THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



233 



Editor, who are the most success- 

 ful in bringing their bees through the 

 winter ? AVhen these successful men 

 are found, they are the ones we 

 should look up to for advice, just as 

 we would go to a successful physi- 

 cian for advice and treatment in case 

 of sickness. Yet it is impossible for 

 one person to know it all: therefore 

 nearly all have some good ideas and 

 if we will but gather up the best fruit 

 from the various ones we shall in 

 time reap a harvest of ideas that will 

 make us rich in knowledge, and the 

 winter problem will be solved. Hence, 

 let us reason together and each give 

 his best thoughts and methods that 

 we may all be benefited thereby. 



While I am always willing to give 

 the public my methods in any and 

 every department of apiculture, I do 

 so with some hesitancy owing to the 

 fact that there are so many beautiful 

 writers in our ranks that I always feel 

 that my articles are so imperfect that 

 I sometimes fear they are a detri- 

 ment to the brotherhood. Yet I 

 have such an interest in the success 

 of every beekeeper that I feel like 

 giving my opinion upon this impor- 

 tant subject until it is rejected, al- 

 though if this article had not been 

 solicited, I would have kept quiet 

 for the present. 



HOW TO SUCCESSFULLY WINTER BEES 



is a subject to which I have given 

 much thought and time by experi- 

 menting, and for the past eight years 

 I have been quite successful, as my 

 greatest loss in any one season in the 

 eight years was less than four per 

 cent, while last winter my loss was 

 less than two per cent, and the aver- 

 age for the eight years being less 

 than three per cent. 



There are beekeepers who claim 

 to have wintered their bees year after 

 year without loss ; this I have not 

 yet succeeded in doing, although I 

 think I have solved the problem of 

 wintering bees successfully ; and, 

 were I able to handle my 800 colo- 



nies and prepare them for winter 

 myself, and with a view of accomplish- 

 ing the one object of wintering every 

 colony, I think I could do it (baring 

 accidents) ; but as it would require 

 more work on my part than I care 

 to undertake, I prefer to employ 

 help and relieve myself of so much 

 hard work and consequently run 

 more risk in having the bees come 

 through safely. 



Now we see a great deal of theo- 

 rizing going the rounds of the differ- 

 ent periodicals, regarding this vexed 

 question : such as the " pollen theo- 

 ry," "warm, damp cellars," "cool, 

 dry cellars," " air tight cellars," 

 " caves," ''clamps," out- and in-door 

 methods, upward or no ventilation, 

 etc., etc., all of which have some 

 good features.- But it is often the 

 case that beekeepers put too much 

 stress on some one good point, and 

 losing sight of other necessary require- 

 ments to make the one point a suc- 

 cess. For instance, the "pollen the- 

 ory" is all right in the locality wliere it 

 originated ; there the bees gather an 

 excess of pollen late in the fall, and 

 where bees are not properly cared 

 for, the pollen will ferment, and the 

 bees wishing to get rid of it will un- 

 dertake to remove it, making a bad 

 matter worse ; and I daresay in very 

 cold weather they may consume some 

 of it, which will cause them to have 

 the diarrhoea, when if this excess of 

 pollen was removed and good clean 

 combs put in the place of those re- 

 moved, I believe it would be bene- 

 ficial to tlie bees. But all things 

 considered, I venture to assert that 

 pollen is not altogether the cause of 

 the so-called bee-diarrhoea. I be- 

 lieve that when bees have good whole- 

 some honey or sugar syrup, in a 

 good double-walled hive well packed, 

 with the brood-chamber contracted 

 in proportion to the size of the colo- 

 ny, and then left undisturbed until 

 spring, there will be less cause for 

 complaint than there is now. 



My method of wintering is very 



