May, IQCI. 



American Bee JonrnaTI 



you want to give it to another colony as a 

 brood-comb. 



«. I never had the experience of having 

 bees desert wlien sifted through an excluder. 

 Possibly you had no brood for the bees to 

 go upon. That might make a difference. 



10. In the cool weather that comes when 

 the bees are first taken out of the cellar, so 

 large an entrance should not be allowed. 

 Just as soon as my bees are on the summer 

 stands a thin board closes the entrance en- 

 tirely, except a hole at one lower corner 

 about an inch sauare. Then when the 

 weather becomes warm they have the full 

 entrance 2x12 inches. 



11. I hardly believe the deep entrance was 

 to blame. 



12. Some years Oct. 15 might be all right 

 for cellaring bees, but generally it would be 

 too early. No fixed date can be given for 

 cellaring bees, and it is always a matter of 

 some guessing. In a year when you feel 

 pretty sure the bees will have no chance for 

 a flight later, then Oct. 15 is all right. If you 

 could know that the bees would have a good 

 flight day Dec. 10. then it would be better to 

 wait for them to have that flight. As nearly 

 as you can guess, cellar your bees next day 

 after their last flight. But a week too early 

 is better than a day too late. 



Thousands of Acres of Bloom 



Spring is here, and there are looo acres of 

 fruit-trees in bloom, with wild flowers 

 blooming, also, There are thousands of 

 acres of alfalfa which will soon be in bloom, 

 if let stand. Henry C. Barron. 



Hagerman. N. M., April 21. 



Wintered Well — Cold Weather 



Bees with us have wintered well, but the 

 cold weather we are getting just now is un- 

 favorable, and it looks as if we might lose 

 several times as many bees during the spring 

 as we did in the winter. 



J. E. Cr.'^ne & Son. 



Middlebury. Vt.. April 24. 



Over 5 Months Without a Flight 



We went into winter quarters with 6^ col- 

 onies, all in double-walled chaff hives. 

 Their last flight was Oct. 22. igio. and they 

 never flew again until March 20. iqii. All 

 have wintered in fine condition, except one 

 colony. L. C. Stone & Son. 



Itaska. N. Y. 



Bees in Good Condition 



Bees wintered well and are in good condi- 

 tion. There was a good supply of fall honey 

 gathered here, but very little spring honey, 

 last season. We have tried many different 

 kinds of bees, and now have the red-clover 

 Italians, as we think they are the best. 



H. S. Crofts. 



V'anderburg Co.. Ind.. April 10. 



Prospect Not Good for Honey 



The weather continues cold, and the pros- 

 pect for a large honey crop is not very bril- 

 liant. The bees have been very slow build- 

 ing up this spring, but some of them are in 

 fair shape for the orange bloom. I opened 

 one hive yesterday that had 8 solid frames 

 of brood, but the majority have only 3 or 4 

 frames. B. W. Brown. 



Moreno, Cal.. April 4 



Utilizing Foul Brood ! 



"Non-swarmers already possible." Yes. I 

 have them, and all of this strain is foul- 

 broody. Someof us know well thatas a means 

 to keep down increase foul brood is as good 

 as any— it is the shortest cut, and therefore 

 better. Why, then, not turn this scourge to 

 some good, if) But. after all. is it not quite 

 possible that a bee that never feels like 

 swarming does not always feel just right ? 



Knox. Ind. D. Roberts. 



Bees Busy in Louisiana 



I write you of the doings "away down 

 South" about my bees. I moved all my bees 

 in March, a distance of 2 miles, in the day- 

 time. As soon as I placed them where they 

 were to slay, I took off the guards and let 

 them fly at once. We have had blooms for 

 more than a month. The bees have been 

 busy every day on maple, plums, peaches, 

 pears, apples, elm. blackberry, haw. white- 

 wood and white clover, and later on we will 

 have blooms of lake cress, persimmon, but- 



ton-willow. Japan clover, black locust; and 

 in June we have a honey-flow from the 

 trees, and so heavy that I have seen it drip 

 from the leaves; and then later come fen- 

 nel, bitterweed. cotton and corn-tassel. 



My bees are working from 7 a.m. until 5 

 p.m. I have been preparing for increase 

 this year. On Friday. March 20. I brought 

 out a new hive '8-frame) and had just placed 

 It. and had sat down to watch the workers 

 drag out the drones, and all at once out 

 came a very large swarm, about my big hat 

 three times full, and exactly at 5 o'clock in 

 the afternoon. So I went early yesterday 

 morning to see how they are doing, and 

 found them flying in search of food, and 

 they have worked hard all day. Some of 

 them have such heavy loads that they could 

 hardly get back to the hive. 



W. R. Cl'NNINGHAM, 



Rayville, La., April 2. 



Keeping Bees on Shares 



In the March American Bee Journal, page 

 83. "Idaho" asks Dr. Miller how A and B 

 should divide the proceeds of the bees kept 

 by B "on halves." That depends upon the 

 time the agreement was to run. If the agree- 

 ment was for one year only, then the "divide 

 up" should be at the close of the year, and 

 A would get no further proceeds from B's 

 half of increase; but if the agreement was 

 for a term of years, the bees are not divided 

 until the agreement terminates by limitation 

 and each receives one-half of the proceeds. 



Acton. Calif.. March 25. C. T. Wise. 



Unusually Good Wintering of Bees 



It may interest some readers to learn that 

 the bee-keepers residing along tlie banks of 

 the Hudson River have had remarkably 

 good success in wintering their bees during 

 the past winter. Honey-bees wintered on 

 the summer stands in this vicinity usually 

 sustain a loss of about 10 percent, but last 

 winter only 3 colonies were lost out of 104 

 that were wintered on the summer stands 

 on my fruit-farm. The bees belong to James 

 McNeill. This is the smallest winter loss 

 that he has sustained during the s years that 

 the apiary has been conducted here, 



F. D. Clum. M. D. 



Columbia Co., N. Y., April 17. 



Foul Brood Treatments — Uniting Colonies 



I am at my bee-ranch at this time, taking 

 care of a horse that got a bad wire-cut. and 

 feeding my weak colonies of bees to bring 

 them up to the prospective honey crop. I 

 have read quite a bit in the bee-papers in 

 regard to curing foul brood. About 15 years 

 ago I was rearing bees in the valley, and 

 selling to bee-men in the mountains. When 

 I had sold out I would go out and buy box- 

 hive bees from Tom, Dick or Harry, and 

 transfer them and make more increase. In 

 that way 1 picked up foul brood. Bee-men 

 got scared and did not want to pay much for 

 bees. In igoo I picked up this ranch and 

 moved my outfit here. I had several colo- 

 nies that had foul brood. I gave them the 

 McKvoy treatment, which was in no way 

 satisfactory. With me, when shaking the 

 beeson starters of foundation, more or less 

 honey would fly outside the hive, and on the 

 hive, when some robber-bees would come 

 along, pick it up and take the disease home. 

 Half of the shaken swarms would desert the 



hives and try to get into other hives, so I 

 gave up that treatment. 



In 1004 we had a hard year. I gathered up 

 all the bees that had foul brood and pickled 

 brood, and hauled them 6 miles from the 

 apiary— 27 colonies: set them out of the 

 hives into a pile, threw some brush on them, 

 and touched a match to them. It made a nice 

 fire, and that was the best cure I ever struck, 

 except the Baldridge treatment, if you want 

 to save the bees. 



In iQo.s I had 3 colonies slightly affected. I 

 gave them the Baldridge treatment, and 

 cured them, and have had no disease since. 

 The Baldridge and fi'-e are both safe treat- 

 ments. In using the fire treatment, don't 

 burn them at the ranch for bees to go back 

 and go into other hives. To keep your bees 

 fat, with a good queen, I think goes a long 

 way toward keeping the disease down. 



My plan of uniting colonies I learned from 

 Dr. Gallup years ago. At the commence- 

 ment of the main honey-flow, all colonies 

 that are not what they should be, or close to 

 it. are united by putting a super on. and 

 bringing the other hive up to it. and setting 

 them into the super with a little smoke; ■ 

 close the hive and it is done. 1 have united 

 hundreds, and have never yet found more 

 than a dozen dead bees at the entrance from 

 such uniting. Colonies that have been 

 queenless long, and perhaps have laying 

 workers. I let alone and throw swarms into 

 them. 



I never disinfect any hives where foul- 

 broody bees were taken out. unless there 

 was honey daubed on them. 



Where bees could not reach the orchards 

 or bean fields last year, in this locality, 

 losses were heavy, as much as half the bees. 

 There was very little honey in the moun- 

 tains last year. Desert winds blighted the 

 sage-bloom just when it was coming in. 



S. Q. CONKLE. 



Garden Grove. Cal.. March 28. 



Bee-Keeping in Virginia 



We have had a mild winter, yet it seems 

 our bees are ill-fated, and must die. We 

 have had 2 years of almost total failure, and. 

 while bee-men are always hopeful. I am 

 almost ready to predict another failure this 

 year, as the soft-maple has already bloomed 

 and was killed, for a start. 



I have a bee-yard in North Carolina and 

 one in Virginia. The one in North Carolina 

 has depended upon me for their daily meals 

 for 2 years, except for about 3 months last 

 summer, and then they carried their support 

 a distance of 5 miles from a 40-acre buck- 

 wheat-field here where I live; and had to 

 climb the Blue Ridge Mountains, too. Now 

 don't dispute this, for when I went to the 

 apiary I went the same road they did. and 

 there was no buckwheat in their vicinity. 



Galax. Va.. March 30. G. F. .lONEs. 



Plenty of Rain — Crop Prospects Good 



We have had plenty of rain here this win- 

 ter, and crop prospects are very good, as 

 nearly all the rains have come since Jan. 

 1st. Last season was a poor one, the bees 

 getting very little honey on my ranges after 

 the orange-bloom was over last May, and the 

 season up to about March loth was too cold, 

 especially at night, for brood-rearing. The 

 bees are therefore nearly a month late in 

 starting their brood this year, and apiaries, 

 in consequence, have dwindled badly, some 

 apiarists losing as much as 50 percent of 

 their colonies, and the rest of the bees be- 

 ing reduced to almost nuclei. Vegetation is 

 late also, so may be the bees will have a 

 chance to build up, John Lefler. 



Mentone. Calif.. March 24. 



Bee-Keeping in Central Illinois 



As I am a reader of theexcellent American 

 Bee Journal. I thought I would hunt up some 

 of my neighbor bee-keepers and get them to 

 subscribe for it. 



I visited one who had 2» colonies of bees. 

 He had them in old-fashioned box-hives, 

 with only 2 cross pieces, and no way of get- 

 ting the honey out except prying off. and 

 that was like murder, for it drowned so 

 many of the bees. His youngest son told me 

 he had not tasted honey for over one year. 

 His hives were so old and rotten that one 

 could press the fingers against them and 

 break a hole in them. Now can you tell me 

 what a man like that keeps bees for ? Is it 

 to punish them ? it looks that way to me. 



1 next visited his brother, and he had 18 

 colonies. They were also in the old-time 

 box-hives, except one colony which was in 



