AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



723 



colonies remained several hours before 

 they found that they were at liberty. 



^Ve found group No. 2 with board 

 covers slightly raised, in about the same 

 condition as No. 1, except I must con- 

 fess, in just a little better condition 

 taken as a whole. The hives, combs 

 and bees were all one could ask, and 

 speaks volumes for top ventilation. I 

 never removed all these hives from the 

 cellar until May ll2th, but found the 

 colonies all right at that date. 



This seems too late in the season to 

 expect good results, but as the willows, 

 boxwoods and soft maples are just com- 

 ing into bloom, and as clover is booming 

 on every hand, the people at the Forest- 

 ville apiary are cheerful and full of con- 

 fidence for the future of the honey- 

 business. The 12 colonies in the small 

 house-apiary had 2 dead that were en- 

 tirely out of stores. The colonies with 

 enough honey wintered in the past most 

 trying of winters (in which they never 

 flew from the hives for -13^ months) in a 

 more perfect condition than colonies in 

 the cellar : the hives, combs and bees 

 were without dampness or mold, and 

 some of the bottom-boards entirely clean 

 of dead bees. 



I can say I believe truly that I lost 19 

 colonies the past winter in farther test- 

 ing sealed covers. I first thought they 

 had starved, but we have just finished 

 cleaning up the hives and combs, and 

 found every hive with an abundance of 

 sealed stores. 



I have long believed that the proper 

 preparation of the hives for winter is 

 the key to safe wintering in a good cel- 

 lar, and I am thoroughly convinced that 

 except to keep out mice and other in- 

 truders, hives with the covers entirely 

 removed, or with a single thickness of 

 burlap or cotton sheeting spread over 

 the hives, is better than any cushion or 

 cover of any kind. My next choice is 

 building paper ; with this I have not a 

 single fault to find, except the trouble 

 of putting it on, and if I were going to 

 use tight covers, I would perfer it to the 

 best absorbent cushion you could make, 

 with any material that I am acquainted 

 with. 



I visited a bee-keeper at Dover, Minn., 

 last March, who has been very success- 

 ful in wintering bees. He leaves the 

 hives entirely without covers. For full 

 particulars of this visit, please see the 

 Bce-Kccpcrs' Review for May, 1893, 

 page 129. 



I saw in a late number of Olcanings 

 that Mr. Foster, of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, 

 has been visiting an Iowa bee-keeper 

 that has been very successful in winter- 



ing bees with a single thickness of cot- 

 ton sheeting spread over the hives ; and 

 those that have read the early writings 

 of Mr. Quinby, remember that before 

 he adopted the movable frame he win- 

 tered his bees in box-hives in a dark 

 room, the hives being turned upside 

 down, and left entirely uncovered, and 

 I do not believe there is a better plan 

 to-day. 



This may seem a long report on winter- 

 ing, to make at this time of the year, 

 but I have just received a letter from a 

 Minnesota bee-keeper who has lost all 

 his bees — 253 colonies — this winter, 

 and I am convinced that 75 per cent, of 

 all the bees in this section are dead to- 

 day, so you see wintering is a vital 

 question, and there is no better time to 

 impress people with it, than when they 

 are feeling their heavy losses. 



Forestville, Minn., May 13, 1893. 



Destrojin§r Motli-^i Hers— Quack 

 Bee-Keepers Described. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY K. C. HATCH. 



I think I can positively say from ex- 

 perience that the Italian bee is moth- 

 proof, after having kept Italian bees in 

 Illinois for five^years, and never had the 

 least particle of trouble with moths, 

 even in weak or queenless colonies. It 

 is natural to suppose that moths should 

 be more prevalent in certain localities, 

 considering the surroundings, that is, 

 whether bees are kept for profit bj api- 

 arists, as in Illinois, or as they are kept 

 here in Iowa by Tom, Dick and Harry, 

 in the back garden, where one to six 

 empty hives are left to breed moths 

 every summer. 



Black bees are kept almost entirely 

 here, and although they are good honey- 

 gatherers, it is one continual source of 

 trouble to keep the moths out ; whether 

 it is the negligent surroundings or the 

 black bee, I have as yet been unable to 

 ascertain. 



There are a number of ways of en- 

 snaring the moth-millers about the api- 

 ary. Although they may not be very 

 practical, large numbers of them can be 

 exterminated in the following way with 

 but little trouble : 



Fill a jar about two-thirds full of 

 water, and sweeten it with a little sugar, 

 or maple sugar is better ; set it out 

 among your bees after dark. It will 

 attract them, and when once in the jar 

 of water they are yours. 



