632 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



watched staid there for a minute or 

 more, before it was driven away, and 

 busied itself with the honey in uncapped 

 cells. Many here have noticed them, 

 but do not know what they are, more 

 than to call them " flies." W. G. G. 

 Providence, R. I. 



[We sent the insects to Prof. Cook, 

 who says this about them : — Editor.] 



The insects sent are Syrphus flies. 

 They like sweets, and are usually seen 

 about flowers. I have never before 

 heard of their visitin? hives. They are 

 evidently thieving. They like the sweet. 

 The maggots feed on plant-lice and do 

 much good. The flies mimic bees very 

 closely, which I remark upon in my 

 "Manual." — A. J. Cook. 



Did Fairly Well. 



My bees have done fairly well the past 

 season. I took off some 800 pounds 

 from 30 colonies. There was no swarm- 

 ing. D. C. Wilson. 



Viola, Iowa, Nov. 1. 



Poor Season for Honey. 



My report for 1894 is as follows : I 

 commenced the spring with 24 colonies, 

 and increased to 2.5, all in good condi- 

 tion for winter. I got about 500 pounds 

 of extracted honey of good quality, 

 mostly gathered from fall flowers. The 

 season of 1894 has been a poor one for 

 honey. Fred Bechly. 



Searsboro, Iowa, Oct. 30. 



Bees Way Up North. 



As I have never seen any reports from 

 bee-keepers in the "American Bee Jour- 

 nal " living as far north as I do, I 

 thought perhaps it would interest some- 

 body to know that bees can be kept up 

 here at a very gocd profit. Of course, 

 last summer was the first time that I 

 had bees enough to make a little show- 

 ing. I ana located 22 miles from E-<ca- 

 naba, a seaport town on Green Bay — 

 the most northerly point, about the 46th 

 degree north Latitude. 



I took the bees out of the cellar April 

 15, 1894, after being in there 5 months, 

 and found them all in nice condition. 

 On April 17 tliey began carrying in pol- 

 len. They built up nicely, and the first 

 one swarmed on May 25, in spite of the 

 heavy frost we bad in the forepart of 

 May, which killed all fruit-bloom. The 

 crop from 7 colonies, spring count, was 



400 pounds of comb honey, and 360 of 

 extracted, all white and first class. I 

 have not one pound of dark honey. I 

 increased to 21 colonies. I have doubled 

 up and sold colonies to reduce the num- 

 ber. I have now 11 colonies which I 

 will put into the cellar about the middle 

 of November, and I am anxiously look- 

 ing towards spring. 



My bees are mostly Carniolans. They 

 are a good, hardy bee, quiet in handling, 

 but very much inclined to swarm. I 

 think I will like the Italians better, as 

 they will stay together in larger force 

 and work, without swarming. 



I have kept bees here for four years, 

 and have read the " American Bee Jour- 

 nal" steadily, and I attribute my success 

 largely to ili. I cannot afford to keep 

 bees without the "Old Reliable." 



Nicholas Peterson. 



Spalding, Mich., Oct. 29. 



All Heavy for Winter. 



My crop of honey for the season of 

 1894 is 1,400 pounds, from 84 colo- 

 nies, with an increase of 12 colonies. 

 All the colonies are heavy for winter. 



O. H. TOWNSEND. 



Alamo, Mich., Nov. 5. 



A Good. Crop— Considering. 



My bees have done well the past sea- 

 son, considering the long drouth we had 

 through the months of July and August. 

 Buckwheat was almost a total failure. 

 My year's crop figures up 900 pounds, 

 light and dark, in one-pound sections. 

 My number of colonies was 26, or an 

 average of 343^ pounds per colony. 



Chas. C. Chamberlin. 



Romeo, Mich., Nov. 1. 



Slats in Section-Holders. 



Do slats in section-holders sag in an 

 objectionable manner? is a question 

 that has been asked. As this part of 

 bee-keeping has come under my observa- 

 tion as a honey-producer, I will give my 

 experience, which is this: 



In a locality where bees gather propo- 

 lis, the sections do not rest on the slats 

 heavy enough to sag them, and if the 

 bees did not glue sections and separators 

 together with the super, the slats would 

 sag, as long as the sections depended on 

 the slats for support, unless they are % 

 of an inch or thicker. But I do not 

 look upon the slats as support for sec- 

 tions, as 1 wedge the sections in the 



