794 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Prof. Cook said it would grow well 

 on sandy soil. 



Dr. Miller said that a farmer in Wis- 

 consin had found sweet clover of value 

 as feed for cows. 



Julius Tomlinson said his cows 

 would eat it. 



J. H. Kobertson said figwort was 

 always sought after by bees, while 

 sweet clover was sometimes neglected 

 by them. His sweet clover grew on 

 clay soil. Alsike clover was his pet 

 pasturage for bees. 



Dr. Miller : It failed to grow on my 

 soil. 



Dr. Southwick sowed alsike with 

 other clovers and it did better than 

 when sowed alone ; it made better 

 hay. He should sow 13 acres next 

 spring with timothy, for bee pasturage 

 and hay. 



Julius Tomlinson thought it would 

 pay to give seed to farmers. 



A. I. Root had great faith in alsike; 

 it should be cut just as it began to 

 bloom, in order to get the best results 

 in a honey crop, at the season when it 

 is needed, just after basswood and 

 clover. 



Dr. Southard said he sowed sweet 

 clover and his man cut it with the 

 oats, but some of it grew and the bees 

 worked on it till fall. 



James lleddon said bees do not get 

 honey from plants that bloom out of 

 season. 



Prof. Cook : Rape will prove to be a 

 good honey plant ; sow it 4 weeks be- 

 fore you want it to bloom. 



Mr. Townsend : No honey plant will 

 yield honey under all conditions. 



Dr. Ranuey : Buckwheat will yield 

 honey only now and then ; not every 

 year. 



Prof. Cook : Texas horsemint is not 

 the same as our bergamot. 



Adjourned. 



T. F. Bingham, Sec. 



1^" The Nebraska State Bee- Keep- 

 ers' Association, will hold its annual 

 session in Wahoo, Saunders county, 

 Neb., commencing Thursday, Jan. 

 11th, 1S83. Arrangements have been 

 made with the railroads to secure 1J4 

 fare for the round trip. The Saunders 

 county Bee-Keepers' Association will 

 furnish entertainment free to all 

 visiting apiarists. Bee-keepers from 

 neighboring States will be weleomed. 

 T. L. VonDorn, Pres. 



Geo. M. Hawley, ijec. 



m" The Ohio State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will meet in Columbus, in 

 the rooms of the Ohio State Journal, on 

 Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 9 and 

 10, 1883. A full attendance of mem- 

 bers, and all interested in bee-culture, 

 is requested, as matters of interest 

 and importance will be discussed. 



Dr. H. Besse, Delaware, O., Pres. 



Daniel Speak, Caidington,0., Sec. 



i^" The annual meeting of the Cort- 

 land Union Bee-keepers' Association 

 will be held in Cortland, N. Y., on 

 Tuesday, Jan. 9, 1883. 



M. C. Bean, Sec. 



McGrawville, N. Y. 



Read at Maine State CoDventlon. 



Wintering and Springing of Bees. 



O. L. SAWYER. 



The successful wintering and spring- 

 ing of bees is a subject of vast im- 

 portance to every bee-keeper. While 

 one comes out in the spring with Hy- 

 ing colors, his neighbor meets with 

 heavy losses. One may winter one 

 season witli good results, the next 

 winter his bees may come out in bad 

 shape. As we never have two winters 

 or two seasons exactly alike, it is quite 

 difficult tor one rule to apply to the 

 various conditions in which bees are 

 kept. 



The causes of bees not wintering 

 well are numerous and great. In the 

 last fourteen years, during which I 

 have been keeping bees, my experi- 

 ence has been ot a decidedly mixed 

 nature. Not liaviug a Hrst-class cellar 

 1 have tried various ways, some win- 

 ters meeting with good success, and 

 at other times coming out in bad shape. 

 It has been my experience that there 

 are some colonies that it is almost 

 impossible to winter. One season I 

 attempted to winter two colonies ot 

 Italians ; one came out the 29tli of 

 July, the other the 20th of August. 

 They both gathered sufficient stores to 

 carry them through the winter, but in 

 less tlum ten days after 1 liad put 

 them in my building they became 

 quite uneasy and began to have a very 

 bad smell. 1 gave them more ventila- 

 tion, but it did no good ; and at last 

 1 set them out doors, the temperature 

 being below zero, hoping to quiet them 

 down, if nothing more. But it liad 

 but little effect and in a few days they 

 were dead. 1 tliink that there might 

 have been disease or poor honey that 

 caused it. i kept the hives and comb 

 till the next year, putting new swarms 

 in them, and they wintered as well as 

 any that 1 had. The cause of this 

 queer freak I never could give any 

 reason for, excepting that it is some- 

 thing a little natural to the Italian 

 bees, having had several such cases in 

 a light form. 



A great many attempt to winter 

 colonies that are perfectly untit to 

 stand the test of our long and cold 

 winters, starting with too few bees or 

 without sutiicient stores. Last winter 

 I attempted to winter some lifteen 

 colonies, that came out in August, 

 they having quite enough to carry 

 thein tlirough, but the honey was on 

 more frames than it should liavebeen. 

 I put them in the cellar and they did 

 as well as any of my strong ones until 

 about the 1st of March. At that time 

 tliey had eaten the honey out of the 

 combs on which they clustered. Then 

 came tlie trouble. As soon as they 

 had to change their position for stores 

 they would sicken and die. Tlie plac- 

 ing of comb honey on the frames over 

 them seemed to have no good effect. 

 Had I succeeded in getting them 

 safely through the winter it would 

 have been impossible to have carried 

 them through such a spring as our 

 last. Bees to winter and do well the 

 next season, should iirst have a young 

 and liealthy queen, with a plenty of 

 bees not too old. Second, twenty to 



thirty pounds of nice honey or sugar 

 syrup. This must not be scattered 

 through the hive, but must be as 

 nearly in one solid mass above th& 

 bees as possible. 



A great many bees die in the spring 

 by getting away from their stores. 

 This fall, wliile traveling in Aroos- 

 took county, I found men who had 

 had varied success. G. W. P. Jerrard, 

 of Caribou, told me that he could keep 

 his bees in the cellar six months, and 

 bring them out in good shape in the 

 spring ; having lost scarcely any last 

 winter of his one hundred and thirty ; 

 while Mr. Oliver Ames, of Fort Fair- 

 field, having one of the finest cellars 

 that I ever saw, lost fifty out of ninety 

 colonies, last winter or spring. Other 

 men have wintered bees well in the- 

 cellar, but such a spring as our last 

 was a hard one to get by. 



Not having a cellar satisfactory to 

 my mind in which to winter fifty col- 

 onies, some six years ago, I put up a 

 building for the purpose, having it 

 nicely ventilated, with the walls thick 

 enough to keep the bees at a proper 

 temperature. It seemed as if this, 

 was all one could wish for, but while 

 I could winter fifty colonies success- 

 fully one year, the next I would lose a 

 greater portion of them ; and those 

 that came out well, would dwindle 

 away in the spring. This having been* 

 unsatisfactory, I have, in the mean- 

 time, packed a few on their summer 

 stands, with better results ; it seem- 

 ing to be more natural, and the lon^, 

 cold springs not having so much ef- 

 fect on them as those wintered in- 

 doors. 



My manner of packing is to build up 

 around them on three sides, leaving 

 the front open, exposed to the sun. I 

 fill in on the three sides with leaves or 

 planer shavings, covering the top the 

 same as the sides. I then shingle the 

 roof and all is done until next June ; 

 the time I consider that winter has 

 ended. I shall winter the most of my J 

 bees as above stated this season. 



^" The annual meeting of the 

 Chainplain Valley Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation will be held at Middleburg, 

 Vt., on Thursday. January 18, 1883, at 

 10 a. m. T. Bkookins, Sec. 



The North Eastern Bee-Keepers' 

 Association will hold their thirteenth 

 Annual Convention in the City Hall, 

 at .Syracuse, N. Y., on the 9lh, 10th 

 and nth days of January, 1883. 



Business of great value to every 

 bee keeper in the State will be brought 

 before the meeting. Every member 

 is requested to attend and bring their 

 friends, that all may be benefited by 

 the action there taken. 



The question drawer will be opened 

 each day, and questions answered and 

 discussed. All are invited to send 

 questions. Appropriate diplomas will 

 be awarded to successful exhibitors of 

 implements, etc. Let all attend. 



Geo. W. House, Sec. 



1^" Attention is called to our newi 

 and liberal advertising rates for 1883. 



