So few rules for success!

> There is no branch of rural pursuits that admits of so few established rules, to enable one to follow it successfully, as that of bee-keeping. For instance, take the wintering of bees, and what do we find? For the last thirty-five or forty years, the same uncertainty as regards their safety, as exists to day, has occupied the minds of our apiarians; and not a single principle in wintering has been discovered during the last twenty-five years, of any special value over what successful bee-men knew a quarter of a century ago. Bees at that time were wintered in cellars, bee-houses, and on their summer stands, just as they winter them now. The late Mr. Quinby, with all his apiarian research, wintered his bees,in 1874 in the same manner as he did 20 years previously; and so have the most of the old and best informed bee-keepers of the United States. That is to say, no new principle with which I am acquainted, has been discovered that promises much benefit.

> I have generally wintered my bees on their summer stands; and never met with serious loss, till I came to New Jersey, where I supposed bees would require little or no winter protection. I was the first person, as I believe, who adopted the plan of packing hay or straw around hives upon their summer stands. My first experiment of this kind was twenty-five years ago in Clinton, Oneida Co., N. Y.; and I continued the same practice till 1868, when I removed to New Jersey. My opinion is, that bees can be made to winter on their summer stands quite as safely as anywhere else. I am still experimenting to keep my bees during winter upon their summer stands warm enough to prevent loss, to stop their desire to leave their hives when it is not safe for them to sally out; and to cause them in April and the fore part of May to remain in their hives quietly, when strong cold winds prevail. But if all the apiarian skill of the last forty years has failed to fully effect these important results, my chances of success may not be considered very good; yet our motto should be, never give up.

T. B. Miner
Union Co., N.J.
1875

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