IMH 75:2 191

"Chronicles of Upper Burnet" (1)

1881

Wednesday, April 6th.

A good freeze last night and a sun-shiny though rather raw
day. Father took 8 bushels of his own corn and the two bushels
Bob brought last night and went to town to mill. He was'n't
back home till five o'clock. I helped Foster and Hand at the
wood this forenoon. Sayroy Kivett was there also. He was with
them yesterday too. In the afternoon I went up to the camp
after noon and spent some time both with Bill Dezearn and
John Kivett. Came back and helped Alvin make some poplar
stovewood. John got about four barrels of sap to-day. Mother
and Alvin did the week's washing. Sayroy and Bob were here
awhile after dark in the evening. Our first chickens hatched in
1881 are 3 in number. The bees are all dead and to-day
honey to the amount of 25 or 30 lbs. was taken out of the hive.

Teaching notes: As noted earlier, the winter of 1880-81 was very long and cold. Since they
took 25 or 30 pounds of honey, one would think that the bees did not necessarily starve,
but bees cluster together and slowly migrate to thier honey within the hive during the winter.
It is possible that their movement was limited by the extreme cold so that they were unable
to move to an area where they had stored their honey and found themselves stranded
and thusly starved.