244 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Winter before last my bees, in this 

 condition, survived a temperature of 

 16° below zero ; and last winter a neigh- 

 bor left his bees on the summer stands 

 without any protection until Jan. 15, 

 while on the mornings of Jan. 12 and 

 13 it was 18° below zero, and his bees 

 were still all right. 



Mr. W. W. Duffield (Sept. 17, 1891, 

 page 367) mentions cases where bees in 

 eastern Kentucky survived the winter of 

 1886 by top ventilation, although he 

 attributed to other causes. And Mr. J. 

 H. Andre (April 28, 1892, page 576) 

 gives an account of 10 colonies being 

 lost for the want of top ventilation. 



Last winter I kept a thermometer in 

 my bee-house, and one out-doors from 

 Dec. 19, 1891, and about sunrise each 

 morning noted the degrees of each 

 until Feb. 26, 1892, and the lowest 

 was on Jan. 19, 1892, when it marked 

 3° below zero in the bee-house, and 22° 

 out-doors ; and the highest in the bee- 

 house was on Jan. 24, 1892, at 2 

 p.m., when it went up to 48° above 

 zero, and the bees became very restless. 

 On Feb. 25, 1892, at 4 p.m., the same 

 degree was reached with the same re- 

 sult ; and on March 13, 1892, when it 

 was 29° above in the bee-house, and 

 22° out-doors, I placed the thermome- 

 ter in a hive, on top of the brood-frames, 

 with the cloth removed, and in one 

 hour it showed 62° above zero. 



I tested another hive in the same way, 

 with the same result, showing a differ- 

 ence of 33° inside and outside of the 

 hive ; and if the thermometer had been 

 placed in the cluster of bees, it probably 

 would have shown 10° or 15 J higher 

 than it did placed above them. 



It is hard to freeze a healthy colony of 

 bees, if they are kept dry, but if the 

 dampness that arises from the bees is 

 suffered to condense in and around the 

 cluster, freezing is a dangerous point to 

 reach. 



Decorah, Iowa. 



Non-SwarmiiiE Hives ani Self-Hiyers, 



JOHN CONSER. 



The season here is very backward. 

 White clover is not abundant, although 

 enough to keep the bees breeding up, 

 and cause swarming with the strongest 

 colonies. Bees are working in the sec- 

 tions some, although the crop of white 

 honey will be a short one. I work two 

 apiaries, one in the non-swarming hives 

 and new methods, of 60 colonies, and 



no swarms from any of this apiary. The 

 hives are running over with bees, and 

 in fine condition. The most of my honey 

 will be from this apiary this season. 



The other apiary of 80 colonies is run 

 on old principles with the Simplicity 

 hives, and the bees have been swarming 

 almost every day for the last two 

 months, and doing very little in the sec- 

 tions. I have had some colonies that 

 swarmed three times with laying queens, 

 in the last two months. 



I have been testing three of the Alley- 

 Dibbern self-hivers this season. It has 

 been a failure as far as hiving the bees 

 in the other hive. Although the queen 

 is hived in the new hive, the bees vacate 

 and go below to their brood every time, 

 one or two hours after swarming. It is 

 "no go" unless the combs of the old 

 hive are shaken in front of the new one, 

 then moved away. This is a good deal 

 of work, aud no better than dividing the 

 old colonies, by taking away one-half of 

 the combs and putting them in a new 

 hive, and allowing them to rear a queen. 

 Both methods cut off the surplus honey. 



Again, with the self-hiver three or 

 four swarms will unite on some tree, 

 even if their queens are caged in the 

 trap ; they will remain awhile, then all 

 will go into one hive together, or to the 

 woods, with some virgin queen. 



Sedalia, Mo., Aug. 6, 1892. 



The Season— WMte-RingeJ Bees. 



J. W. MILLER. 



By the way* I keep bees, too, and 

 everywhere I go I am asked, " How 

 have your bees done this season ?" Well, 

 I am going to tell. There are two an- 

 swers — one is "Swarming," and the 

 other is "Honey." I had 14 colonies 

 last spring, and they swarmed 68 times, 

 and my honey crop is 1,200 pounds 

 short. I never saw white clover in such 

 abundance, and basswood, buckwheat 

 and all kin^s of flowers. My bees are 

 under perfect control, and when I 

 started them off on clover, they would 

 return, and if they could have talked 

 they would have said, "There is no 

 sweet there." Basswood and buckwheat 

 was the same. I would like to hear a 

 reason why there is no honey this season 

 in some localities. 



I have had great experience in bee- 

 hunting, having found as high as 38 

 trees in one season. Three years ago 

 last spring I found three trees which I 

 cut, took the bees home, and put them 



