158 



• fHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



A Summer's Day. 



After luiving three months of verv 

 cold <aiui stormy weather, it whs our 

 luck, on the 1st day of March, to have 

 one of the warmest of winter days. 

 Had it not been for the snow in the 

 fields and on the surrounding hill- 

 sides, it would have passed for a 

 summer day. The bees enjoved 

 themselves on their wings from" 10 

 o'clock in the forenoon till after 5 

 o'clock in the afternoon, and but very 

 few were seen dead upon the snow, 

 after they had had their frolic— it was 

 a general turnout. Who owns the 

 largest number of colonies of bees in 

 the United States, and how many 

 colonies ? Who owns the largest 

 number in the world, and how many V 

 What is the greatest number ever 

 known to have been owned by a single 

 individual y John Mouris. 



Mauston, Wis., March 3, 1883. 



[These questions are much easier 

 to ask than to answer correctly. We 

 shall, therefore, not attempt it.— Ed] 



Notes from the Nauvoo Apiary. 



I began the spring of 1882 with 90 

 colonies of bees, in average condition, 

 having lost none during the previous 

 winter. Had 6 colonies, pure Cypri- 

 ans, with imported queens, the re- 

 mainder mostly pure Italians, many 

 of them with imported queens. The 

 weather was very wet and cold up to 

 July 4th, chilling large numbers of 

 the bees, that left the hive for the 

 fields, and the flowers giving very 

 little, if any, honey, so that I was 

 obliged to feed, up to June 20, to pre- 

 ,vent starvation, and to stimulate 

 them to raise brood. It was consid- 

 erable expense, but I do not regret it, 

 as it kept my colonies strong, and en- 

 abled me to reap a rich reward, later 

 in the season. The white clover crop- 

 3,000 lbs. of extracted and 1.50 lbs. of 

 comb honey— was harvested the Hrst 

 2.5 days of July, about one month later 

 than usual. The fall crop began 

 about one week after the spring crop 

 closed, and ended Sept. 20. producing 

 11.000 lbs. extracted and 5.50 lbs. comb 

 lioney. This makes, for the crop of 

 1882, 14,000 lbs. of extracted and 700 

 lbs. of comb honey, together with ISo 

 lbs. of beautiful wax obtained from 

 the cappings. I had an increase of 

 24 colonies, three-fourths of them by 

 natural swarming. My wife did all 

 of tlie work of the apiarv up to ex- 

 tracting time, when my vineyard and 

 other labors were sutficiently ad- 

 vanced to allow me to turn rav atten- 

 tion to the bees. My wife and I did 

 a good share of the extracting, with- 

 out any assistance. We often took 

 off and extracted 2 barrels (1,100 lbs.) 

 of honey per day, besides returning 

 the empty boxes to the bees in the 

 evening. My bees were put into win- 

 ter quarters, on their summer stands, 

 during the last days of November. 

 They are packed according to Mr. 

 Ohas. Dadant's method, and have 

 wintered very well, thus far. They 

 had a good flight the first three days 

 of last week, and I find that they are 

 all alive and in comparatively good 

 condition ; even a very weak colony 



that was queenless. last fall, for more 

 than (i weeks, and Vhich I had not 

 time to attend to until the middle of 

 October, when I gave it a queen. My 

 last swarm was hived Sept. 3, and 

 gatliered abimdant stores for winter, 

 besides producing aboutSO lbs. of sur- 

 plus honey. (Thanks to comb founda- 

 tion. I may here remark that I would 

 not do without foundation, even 

 ttiough it cost me $\ per pound.) I 

 have been in the bee business, now, .5 

 years, although I owned but one half 

 of the apiary until last spring, when I 

 bought the entire stock. I have in- 

 creased the number of colonies stead- 

 ily every year, losing none, or next to 

 none, in wintering. Have alwavs 

 wintered on the summer stands. My 

 object is to produce as much honev as 

 possible, therefore, I do my best to 

 prevent swarming, and with good re- 

 sults, finding it cheaper to buv new 

 colonies than to rear them. I expect 

 to buy quite a lot this spring. Al- 

 though I am engaged in teaching 

 public scliool, and am obliged to be 

 there every day, Saturdays and Sun- 

 days excepted, I have found but little 

 trouble in disposing of nearly allot 

 my large crop of honey, and at good 

 prices, too. Have not dealt with 

 commission men as yet. Our fruit 

 prospects are "blasted"" once more, as 

 the vulgar saying is. Surely, this is 

 a cold climate. I am seriouslv think- 

 ing of emigrating South. The only 

 question is to find a suitable and 

 agreeable location. 



Einr. J. Baxter. 

 iSTauvoo, 111., Feb. 26, 1883. 



Wintering and Ventilation. 



I see in " Bees in Winter '' you men- 

 tion seven things essential to success- 

 ful wintering; may I add the eighth ? 

 A cleansing flight, once a month. 

 Proof : One and three years ago, they 

 wintered anywhere with that ; while 

 two and four years ago (and this), they 

 died everywhere witliout it. An 

 old bee-keeper said to me, " keep a 

 bee dry and you cannot freeze it." 

 How can we keep them dry, venti- 

 late them properly (much has been 

 written on that point), both at the top 

 and bottom V I think G. M. Doolittle's 

 article on page 52, present volume, is 

 worth the cost of the Bee Journal 

 one year. It is right to the point : 

 "just upward ventilation enough, and 

 not too much." What would be just 

 enough here, one year ago. would be 

 ruinous this winter. That amount of 

 upward ventilation, which is enough 

 generally, would often carry off too 

 much warmth ; then the bees eat to 

 keep warm ; while, if a little more 

 than just enough is given below, it 

 would not do much harm, as I see. 

 That article refers to A. G. Hill's suc- 

 cess and experiments, and, so far, ap- 

 pears good, as per report. (Please 

 report further ; also W. Z. Hutchin- 

 son on clamp experiments, Geo. 

 Grimm on cellars, and lleddon on 

 out-door or chaff.) But, says one, 

 snow blows in, when on blocks; true, 

 make a hole in the bottom board or 

 let the hive extend over the edge of 

 the bottom board, a little. I often 

 see accounts of bees in clamps, buried 

 or covered in snow, where it is air- 



tight above, and the bottom clear out 

 (or large entrances), that bees came 

 out in spring strong, lively, and in 

 good order. Why v Because they are 

 dry and warm. Page 69 shows that 

 the air is about as pure near the bot- 

 tom as at the top. To retain the heat, 

 let out dampness and impure air, and 

 let in pure air at the bottom— is not 

 that better than to let both out at the 

 top, and lose too much heat, and so 

 have the bees eat too much V If much 

 opened above, or they get damp by 

 sweating, the bees soon die, also if 

 too little opened at top. It is always 

 hard to ventilate, upward, " just 

 enough, and not too much," 

 Limerick, III. E. Pickup. 



Zinc for Separators. 



My bees have wintered well ; to-day- 

 it was warm enough for the bees to- 

 fly, for the Hrst time this winter. I 

 put them out of the cellar, to give 

 tliem a flight, and I had a chance to 

 look them over. I found them in 

 splendid condition except one colony, 

 which was dead. I made a mistake 

 in looking them over last fall ; I did 

 not notice that it had too much pollen 

 in the hive. That was the only colony 

 that had the dysentery ; the rest are 

 all strong and healthy, and I think 

 will come through all right. It has 

 been a hard winter on bees ; it has 

 been so very cold. Will zinc do for 

 separators V We can get zinc cheaper 

 than tin. H. J. Smith. 



Burlington, Wis., March 13, 1883. 



[Zinc corrodes much more easily 

 than tin, and is, therefore, not de- 

 sirable.— Ed.] 



Bees Wintered Well— Never Better. 



My 130 colonies came through with- 

 out loss, and in splendid condition. 

 I have wintered, for 11 years, on an 

 average, about 120 colonies in my bee 

 house, and have only lost two colonies 

 in the whole time, and they died of 

 starvation. My bees never had dys- 

 entery, except in nuclei. Cold, bad 

 honey, and the want of suflScient ven- 

 tilation, are undoubtedly the chief 

 causes of dysentery. The right tem- 

 perature is about 45° to 50'^. My 

 average of honey for the 11 years has- 

 been about 80 lbs. per colony of ex- 

 tracted honey. E. C. L. Larch. 



Ashland, Mo., March 12, 1883. 



Early Breeding, Etc. 



My 40 colonies of bees are all on the 

 summer stands, protected, as in 

 former winters, in Armstrong's Cen- 

 tennial hives, and in spite of the 

 severe cold weather ever since Nov. 

 27, 1882, tiU to-day ; ouly 6 days in 

 that time that bees coidd fly ; 8 days 

 in the time it was below zero ; one day 

 it was 12- below, and to-day it is 70° 

 above, at noon. I have, to-day, ex- 

 amined my bees, and, strange to say, 

 I found egg larva, young bees hatch- 

 ing, young brood hatched, and some 

 of the hives are full of bees in every 

 colony. Ten colonies have consumed 

 nearly all their honey ; so I put cap- 

 ped comb honey in place of empty 

 frames, and I scraped all the dead 

 bees and filth out, which I can very 



