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Ciood ISeiiiuU!!! in ^Vinterimg.— 



Samuel Cusliraan, Pawtucket, R. I., on 

 April 6, 1888, writes : 



My bees liave come through in good con- 

 dition, although I fed them for winter as 

 late as Oct. 1. Out of 33 colonies in the 

 home apiary, 3 have died, 2 of starvation. 

 These were also made-up colonies from 

 driven bees. In the Attleboro Apiary, 2 

 colonies out of 14 have died, and in the 

 ottier apiaries none have died. This I call 

 pretty gcJbd. All are strong. I shall test 

 the " Simmins' plan " more thoroughly the 

 coming season. 



Colonies Generally Strong.— R. 



R. Murphy, Garden Plain, Ills., on April 9, 

 1888, writes : 



I took my bees out of the bee-house last 

 week, and found three dead colonies, one 

 being starved ; one was to all appearances 

 queenless last fall, and the other was one 

 that I transferred from a box-hive in No- 

 vember to extra combs from other hives. I 

 have found two other colonies queenless 

 out of 62 put in last fall. The colonies are 

 generally strong in bees, and were breeding 

 rapidly when taken out. There are heavy 

 losses of bees where they were left out- 

 doors without protection in this locality. 



Itringing in Pollen.— S. A. Shuck, 

 Liverpool, Ills., on April 17, 1888, writes : 



Bees have wintered reasonably well in 

 this locality. I placed 119 colonies id mv 

 bee-cellar, 5 colonies for a neighbor, and 113 

 of my own. They were all alive when put 

 out some two weeks ago. The weather 

 turned cold and stormy soon after the bees 

 were put out. One colony starved during 

 the bad weather, four were queenless and 

 too weak to survive, and one nucleus 

 swarmed out. A few others are quite weak. 

 The mercury rose to 80° in the shade to-day. 

 The bees were at work with a will, bringing 

 in pollen from soft maple. 



the breeders will say, " We feed to stimulate 

 colonies that rear our queens." But can 

 that produce as good results as come from a 

 good honey-flow from the flowers, in the 

 season of a natural swarming impulse ? 

 This question (to me) would be of snme im- 

 portance, if I wished to buy queens at tlie 

 present time ; and it will be somewhat 

 gratifying to me, and perhaps beneficial to 

 many, to have this question discussed 

 through the American Bee Joubnal. My 

 experience may not be the same as that of 

 others. 



Expeoting a Good Season. — C. B. 



Thompson, Knoxville, Iowa, on April 2, 



1888, writes : 



My colonies that have wintered are very 

 strong. 1 put -16 colonies into a cave, and 

 took out 37 colonies in good condition. X 

 am looking for a good honey year. Bees 

 have wintered poorly ; those bee-keepeis 

 that wintered their bees on the summer 

 stands, and those that wintered them in 

 cellars, have lost about the same per cent, 

 as I did. 



Hartl W^inter for Bees. — John 

 Bauernfeind, Menasha, Wis., on April 5, 



1888, writes : 



The past winter was a very hard one for 

 bees in this locality. My colonies were 

 light last fall, and a long and severe winter 

 was more than they could stand when short 

 of stores. I began the winter with 67 colo- 

 nies, but I liave already lost 20 colonies, the 

 most of them having starved. There is 

 still 3 feet of snow on the ground, but to-day 

 It looks spring-like, the snow is disappear- 

 ing fast, and I may yet save one-half of my 

 bees. 



Freaks of Queens. — C. Weeks, of 

 Clifton, Tenn., writes : 



Some answers to Query .506, state that 2 

 Queens never leave the parent hive with the 

 tirst swarm. I once had a prime swarm 

 issue with the old wing-clipped queen and 3 

 young queens. In the spring of 1886 I 

 founii 3 laying queens that had wintered in 

 one hive. There was no mistake about it, 

 as it was too early for drone-brood to be 

 even capped in any hive. About one month 

 later, when I next opened the hive, there 

 was but one queen to be fouud. 



[Tours are unusual cases— those answers 

 I contemplated the general practice in a nor- 

 mal condition.— Ed.] 



Cliair Hives for Wintering. — 



Geo. H. Kirkpatrick, New Paris, Ohio, on 

 March 28, 1888, writes : 



1 am wintering my bees on the summer 

 stands, all in sinale-walled hives, crated, 

 and packed in chaff. About 50 per cent, of 

 my colonies are in chaff hives. I have used 

 the single-story chaff hive for Ave years 

 successfully. My bees had a fine flight on 

 March 17 and 18. I examined and found all 

 the colonies breeding. Bees in this part of 

 the country, as far as heard from, are doing 

 well, and bee-keepers are feeling better. 



The Fertility of Qneens.— John 

 Andrews, Patten's Mills, N. T., on April 2, 

 1888, writes : 



As I have been somewhat disappointed in 

 years past in the fertility of queens that I 

 obtained from (what was considered) re- 

 liable breeders, most of which were ob- 

 tained in September, 1 have come to the 

 conclusion tliat late-reared queens are of 

 not much value to me. The most of these 

 queens were obtained simply for experi- 

 ment, holding them over for the next year's 

 observation. Now and then one has been 

 up to the average of the bees in the yard in 

 activity, but tour out of five have been be- 

 low the average. For years I have bred my 

 own queens, and in this I have noticed that 

 the late-bred queens did not produce active 

 cohmies, as a rule ; and now the question 

 is, should a bee-keeper breed queens after 

 the honey-flow had ceased, from which the 

 natural honey-supply comes ? I know that 



Honey for Itees in IVinter. — 



Fayette Lee, Cokato, Minn., on April 8, 

 1888, writes : 



The colony that I was wintering on noth- 

 ing but honey was defunct on March 10. 

 They had the worst kind of diarrhea, and 

 were full of a dirty-colored water. They 

 did not have 5 cells of pollen in the hive 

 last fall. They had 15 pounds of the best 

 kind of fall honey, and it was not capped 

 over. They had no upward ventilation. 

 They ate about 7 pounds of honey before 

 dying, and I am now sure that dampness is 

 the cause of bee-diarrhea. 



Another thing that I liave found out is, 

 when the ground does not freeze, the cellar 

 is damp, and so are the bees. This is the 

 reason that they do not winter the same. 

 The temperature of my cellar has been 4.5° 

 all winter, and only for a little while last 

 fall it was .50°. 1 wish every one wnuld see 

 if they do not find the lower row ot hives 

 very damp, and the bees sick, with the en- 

 trance to the hive all daubed from the diar- 

 rhea. I expect to lose 15 or 20 colonies out 



ot 96. The snow is one foot deep yet. I 

 have taken 10 colonies from the cellar, and 

 they are flying nicely. I expect to take the 

 rest out this week. 



Planting for Honey. — Wm. A. 



Ridenour, Elida, 0., on April 3, 1888, says : 



I commenced the season ot 1887 with 7 

 colonies, and my crop was 235 pounds of 

 comb honey in one-pound sections, from 

 white clover and linden, although the 

 drouth caused a poor honey crop. I bought 

 5 colonies in the fall, which made 12 colo- 

 nies ; I packed them on the summer stands, 

 and they have wintered all right. On March 

 31 and April 1, they carried In pollen for the 

 first time this year, I have 7 acres of Alsike 

 clover that will bloom this summer. In 1885 

 I planted 60 linden trees from I to 3 inches 

 in diameter, and they bloomed the second 

 year after being planted. 



UronevConib and S^varming. — 



James Irwin, Columbus Grove, O., on April 

 3, 1888, writes : 



I must say that niy bees have wintered 

 extremely well this winter. I wintered 

 them on the sunnuer stands. They have 

 been taking in pollen now for two or three 

 days. The outlook for a good honey season 

 is very promising. I noticed from some of 

 my colonies that there were a good many 

 young bees flying. Will the absence of 

 drone-comb in a hive prevent swarming ? 



[The absence of drone-comb in a hive 

 will not always prevent swarming— to give 

 the bees extra room is generally more ef- 

 fectual.— Ed.] 



Old-Fogy IJee-Keepei-s.- Mr. R. A. 



Rummel, Butler, Ind., on April 2, 1888, says: 



Bees have wintered well, so far as 1 have 

 heard. I asked one of my neighbors who 

 keeps bees, to take tlie Bee Journal. He 

 said that he could not learn anything from 

 it ; that he knew more about bees now, than 

 any of those who write for it. He generally 

 has about 7 colonies in the spring, increases 

 them to about 35 or 40 till fall, and all that 

 are strong enough to draw their last breath, 

 die before spring. He never obtains much 

 honey from them. 



[That is just the way of one-tenth of the 

 world. Surely "When ignorance is bliss, 

 'tis folly to be wise."— Ed.] 



Putting Bees out too Early.— A. 



B. Atwater, Marion, Iowa, on April 7, 1888, 

 writes : 



I have not yet taken my bees out of the 

 cellar, as I consider it too early. I took 

 them out last .year before the snow was off 

 the ground, and 1 lost .50 colonies out of 80. 

 I do not think that I will do so again. The 

 weather is nice and warm. I did take one 

 colony out about a week ago, and I will 

 have to feed it to keep il from starving. My 

 bees stored scarcely any honey last year. 



Still in Wint«-r Quarters.— Wm. 



Dyer, Hastings, Minn., on April 10, 1888, 



says : 



My bees are still in winter quarters. 

 There is too much snow on the ground yet, 

 to put them out. They have been in the 

 cellar about 140 days, and are still as quiet 

 as they were the first week after being 

 put in. 



