492 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Oct. 



plenty of it, but not too much, allowing them some 

 empty eomb on which to cluster. If they have what 

 you think is just enough to take them through the 

 winter, loan them one more comb containing five or 

 six pounds of sealed honey. If they do not need it, 

 thoy will give it back to you in the spring: if they do 

 need it, they will pay it back in the summer with In- 

 terest. 



New for the figures. I had 50 colonics last fall, 

 one-half in a good, dry, wcU-reguhited cellar, and 

 the remainder on their summer stands. Of the 50, 1 

 lost 17, and all but one of these from starvation 

 when the winter was nearly over. Thoy had honey 

 enough for an ordinary winter, but not for such a 

 severe one. Five pounds more to each hive, SO lbs_ 

 to the 10, would have taken them through. At 10 c 

 per lb., this would have cost $8.00. Thus for $8.00 I 

 might have saved 16 colonies, and received from 

 them this summer 50 lbs. apiece, or 800 lbs. of ex- 

 tracted honey, worth .$80.00. It would have paid. 

 What a difference it would have made in the reports 

 last spring and this summe,-, if these tens of thou- 

 sands of colonies which starved to death had all 

 been saved, as they might and should have been ! 

 Besides, it is not right to rob these little creatures of 

 the food they need and so carefully provide. Nor 

 does it seem altogether consistent tn call them "our 

 little pets" and then after getting the surplus they 

 afford, to steal or tf.ke by force because we are 

 stronger than they, the few pounds they need to 

 keep them from starvation in Avinter. But we do it, 

 or have done it, not on purpose, but in our careless- 

 ness or avarice. Then, after our " blessed bees " are 

 dead, we fill the papers with lamentations over our 

 losses, and perplex our brains trying to discover 

 some method of wintering bees without loss. There 

 is one thing about which I am resolved, and about 

 which every bee-keeper should be resolved, to let no 

 more bees die of starvation. 



The third condition of successful wintering is 

 some kind of protection from the cold of severe and 

 protracted winters. This is not as important as the 

 conditions previously mentioned, because, if they 

 have been complied with, bees in ordinary winters 

 pass through in almost any kind of a hive. Still, it 

 is important, as the bees are the better for it any 

 winter, and it is really necessary in very severe 

 ones. There are two methods I have tried,— one on 

 the summer stands, the other in the cellar. On the 

 summer stands, protection is needed. In the ten- 

 frame Langstroth hive, a chafC cushion should be 

 put at each side in place of 3 or 4 honey frames re- 

 moved. Over the remaining frames, some sticks 

 should be laid, and over all a cloth or piece of carpet 

 put. Then a second story should be added, and filled 

 with chaff. On this the cap should be put, and the 

 hive placed where it will get the winter sunshine at 

 least part of the day. For the cellar, the chaff 

 cushion are not necessary; yet, as they will be of 

 use when the hives are returned to their stands in 

 the spring, it is well to put them in. 



Which is the better, to winter on the summer 

 stands, or in the cellar? I must confess, that, every 

 thing considered, I am not certain which. If our 

 winters were all like the last one, the cellar would 

 undoubtedly be the better way. But they are not; 

 last winter was an exceptional one. There are ad- 

 vantages in wintering on the summer stands which 

 must not be overlooked. I have a good cellar, and 

 have uniformly had good success in wintering in it. 

 But some of my neighbors also use the Langstroth 



hive, and leave their bees out without protection, 

 and with surplus boxes or supers on, just as in the 

 summer. With all my care with spring feeding and 

 spreading the combs, these colonies, left without 

 care, would year after year be working in surplus 

 boxes, or swarming, one or two weeks before mine. 

 Nine hives thus wintered in 18T9-'80, and which I 

 bought in the spring, gave them next summer as 

 much surplus honey as the thirty 1 had wintered in 

 the cellar. I am not certain that I can afford to 

 keep my bees in the cellar in ordinary winters for 

 the advantages to be gained in unusually severe 

 ones, especially as the bees I left out last winter, 

 with the consumption of a few pounds more honey, 

 came through nearly as well as those in the cellar. 

 As it is, I will put part into the cellar, and leave 

 part on the summer stands. But if 1 had no cellar, 

 I would not go to the expense of making one until 

 it was fully established that, in the long run, cellar 

 wintering is the better way. 



I think that the experience of my neighbors and 

 others who have left the surplus boxes on all winter, 

 shows that there is some advantage in having a 

 dead-air chamber of some extent above the bees in 

 winter. This might be covered with chaff. These 

 men who left on the upper boxes did not break open 

 their hives after the bees had them sealed up for 

 winter. I have never seen moldj^ combs in such 

 hives in the spring. But let us all keep our colonies 

 strong, and give them plenty of food, and then try 

 to ffnd out what we do not know about the best way 

 and place to keep them. J. W. White. 



Milroy, Pa., Sept., 1881. 



AN ABC SCHOIiAR IN LOUISIANA. 



CAME through the winter without losing any of 

 my bees; the 23 colonies were strong, and in 

 good fix. All were blacks. I increased up to 

 Aug. 1st to 80 colonies— 30 natural, and 28 artificial. 

 I bought one Italian queen, and a friend gave me an- 

 other, from which I have raised 60 young queens, the 

 most of which met Italian drones. I made it a rule 

 to kill all the black drones I could. I have two nu- 

 clei raising queens for the other 20 colonies as fast 

 as the queen-cells are 14 days' old. I cut them out 

 and place one above the frames of the hives I wish 

 to put them in, which saves introducing. I hardly 

 ever fail. Thoy must be without a queen three days 

 at least, or they will destroy them. I have lost a 

 good many on their bridal trip, as they are exposed 

 to fowls and birds. I will have them all with young 

 queens before winter, and another year I will do the 

 same with all the hybrids, and then I shall have pure 

 stock. I did not aim for honey, as I wished for bees. 

 I extracted only 720 lbs. I have as many colonies as 

 I can attend to. I am a manager on a sugar planta- 

 tion, and my time to devote to bees is limited. When 

 I increase to 150 colonies I will devote my entii-e 

 time to them. 



I had two or three strange things happen to my 

 bees. One day I found one of my young queens, 4. 

 months old, balled in the hive. I eaged her 34 hours 

 before releasing her, then she was received kindly; 

 four days afterward I looked for her, and found five 

 queen-cells, when I took it for granted she was dead. 

 So on the 14th day I went to cut some of the cells out 

 to put into other hives, and I found her alive and do- 

 ing her duty. I cut all the cells out. Why did they 

 make those cells, and why did she not tear them 

 down? 



