it was, 

 it could obviously not secure a supply of stores 

 sufficient for the winter, for the population was 

 too small to enable it to labor to advantage 

 while pasturage was still accessible. I now 

 determined to make my tirst experiment in bury- 

 ing bees with this small colony, else inevitably 

 doomed. 



"When external supplies began to fail,.I weigli- 

 ed off three pounds of pure honey, and fed these 

 bees therefrom, g ving them small porlions-every 

 evening until they ceased carrying it iu-^wheu! 

 I found that they had taken up a j)ouud and a 

 quarter in all. Meanwhile I had procured a 

 quantity of clean sand, and dried it thoroughlVv 

 in an oven. At the end of September I poured 

 some of this to the depth of twelve inches in a; 

 corner of my ice-house, set this hive on it 

 gently, and inserted in the entrance a tin tube 

 extending upward like a syphon fifteen inches 

 above the top of the hive — securing this and 

 closing the entrance with a lump of moistened 

 clay. I then set a board, six inches higher thau 

 the hive, diagonally across the corner, to inclose 

 and retain the sand, which I now poured in 

 slowly around and on the hive, completely cov- 

 ering it to the depth of four inches, leaving only 

 the tin tube clear to suppi}' ventilation and air. 

 T let it remain thus undisturbed fully six months. 

 Towards the end of March, when the external 

 temperature induced the bees in myapiary to fly, I 

 exhumed the buried hive, and was gratified to find 

 the bees still living. 1 fed them regularly every 

 other evening liberally for about two weeks, 

 when, being called from home, I had to leave 

 them to their fate. After an absence of four 

 weeks I found them strong and active, having 

 already so filled their hive with new comb that 

 I gave it an eke, and in less than ten days I had 

 to enlarge it by adding another. From this 

 stock thus wintered I received two strong swams. 

 that spring, and gave it also a large super, 

 which it filled with honey. 



I have given this account rather for the gratifi- 

 cation of those who keep bees for their own en- 

 joyment than for those who take no pleasure in 

 feeding to weak stocks the honey garnered by 

 their populous colonies, or who are indisposed 

 to buy h(mey for such a purpose. Amateurs 

 are more likely to make it a subject of intelli- 

 gent reflection, and may be led by it to devise 

 some plan equally feasible and of more general 

 utility. 1 have myself since frequently wintered 

 populous and well stored colonies in this man- 

 ner.' I have also modified the plan so as to adopt 

 it to wintering colonies thus protected on their 

 summer stands, enabling me to permit the bees to 

 fly when the weather chances to be suitable 

 and guarding them at the same time from the 

 effects of rigori/us cold. Bees can thus be kept 

 quiet for an indefinite period in the severest 

 winter without any uudue consumption of 

 stores. I may describe my process hereaiter. 



FURST. 



In the Prussian city of Potsdam there are at 

 present forty-nine bee-keepers, who have to- 

 gether five hundred and ninety lour hives. An 

 old record, dated in the fifteenth century, says 

 of Potsdam : " the inhabitants of the island sup- 

 port themselves by fishing and bee-culture." 



TnouGii bee-culture is not so general in 

 Moldavia as in Poland, yet it is in numy local- 

 ities prosecuted on a very extensive scale. 

 There are some proprietors of large landed es- 

 tates there who are owners of from six thousand 

 to ten thousand hives. 



