The Bemidji daily pioneer., 1920-01-15
BEES


sent me hive of bees the first part
of May by express from near Aldrich
and Wadena in this state. The rail-
road employees handled them with
care so that they arrived at Kelliher
in good shape. BY the time l got
them home over some bad roads there
was a couple of frames broken down
and honey was running out Of the
entrance and the half drowned bees
were struggling to get out of the
sticky mess. Well, it looked to me
like they were all done for but L put
them on a stand and left them to
take care of themselves.
Early the next morning I went out
to see how they were getting along,
expecting to find big puddle OF
honey and bees in front of the hive.
But to my surprise there was not a
drop of honey in sight. There were
some of them out on the aliging
board taking observation. looked
at them again in a couple of hours
and there were bees coming from
every direction loaded with pollen
and some honey from the early flow
ers. Then l knew that they Aad ac-
cepted their new invironment with
out a protest for each one was trying
to do his best.
AS I stood there watching the bees
all at work I felt like capitalist.
had an army of workers working for
me without pay and boarding them
selves. Then 1 thought Of the WIN
tering problem. All the people who
had tried bees here had lost them
during the winter.
swarm came off. They built up very
rapidly and made about forty pounds
of comb honey in a short time. The
old hive put out another swarm that
.uilt up we'll in bees and supplings
but did not put any honey in the
super.
The later part of August 1 left
home and did not return until Christ
mas. A neighbor whose father had
always kept bees helped to put the
bees away. He nailed some pieces
Of window screen over the entrance
and tnen put the bees in dark closet
but they put up such roar that tney
finally put ten of the hives down in
the cellar and there I found them
when I got home. Two thirds of the
hives in the cellar were dead, wet,
and mouldy. took them to vacant
room upstairs over the kitchen where
1 opened the hives. When I took the
screen off the entrance found it a
solid mass of wet, dead bees. then
took off the bottom board and cleaned
and dried it thoroughly after which
l took out the frames one at time
brushing the live bees down into the
hive and scraping the mold and dead
ones on the floor. After they were
all cleaned and dried I thought 1
would winter them where they set
so nailed tar paper over the window
and closed the door but every day
went up and fed them sugar, syrup,
and corn meal or rye flour.
Although the room was too warm
and many bees came out and got lost,
they came out fine in the spring and
the queens started laying early on
account Of the extra feeding.
I am still wintering them in the
same room. There are twenty-one
big swarms up their, tonight as l sit
writing by red hot stove with q
strong wind blowing and the mercury
around thirty below zero, can still
hear the contenteu hum of my bees.
They are comfortable and dry because
after putting them away took OF
the covers and let the hives dry out
thoroughly before I let them stay on
till spring.
This last season was a very poor
honey crop here but at that / have
got nearly half ton Of honey in ex-
tracing frames just waiting for an
extractor that has been lost on the
railroad between here and Medina,
Ohio.
M. B. Pettengill, Saum, MINI.