28 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



The winter of 1874-5 was one of remarkable sever- 

 ity, 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 FROM ADAM GRIMM. 



Three of the twenty-two had died, leaving nineteen 

 to begin the season of 1875. May 10 two colonies were 

 received from Adam Grimm, for which I paid thirteen 

 dollars per colony for the sake of getting Italians to 

 improve my stock, for notv/ithstanding the several Ital- 

 ian 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 queen- 

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

 only nineteen. 



June 25 I visited Marengo again, and was surprised 

 to find very little gain in the strength of the colonies. 

 The season had been extremely unpropitious. July 7 T 

 made another visit, of three days, and found scarcely any 

 honey in the hives. I made a few new colonies, and by giv- 

 ing empty combs and plenty of room I left them feeling 

 that there was little fear of any swarming for that 

 season. 



TROUBLE WITH SWARMING. 



But a sudden change must have come over the bees 

 and the season, and the bees must have built up with 

 great rapidity, for letters kept coming to me saying that 

 the bees had swarmed, and Mrs. Miller was kept busy 

 superintending the hiving, "Jeff" doing the work. It 

 was a mixed-up business for them, for I had left the 

 queens clipped, and swarms would issue only to return 



