226 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



SUCCESSFri-i CE1.1.AR WINTEKIXG. 



fijP TAKE this moment to fulfill my pledge to re- 

 Jjl port my success in wintering my bees; and I 

 do it very cheerfully, for the great desidera- 

 tum ill bee culture is wintering, and we are all anx- 

 ious (I suppose) to adopt the best methods. You 

 may recollect that at my last report I had 138 liives in 

 cellar, 9 lli-story box hives, and 129 imp. Simplicities. 

 I put them in about the 15th of November, and took 

 thoin out April 15th. I have handled them all over 

 this week. I find one box hive with bees all dead; 

 they died in January of dysentery. Two Simplici- 

 ties had no queens, and the bees all left them at the 

 first fly, and went into the other hives. In one other 

 hive I found no brood nor queen, but about 4 quarts 

 of boes. All the others, 125 Simplicities, have brood 

 in all stages, and plenty of eggs. The 8 box hives 

 seem strong, and that is all I know of them ; 4 of the 

 125 were so weak in bees that I put in division- 

 boards to help them keep warm; and 10, which had 

 plenty of bees, were so light in stores that I gave 

 theiu one card each of sealed basswood or clover, 

 and should have given more, but there were eggs or 

 brood in nearly all the combs, and it was difficult to 

 make room for it Avithout taking out brood, eggs, or 

 honey. The rest, 111, are all very heavy, and full of 

 bees; nearlyor quite one-half of them are literally 

 full of bees, so that they lay out when the sun shines 

 on them. I think there are more bees to-day than 

 there was when I put them in the cellar. This, I 

 think, is better than last year. To guide or help 

 those who may adopt cellar wintering, I will again 

 describe my cellar. It is 16 by 26 inside measure, 

 7 feet high, in dry sandy soil, the bottom paved with 

 pounded stone. A 4-inch tin pipe goes from cellar 

 to a very tall chimney, which receives the pipe from 

 a large sub-burning stove, in which there was tire 

 kept, day and night, while the bees were in the cel- 

 lar; and a 4-inch pipe enters one cellar window at 

 opposite ead from chimney, and turns down by 

 elbow terminating near the cellar bottom. But this 

 was not enough ingress, and I had to open an out- 

 side door many of the nights. The pipes, both from 

 stove and cellar, arc made very tight so as to admit 

 no air to the chimney, but from the cellar when the 

 stove-dampers are closed. 



If my memox-y serves me, you said you would give 

 one insertion of bees for sale by the pound. (That 

 is just like you, to advertise gratis when it is to cut 

 off your own business, just because it will help some 

 poor fellow who has lost his bees.) If I am correct, 

 you may say to the friends that I will supply bees by 

 the pound at your rates, to the extent of 10 bushels 

 or so, and will put in queens when I have them, for 

 50 cents each (mind, they are blacks and hybrids 

 raised from Italian drones), but they are large, 

 healthy, and enterprising bees— a good strain of 

 workers or honey-gatherers. H. V. Train. 



Mauston, Wis., April 31, 1881. 



Many thanks, friend T., but I think your 

 ten bushels of bees will be gone quickly, as 

 soon as the friends ^et this journal. You 

 give me more credit than I deserve ; it was 

 partly because it was next to impossible for 

 me to fill the orders, that made me give this 

 offer. Your offer of putting in queens, oven 

 blacks, is very liberal, and will doubtless 

 prove a great hel]) to many who are anxious 

 to get bees on their combs. I think I shall 

 have to build a cellar like yours, or similar. 



ENCOUR AGIXG REPORTS AlVD BliASTED 

 HOPES 



BOTH IN THE SAME LETTEU. 



f THOUGHT I would write a few lines to you and 

 let you know how we poor (?) bee-keepers in 

 "^" this section of the country have made out this 

 cold winter which has just passed. It has been a 

 very bad winter for the most of the bee-keeping fra- 

 ternity: but as for myself and a few of my neigh- 

 bors, we have no reason to complain so far. A few 

 of us here wore wise enough to put our bees in a 

 good cellar built for the purpose (well ventilated), 

 and have been very successful with them; and, by 

 the waj', I am inclined to think it the best way. 

 There were four of us who put our bees in one cel- 

 lar, and I will now give you the number of colonies 

 put in this cellar, and the amount of losses, which 

 we consider very light:— 



A. Jennings 146 lost 5 



W. Turner 30 " 



C.S.Lobdell 35 " 1 



G.S. Merritt 18 " 1 



Total 229 7 



Another neighbor, Mr. C. S. Hand, put in his cel- 

 lar 74 colonies, and lost only 3. We think this a pret- 

 ty good report, and we don't any of us feel like be- 

 ing put in Blasted Hopes. Our bees are all doing 

 finelj" at present, tilling from five to eight spaces in 

 hive with bees. 



I will now give you a different list, although we 

 do not feel like bragging over them, for some time 

 we may have bad luck as well as they, and we would 

 not like to have them brag over us when we have 

 bad luck:— 



W. Makely, in cellar 300 col., lost CO 



H.Gould, outdoors 185 " " 185 



J.Snyder, " 70 " " 70 



E.Snyder, " 100 " " 100 



E.&G.Snyder, " 15 " " 15 



J.H.Lamb, " 15 " " 15 



Z. Lockwood, " 55 " " .55 



H. Kelley, " 13 " " 10 



J. M. Hannay " 15 " " 15 



Total 608 525 



All of these were within a circuit of about three 

 miles of me, ia different directions, and there is a 

 number from whom I have not heard any thing. If 

 you consider this report worth putting in Glean- 

 ings you can do so; and, bj' strict attention to bus- 

 iness, we hope to be able to give a good report next 

 fall. By the way, I think that Gle.\.nings is one of 

 the most interesting papers I ever read. I would 

 also Siiy, if any dealer in apiarian supplies or queens 

 who happens to read this will send me his catalogue 

 and price list, it may be some benefit to them some 

 time. C. S. Lobdell. 



South Waterloo, N. Y., April 20, 1881. 



Some kind friend has sent us a copy of the Sagi- 

 naw (Mich.) Moniinfj Herald, detailing the losses of 

 the bee-lvcepers of Flint and Parwell counties. The 

 reporter states that, out of 1359 colonies, but 433 are 

 alive. O. J. Hetherington lost 349 out of 250. Dr. L. 

 Whiting lost 50 out of 90, while the Wilkin sisters, of 

 Farwell, Clare Co., lost only 2 out of 50, and came out 

 ahead by a long way of any of the old veterans in 

 the vicinity. It may not be fully demonstrated that 

 women are equal to the task of handling the reins 

 of government, even should they want to do so; but 

 I think it Is pretty certain they can manage bees- 

 ay, and liecp them, about as well as men can. 



