THE AMERICA:^ iiEB JOURNAL. 



311 



they could only do by working faith- 

 fully for their mutual Interest. Shall 

 we prove ourselves equal to the 

 emergencies of the time, and by mass- 

 ing our forces upon these important 

 points, prove by our success that " in 

 union there is strength V" 

 Mohawk,6 K. Y. 



Tor tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Words to a Honey-Bee, 



FRANCES J. M'CONOUGHEY. 



Little busy, wandering sprite, 

 That Cometh, goeth thro' the hours, 



O'er the garden, through the grove, 



Ever murmuring of thy love 

 To the nodding, smiling flowers. 

 Whom thou wooest, bronze-'mailed knight. 



Thou knowest the lily's dwelling-place 



Among the fern leaves moist and cool, 

 And where the stately goldenrod 

 Sways lightly ; where blue asters nod ; 



Where cardinals grow beside tbe pool, 



And the violet hides her face. 



Solomcm, of the insect world. 

 Master-workman of the winged clans I 

 Proud human architects, of thee 

 Have lessons learned— and we liiay see 

 Philosophy in all thy plans. 

 Even when ruin 's on thee hurled. 



For, when the ruthless vandal— man — 

 Hath robbed thee of thy hard-earned spoil. 

 Thou sittest not down to grow] at luck. 

 But with grim, persevering pluck, 

 And patient, earnest, cheerful toil. 

 Soon bringestthy fortunes to the van. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Wintering Bees in Warn Cellars, 



C. THEILMANN. 



In Mr. Barber's essay on ■' Winter- 

 ing Bees in Cellars," page 809 of the 

 American Bee Journal for ISSo, 

 some interesting as well as very queer 

 ideas are mentioned. How Mr. Bar- 

 ber can winter his bees in a cellar at 

 a temperature from 6-5^ to 90^ above 

 zero, is surely a marvel to many of 

 our best and most experienced bee- 

 masters. I would be much araid that 

 any one would make a complete fail- 

 ure of it, in trying to winter his bees 

 in a cellar with so high a tempera- 

 ture. One of our most practical bee- 

 keepers tried the experiment a year 

 ago last winter, and thereby lost 

 nearly all the bees he experimented 

 with. Now if Mr. Boolittle could not 

 winter his bees in a high temperature 

 what could we expect of the inex- 

 perienced V 



Would not Mr. Barber's essay mis- 

 lead many bee-keepers, if we did not 

 have Mr. Doolittle's sad experiment 

 in the winter of 188.3-H4? What did 

 we learn from Mr. D. V Turning to 

 page 3.56, of the American Bep: 

 Journal for 1884, we find that he 

 liad heavy losses in wintering his bees 

 in a temperature from -5CP to 6(P, and 

 higher. Heretofore, and after trying 

 outside wintering awhile, he built an 

 under-ground bee-cellar in which the 

 temperature was kept at 42^, and 

 therewith he wintered his bees suc- 

 cessfully, until the above-mentioned 

 winter, when he put faith in Mr. B's 

 ideas ; but he durst not go the whole 

 65° to 90^, and tried it first with 5(P 



above zero, with the above-stated 



result. 



When Mr. D. saw what was coming, 

 he wrote to Mr. Barber for informa- 

 tion on temperature, etc., during tlie 

 winter. He replied that he could not 

 tell him anything about it, as he had 

 no thermometer in his cellar. I do 

 not want to criticise Mr. B's state- 

 ments, and yet I do like to get at facts 

 and not have so an important a point 

 (in fact it is the one of success or 

 failure in our pursuit) handled so 

 carelessly or ignorantly. How could 

 Mr. Barber know the temperature in 

 his cellar if he did not have a ther- 

 mometer there through the winter y 

 Mr. Barber says on page 11 of the 

 American Bek Journal for 1884 : 

 '■ Hundreds of bee-keepers will raise 

 their hands in horror when told that 

 my bees were wintered in a tempera- 

 ture of from 6.5'^ to 90"^ of heat !" How 

 is that? Why could he not state the 

 temperature to Mr. Doolittle V Be- 

 cause he had no thermometer in the 

 cellar, though he still says on page 

 292, of the same volume, that his bees 

 that were so heated, separated all 

 right, etc. They were surely smart 

 bees, when before they were in a 

 cluster .5 feet in height, as he tells us 

 on page 408 of the same volume ; and 

 on page 264 he says, and very reason- 

 ably too, that he does not think it 

 necessary to keep the temperature at 

 6.5° to 90^ above zero in bee-cellars, 

 but finds after the winter's experi- 

 ments, that with ventilation at the 

 top of the hive the bees were in much 

 better condition, and came out in as 

 good condition as when put in for 

 winter. By thus wintering he has 

 had no trouble since. But Mr. B. did 

 not stick very long to the ventilation 

 on top of the hive, as he speaks in his 

 essay of "' no upward ventilation," but 

 adheres to 60^ to 90^— perhaps with- 

 out a thermometer. 



On page 23.5 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 188.5, we find that Mr. 

 B. really made testa during the win- 

 ter of 1884-8.5, which showed 47^ on 

 Dec. 20, 1884 ; io^ on Jan. 20. 188.5, and 

 48° above zero on March 80, with 200 

 colonies in the cellar. Now where 

 does the great difference in his cellar 

 come in y I will let the readers an- 

 swer this question. I would also like 

 Mr. B. to explain it. 



On page 316 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 188.5, Mr. B. comes down 

 one-half of the 90'^ above zero, and 

 says: " In a cellar as good as mine 

 has been — 4.5° to 48°— bees should be 

 placed one foot or more above the 

 cellar bottom ;" and he tells us on 

 page 422, of the same volume, that 

 every colony is alive and in a flourish- 

 ing condition. I have no reason to 

 doubt it in the least, as we have a 

 number of writers who winter their 

 bees in a temperature from 4-5° to .50°; 

 but when we come up to 60° and more 

 above, the bees become restless and 

 lose that quiet state which is so much 

 desired by experienced bee-keepers, 

 and which Mr. Clarke calls hiberna- 

 tion. 



I will now describe the experiment 

 that I made in February, 1883, when 

 about the middle of the month we had 

 a warm spell. On the last and warm- 



est day I went away in the morning, 

 and did not return until about 4 p.m. 

 Hastening to the bee-yard I could 

 hear the bees roaring in my double- 

 walled bee-house 3 to 4 rods distant ; 

 and when I tried to enter the house, 

 the bees came rushing out as if it was 

 swarming time. I immediately shut 

 the door, but I had a look at the 

 thermometer which indicated a tem- 

 perature of 0.5° above zero. There 

 was a little door in the gable end of 

 the house through which I went in on 

 the upper floor, and lifted up the 

 boards by which a clear space of 17 

 inches was made, and the entire 

 length of the house, to let the heat 

 escape under the roof? I then waited 

 for the night to come to open the 

 doors. The upper and lower ventila- 

 tors had been open, but the outside 

 air was too warm to cool off the inside 

 air much. When night approached I 

 opened the doors. The sight and my 

 feelings I can hardly describe. When 

 I got into the house, the hives, walls, 

 floor, and everything in the house 

 was covered with bees, crawling one 

 over the other, apparently suffoca- 

 ting, and thousands of dead ones all 

 over. The air in the house had a very 

 disagreeable gassy smell, with the 

 thermometer at 63°. These 130 colo- 

 nies were all quiet at 42° three days 

 before this, but from this on they 

 were restless until I put them out, 

 about tour weeks afterward. The 

 house was 16x18 feet, by 7 feet high. 



I have no desire for another such 

 experiment, and on account of it I 

 have read Mr. Barber's articles with 

 suspicion, I must acknowledge. On 

 account of my experiment I have 

 written this article; also because my 

 bees winter best in an under-ground 

 bee-house in a temperature of 4'2P 

 above zero; and to warn bee-keepers 

 to be cautious about wintering their 

 bees in a temperature of 65° to 90°. 



Thielmanton,o^ Minn. 



An Apiary in New Zealanii. 



The following is from the New Zea- 

 land Herald of March 6, 1886 : 



Amongst the several rural indus- 

 tries now being carried on at Mata- 

 mata, there is none more generally 

 interesting to visitors than that of 

 apiculture. Bee-farming has now 

 become an established industry in 

 England, America, on the Continent 

 of Europe, and in Australasia, and 

 deservedly so, for very few industries 

 connected with rural pursuits have 

 made greater progress during the last 

 few years, or shown better results 

 when systematically carried out. The 

 importance of apiculture as an indus- 

 try attracted the attention of Mr. J. 

 C. Firth, who, with his characteristic 

 enterprise, started the nucleus of a 

 bee-farm some SJ^ years ago, with 

 Mr. Hopkins, the well known apiarist, 

 as manager. Tbe result has proved 

 the good judgment of Mr. Firth, lur 

 instead of the whole of the honey that 

 is secreted in the clover blossom now 

 " wasting its sweetness on the desert 

 air," as formerly, many tons are an- 

 nually harvested, which finds a ready 



