1863. 



NEW EXGLAND FARMER. 



55 



ics. It creates a good feeling between neighbor 

 farmers, and what one farmer by his experiments 

 has found to be valuable will be communicated to 

 others, and thus all may be benefited. These 

 clubs are getting to be quite numerous in this vi- 

 cinity, and I think they are helping along the ag- 

 ricultural interest very much. Althougli we are 

 involved in war, and many of our young farmers 

 are gone to fight for those who stay behind, and 

 our help is greatly reduced, still, there is no rea- 

 son why we should falter ; but, on the other hand, 

 we should feel that much more devolves upon us, 

 and that the cultivation of the soil is to support 

 the war. J. E. WiGUT. 



Hartford, Dec. 14, 1862. 



For the New Ensland Farmer. 

 ■WINTERING BEES. 



ISIr. Editor : — To winter bees successfully in 

 our cold northern climate, is a question of great 

 moment with the apiculturist. There seems to 

 be almost as many ways recommended as there 

 are bee-kee])ers. Having had several years' expe- 

 rience in this business in Northern Vermont, I 

 have arrived at this conclusion, that bees should 

 have for their welfare in winter, a dark, cool, dry, 

 still place, where the temperature is even as pos- 

 sible, and about Jioe degrees above the freezing 

 point, or 35 degrees Fahrenheit. In this tempera- 

 ture, the bees will remain very still and quiet, and 

 will require but little honey to what they would if 

 kept in a warmer place. In the first of my expe- 

 rience, I was advised to put my bees into a tight 

 dark room in the house. I did so, and the conse- 

 quence was, I lost many of my bees before spring ; 

 during the warm days in the winter, the bees 

 would become very lively and crawl out of the 

 hives upon the floor, and if there was a ray of 

 I light, they were sure to find it, and would there 

 '- ' perish ; if shut into the hives, they would create 

 such a heat in trying to get out that they would 

 melt their comb and become drowned in their own 

 sweets. This I found was owing principally to 

 the outside temperature being so changealDle, and 

 the want of proper ventilation. 



Wintering bees out of doors, as practiced 

 by a lai-ge proportion of amateur bee-keepers, is 

 always attended with bad results, as nearly one 

 half the stocks are frequently lost, and those that 

 are not, are so reduced in number, that they will 

 not swarm the coming season, there not being 

 bees enough to permit of it, and consequently are 

 worth but little to their owners. When bees stand 

 out of doors, every warm day during the winter 

 they are inclined to fly from the hive, and thou- 

 sands of them get chilled and are lost, and where 

 there was a peck of bees in the hive in the foil, by 

 spring there may be but a handful left. In the 

 Middle or Southern States, bees can be allowed 

 to stand out of doors during the winter with safe- 

 t)'. In my more recent observations and experi- 

 ments, especially in the Northern States, I have 

 found no place to winter bees in, equal to a dark, 

 dry cellar. 



If the hives are rightly arranged, and the cellar 

 ventilated by opening either a door or window in 

 the night time, occasionally, there will be no loss 

 of bees only what die of old age, and the comb 

 will look nearly as whitf as in the fall previous. 



Bees when kept in a cellar of this kind, will no* 

 make a discharge to soil the comb during the 

 whole winter, and will consume but a very few 

 pounds of honey — say about a pound to a thou- 

 sand bees ; for ordinary swarms it would require 

 from ten to twenty j)ounds of honey. At this low 

 temperature, the bees will remain Verv quiet and 

 still, and if the cellar is kept perfectly dark, they 

 will remain so during the whole winter, and will 

 hardly know when spring approaches, which will 

 not be the case when kept in a room above ground 

 or out of doors. Bees frequently receive more 

 injury in being confined in the hive on the ap- 

 proach of Spring, than they will if allowed to fly 

 out. 



The time to put Bees into Winter Quarters 

 depends somewhat upon the severity of tlie weath- 

 er — usually the last of November or the 1st De- 

 cember ; if the weather is not too cold, thev may 

 safely remain out until near .Tanuaiy. They gen- 

 erally sufler more in the latter part than in the 

 beginning of winter. 



Position of the Hives when placed in the cellar. 

 — If straw or the old-fashioned board Hive, they 

 should be turned bottom-side up vn\.\\ the bottom- 

 boards removed. Their animal heat will then 

 drive all the dampness and mould out of the hive. 

 The only disiidvantage in turning a hive bottom- 

 side up, is, all the dead bees and particles of comb 

 will drop among the combs in the bottom of the 

 hive. But if there is honey enough there will be 

 no trouble resulting from it, as when the hive is 

 carried out-of-doors, and placed right side up, the 

 bees will readily clear it out. If movable-comb 

 Hives are used, the cap, boxes, &c., should be re- 

 moved and the hive allowed to remain right side 

 up, with the entrance closed. 



The time to remove Bees from the Cellar de- 

 pends in a great measure upon the forwardness 

 of the spring, and care should be taken that the 

 weather is warm enough that the bees can safely 

 fly from the hive and return again, always observ- 

 ing to never set but a part of the hives out the 

 same day, and always place them as near as prac- 

 ticable on the same stand that they occupied the 

 year previous, to avoid confusion and robbery. 



After the bees have all made their excursions, 

 as they always will do on the first day, and dis- 

 charge themselves, thousands of bees might then 

 be saved by setting them back into tiie cellar 

 again for three or four weeks, and at the same 

 time supply each hive with a substitute for bee 

 bread, which is Bye Meal (or common flour will 

 answer) as bee bread or pollen is the first thing 

 the bees will visit the fields for, in early spring ; 

 by supplying them with this useful article the lives 

 of a large number of bees will be saved which if 

 allowed to stand out would be lost. 



BURYING BEES IN THE GROUND, 



is a practice that some inexperienced bee-keepers 

 have resorted to, and not unfrequently with fear- 

 ful loss. The object aimed at, seems to be the 

 low, even temperature that our cellar afi"ords. In 

 a light, loose sandy soil, if the bees are pro])erly 

 buried, there are instances where they have lived 

 through it. I have frequently heard it remarked 

 by those who advocate this process that the hives 

 were as heavy in the Spring as they were the Fall 

 before ; should the bees all perish as I have re- 

 peatedly seen, this theory might prove time. I 



