FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 27 



upstairs rooms, and then she closed up the house to go into the 

 eity to spend the winter with me. 



March 30, 1874, I went out and took them out of winter 

 quarters, and was delighted to find them in superb condition, 

 the whole eight alive, and hardly a teacupful of dead bees in 

 all. These eight I increased to 22, taking 390 pounds of honey. 

 Of course they were increased artificially. 



I attributed the previous winter's success partly to their 

 having been taken in earlier than ever before, so I decided to 

 take them in still earlier, and went out for that purpose October 

 29. But the bees decided they would not be taken in, and when- 

 ever I attemped to take them in they boiled out. So, just as I 

 had done a good many times before, I had to give up and let 

 them have their own way, lea^ ing' Mrs. Miller to gel them in 

 when the weather was cool eunui^h for them. 



November 19 they had a good flight, and November 20 

 they were taken in by Mr. Phillips, a farmer with the average 

 knowledge — or perhaps the average ignorance — of bees, aided 

 by "Jeff," Mrs. Miller's factotum, one of the liveliest specimens 

 of the African race that ever jumped, with considerably more 

 than the average fear of bees. December 12 my wife gave the 

 cellar a good airing, and then it was closed up for the winter. 



The winter of 1874-5 was one of remarkable severity, and 

 I felt some anxiety about the bees. The last of February my 

 wife went out and warmed up the house and cellar, finding the 

 bees somewhat uneasy, but after being warmed up and aired 

 they became quiet. Then the house was again closed up, and 

 they were left till April 6, when the men took them out. 



ITALIANS FEOil ADAM GRIMM. 



Three of the twenty-two had died, leaving nineteen to be- 

 gin the season of 1875. May 10 two colonies were received from 

 Adam Grimm, for which I paid thirteen dollars per colony for 

 the purpose of getting Italians to improve my stock, for not- 

 withstanding the several Italian queens I had got, some of my 

 bees were almost black. May 27 I made my first visit, and I did 

 not find the colonies very strong. Two colonies had died of 

 queenlessness, so that with the two Grimm colonies I had still 

 only nineteen. 



