Vol. XTI. 



MAE. 1, 1888. 



No. 5. 



TERMS: S1.0C Pbe ANNUM, DJ Advance; ■) T? ,,+ riJ\l -i <fTn n rJ -inn 7 J? 7" ? 

 2Copiesfor81.90;3for«2.75;5forW.00; xL5t/Ct'C>t't'OAt'fe/C*/ VlV ±0 t O 

 10 or more, 76 cts. each. Single num- \ 

 ber. 6 cts. Additions to clubs may be f 

 made at club rates. Above are all to 

 be sent to one postopfick. 



r Clubs to different postofflces, not less 

 I than 90 cts. each. Sent postpaid, in the 

 J U. S. and Canadas. To all other coun- 

 I tries of the Universal Postal Union, 18 



k. I. ROOT. MEDINA, OHIO. V^SiSild''^!^%TdZ':^^yl'.n^i. 



rUBLISHED SEMI-MONTHLY BY 



ARE BEES EVER INJURED BY HAVING 

 THE HIVES COVERED "WITH SNOW P 



OEO. GRIMM REPLIES A MTTI.E MOKE AT LENGTH 

 IN KEGARD TO THE iMATTEIl. 



fRTEND ROOT:— In reply to your request, I will 

 say that I can not always stop to give my 

 reasons lor the answers I send. Usually they 

 are prompted by my individual experience, 

 and may differ widely from others who have 

 managed in a different manner and under different 

 surroundings. My answer to question No. ^M was 

 not "yes" by mistalic. I meant yes, and meant 

 thereby what Dadnnt&Son in their answer more 

 fully expressed. The body of the hive may be 

 covered, but the entrance should be kept open at 

 any event. True, I remember that, in the winter of 

 1880(1 think it was Vennor's eleven-foot-snow win- 

 tev), I had one hive buried for a month from two to 

 three feet under the snow, and it fared no worse 

 than the others that I had left outdoors. It lived 

 till nearly spring, then died. I believe the less 

 snow, rain, or moisture of any kind, about a hive, 

 the better. And the further you can keep your bees 

 away from it, the better. For this reason I keep mj' 

 bees in the cellar. I do not think the bees would ex- 

 actly smother were the entrance to be closed for a time 

 with snow; but I do think that such a condition 

 of affairs would not conduce to the proper atmos- 

 phere for the bees. Cold alone will not hurt a good 

 colony of bees, nor injure the stores; but cold 

 and dampness will. I have tried outdoor wintering 

 to my heart's content, and have paid for my ex- 

 perience richly; and because I can not secure the 

 condition of affairs necessary to reasonable success, 

 I have abandoned it. 

 By the way, I seem to differ from a good many in 



regard to the relative cost and profit of comb and 

 extracted honey. When I get time I will give you a 

 description of my manner of raising comb honey, 

 and perhaps it will show the reason of the differ- 

 ence. George Grimm. 

 Jefferson, Wis., February 21, 1888. 



Thank you, friend G. We valite your re- 

 plies, because they are many times different 

 from even those given by the veterans, and 

 because we know they are prompted by con- 

 siderable practical experience ; but it seems 

 to me as though circumstances must be 

 quite different in Wisconsin from what they 

 are in Ohio. With us, when the snow 

 banks up against the liive tliere is always 

 a passage left for more or less air to get 

 around the sides of the hive ; and our mild 

 days are so frequent here that the heat of 

 the hive, or something else, invariably en- 

 larges this crevice between the snow and 

 the hive. In fact, I have seen bees crawl along 

 between the front of the hive and the snow, 

 until they reached the surface ; that is, Avhen 

 we have snow so liigh as to cover the entrance. 

 Some liave spoken of melting snow forming 

 a sort of slush of snow and water that runs 

 into and clogs tiie entrance when we have a 

 sudden thaw. As our hives are always set 

 on four bricks, and the ground not only un- 

 derdrained, but arranged so that water can 

 run off quickly, we never have any snow- 

 water high enough up to run into or close up 

 the entrances. In view of this, I liave al- 

 ways said I would not have the snow swept 

 away from the entrances, even if someljody 

 would do it for nothing. Very likely the 

 difference in locality may have much to do 

 with the difference of opinion. 



