Tune, 1912.' 



American Hee Journal 



herine bees (roni the okl hive and pul it in 

 the new one on the old stand. Put this 

 brood at one side of the iiive, and put beside 

 it 3 or 4 frames that may be empty, or may 

 contain foundation or drawn combs. Cover 

 up the lii\e on the old stand, and set on top 

 of it the old hive. You understand there is 

 no communication whatever between the 

 two hives. Hy the lime the bees have lib- 

 erated the caeed queen there will no longer 

 beany but the younger bees in the upper 

 hive, for each bee that returns from the 

 field will go straight to the lower entrance 

 where it has been used to going. About 3 

 days later take away the lower hive, set the 

 upper hive back on the stand, and return 

 the frame of brood that was taken away. It 

 may be that you want to increase at the 

 same time that you introduce the new 

 queen. In that case leave the old queen in 



the new hive on the old stand, and instead 

 of putting the old hive on top of the new 

 one. put the old hive on a new stand. Then 

 nothing further is to be done. You may. 

 however, prefer to shake off a good portion 

 of the bees into a new hive at the time of 

 taking away the old one. That will give you 

 a shaken swarm, and the likelihood is that 

 you will get more surplus honey from the 

 hive with the old queen on the old stand 

 than you otherwise would from both hives. 



That's a little about introducing queens. 



2. It is generally well to make sure that 

 your extractor is too large rather than too 

 small, taking into account the possibility of 

 increasing the number of your colonies. S« 

 if you don't object to the difference in price 

 it may be well to get the 4-frame. The re- 

 versing is a decided advantage, although 

 one kind does as good work as the other. 



Wintered 39 Colonies — No Loss 



I put into the cellar 3') colonies of bees on 

 Nov. loth. I took them out April loth in 

 ffood order, without any loss. Bees have 

 been doing fine the last lo days. 



Darlington. Wis.. May 2. John Cline. 



Answered Questions Helped Success 



I had a letter written to me in 1806. by 

 your father. Chas. Dadant. in answer to de- 

 sired information regarding some special 

 points on bees, to which I largely owe my 

 success in apiculture. In iHrj4 I started with 

 6 hives of bees and $4.00 in cash, and worked 

 up to 400 colonies in 8 years. M. Brown. 



Argenta. Ark.. May 12. 



Prospects Bright for Sage Honey 



The central part of the .State reports very 

 favorable rains, and in some sections they 

 had as high as 4 inches. And as we have 

 had more rain the past 2 days, the outlook 

 appears better and orighter for sage honey. 



From the reports of tlie effect of the cold 

 weather through the Central and Eastern 

 States the loss of bees has been very heavy, 

 and I would judge that California will be 

 called upon to furnish some early queens 

 for the bee-keepers throughout the country. 

 ,1. C. Fkohliger. 



Berkeley. Calif.. April 2v, 



Success in \A/intering on Summer Stands 



As my plan of packing bees for winter, 

 given in the American Bee Journal last fall, 

 in which I advised placing an inverted 

 wooden butter dish, holding about a quart, 

 over the frames as a clustering place for the 

 bees in cold weather, was criticised by some 

 bee-keepers, I will now report that out of 78 

 colonies so packed 75 came through our un- 

 usually long and severe winter in Hrst-class 

 condition, and the 3 that perished were 

 found to be short in stores. I never before 

 had stronger colonies at this time of year. 

 Isaac F. Tili.inchast. 



Kactoryville, Pa.. April 2.1;. 



Leather-Colored Italians Preferred 



You <iuote me on r>aKe 12 as sayinii lighter- 

 colored queens. If I wrote that I made a 

 mi-^take. as I intended to say le;ither-col- 

 ored. I think no more of the goldens than I 

 do of black queens. I think they will have 

 foul brood just about (he same. I shall have 

 to lock horns with .1, 1- Byer. also with the 

 Kditor of (jleanings in Hee Culture, if they 

 refer to leather color. .Not one of my leather- 

 colored bees caught foul brood. While I 

 had a few blacks in my own yard, every one 

 that I bought and all my other blacks and 

 goldens had foul brood that fall, and I de- 

 stroyed them, which I would not do now. 

 Oneof my neighbor'sbeeshad foulbrood the 

 same time, and I let him have some (jueens. 

 That was s years ago. and he has not seen 

 any signs of it since. I have lost quite a lot 

 of colonies by foul brood, but in all it does 

 not make me feel very bad. as it has cleaned 



up every black colony within several miles 

 of my place. I offered to give queens, but 

 they said black bees were good enough for 

 them. Along in 1800 to 1.S75 this town had 

 about 2500 colonies. Most every farmer 

 kept from one to 100. Now itto will cover all 

 of them. I have most of them. As nearly 

 as I can learn, the farmers within 20 miles 

 have lost about 50 percent. I lost about 20 

 percent. C. M, Lincoln, 



West Rupert. Vt. 



Saved 4 Out of 8 Colonies 



I secured 8 colonies of bees during the 

 winter, and have saved 4 of them, mice 

 killed off one. and the others starved or 

 froze to death. 



I do not know a drone from a worker-bee. 

 nor what the queen looks like. I do know 

 that I enjoy eating honey, and that the work 

 of the bee is. to me. very fascinating as I 

 watch them, seemingly so wise and exceed- 

 ingly industrious. 



I am past 50 years old. I always wanted to 

 keep bees, but hitherto have not been sit- 

 uated so it were possible. I am now on a 

 little is-acre farm 14 miles from Omaha. I 

 am trying it. W. D. Stambaugh. 



Richfield. Nebr.. May 10. 



Bee-Culture in Missouri 



I have had several letters from parties liv- 

 ing in the North, asking about Missouri 

 as a bee-country. Our State now ranks 

 fourth; it has ranked third in the past, 

 there are said to be over 40.000 bee keepers 

 in the State: the last census did not give 

 quite so many, but I deem the statistics 

 very unreliable, as the bees were not count- 

 ed in the cities and towns, and there are 

 a great many so located. Over 200.000 colo- 

 nies of bees have been enumerated, gather- 

 ing over n. 000.000 pounds of honey in a year. 

 But to count a part and leave out a part is 

 of very little value as to our resources. 



The State is not as well developed in bee- 

 culture as it could be. while I am sure we 

 have many bee-keepers who are up to date. 



Souvenir l?ee I'o.stal Cards 



We have 4 Souvenir Postal Cards of 

 interest to bee-keepers. No. 1 is a 

 Teddy Bear card, with stanza of poetry, 

 a straw bee-hive, a jar and section of 

 honey, etc. It is quite sentimental. 

 No. 2 has the words and music of the 

 song, "The Bee-Keeper's Lullaby ;" No. 

 3, the words and nuisic of " Buckwheat 

 Cakes and Honey;" and No. 4, the 

 words and music of "The Humming 

 of the Bees." We send these cards, 

 postpaid, as follows: 4 cards for 10 

 cents, 10 cards for 20 cents ; or 10 cards 

 with the American Bee Journal one 

 year for $1.10. Send all orders to the 

 office of the American Bee Journal. 



thousands keep bees in a crude way. If 

 they used good methods they could make it 

 pay. I have missed only one season in 22 

 years in securing any honey at all, but in 3 

 different seasons I have secured 200 pounds 

 of extracted honey per colony. 



Fruit bloom in early spring, white clover 

 coming soon after, and the Spanish-needles 

 in the fall, are the best sources of honey 

 crops, although there are many blossoms 

 coming between these. I have secured two 

 small crops from corn-tassels, one from 

 heartsease, or the short jointed smartweed: 

 then we have considerable golden-rod and 

 other plants, but these honeys are mixed 

 throughout the season. Of course, we have 

 red clover; sweet clover is yielding largely 

 in places and spreading, and alfalfa is be- 

 ing largely grown. While at the Kansas City 

 meeting of our association last September. 

 I went into Clay county to visit our new sec- 

 retary. Mr. J. F. Diemer. at Liberty, and 

 while there sampled some honey gathered 

 from alfalfa by his bees. 



I had several letters asking about the 

 Ozark country. Some of our best bee-keep- 

 ers are there and secure good crops of 

 honey. Some parts of that country are vet 

 unoccupied, or. in other words, much of it 

 is still wild and rough, but many large or- 

 chards are located there, and it has a much 

 milder climate than northern Missouri. 



We had at one time over 250 members of 

 our State Association, but many are neglect- 

 ing to keep up their membership; it works 

 quite a hardship upon those who remain 

 faithful, to carry on the work. The State is 

 capable of much improvement, and could 

 yield much greater crops than ha\'e ever yet 

 been secured. J. W. Rol'se. 



Mexico, Mo, 



Weather Conditions in Southern California 



The following letters will show how 

 quickly conditions may change in Cali- 

 fornia: 



First Letter, 



I presume I am giving you no news when I 

 tell you .Southern California has been hit 

 harder this winter than ever before that I 

 know of. November and December were 

 very cold, and for 8 or 10 nights it was impos- 

 sible to keep the frost out of the citrus or- 

 chards, and the result is over one-half of the 

 fruit is worthless. Loss up into the mil- 

 lions. Then the rains refused to come, and 

 today our grain-fields are dry, and the grain 

 that came up with the less than 2 inches of 

 rain to date stands ready to die. Our honey- 

 plants that started 2 or 3 times to grow a lit- 

 tle, are now so far gone that it is probable 

 five-sixths of the bees will starve next sum- 

 mer. We intend sending a lot over to the 

 fields in Imperial county, but the majority 

 can not be taken there. 



P'armers are in a panic over no prospects 

 of pasture— for not a green blade of grass is 

 to be seen, and the skies areas blue as in 

 August. G. F. Merriam. 



San Marcos. Calif.. Feb. 27. 1012. 



Second Letter. 



February came a^id went without a drop 

 of rain. The first one in 63 years. March 

 was only 1 hours old when it began to rain, 

 and has kept it up ever since, giving all Cali- 

 fornia a good soaking, and changing the 

 whole aspect of affairs. We have had over 

 1 inches. A telephone an hour ago says the 

 barometer fell this forenoon to 20.60. The 

 lowest seen here. G. F. Merriam. 



San Marcos. Calif.. March 12. 



Third Letter. 



Still it rains, and the soil is full of water, 

 but the air is cold, and so little sunshine 

 that things do not grow very well. But it is 

 sure to get warm later, G. F. Merriam. 



San Marcos, Calif., March 30, 



The Sneeze-Weed or Bitter-Weed of the 

 South 



The weed referred to on page iw. May. 

 iQt2, is commonly known as sneeze-weed or 

 bitter-weed. I give the following from the 

 Bulletin on Texas honey-plants, issued at 

 College Station. Tex., by Louis H. Scholl: 

 " Sneeze-weed, bitter-weed. Ilelenium tenui- 

 folium. \'ull. Composite family. CompositEe." 

 "River bottoms, etc.. extending from the 

 Gulf of Mexico and Mississippi States to 

 Western Texas iCoulter). abundant on open 

 woodland prairies of Eastern Texas. Honey- 

 yield good in favorable seasons; pollen; 

 honey tolden yellow, heavy body, but very 



