=Lost 6 out of 100 Colonies.=--The snow is all gone now and our bees have had several flights. On the 16th they gathered some pollen; but this has been the most disastrous winter among bees in Maryland for many years; 75 per cent of all the bees in north Md. are dead. We had a very poor honey season last year, except 5 weeks during the first crop of red clover, which ended about the 1st of July; and after that but little honey was gathered. The bulk of the loss was from neglect or starvation. As I had a fair demand for queens and I was breeding for improvement I kept up the queen breeding until the last of Oct., and my bees were in poor condition for an ordinary winter; much more for such a one as we have just passed through. I have lost 6 colonies at home, that starved; I have 96 left in fair condition. I wintered in a cellar expressly arranged for the purpose; it is perfectly dark, and the temperature in this place was kept all through the winter at 46° and 47°. All those that wintered in cellars fared the best. I am much pleased with the Weekly. I should lose a friend were I to be deprived of it. I wish it every success.
=Vexed and Perplexed.=--When I go into my bee lot and look around I am vexed over the situation and perplexed to know what to do with my hives and combs. I put into winter quarters 16 colonies (all blacks) and now have one, very weak. I have a lot of nice, well-made and painted hives on hand, and a lot of combs. As I have never handled Italian bees, and have concluded to purchase, and I hear they are larger than the blacks, will you please answer these 2 questions in the BEE JOURNAL: Are comb cells of the black bee too small for the Italians to raise brood in? Will it not cramp them in size? Will it be safe to feed the thin uncapped honey that has caused dysentery to other bees? The bees in this vicinity are all dead. Success to the BEE JOURNAL.
[The difference in size of cells is not perceptible. If bees are flying freely, you can feed the thin honey with impunity.--ED.
=Ventilation.=--I have met 14 different persons in the last few days that had, last Nov., 168 colonies of bees altogether; now they have in the aggregate 57 living; these were mostly in frame hives, on the summer stands, and left to care for themselves. Nearly all died with plenty of honey to have carried them through. This, I think, will be about the average loss in the counties of Champaign, Piatt and Moultrie, in this State. Wm. H. Beckwith started in the winter with 18 colonies in Langstroth and box hives, with plenty of bees and honey in each hive. The hives were very poorly made, being open at the corners, with a board laid on top to keep the rain or snow from falling directly into the hive. Nearly all of them set on blocks from one to two inches from the bottom board; they were ventilated better than any bees I have seen this season; he has 16 colonies to day, alive, and apparently in good condition. Perhaps there is more in ventilation than chaff hives or cellars. Will some one please rise and explain?