THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



299 



For the Amcrlciin Iti'o Journal. 



Iinportauce Of Upward Ventilation, etc. 



•5— CHAS. WALKKIt, (4S). 



In the fall of 1880 I bought 19 colo- 

 nies of bees, and I had 1 colony that 

 1 had taken from a tree. I put them 

 all into a good, dry cellar, leaving the 

 hive-covers on. The bees and hives 

 became damp, the combs moldy, and 

 all of the l!) colonies died, le.iving the 

 solitary one, and the hive of that one 

 had the cover off, as I was feeding it ; 

 consequently it had upward ventila- 

 tion. The colony was weak and did 

 not swarm at all, so in the fall I 

 hardly knew what to do with it, for I 

 was afraid that it would die if I put 

 it into the cellar, as I did with the 19. 



When cold weather came on I took 

 the hive down cellar again, but I lirst 

 packed the body of the hive with dry 

 chaff. Imagine my surprise the next 

 spring, when I put them out, to tind 

 that they were dry and warm. I at 

 onetime put my 'hand down in the 

 chaff and I could feel the warmth 

 from the cluster. I came to the con- 

 clusion that that was tlie way to win- 

 ter bees, and I have not since changed 

 my mind. 



I have increased that one colony to 

 48, in 4 years, and I have not lost a 

 colony. On the last day of last Octo- 

 ber I packed the hives of those 48 

 colonies -well with chaff, and carried 

 them down cellar, taking all the 

 covers to the barn. Our heater is 

 in the front room right over the bees, 

 and it keeps every part of the cellar 

 dry and warm. When the mercury 

 was at 22^ below zero outside, my 

 thermometer indicated 40° above zero 

 in the cellar. 



From my experience I would not 

 try to winter my bees without upward 

 ventilation, as I feel sure they would 

 all die. I simply spread a cloth over 

 the frames and bees, and till right 

 over that, about 6 or 8 inches, with 

 chaff. I would never close the hive- 

 entrances while in the cellar. While 

 carrying the bees down cellar last 

 fall, through mistake I left some rags 

 in one, and a few days later, on going 

 down cellar, I found that the bees of 

 this hive making a very loud noise. 

 They were very restless, and I pulled 

 the rags from the entrance, and on 

 going down an hour later I found 

 them quiet. My experience in my 

 cellar teaches me that I must give the 

 bees plenty of upward ventilation. 



I read, on page 54, Mr. Hewitt's 

 article on "Infallible Queen Intro- 

 duction." It sounds new to me, and 

 I shall try it and report my success or 

 failure, as requested. I like to read 

 such articles of information, and if 

 they are only as practicable as they 

 appear on paper, we can all succeed 

 with the introduction of queens. 



Our honey crop was rather light 

 here last season, but we are hoping 

 for a better crop this year. I in- 

 creased my apiary from 24 colonies to 

 48, and had about 1..500 pounds of 

 comb honey in l-pouud sections. In 

 1884 I increased from 10 to 24, and had 

 1,000 pounds of comb honey. 



Bravo, ? Mich. 



Local Convention Directory. 



I88K. 



May 1 S.- 

 May a).- 

 May 2r>.- 

 Aus. 31. 

 Oct. :2 

 Oot. IS), 

 Dec. 1, 



Time and place of Meetiito. 



-Central Mlchlean, at N. LansinK, Mich. 

 E. W. Wood. Sec, N. Lanslne, Mich. 



-Wis. Lake Shore Center, at Kiel, Wis. 

 Ferd Zastrow. Sec, Millhome. Wis. 



-N.W.nis. & S.W.Wia.. at Peoalonica. 111. 

 J. Stewart, Sec, Rock City, Ills. 



-Stark County, at Canton, O. 



Mark Thomson. Sec, Canton. O. 



-14.— North American, at Indianapolis, Ind. 

 F. L. DouKherty, Sec, Indianapolis, Ind. 



20.— IlUnoiB Central, at Mt. SterPnE, Ills. 

 J. M. IlambaUKb, Sec, Spring, Ills. 



2.— Michigftn State, at Ypsilanti, Mich. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton. Mich. 



|y~ In order to have this table complete. Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.- Elt. 



Robber Bees. — Wm. Anderson, 

 Sherman ,otMo., on May 3, 1886, writes 

 thus : 



My bees are doing well now, al- 

 though I had quite a time in getting 

 robbing stopped. A little careless 

 feeding caused all the trouble, and 

 the loss of 2 colonies. I fed a weak 

 colony, but they did not clean up all 

 the feed, and I thought no more about 

 it until it seemed that nearly every 

 bee in the apiary was heard. I at 

 once cleared up every thing, but the 

 robbing had started, and it was two 

 weeks' work to get it stopped. A 

 lesson was learned, and will not soon 

 be forgotten. 



Best Spring for Bees.— E. T. Jor- 

 dan, Harmony ,K) Ind., on May 3, 1886, 

 says: 



I put 42 colonies in my bee-house 

 on Nov. 27, and took them out on 

 March 17, all in splendid condition. 

 This has been the best spring for bees 

 to gather honey that I ever knew ; a 

 great many of my colonies are ready 

 for the sections. I shall work 2-5 colo- 

 nies for extracted honey, and the 

 balance for comb honey. 



Bees vs. Fruit.— D. A. Dimitry, 

 Morgan City, ? La., writes : 



The question " Whether or not bees 

 injure fruit," is one of great interest 

 to the majority of bee-keepers. It 

 seems to me that the plain and highly 

 interesting report of Prof. N. W. 

 McLain, on page 245, should remove 

 all doubt, and set at rest this vexa- 

 tious subject. Most of my colonies 

 are beneath the shade of orange trees, 

 some under peach and mulberry trees, 

 and all within 500 feet of my vineyard. 

 I have two varieties of grapes, one 

 ordinary small red, the other a large, 

 white, thin-skinned variety, very 

 juicy and easily punctured. If I for 

 one moment thought that my bees 

 injured the fruit, my personal inter- 



est would compel me to discard the 

 bees, and my 100 colonies would have 

 to go. My experience has been, that 

 my oranges and peaches have im- 

 proved steadily, since the bringing of 

 the first colony to my orchard. The 

 fruit not only " holds " better, but it 

 has improved in size as well as flavor; 

 and brings a much better price, which 

 is proof enough to me. As to the 

 grapes : While I cannot say that they 

 have improved any, still I do assert, 

 and that decidedly, that so far not a 

 single grape has been injured by the 

 bees. 



"White Clover in Bloom.— S. J. 



Youngman, Cato,© Mich., on April 

 29, 1880, writes : 



Never in the recollection of the 

 traditional oldest inhabitant have we 

 in Michigan had such a warm April 

 as the one now passing into history — 

 90° in the shade, bees gathering 

 honey and building new comb, al- 

 though the fruit-trees are not in 

 bloom yet. but the buds are about to 

 burst forth in great profusion. The 

 bees are booming, hatching workers 

 and drones very fast. The honey 

 gathered must be from the forest 

 trees, although wild flowers are 

 blooming some. I saw dandelions, 

 and plucked a white clover blossom 

 to-day, which I send you as a sample 

 of what Michigan can do on a pinch. 



[Yes ; the spring weather has come 

 early, and seems to be " here to stay." 

 The white clover blossoai is the first 

 we have seen, and promises early 

 honey gathering. All should prepare 

 for a good, early honey harvest. — Ed.] 



Prospects Good in Kentucky.— E. 

 Drane, Eminence.? Ky., on May 4, 

 1886, writes : 



Everything is lovely now for a 

 honey crop from white clover, though 

 our bees lost 8 weeks in March in 

 which the queens totally quit laying, 

 and the ate all unsealed larv;e. The 

 weather opened nice on April 5, and 

 sugar maples commenced to bloom 

 immediately, and the bees have made 

 the most of it and fruit bloom. Locust 

 bloom will be here in a few days ; then 

 white clover, and honey. I have one 

 of Mr. Heddon's new hives, and I 

 think that I will like it — especially 

 for comb honey. 



Bees Doing Finely.— W. H. Tuttle, 

 Creston,? Iowa, on May 5, 1886, says: 



Bees are all right, and are doing 

 finely. I have added 11 more colmies 

 to my small apiary, making a total of 

 26. In reply to Mr. R. F. Holter- 

 mann, on page 26G, saying that he 

 '• would be very much surprised if 

 the 2 colonies mentioned on page 234 

 as having drones, were not queenless, 

 that is, if they were at home when 

 seen :" They were at home, and both 

 the colonies have good, prolific queens 

 and are doing finely, but the drones 

 disappeared in a few days after I lirst 

 noticed them. 



