Contradictory Experience.—The poor bees have suffered dreadfully in this locality, and the circumstances and conditions under which some have perished and others survived the past trying season, are so varied that I am quite at a loss what to think about bee preservation during the winter season. I had 12 colonies last fall; I packed 6 with chaff 6 inches thick around them, and have 1 colony left of the lot. There is honey in the combs, but the bees are all dead. I put 3 colonies in the cellar; 2 of them are alive, but in a bad condition, the combs being dirty and moldy. I left 3 on the summer stands, and 1 is yet alive. None died for want of honey; there was plenty of food for them in the hives. The 6 were put into the chaff in the latter part of November, and taken out on the 8th of March. The combs look clean and free from mold. About a week before I took them out of the chaff I had taken off the front boards, and finding the bees alive, shut them up again. Upon taking them out this was the only colony that was alive. When I took the chaff off, the bees were crowded around the entrance ready to fly, which they did at once, and had a lively time until they were driven inside by the approach of night. Do you think the other 5 colonies were dead the first time I looked at them? They had a passage through the chaff 1 inch high by 4 wide. A friend of mine here had 4 colonies wintered outside, with an old piece of sail-cloth over them, and only lost one, while old bee-keepers, with between 50 and 100 colonies, have lost one half, and others have lost all.
F. A. Hutt.
South Bend, Ont., March 11, 1881.
[Your question is a stunner; we have no data on which to base an intelligent opinion.—Ed.]
Wintered Without Loss.—My 27 colonies came through the winter without the loss of a single one, for which I can thank 4 or 5 colonies of Italians, for without them I should not have had honey enough to have kept them through, even a moderate winter, to say nothing of such a stinger as we have had. I have withheld my opinion in regard to the change in the Journal from a monthly to a weekly till I had tried it a couple of months, and will now say that it would be a great disappointment if you were to go back to a monthly. I am glad that you have so often devoted your first page in each number to the subject of bee-pasturage, for that is, or should be, our leading study now, till we are on surer ground. The best way to make bee-keeping popular is to make it pay; and it will pay if we can get the pasturage every year. I would rather have a tip-top honey plant than an Apis dorsata, if it had a tongue long enough to lick the molasses out of the bottom of a 5 gallon keg. We shall have plenty of white clover this year.
Wm. Camm.
Murrayville, Ill., March 12, 1881.
Bees Uneasy in the Cellar.—This has been a very hard winter for bees in this section of the country. Nearly all the bees are dead that were left on the summer stands. I have 40 colonies in the cellar, all alive but restless. They need a cleansing flight very much. The Weekly Bee Journal pleases me very much.
Chas. H. Dow.
Freedom, N. Y., March 12, 1881.
Bees Much Better Than Expected.—My bees are much better than I had any reason to expect. I left them on their summer stands, and did not even take the tops off, but I have them all off now. I had about 80 and now have 70 colonies in good shape. I find I must either attend to my bees or quit the business, and have made arrangements with a friend who has about the same quantity, who will take charge. We shall call it the “Gipsy Apiary,” and our motto will be, “if the honey will not come to us we will go to the honey.” Mr. Heddon thinks it won’t pay to move for honey, and he is pretty good authority, but we will try. Keep us posted through the Journal where is the best place to sell honey. Keep the ball rolling in the suppression of adulterated honey, as well as other adulterations.
I. H. Shimer.
Hillsboro, Ill., March 14, 1881.