Carson City, Mich., March 12, 1881.
=Bees in Good Condition.=—We put out on the summer stands on the 9th
and 10th of March, 150 of our 200 colonies that we had in the cellars
in good condition. These were the first days that bees could fly with
safety since the first of Nov. We have 50 colonies more in one cellar,
but as they seem to be doing well, we shall leave them in until it
becomes settled weather. We left 9 colonies on their summer stands but
the winter was so long and severe that we could not feed them and 3 of
them starved. Now we are busy transferring, that is shaking the bees
off the combs, cleaning them off and putting them into clean hives. If
we find any not strong enough we double them up. We consider ourselves
nearly masters of the wintering question, as our real losses for the
last 10 years, we think, would not exceed 6 per cent.; in fact we did
not lose a colony in winter or spring, until the number had reached
about 100. The BEE JOURNAL is a welcome Weekly visitor.