THE 3SMERIC?CK WMW JOtJRrfMI^. 



117 



Wintering: Bees in llie Sontli 

 l»y Mr. X. F- Mingliam. 



In coutimiation of the biographical arti- 

 cle on page 21, we here present sonie items 

 of interest in addition to those there found, 

 giving his experience in wintering bees. We 

 also present anotlier and better engraving. 



In my hastily-written sketch, on page 21, 

 1 think that perhaps I omitted some facts 

 that would interest the readers of the 

 Amkkican Bee Journal, if they are not 

 of profit to them, viz : No mention is made 

 of my change from New York to Michigan. 

 I sold out my apiary in Govvanda, N. Y., in 

 1867— all the bees but one colony, which I 

 brought to Allegan, Mich., to which place I 

 went to carry on the jewelry business. Im- 

 mediate! v upon locating there I bought 20 

 colonies "of bees, which, on the approach of 

 winter, were put into tlie cellar under my 

 house. In January and February, after 1 

 was through business at the store, as I had 

 no time by daylight to do the transferring, 

 the 20 colonies were transferred by lamp- 

 light in my kitchen, to shallow framed 

 hives, and returned to the cellar again. 



The following spring and summer were 

 favorable, and the bees did well. In the 

 next season I bought 60 colonies more, and 

 soon had them in flat hives also, aud a sea- 

 son's product of fine honey was the result. 

 The winter was provided for by nnlarging 

 the cellar under my house, so as to hold my 

 stock, then about 1-50 colonies. 



This was the winter following the Na- 

 tional Convention held in Cleveland, the one 

 over which the lamented M. Quinby pre- 

 sided. Fatal results followed that winter, 

 and by the tirstof May I had but23 colonies, 

 and small at that. However, the next sea- 

 son was good, and 90 colonies with consid- 

 erable extracted honey were ready for 

 another winter's trial. 



Disgusted with my last cellar experiment, 

 I built a frame building large enough to 

 hold 1.50 colonies, placed on shelves around 

 the walls. This bee-depository was all 

 above ground, but had a cement floor 

 (plastered on the gravel). The walls and 

 gable were tilled with dry planiug-mill 

 shavings. The bees wintered finely. The 

 following May my bees were all taken to 

 Abronia, which, at that time, was all tim- 

 ber, about 10 per cent, of which was bass- 

 wood. 



A two-story bee-house was built there,and 

 arranged for outside warming. The walls 

 were thick, and tilled with sawdust, and 

 shelved, as was my bee-house in Allegan. 

 The season was good, and I had a large 

 crop of fine bass wood honey, and a big fall 

 crop of boneset on which to wiuter my bees. 

 They did not do well. May found me again 

 with only 24 weak colonies out of 280, fall 

 count. 



I purchased all the bees I could find to 

 recruit my apiary and save my combs. — 

 Only a few, however, could be found, as 

 nearly all the bees in the county had died. 



That season my honey returns were 

 small, but my combs were saved, and I had 

 180 colonies for my depository again, and 

 all the hives were full of boneset honey, as 

 in the previous autumn. They were left 

 later on the stands, and as death seemed to 

 have hold of them again, the depository was 

 warmed slightly, with a faint hope that it 

 would be ot value to the bees. 



May again found me with 16 colonies. 

 Bees were now bought in Kentucky aud 

 Tennessee to stock up my apiary again. My 

 combs were again filled, and my decision 

 was made to take my bees, with hives again 

 full of boneset honey, to Tennessee to win- 

 ter. With hope, in November, the car was 



started for Eilgefield Junction, 10 miles 

 from Nashville, as the place for the ex- 

 periment. 



The same diarrhea showed itself there, 

 tliough the bees could aud did fly as often 

 as once in ten days. The spring dwindling 

 was heavy, but not fatal. Nearly all the 

 colonies came up to time, and were again 

 taken to Abronia for a summer's work. In 

 moving, however, all the unsealed brood 

 was taken out, and breeding stopped. Cold 

 weather followed,and at the end of a month, 

 when clover was in its prime, I had only a 

 few bees to gather honey. 



Basswood, however, gave my then popu- 

 lous colonies a fine run, and I had honey to 

 sell, besides 200 colonies ready for Ten- 

 nessee again, i had determined again to 

 winter there, and return a little later, and 

 put in practice some points gained. 



Accordingly, in September, nearly all the 

 honey was extracted, and the bees put on 

 board of a car. The weather became hot, 

 but only one colony was injured in transit. 

 The asters of Tennessee bloomed a few 

 days after my arrival, and the bees got 

 all the honey needed for their winter use. 



On the aster honpy they pros))ered finely. 

 There was no spring dwiudling, and no 

 tired, worn-out bees, and spring breeding 



MR. T. F. BINGHAM. 



veent on apace. Dr. Hamlin's apiary was 

 then about a mile from my bees. Now was 

 a good time to note the breeding qualities of 

 my half-depth, no-bottom frame by the side 

 of the standard Langstroth frame, under 

 similar circumstances, aud in large numbers 

 (not one, single, isolated trial), as Barnum 

 and Peyton, then the owners of the 

 lamented Dr. Hamlin's apiary, had about 

 200 colonies. The result pleased me, aud 

 was a great wonder to the deep-frame men. 



This time the hives were brought home 

 packed with mature bees, just in time for 

 clover bloom. They came safely, all but 3 

 colonies, which, while standing over Sun- 

 day on a side-track in southern Michigan, 

 partly melted down, and failed entirely. 

 The unsealed brood in all the hives had 

 been taken out by the bees, and I had as 

 before only old bees left to keep up the 

 work of the hive and gather honey. 



The results were no better than before. I 

 got the clover yield, but failed to get the 

 basswood. I had, however, some honey to 

 sell, but my hope of wintering bees in the 

 South and getting theii honey in the North, 

 advantageously, had been blighted. I should 

 not again try the experiment. 



I now resolved to make small, one-roofed 

 houses, each of all the six sides to be sep- 

 arate panels, and the corners to be held 

 with short pieces of hoop-iron. These 



houses would hold 3 colonies each, and an 

 extra set of frames to each hive, (that is, 

 one hive above the other), the two having 

 but one bottom-board. Around the three 

 hives, on all sides and beneath, 7 inches of 

 aftermath, or fine hay was packed ; while 

 on top of the two sets of frames (constitut- 

 ing one hive for winter), 14 inches of fine 

 hav was packed. 



This plan proved a success, and cheaper 

 than Tennessee wintering and transporta- 

 tion combined. The first winter, however, 

 demonstrated that the entrances were liable 

 to become clogged with dead bees. To 

 avoid this danger, a rim or frame the size 

 and shape of the bottom of the hive, was 

 made and put on the bottom-board for win- 

 ter only. This rim raised the combs 2 

 inches from the bottom-board, and allowed 

 all the dead bees and litter to remain be- 

 neath the combs, without detriment to the 

 bees. This plan, and the absence of bone- 

 set honey for winter, has enabled my bees 

 to winter with safety and success. 



T. F. Bingham. 



Items of 



A New Po.stsil arrangement has been 

 made between the United States and Can- 

 ada, to go into full effect on March 1, 1SS8. 

 Articles will be allowed to go into either 

 country if admitted by the domestic law of 

 either, except sealed packages (which are 

 other than letters), aud publications which 

 violate the copyright laws of the country 

 of destination, liquids, etc. 



All articles exchanged under this arrange- 

 met are required to be fully prepaid with 

 postage stamps, at the rate of postage ap- 

 plicable to similar articles in the domestic- 

 mails of the country of origin, and are re- 

 quired to be delivered free to addresses in 

 the country of destination. 



Articles other than letters, in their usual 

 and ordinary form, on their arrival at the 

 Exchange Post-OfBce of the country of 

 destination, will be inspected by custom 

 officers of that country, who will levy the 

 proper customs duties upon any articles 

 found to be dutiable under the laws of that 

 country. 



More Ilitml»le-If ees for Austra- 

 lia.— The clover in Australia is in danger 

 of dying out, because of the lack of suffi- 

 cient bees to fertilize the blossoms. Several 

 large quantities of bumble-bees have been 

 sent there for that purpose, and now we 

 note by the following from the Pittsburgh, 

 Pa., Commercial Oazette. that another 

 shipment is to be sent from Kentucky : 



Joseph McDonell, of Lexington, Ky., has 

 achieved prominence lately by his expressed 

 desire to buy $10,000 worth of Kentucky 

 bumble-bees that understand the manage- 

 ment of clover. They are to be sent to 

 Australia to assist ingrowing clover there 

 by carrying pollen from bloom to bloom. A 

 gentleman who came from Australia last 

 fall, and bought some stock from Mr. 

 McDonell, made the arrangement with 

 McDonell to supply him with the bumble- 

 bees, and they will probably be gathered 

 from the crop of next season. It has been 

 known for years that it was necessary to 

 have them in Australia. It will make busi- 

 ness for the small hoy of this country, and 

 fun for the Australian school-boy in time to 

 come. 



