252 



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•■^^'■^'■^'■—'■^^^^^' 



time during tlie winter. I opened the doors 

 in the evening, so as to admit a good ctiange 

 of warm, t'resli air. 



Tlie cellar is so arranged tiiat I can open 

 tlie outside doors, and not admit light to the 

 bee-room. On March :31 I examined them, 

 cleaned out the d^ad bees wiiere necessary, 

 and as far a'! 1 could see all seemed well ex- 

 cept two or three colonies that were a little 

 too much clogged up with dead bees. 



The harvest of 18S7, iu this part of Iowa, 

 was almost an entire failure, and from my 

 own observations and inquiry, 1 tliinli that 

 there will be a large number of colonies 

 that will perish during the winter, for want 

 of stores where they were not properly 

 cared for in the fall. The mercury this 

 morning was 6= below zero. It is a good 

 thing that the bees are in the cellar yet. 



salt on it, and apply it. It will stop the 

 pain instautly, and keep it from swelling. 



I would like to hear from some one that 

 has had experience with house apiaries. I 

 am thiulcing of building one as an experi- 

 ment, on a cheap scale, 10 feet wide, -50 or 

 (iO feet long, one story high,to accommodate 

 two rows of hives on each side ; the walls 

 to be double, and warm enough to let the 

 bees stay in it the whole year around. It 

 will have bee-escapes, as described on page 

 108. There is lots of bad weather on the 

 farm, that I could work at the bees in the 

 house, wht-nl could not do anything else. 

 They could tly when they wished. It is so 

 much work tu carry bees in and out of a 

 cave, and they are always liable to mold. 



Bt^cs W'interiiig- l»oorly .— J no. G. 

 Pursel, Round Plains, Out., on March 29, 

 188S, says : 



In this locality, so far as I can learn, bees 

 are wintering badlv, the losses being about 

 •one-half. They are badly affected with 

 diarrhea. I have 20 colonies in the cellar, 

 which are all right. I wintered my bees at 

 a temperature of 40°. 



Ho-»v tlie Bees liave ^Viiitered.— 



Roland Holmes, Ft. Wayne, lud., on March 



23, 1888, says : 



Bees have wintered well in this locality. 

 The drouth last year cut the hcmey crop 

 short, my bees producing only S-t pounds of 

 surplus per colony, and they were in good 

 condition for the honey flow ; but it did not 

 *' flow." i have 40 colonies at present. 



Strong- Oolonieiii in Cliait Hives. 



—Nathan Mercer, Neosho, Wis., on March 



18, 1388, says : 



I have 83 colonies of bees left from 99 col- 

 onies, all in chaff hives. About one-iialf of 

 them now cover 10 frames of comb, and are 

 increasing fast. Twelve colonies starved to 

 death. I supposed they had plenty of stores 

 to last them until spring ; but being such 

 strong colonies, they consumed more than 

 i expected. I suppose I will have to feed 

 some. 



Snccessful «:ells«r-lViutering-.— 



E. P. Colburn, New Cassel, Wis., on March 

 ■33, 18S8, writes : 



My bees have wintered nicely. Five colo- 

 nies were outside, iu double-walled hives 

 filled with dry sawdust. They had a 

 cleanshii flight on March 19, and I found 

 that tliey were in line condition. I have 40 

 colonies mure in the cellar, wbicli I have 

 not taken nut yet, but I know they are all 

 riaht. My cellar has a furnace in one part 

 ■of it, which makes it a iiice place to winter 

 Ijees. 1 never have any moldy combs to 

 bother with in the spring. I never have 

 lost but 3 colonies while wintering them in 

 the cellar. 1 am very fond of bees, and owe 

 what 1 have learned at)0Ut them to the 

 American Bee Jouhnal. I am a miller 

 by trade, have about 1.5 acres of land, with 

 ttie bees near the mill, so that I can atteml 

 to them at odd times, with some of my 

 wife's aid iu case of necessity. 



Bees Wiuterliis Well, etc.— J. L. 



Comstock, Sac City, Iowa, ou March 38, 

 1888, writes : 



My bees are wintering well so far. I have 

 31 colonies in the cellar. They had good 

 honey to go into winter quarters with, 

 being mostly basswood. In the spring of 

 1887 1 took .Vi colonies out of the cellar, and 

 I siild 27, which left 25 colonies. I had only 

 7 natural swarms. My bees gathered .500 

 pounds ot comb honey in one and two 

 pound sections. 1 united 3 colonies in the 

 fall, which made 31 good colnnies, and all 

 are alive. The imlioations are that we will 

 soon have them on the summer stands. It 

 is very warm to-day. 



Expei-ience -witli Blacic Bees. — 



E. T. Smith, Bowling Green, Mo., on March 

 39, 1888, writes : 



Last fall I had 47 colonies of mostly black 

 bees, which were reduced, by doubling and 

 letting the moth destroy them.to23 colonies. 

 I now have 7 fine cohmies of Italians and 

 pure hybrids. 1 want no more black bees. 

 They are like poor land, which produces a 

 good crop when the season is perfect. We 

 have had some fine spring days, but mostly 

 cold, damp weather. My bees brought in 

 pollen from soft maple on March 18. I am 

 not discouraged, but still fond of my bees, 

 which I keep for pleasure, and, as my re- 

 ports shows, not for profit. 



Bees all Rigrht in tke Cellar.— A. 



,J. Adkisou, Wiuterset, Iowa, on March 39, 



1888, says : 



I put my bees into the cellar during the 

 cold weather that we had the last of Novem- 

 ber, 1887, and they appear to be doing well. 

 There are very few dead bees ou the cellar 

 floor, and they are very quiet. I have a 

 partition across the east end of the cellar 

 where the bees are, and I never go in there 

 except to look at the b^^es. There is no 

 window in that part. When the weather 

 was 30° below zero outside, it was 36° above 

 zero iuside. I think that more than half of 

 the bees that were leltou the summer stands 

 will die. Some bee-men have lost more 

 than half ot their bees already. 



Bee-Slingfs— IIoiise-/t.i>iary, etc. 



—Alva F. Wilson, Prairie City, Iowa, on 

 March 35, 1888, writes : 



I put 60 colonies into a beecave last fall, 

 «nd I am ashamed to say I let 13 or 14 colo- 

 nies starve : the rest are in fine condition. 

 In mild weather I open the door in the 

 south end of the cave, and also the ventila- 

 tor in the iioith end at niglit, thus letting 

 the bees have fresh air. I am a fanner, and 

 1 would as soou think of doing without my 

 •cows as to be without the bees. Bees sting 

 occasionally, cows kick, hut J will take the 

 bees and himey for piolit, in preference to 

 the cows aruf butter, compared with the 

 amount of labor an.l expense. Last year 

 was a poor year for honey, as well as for 

 other crops. 



I think tiiat I have found the best anti- 

 dote lor a bee-sting. It is lemon juice and 

 salt. I out ofl: a piece of lemou, put a little 



Rearing Queens, etc.— G. Crouse, 

 Ithaca, Mich., ou March 20, 1888, says : 



I notice that Mr. Doolittle claims that 

 queens reared by natural swarming are bet- 

 ter than those reared as breeders generally 

 rear them. Will some one please state in 

 the Bee Jouknal how they are reared in 

 the latter case ? 



My bees have wintered well. I have 32 

 colonies in chaff hives, on the summer 

 stands, with hut one weak colony among 

 them. So far I have not lost any, and young 

 bees are hatching in nearly all of the colo- 

 nies. I began last season with 11 colonies, 

 sold 2 swarms, increased my apiary to the 

 nresent number, and obtained .5.50 pounds of 

 hnney in sect oiis. The bees were wintered 

 on stores ot their own gatlierin^ 



Cliea|> Colleens. — W. H. Shaner, 

 Leechbnrg, Pa., on April 3, 1888, says : 



Last August I bought 4 cheap, untested 

 Italian (pieens. One was ailing when I cot 

 her, and the colony kept Ms drones. The 

 queen did not lay until October, when 1 

 noticed the bees carrying several young 

 queens out. 1 examined the colony, and 

 found a young queen (which has proved to 

 be a drone-layer) and a little brood. On 

 Feb. 12, I found another cheap queen in 

 front of a hive, ilead ; and on Marcli 26 still 

 another. I am disgusted with cheap queens. 

 1 want no more of them. 



Bees have wintered well in the cellar and 

 on the summer stands. They carried iu the 

 first natural pollen on March 27. 



Bee-Keeping- in 'W. Virginia.— 



G. C. Hughes, Pipestem, W. Va., on March 

 26, 1888, writes : 



The industry ot bee-keeping is yet in Its 

 infancy in this part ot tlie State ; yet I see 

 no reason why it may not be made a profit- 

 able business. We are situ'ited on the back- 

 bone of the Alleghany Mountains, where 

 the coves and valleys are covered with bass- 

 wood, poplar, locust, etc., and the ridges 

 are covered with sourwood. White clover 

 grows spontaneously, and red clover grows 

 well. My brother was the first to place 

 bees in frame hives in this county, about 

 ten years ago ; soon afterwards he died, 

 when the industry waned, until about two 

 years ato Rev. Mr. llnuchins and myself 

 bought some bees in ludlow-log gums,whieh 

 we transferred into chaff hives. So far as I 

 have been able to find out, bees have win- 

 tered well, and tlie prospects are good. 



Col«l Weatlier for tlie Bees.— W. 



Mason, Fillmore, Ind., on March 33, 1888, 



writes : 



We are again in the midst of a blizzard, 

 and with such a chill that a great amount of 

 brood may be lost, as some have been feed- 

 ing already to start brood-rearing, through 

 some of the warm days just past, which I 

 claim is bad policy. Mv bees have wintered 

 well, having but two flights in four month.s, 

 the first on Feb. 23, and the last on March 

 18 and 19. I always return ray bees to their 

 winter quarters on the appearance of a cold 

 spell, in spite of other work. Bees have 

 wintered well in this part of the State, and 

 where properh' packed, but of those left to 

 take care ot themselves, a large per cent, 

 are lost. I find this to be the result of not 

 taking a good bee-paper, and not attending 

 bee-meetings and profiting by them. But 

 such are not bee-keepers, but bee failures. 

 A great many bees are being lost by drown- 

 ing in the sap^pails in the suiiar orchards. 

 My plan to stop this is, to take an ax and 

 ao to the nearest sugar trees and hack them 

 as high as one can reach. The bees will go 

 to that instead of the buckets. 



