Very Mild Winter So Far.
The winter has been very mild so far, and bees are in fine condition. We expect a fine spring crop of honey, as we have had some nice rains of late. We have had hardly any ice yet, and the bees fly freely almost every day.
W. H. White.
Deport, Tex., Dec. 22, 1893.
How I Managed the Bees.
I put my bees on the summer stands on April 2, 1893, and found them in bad condition. I had to move them about 12 miles over the rough roads, and that didn’t help them. We had a cold, wet spring, and the queens kept dying. I tried to rear some queens, but when they would fly out to get mated, it was so cold and wet that they never returned. I sent to Illinois for some queens, but they reported the same results, and my colonies kept dwindling down, till out of 35 I lost all but 19, and they were weak. I covered the hives at night with old carpet, and put boards around them, and in the daytime I removed them to dry the hives. As soon as it was settled weather, and they commenced gathering honey, I opened the hives, spread the brood-nest, and put in one frame between. I waited a few days, and spread again, and this time put in two frames between. My hives being 10-frame Langstroth, that makes 5 frames of brood that we have.
I waited a few days and spread again, this time I put 3 frames in between, and that made 8 frames of brood. I waited a few days longer, then I put on a top hive, took out 5 frames of brood from the lower hive, and put in the upper hive. I put in empty comb below in their place, and filled the balance of the top hive with empty comb. I waited about two weeks, and then took another hive, put in 5 or 6 frames of brood from the lower hive, and filled in with empty combs as before, and took the top hive and raised it, setting this empty one under it. I waited a few days, then I extracted from the top hive, and raised the lower one and put the top one under it.
I run my hives three stories high, and this way I had as high as 20 frames of brood in one hive.
We had a splendid white clover flow, but basswood did not amount to much—it was too wet in the forepart of the season, but it turned dry in the after part, and the blossoms dried it up. We got no fall flow on account of the drouth.