Mav. r.112 



American fiee Joarnal 



I purchased ; Italian queens, and one was 

 lost in introducine- The next summer I in- 

 creased to 7. and Italianized them. I.^st 

 sprine I bouk-ht to colonies. ( )ne of thetn 

 had a fine Italian ciueen. althouth the lady 

 from whom I purchased them didn't know 

 that there was any Italian blood in her api- 

 ary. I lacked 2 or 3 Queens of getting 

 them all Italianized, on account of having 

 very poor luck with my queens— so many 

 were lost. The only reason I could assign 

 was that I liad all my hives in a line in pairs, 

 one foot apart, each pair 6 feet from the 

 other pair. Last season I had tlietn set pro- 

 miscuously. 



I lost one colony from starvation, caused. 

 I think, by leaving a lot of supers piled upon 

 it until very late. They had built up into a 

 powerful colony, so much so that the bees 

 couUI hardly find room in the hive when the 

 supers were taken off. They had consumed 

 all their stores by Ian. 1st. and had died. I 

 found 2 other colonies almost as short of 

 stores, and so I made candy of granulated 

 sugar and placed it on the frames, after first 

 putting .3 or 4 small sticks across under it. 



I pack my bees for winter (I winter them 

 outside) by placing empty supers or a hive- 

 body on top: and after spreading on a piece 

 of gunny-sack cut to fit. the super is filled 

 with forest leaves. I could not bring myself 

 to think of sealed covers, with the moisture 

 trickling down upon the bees. 



There have been many days of bright. 

 warm sunshine, with heavy snow on the 

 ground, lately, and bees would fly out and 

 perish on the snow. Leaning a board in 

 front of the hive, as per Doolittle, would do 

 little or no good. 



Here is a bouquet for Dr. Miller, and a 

 good wish for the American Bee Journal. 



Bolivar, Mo., March «. .1. A. Reed. 



Prospects Fair in California 



There will probably be a small surplus of 

 honey in this locality the coming season. 

 Bees are in good shape to take advantage of 



what honey-flow there may be. having win 

 tered well. The past winter has been ex- 

 ceptionally dry, but we have had a good 

 April rain, which will insure us some honey 

 I have two apiaries which I run in connec- 

 tion with general farming and stock-raising. 

 We can only figure on a paying honey crop 

 on an average of every other year at the 

 most. ii;ii was one of the best honey years 

 ever known in this part of the State. There 

 are still some good locations for apiaries un- 

 occupied in this county at the present time. 



If any of the readers of the American Bee 

 Journal would care to know moieabout this 

 locality. I will be pleased to have tliem 

 write to me. L. G. Smith. 



San Benito. Calif., .-Kpril tS. 



Loss in Wintering — Short Season Ex- 

 pected 



This is the warmest day we have yet had 

 this spring, with the temperature at 45 de- 

 grees at noon. My bees are in " Protection " 

 hives, so I hope they pulled through on 

 about 10 pounds of feed each, but farmers to 

 the south of me have lost every colony. Mr. 

 Will McCord has 7.S empty hives, and is 

 pretty well discouraged. 



Mr. Miles, of Dunlap, writes that he looks 

 for a very short season, as the clover was 

 drouth-killed last year. About here, how- 

 ever. I think I saw a deal of young clover, 

 and I know we had no fall flow. 1 am look- 

 ing for a season of heartsease, as the indica- 

 tions are that we shall have a tolerably wet 

 season. .A. F. Bonney. 



Buck Grove. Iowa, March 27. 



Severe Winter on Bees 



We have w'hite clover in bloom during 

 .-\pril. May, and part of June here, but the 

 sun beats down so hard in June that it kills 

 it out. The bees reap a harvest when not 



too cool from the bloom of elm, oak, sweet- 

 gum, maple, peaches, plums (wild and tame), 

 pears and apples. 



This has been a severe winter on bees, 

 although I have lost only one colony, and it 

 was through trying to catch the queen. She 

 flew away and went into another liive, so 

 pretty soon I found the dead bee. The bees 

 having lost her went into 4 or .s hives, and 

 then they were killed in a short time. 



This year the bees will commence swarm- 

 ing in the early part of April. 



The farmers that have bees in box-hives 

 are not bragging, for their bees are nearly 

 all dead. 



I am very fond of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, and take good care of every copy. I en- 

 joy reading what others write. 



W. R. Cunningham. 



Rayville. La . March 24. 



Cypro-Carniolan Bees 



On page sh. the writer uses the term "Cyp- 

 rian-Carniolan " in referring to Cypro-Car- 

 niolan bees. 



He says. "Late in .September, igog. I 

 bought a Cyprian queen, but it turned out to 

 be a Cyprian Carniolan." 



He says "there were drones by the thou- 

 sand— two drones to one worker." That con- 

 dition indicates that he introduced the 

 queen he bought into a colony having a su- 

 perabundance of drone-comb, and does not 

 prove the excessive building of drone-comb 

 to be characteristic of the progeny of the 

 queen. 



She was introduced in "September." and 

 her bees compelled to accept the drone- 

 comb whether it was their choice or not. 



He says, "They are great to rob, etc." 

 Neither the Cyprian nor the Carniolan bees 

 are inclined to rob. and indications are that 

 his queen was a mongrel without knowing 

 what blood predominated. Ed L. Roser. 



Cleveland. Ohio. 



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