THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



129 



of the forenoon and during most of the af- 

 ternoon this would be hardly necessary ; so, 

 during the time when the first few straggling 

 swarms of the season are appearing, a suf- 

 ficient number to bridge over such times as 

 these I consider indispensable, If one can 

 make them himself the expense is very small 

 and in such case he may well secure a full 

 supply. 



Lapeee, Mich. April 14, 1S93. 



Successful Wintering of Bees in the Cellar 

 With No Covers on the Hives. — A Boun- 

 tiful Crop From Alsike. 



B. TAYLOK. 



'■ The eea of knowledge with its din 

 Before us breaks, and we — 

 We thrust our little dippers in 

 And think we've drained the sea." 



ruHERE is a bee- 

 -L keeper, Hitt by 

 name, living at 

 Dover, Minn,, who 

 has a local reputa- 

 tion for wintering 

 bees successfully. 

 Having a curiosity 

 to learn his method, 

 I made him a visit 

 last March, and 

 found him to be a 

 retired blacksmith 

 of about 65 years. The first glance around 

 the premises established the fact in my mind 

 that the owner was a man of more than ordi- 

 nary good taste. The plain buildings showed 

 neatness without and comfort within. 



I at once opened the discussion on the 

 question of bee-keeping by asking if he was 

 engaged in apiarian pursuits, to which he 

 replied " Yes, I still keep bees, but I have 

 been trying for fifteen or twenty years to 

 get out of the business." I asked if it had 

 failed to be profitable. " Oh, no, I never 

 earned better pay than by working with bees, 

 but I am getting old and have too much 

 work to do and will have to give up some- 

 thing and it would be the bees ; but I never 

 could get out of the business." He said 

 that several times he sold nearly all his col- 

 onies, but in a few years he would have more 

 than ever. They would increase at a won- 

 derful rate and but few ever died. One time 

 he sold all of his own swarms, but a neigh- 



bor had left a swarm in his care, and when 

 this friend found that he had found a mar- 

 ket for all his colonies he was greatly dis- 

 appointed that Mr. Hitt had not included his 

 single colony in the sale ; and to pacify him 

 he offered to keep and care for the bees for 

 half the honey and half the increase. In 

 two years he had some thirty colonies again, 

 when he told his friend that he could not 

 stand the trade any longer, that he would 

 give him ten pounds of honey each year for 

 every colony then on hand or he must take 

 his bees away and care for them himself. 

 But after a time they increased beyond his 

 ability to care for them and they were taken 

 away. 



I listened to this story in a half amused 

 and interested way, for Mr. Hitt had already 

 told me that he had never read a book on 

 bee-keeping, had never taken a bee journal, 

 but my distrust of his ability to accomplish 

 what he claimed quickly gave place to con- 

 fidence when I began to question him in re- 

 gard to his method of wintering. "What is 

 your idea of the key to successful winter- 

 ing ?" I asked. "Well, in my past life," 

 said Mr. Hitt, " I have made it a sacred duty 

 to give all life entrusted to my care an abun- 

 dance of necessary food. I always made it 

 a rule as fall approached to see that each col- 

 ony had from twenty -five to forty pounds of 

 sealed honey in its hive, and then I put them 

 all in the cellar on the first approach of real 

 cold weather." " How did you prepare your 

 hives for cellar wintering ?" was my next 

 question. Mr. Hitt answered with a look of 

 surprise. " Why, I didn't prepare them at 

 all ; I just set them in the cellar in single 

 tiers one or two feet from the cellar bottom. 

 When they became quiet I just took the top 

 off every hive and then let them alone until 

 time to return them to the summer stands 

 again in the spring. No, I never prepare 

 my bees for winter at all. I just winter 

 them, and that is all there is of it." " Do 

 you mean to say you leave your hives entire- 

 ly uncovered all winter ?" " Yes, sir ; I do 

 not use even a cloth or paper cover. Just 

 leave the top of the hives entirely open, and 

 my bees have wintered with scarcely any loss 

 for the last twenty-five years, and never have 

 a mouldy comb." 



Now, Mr. Editor, here was an entirely un- 

 learned man, so far as books or journals are 

 concerned, who was filling the whole re- 

 quirements of successful wintering. You 

 will yet see, by looking over back numbers 



