1^0 



May, 1013. 



American ~Bae Jonrnal 



them, if I can lind some way to do it. I don't 

 helieve tiiat my bees will swarm to amount 

 to anythine. because the spring is late, and 

 they are late in rearing: young bees, and the 

 prospect for good swarms is not very good. 

 The bees in the dovetailed hives suffered 

 the most. I have only 3 colonies left in the 

 movable-frame hives, the others are in boxes 

 and gums, and I have no way to get at them 

 to do anything with them. 



I do not believe there are many bees left 

 in this part of the country; one man had 

 colonies and lost all; a neighbor had 2 colo- 

 nies and lost both; another 12. and has 3 left. 



Illinois. 



.'\nswer. — Having on hand 13 hives tilled 

 with drawn-out combs with some honey in 

 them, you should have no difficulty in in- 

 creasing a colonies to 25 or 30 if the season is 

 at all good, and the prospects in that direc- 

 tion are now good. If you have not already 

 done so. the first thing is to become familiar 

 with the contents of a good text-book on 

 bees, such as "Langstroth on the Honey- 

 Bee.'" I see by your letter that you have 

 also " Doolittle's Queen-Rearing," and that 

 ought to help. Being familiar with general 

 principles, you can then be guided by cir- 

 cumstances as to what is best to do in your 

 particular case. 



You might divide all your colonies at one 

 time into enough nuclei to make the full 

 number desired. That, however, is hardly 

 so satisfactory as to take the safer plan of 

 starting each nucleus so strong that there 

 will be no danger of ending the season with 

 a number of weaklings unable to winter 



over. So the first thing is to build up your 

 a colonies strong. When the strongest of 

 them have 5 or frames of brood, then you 

 can draw a frame of brood with adhering 

 bees to help another colony not so strong. 

 Only be sure not to draw so much from a 

 strong colony as to leave it with less than 4 

 full frames of brood. 



When all are built up so as to have s or h 

 frames of brood each, then you may reduce 

 each one to 4 full frames of brood by draw- 

 ing from them frames of brood with adher- 

 ing bees The brood and bees thus drawn 

 may be used to start new colonies with 3 or 4 

 frames of brood each, a ripe queen-cell be- 

 ing furnished»to each. When the original a 

 have built up strong again this performance 

 may be repeated, and perhaps again still 

 later on. Some of the earliest colonies made 

 may also become strong enough to help in 

 making others. 



A little variation of this may be advisable. 

 Instead of putting your 4 frames of brood 

 and bees directly on a new stand, put them 

 in a second story on an excluder over a 

 strong colony, and then a week later put 

 them on the new stand. There will then be 

 very little unsealed brood, less danger of 

 chilling, and with a larger proportion of 

 young bees there will be less inclination to 

 return to the old stand. As there was no 

 queen in thisupper story, the bees will have 

 some feeling of qeenlessness, which will be 

 an advantage. 



This is a rough outline, but with your ex- 

 perience you will probably have little 

 trouble in filling out the details. 



Good Report from California 



On April 11, Southern California is leading 

 the I est of the State in the amount of rain- 

 fall thus far this season— and it is still rain- 

 ing, Tlie prospect is, therefore, good for 

 .Southern California at present writing. 



George I.. Emerson. 



Fullerton, Calif., April 12. 



Bees Wintered Well 



I am well pleased with the way my bees 

 wintered 'being my first winteri. I put 20 

 colonies in the cellar Nov. 20. On March 20, 

 I took them out of the cellar and found I 

 had 26 strong colonies, 2 light and one queen- 

 less colony. How is that for a novice ? 



E. E TOWNSEND. 



Ft. Dodge. Iowa, April 14, 



A Two Percent Loss 



My loss of bees has been about 2 percent, 

 while some have lost 75 percent. I have, in 

 the last 2 years, adopted a new plan for win- 

 tering on the summer stands. ! have only 8- 

 frame Langstroth hives; I leave them the 

 super of honey next to the brood-frames, as 

 I have found that an H-frame hive will not 

 winter a colony in a long and severe winter. 

 I would start with a 10-frame hive if I were 

 to start again. S. W, Smiley, 



Whiteside, Mo., April 18. 



Looking for a Better Year 



1 thought of discontinuing the Hee .Journal 

 bet:ause of the discouraginii season, but have 

 realized that the Journal is not to blame, 

 and needs our support to continue giving us 

 the much-needed information we seek (as 

 the bee-keeping world) for the future. 



I am looking forward for a better year, 

 and wish you success. 



Martin R. Miller. 



Lancaster Pa.. Dec. 5. loii 



sistance in answering " .'\rkansas " (page 211 

 of iQii). "Why Bitter Honey ? " 



Honey never becomes bitter until about 

 Sept. 15 of each year, or after a weed blooms 

 here which is called bitter weed, ox-eye, or 

 oxidine. Bees do not get any honey from it 

 at all— only pollen— and where it is plentiful, 

 as in thisState, Arkansas, Oklahoma. Texas, 

 Mississippi and Georgia, there will be 00 

 percent of the foragers in a colony working 

 on this weed, which stays in bloom until 

 frost kills it. When it is young and tender, 

 milch cows will eat of it until the milk is 

 almost unfit for use, being very bitter. 



Now, the reason that the honey is bitter is 

 because the bees will store it in almost any 

 place in the hive, and in walking over even 

 freshly-built comb, which only a short time 

 before was white comb, or comb capped 

 white, it is changed in color to a golden yel- 

 low. This dust seems to ruin all the honey in 

 the hive, and, of course, down here we have 

 to take the honey before the bitter weed 

 blooms, or it is of no use except to the bees. 

 W. R. Cunningham. 



Rayville, I^a.. March ig. 



IBy "ox-eye," we suppose our correspon- 

 dent means the Heliopsis, so called because 

 of the resemblance of the blossom of this 

 plant to a sunflower. It is a perennial plant, 

 and the blossoms terminate the stems or 

 branches. If this is not correct, we trust 

 Mr. Cunningham will give us the descrip- 

 tion of this Hower. The name "oxidine " is 

 probably colloquial, and of local applica- 

 tion only, as we can not hud it in the refer- 

 ence books. 



We would be glad to hear the experience 

 of others on this subject. — K.DITOR.I 



Cause of Bitter Honey 



My bees wintered well, and are in good 

 condition, a good supply of pollen being 

 gathered from elm and maple, and all colo- 

 nies liave young bees. There was a good 

 supply of fall honey gathered here from cot- 

 ton and titi vine I want to come to your as- 



season is so short and the nectar is fre- 

 quently so bountiful, knowledge must be 

 obtained on how to manipulate the bees 

 to get best results. 



Again, our fruit-trees will be almost bar- 

 ren of fruit if there are no bees near to pol- 

 lenize the blossoms. I have been keeping 

 bees for over ib years in this locality, and 

 know from observation that it will pay me 

 to keep bees even if I didn't get one pound 

 of surplus honey. I have not failed to have 

 fruit exceptoneyear since I have kept bees; 

 that failure was owing to the second winter 

 we had in April. Kvto. 



It is my intention to make actual observa- 

 tion this season of the difference in fruiting 

 of my trees, and trees of the same size and 

 variety, where there are no bees to pollenize 

 the blossoms. 



I believe the time is not far distant when 

 the importance of the bees to horticulture 

 will be more fully recognized; then we may 

 expect the bee-industry to receive its just 

 recognition. Hamlin V. Poore. 



Bird Island, Minn. 



Recognizing Apiculture 



Many persons around here having bees 

 give tliem so little attentioiL through indif- 

 ference and ignorance, that most of that kind 

 of bee-keepers have lost all their bees— some 

 few having found one colony that survived 

 the past two unfavorable seasons. 



I am satisfied that the bee industry never 

 can attain its just recognition for importance 

 to the whole people until we have a branch 

 of apiculture taught in all agricultural col- 

 leges and schools where sufficient interest 

 can be obtained to secure a class in that 

 study. In this Northern climate, where ths 



Only Lost One Colony 



I have just taken my bees out of the cel- 

 lar; only lost one out of 20, so I now have 28 

 colonies, and they are in splendid shape. 

 W. S. Chafel. 



North Troy, Vt,, April 10. 



Hard Blov^r in Ohio 



The bee-business sufifered a hard blow in 

 this section the past winter, one man lost 

 his entire apiary of 40 colonies. Last spring 

 I just had 2 colonies, and increased to 5. 

 I saved them all. but 2 of them are weak. I 

 wintered them out of-doors. I use the chaff 

 hive and a winter case of my own make. 



Medina, Ohio. April 15. 1, C, Mosi;rove. 



Bees Wintered Very Well 



Last Saturday I examined the most of my 

 t^o colonies of bees, and think I have lost only 

 2 colonies. One of them 1 had my doubts 

 about living when I packed them last Octo- 

 ber, and the other I think was queenless. 

 and was apparently robbed out recently 

 through thegranulesof honeyon the bottom- 

 board, and only a few bees in the hive. 



My bees have had nothing done to them 

 since I left them to go to New Hampshire to 

 live during the winter. .John 1'. CoBURN. 



Woburn. Mass.. March 25. 



Bees Wintered Well 



I put my bees in the cellar Nov. id. and 

 took them out ."^pril stli. Five months and 2 

 days in the cellar. They had their last flight 

 Oct. 18th. Five months and 18 days without 

 a flight. And out of iuq colonics I only had 2 

 dead, and one of them went in queenless, I 

 know. Seventy-five percent of the colonies 

 are strone. Twenty-five percent are from 

 medium to light. Yes. I feel good about the 

 way my bees have wintered. G. C. Chase. 



Robbins, Wis. 



Bee-Keeping in Idaho 



I have no complaint about bees wintering 

 here, but advancing age is making the care 

 of bees somewhat strenuous for me. March 

 15th of each year my bees gather pollen from 

 spring beauties, buttercups and willows. 

 Soon there will be carpets of wild forget-me- 

 nots, adder-tongues, etc. Then our dande- 

 lions and never-failing snow-drop. Eighty 

 pounds to the colony at iih cents for ex- 

 tracted, and 15 cents for comb, helped 

 against the high cost of livinc Moths have 

 never eaten an ounce of comb yet for me 

 here, V. V. George. 



Fraser, Idaho. March 27. 



A Little Experience With Bees 



I obtained 2 colonies of black bees 3 years 

 ago. I furnished new standard 8 frame 

 hives, and transferred 4 colonies for half of 

 them. I had some little experience before, 

 and read a book on apiculture by James 

 King. But I didn't know enough not to 

 transfer bees as late as July, so my neighbor 

 lost both his colonies. 1 would have lost 

 mine, too, but for the timely arrival of 

 "Forty Years Among the Bees" and the 

 American Bee Journal ; I also sent to Wash- 

 ington and obtained the Farmers' Bulletin 

 on bee-keeping. 



