THE AMERICAI* BEE JOURNAL. 



145 



out, to keep only strong colonies. My 

 bees are mostly hybrids and brown 

 bees; they will not suffer by the moth. 

 I have no pure Italians. Suppose the 

 disease, foul brood, makes its appear- 

 ance in a country where there is a 

 quantity of wild bees in the forests 

 and rocks, apiarists never will be able 

 to clear their apiaries of it. The bees 

 will constantly bring it back from the 

 forest. I believe the bee moth would 

 be a good agent for destroying these 

 diseased colonies and put an end to it. 

 In a warm climate there is more ver- 

 min than in a northern country. We 

 have no winter to kill them. 



Bees are doing well for this latitude. 

 Now is the time they make active pre- 

 paration. Sometimes bees gather con- 

 siderable honey in March, but April is 

 the general honey harvest here. 



Forest City, Ark., Feb. 10, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Preparing Bees for Winter. 



H, M. MORRIS. 



I cannot say that my bees are win- 

 tering extra well. Part of them, at 

 least, seem to be a little " uneasy," 

 crawling out at the entrance when it 

 is too cold for them to fly ; most of 

 them get back, however, but they 

 look a little too fat to suit me. They 

 are all packed alike, or nearly so ; 

 some have the oil cloths directly over 

 the bees. I have tried some colonies 

 that way, for several winters, and I 

 am convinced that it is a poor plan. 

 This is the way I pack : I put about 

 6 corn cobs, equally spaced, on the 

 frames, to hold up the quilt so that 

 the bees can pass from one frame to 

 another. I used the cobs long before 

 " Hill's Device " was spoken of, and 

 now I find them preferable to punch- 

 ing holes in the combs, and less ex- 

 pensive than " Ilill's Device," and 

 you do not have to store them away 

 through the summer, which is quite 

 an item when you have one or two 

 hundred colonies. Then, over these 

 cobs, I place a good thick quilt, 

 blanket, or old piece of carpet ; no oil 

 cloth. Then either loose chaff or a 

 cushion. The ol)ject is to have some- 

 thing on top that will take up all the 

 moisture that arises from the bees, 

 and, by the way, I do not call chaff 

 cushions,on top, "upward ventilation." 

 A g^od thick cushion, that tits the 

 hive so tight tliat you must crowd to 

 get it in, shuts off "upward ventila- 

 tion," and that is just what we want. 

 To my mind, upward ventilation is a 

 term synonymous with "Blasted 

 Hopes." Of course, I am speaking 

 now of wintering on summer stands. 

 I say never use an oil cloth next to the 

 bees in winter time. It is too cold ; 

 it condenses the breath and makes 

 water form directly over the cluster, 

 and in the end, damp hives, moldy 

 combs and dysenteric .bees. What is 

 the good of an absorbent over the bees 

 with an air-tiglit, water-tight parti- 

 tion between it and tlie bees V It 

 defeats the one object we are working 

 for. Mr. Doolittle should try it on 

 himself some cold night; crawl under 

 an oil cloth sheet, and you may put 



all the quilts you like over you, and 

 you will And yourself wet and uncom- 

 fortable, and (unless extra well cov- 

 ered) cold. That fact can be demon- 

 strated by wearing " rubber boots " 

 for any length of time in cold, dry 

 weather. Your feet soon get the 

 dysentery or something else, and you 

 will have a case of spring dwindling 

 that you will remember. 



I have wintered from 10 to 50 colo- 

 nies of bees on the summer stands, in 

 Simplicity hives, through 5 winters, 

 without loss by dysentery or dwind- 

 ling, and this is my way of fixing 

 them : I crowd them into 7 frames. 

 I know that they liave honey enough 

 to last until unpacked in the spring, a 

 thin cushion on either side, then fixed 

 on top as 1 have described ; entrance 

 closed to within an inch ; back end of 

 hive 4 inches the highest, so that no 

 water can run in, but all that might 

 gather can run out. Examine each 

 entrance often enough to know that 

 it is not clogged with debris, and if 

 not north of 41°, your bees will come 

 th'oughthe winter all right, in nine 

 cases out of ten. 



This is the most severe winter we 

 have had since I have paid any par- 

 ticular attention to bee-keeping, and 

 I may lose some ; the mercury going 

 to 18° and 203 below. It commenced, 

 last night, with a thunder storm, and 

 we are still having one of the worst 

 ice storms I ever witnessed. Trees 

 look like liberty poles, completely 

 stripped of their limbs. A white 

 birch tree, some 20 feet high, in front 

 of the window where I sit, is bent 

 with its weight of ice, so that its top 

 lies on the ground. Fields are one 

 vast lake of ice; telegraph wires 

 broken down ; everything out of doors 

 is grandly beautiful, majestic to look 

 upon, and the damages are also ma- 

 jestic. As I sit here writing I can 

 hear the branches crack and come 

 crashing down to the ground. 



Dr. Miller will find my report for 

 1882 in December Oleanings, page 600. 

 N. H. Stewart quotes me, from Glean- 

 ings, a little wrong. I said : I think 

 bees gather some honey, each year, 

 from corn ; his statement is that my 

 bees gather large quantities of corn 

 honey each year. I am not positive 

 of that. I know that they did this 

 year. Corn honey has such a peculiar 

 quality that if one ever gets a yield 

 he will be apt to know it if he ever 

 gets another, and I am quite sure I 

 have had corn honey before. 



Eantoul, 111., Feb. 2, 1883. 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



now keeps the entrances open the full 

 width. 



President Barrows said he lost none 

 2 years ago. Does not darken his 

 cellar; the hives face the wall ; Hues 

 start from cellar, and when the 

 weather permits he opens doors and 

 windows for ventilation. If cellars 

 are kept near freezing point, they will 

 keep more quiet, and not be liable to 

 come out, if the cellar is a little light. 



The secretary read an article from 

 the Bee Journal by G. M. Doolittle, 

 on " Winter Flights." 



Mr. Moore said he preferred winter- 

 ing in the cellar, but should try out- 

 door wintering, by giving protection, 

 if his numbers still increased. He 

 now has 50 colonies in good condition. 

 All present were much interested, and 

 reported extra returns for the past 

 season, and bees in fine condition for 

 the winter. 



The next quarterly meeting will be 

 held on Saturday, March 24, at 10:30 

 a. m., at the Sheriff's office, Marshall- 

 town, Iowa. Subject for discussion : 

 " Spring and Summer Care." We 

 hope many Iowa bee-keepers will at- 

 tend the next meeting. 



J. W. Sanders, Sec. 



O. B. Barrows, Pres. 



Marshall County, Iowa, Convention. 



The Marshall County, Iowa, Bee- 

 Keepers' Association met in Marshall- 

 town, Iowa, at 1 p. m., on Jan. (i. The 

 minutes of the previous meeting were 

 read and approved. The subject of 

 wintering was then discussed. 



Mr. J. Moore stated that bis bees 

 wintered in his cellar, prepared on 

 purpose for them. It is dark, and 

 ventilated by flues starting in the 

 cellar. He lost heavily, 2 years ago, 

 but thinks mostly by his own neglect 

 in not keeping the entrances open. He 



For tlie American Bee Journal. 



Do Bees Need a Winter Flight ? 



FAYETTE LEE. 



I have kept bees for 6 years, ancE 

 have let them have 2 flights between 

 January and April, with good results, 

 for the firsts winters. Every colony 

 coming through in good condition ; 

 but during the last 3, they had the 

 dysentery from dampness, and the 

 winter flight did no good. It caused 

 them to try to dry the hive, by sipping 

 up the water that had accumulated 

 on the combs, and in a few days they 

 were worse than ever. I believe that 

 dampness and breeding causes dysen- 

 tery. About Jan. 28, I went into my 

 cellar and heard a colony making a 

 fuss about something; 1 raised the 

 cover and looked into the hive ; it was 

 full of bees from top to bottom, and 

 the water stood in big drops on the 

 under side of the cover. I took them 

 out and gave them a flight ; they had 

 4 frames of brood. I put them back 

 into the cellar, and before April 15, 

 they were all dead, witli plenty of 

 hoiiey. When I put my bees into the 

 cellar, I put a newspaper on top of 

 every hive, to make them air-tight at 

 the top. I learned a lesson, to never 

 stop upward ventilation, because 

 some one said so. The temperature 

 of the celiac was 50- most all winter; 

 bees commenced breeding the last 

 week in January, and made bad work 

 of it. This winter, my cellar stands 

 from 36'-' tolO'^; bees are quiet, and 

 there are no dead bees on the bottom 

 of the cellar. I shall give them no 

 flight this winter. We have had 

 steady cold weather since New Year's- 

 day, with some days as cold as 32^ be- 

 low zero, with the worst blizzards I 

 ever saw. Last winter I took up ai 

 dust pan full of bees from the cellar » 

 bottom and put them beside the stove- 



