138 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



that no part of them could be seen. 

 During all that time the weather was 

 too cold to disturb them to ascertain 

 their condition. 



On the morning of March 2, the 

 sun shone bright and warm ; in the 

 ■warmest part of the day, the ther- 

 mometer stood at 7(P in the shade. 

 The ground, at tliis time, was com- 

 pletely covered with snow, but it 

 melted so fast that day that a flood 

 of water was sweeping down all the 

 ravines during the afternoon. 



About 9 o'clock in the forenoon I 

 shoveled the snow away from the 

 hives, so as to open ttie entrances. 

 The bees came out for a general fly, 

 and seemed to enjoy themselves. Bees 

 were observed to alight on the snow, 

 but the weather being so warm they 

 were enabled to arise again. As the 

 sun went down, and the bees finally 

 •returned to tlieir hives, a few dead 

 bees were to be seen on the snow, but 

 not enough to indicate that the colo- 

 nies had met witli any great loss. Tlie 

 nex , winter, being an open one, there 

 was no loss of bees in this locality on 

 account of snow. 



In the winter of 1882 and 1883, I had 

 75 colonies on the summer stands 

 that had no flight from the latter part 

 of November to the middle of Feb- 

 ruary. During a great portion of this 

 time" the weather was extremely cold. 

 From the first to the 10th of February 

 we had a good many days that the sun 

 shone very bright, but the mercury 

 in the thermoriieter was all the time 

 below the freezing point. Yet, not- 

 withstanding the coldness of the 

 weather, at every hive which was not 

 covered completely with a drift of 

 snow, some bees would every day dart 

 out, drop and wallow a few seconds 

 in the snow, but none lived to return 

 to the hives. 



From the 10th to the 15th of Feb- 

 ruary there were slight indications of 

 a thaw, and the bees were so anxious 

 to fly that I shoveled snow against the 

 front of the hives, covering the en- 

 trances. The moruing of the 16th of 

 February was cioudy, and although 

 the temperature was above the freez- 

 ing point, so long as it remained 

 ■cloudy, the bees were quiet. But 

 about noon the sun broke suddenly 

 through the clouds, and in a miiuite 

 the air was full of bees. The ther- 

 mometer, at noon, stood at 45'-'. To- 

 wards evening a cool breeze sprung 

 up. Bees would fall in the snow, 

 and it appeared to be too cold that day 

 for a resting place. Many would 

 spin around on their backs awhile, 

 but would get too much chilled to 

 rise again. The next morning, the 

 snow for .30 or 40 rods in all directions 

 from my apiary was thickly peppered 

 -with the bodies of dead bees. 



In the spring there were live bees 

 in every hive, but many of the colo- 

 nies were greatly weakened by their 

 February (light." This winter my bees 

 have been confined since the middle 

 of December. I have 90 colonies, 

 mostly in double-walled hives, on the 

 summer stands. The ground is now, 

 and has been for the past seven weeks, 

 covered with snow. During this time 

 we have had some very cold weather ; 

 on the morning of the 5th inst. It was 



from .82° to 36° below zero, as meas- 

 lued by different thermometers in 

 this neighl)orhood. Every day now 

 that indicates a thaw, I am watching, 

 and if many bees fly out, I close the 

 entrances of tlie hives either with 

 snow or little blocks. Am I doing 

 right y This is a question I would 

 like to have some advice about it. 



If the entrances of the hives should 

 be closed while the ground is covered 

 with snow, and the temperature is 

 low, what is the best method of doing 

 it y There are many readers of the 

 Bee Journal who have had more 

 years of experience in wintering bees 

 on the summer stands than I have, 

 and if there is as much danger from 

 loss by their imtimely flights as I 

 apprehend, is not this a good ques- 

 tion to discuss ■? 



Viola, 111., Dec. 27, 1883. 



stUSJl^^MMQM 



Drones Flying. 



Here, bees winter on their summer 

 stands without packing of any kind; 

 tliey have wintered well, so far. I had 

 78 colonies last fall, and now have 77 

 all in good condition. ISIy bees were 

 all flying to-day. One colony had 

 drones witli a good young queen in the 

 hive. I harvested 3,000 lbs. of honey 

 last year, and sold it at 9 and 15 cents 

 per pound. I use square frame, 11x12, 

 and the top-bar is 14 inches long, and 

 10 to a hive. Sweet clover is of no use 

 for us. I sowed a pound 2 years ago, 

 and it bloomed the second' year, but 

 there was not a bee seen on the bloom. 



Inglefield, Ind. John Fekstel. 



Request for Mr. Doolittle. 



AVe have had the coldest weather 

 this winter ever known in Kentucky. 

 The mercury re<5istered as low as 30° 

 below zero. AV e had snow on the 

 ground through the whole of Janu- 

 ary. Notwithstanding the severe 

 winter, our bees have wintered well 

 so far. I opened five hives on Jan. 14, 

 and found sealed brood in two of 

 them ; the third one had a nice patch 

 of eggs in one comb. Of course such 

 queens would be condemned in Michi- 

 gan, and probably get their heads 

 pinched, but they are just the kind 

 we Kentuckians expect the largest 

 yields of honey from, and are rarely 

 ever mistaken. I spent the most of 

 to-day witli my bees, putting in di- 

 vision-boards, and shaping the brood- 

 nests according to my notion, I 

 found young bees hatching in most of 

 my hives. I began last season with 

 25 colonies of my own, andC on shares, 

 making 31 in all. I took 4,225 lbs. of 

 honey from them ; about 100 lbs. in 

 the comb, the rest extracted. My best 

 colony gave o()f)% lbs. It was gath- 

 ered in a little less than two days 31 

 lbs. ; in seven day 102 lbs., all from 

 clover. We have no basswood. My 

 25 colonies last spring, count to-day 

 33. The 6 I had on shares now count 

 9 ; all in good condition. I had only 4 



swarms from the 31 colonies. I would 

 like to ask Mr. Doolittle to write an 

 article for the Bee Journal on the 

 habits of bees. What I mean about 

 habits of bees, is this : If we attend 

 to our business and get the queen in 

 the habit of sticking to the lower 

 story, will she not be likely to stick 

 to that habit 'i Also, if we get the 

 workers in the habit of storing their 

 first honey gathered in the spring of 

 the year up-stairs, or just where we 

 want them to, are they not likely to 

 keep to that habit? and wont they 

 teach theii- younger sisters the same 

 habit. I have sometimes thought the 

 reason that some could not get Ital- 

 ians to work in surplus boxes, was be- 

 cause they allowed too much room in 

 the brood-chamber for storing honey 

 in the spring, and when the brood- 

 chamber became full, they preferred 

 to swarm or hunt up another brood- 

 chamber rather than give up their old 

 habit and go up-stairs ; hence, it is 

 said by some, Italians will not work in 

 boxes, and are early swarmers. AVe 

 know Italian queens are prolific, and 

 must have room to spread themselves. 

 A. C. Cunningham. 

 Salvisa, Ky., Feb. 5, 1884. 



Stimulative Feeding Not Good. 



My 122 colonies all answered to roll 

 call to-day, and are having a splendid 

 flight. Not the sliglitest sign of dys- 

 entery in a single colony. For a num- 

 ber of years I have practiced feeding 

 unbolted rye-meal or flour, to stimu- 

 late early breeding, and it has done it ; 

 but I am satisfied it has done my bees 

 more harm than good. AV. J. Davis. 



Youngsville, Pa., Feb. 19, 1884. 



Sweet Clover. 



Saturday, Feb. 2, was a pleasant 

 day with us, and the bees had a good 

 flight, and seemed to be in good con- 

 dition. They spotted the snow some, 

 but no bees dropped on tlie snow like 

 ttiey do sometimes. The hives are 

 dry, and there are no dead bees on the 

 bottom board. The prospect for suc- 

 cessful wintering is good so far. I 

 have received several inquiries in re- 

 gard to the qualities of sweet clover 

 as a forage or fodder plant for cattle. 

 To be honest about sweet clover, while 

 it is one of the best honey plants to 

 my knowledge, I must own uji that as 

 a pasture plant for cattle, it is almost 

 worthless. AVith us they will not eat 

 it, if they can get anything else, and 

 as for hay, I would not suppose any 

 one could recommend it, for the 

 stems are coarse and hard, almost of 

 a woody nature, so utterly different 

 from all other clovers that I do not 

 see how any one could recommend it 

 for fodder. There is, however, one 

 other use for sweet clover besides 

 lioney producing, and that is its ferti- 

 lizing qualities. I believe that from 

 its enormous growth and extremely 

 deep rooting nature, it can be classed 

 among one,"if not the best for fertiliz- 

 ing worn-out soils. I have known it 

 to root two feet deep, and it generally 

 makes a growth of six feet high, and 

 of the rankest kind on our poorest 



soils. II. S. IlACKMAN. 



Peru, 111., Feb. 6, 1883. 



