THE AMERICAN UEE JOURNAL. 



203 



having good success. We have liad 

 a very severe winter here, and the 

 ground is still frozen to a depth of 

 from 18 to 24 inches on tlie level. 

 Wlieat is now suffering badly in this 

 section. 1 think that Alsike clover is 

 a paying crop, besides being an excel- 

 lent honey-plant. I intend sowing 

 buckwheat for my bees, for I think 

 that the honey obtained from it will 

 pay the expenses connected with its 

 niising, and tiieii I will have the 

 buckwheat as a clear profit. 



Bees Almost Extinct. —W. R. El- 

 wood, Lindley,(5 Mo., on March 15, 

 188-5, writes : 



One-half of my bees are now dead, 

 and the others are dwindling very 

 rapidly. The packing around them 

 liroved insufficient to keep them from 

 freezing, as they were frozen in a 

 solid mass with plenty of honey in 

 the hives ; those left are affected very 

 badly with diarrhea. I think that by 

 May 1, all will be dead. The oldest 

 settlers here say that they never ex- 

 perienced colder weather anywhere, 

 the ground being frozen to a depth of 

 'S feet. The mercury ranged from 30'^ 

 above to :W^ below zero, seldom rising 

 above zero through the latter part of 

 January and the whole of February. 

 Two-thirds, if not more, of the bees in 

 Northwestern Missoiu'i are dead. A 

 neighbor reports that one-half of the 

 bees in his apiary of IT;') colonies are 

 dead ; many other apiaries of les- 

 ser magnitude have suffered worse. 

 March has come and with it the sweet 

 breath of Spring is wafted o'er hill 

 and dale to gladden and soften the 

 hearts sickened and chilled by tlie 

 frosts of the terrible winter just 

 passed. 



Device for Reversing Frames. — A. 



P. Fletcher, East Franklin, -o Vt., 

 writes as follows : 



I think that the following device is 

 a speedy and simple one for making 

 reversible frames, and one which will 

 commend itself to any bee-keeper. 

 Although it may not be a new idea, it 

 appears to be quickly made and ad- 

 justed, and handy in its operation : 

 Simply take a piece of otie-inch or %- 

 inch hoop-iron, bend the end to form 

 the projection for the rabbet, then 

 make a screw-hole near the lower end, 

 at the right distance to place the screw 

 upon which the frame revolves, in the 

 centre of the end-bar. It is necessary 

 to put a small screw or nail through 

 ihe iron near the top-bar of the frame 

 on one side, to prevent the frame from 

 revolving, or tipping to eitlier side. 

 This device appears very siuiple, as it 

 can be applied to any hanging frame 

 without changing the bee-space at the 

 ends of the frames. 



Severe Losses of Bees.— J. W. Mar- 

 grave, Hiawatha, (^ Kansas, on March 

 16, 188-5, writes : 



The losses are far greater in this 

 region than they were during the win- 

 ter of 1880-81 ; I think that the aver- 

 age loss will not be much short of 90 

 per cent., and my own will probably be 

 something more than that. I liad 66 

 colonies last fall, doubled them back 



to 5;!, fed 15 colonies 1.50 lbs. of granu- 

 lated sugar, put a Ginch case on top 

 of all the hives filled with dry forest 

 leaves, and left them o!i the summer 

 stands ; now 1 find that 48 of the -53 

 are dead, and a greit many of the 

 hives are badly soiled; someare clean, 

 but the bees dead ; some have nearly 

 all the stores consumed, and others 

 have 2U to ;!0 lbs. of honey left ; some 

 have perished with some honey in the 

 same combs on which were the bees ! 



1 find v\'hat is the strangest thing of 

 all, viz : unhatched brood in a large 

 majority of the hives, but nearly ready 

 to hatch ; some had already hatched. 

 Can ]SIr. Ileddon tell why the queens 

 commence laying during such intense 

 cold y Was it the result of the last 

 season's honey crop being so very poor 

 that their honey was so mixed with 

 pollen that that stimidated the 

 queens V Some of the honey that is 

 left is nearly bitter with pollen. I 

 ought to have said that the brood was 

 usually confined to 2 or 3 combs from 



2 to 4 inches in diameter. The bees 

 were spread over it trying to keep it 

 warm. Mr. L. C. Clark, of Granada, 

 Kans., writes me that his bees are all 

 safe ; lie had them in a cellar. Mr. 

 Davis, of Missouri, says that half of 

 his bees are in the cellar and half out- 

 side, and he has lost .50 per cent, of 

 each. The losses are great all over 

 this country — Missouri, Kansas and 

 Nebr;iska are all included. 



[Mr. Ileddon replies to the above 

 question as follows : 



" Bees can and often do breed from 

 40 to 60 days in confinement, when 

 kept in a repository where the tem- 

 perature is between 40° and .50" above 

 zero, and no signs of diarrhea are de- 

 veloped, and the bees come out bright 

 and healthy, the only ill condition 

 being that they will leave their hives 

 in considerable individual numbers 

 and perish on the cellar bottom, if 

 they are not given about a tablespoon- 

 ful of water daily ; if they are, they 

 will not. 1 cannot more than conjec- 

 ture why the queens begin to lay 

 while it is so cold. Diarrhea and 

 breeding have a relationship, but just 

 how, and which is the cause and 

 which is the effect, I do not yet know. 

 I have found out enough to satisfy me 

 of the correctness of the pollen theory, 

 and that my days of winter losses are 

 all past. Your own solution under 

 your question may be, and perhaps is, 

 the proper one. Though heat is nec- 

 essary to successful breeding, it is not 

 true that a high temperature in a win- 

 ter repository always tends to breed- 

 ing." 



Report, from G. W. King, Dexter, ex 

 Minn., on March 23, 188.5: 



I^ast spring I began with 10 coloni»s 

 of bees, and during the season I in- 

 creased them to 29 colonies, and I ob- 

 tained 1,0(X) pounds of comb honey in 

 one-pound sections. I got but little 

 honey until .Inly. The fall crop was 

 good. 1 put 29 colonies into my bee- 

 cellar lasi fall ; the mice destroyed one 

 colony and one died of starvation, 

 but the remainder are in good condi- 

 tion. 



Apicultiiral Apprentices.— Benjamin 



(lUest, Ambia,K3 Ind., writes thus : 



As the time Is approaching for those 

 who are interested in apiculture to 

 )>repare for the season's work, no 

 doubt many will, like myself, conclude 

 that the best method for the most 

 rapid advancement, both for the sea- 

 son and in the future, will be to 

 serve an apprenticeship. I wish to 

 say to all who may be considering 

 serving an apprenticeship, look well 

 before you leap. It is better to s|ien(l 

 $200 in corresponding with, or, what 

 is better, visiting different apiarists, 

 than to receive false impressions witli 

 which to start. I now more fully 

 realize the vast importance of a right 

 start than I ever did before. If stu- 

 dents in apiculture will only secure 

 an apprenticeship with the right 

 teacher, they cannot but be benefitted. 



Bee-Diarrliea in tlie South. — The 



one who propounded Query No. 4, 

 page 36, writes thus : 



Dr. J. V. II. Brown was evidently 

 correct in his surmises on Query No. 

 4 ; but I wish to say to Mr. G. W. 

 Demaree, as he wrote on page 100, 

 that if the bees had had an air space 

 above the frames, the dying of young 

 bees would not have occurred, that 

 they did have upward ventilation. My 

 bees did have the diarrhea, and I am 

 convinced that bees in the South are 

 more liable to the disease, than else- 

 where; for they are continually gath- 

 ering honey in the winter, and some- 

 times a cold spell comes on and causes 

 them to eat this unripe honey, thus 

 causing this usually fatal disease. My 

 bees are now pretty well over their 

 sickness, but they are very weak, and 

 there is still some trace of the disease. 



Report, from L. S. Guice, Mount 

 Landing,*© Miss., on March 16, 1885 : 



In August, 1883, 1 purchased 9 colo- 

 nies of bees, and by dividing them, I 

 had 16 colonies with plenty ot honey 

 for the winter. During the season of 

 1884, I worked them for increase only, 

 and closed the season with 60 colonies 

 in good condition. I have lost only 3 

 colonies during the past winter, being 

 the result of moving them a short dis- 

 tance when they were flying just be- 

 fore a severe cold spell ; so I am start- 

 ing in this season with 57 good colo- 

 nies. My bees have been bringing in 

 pollen for some time, they are rear- 

 brood fast now, and I think that they 

 will begin swarming by April 15. I 

 will report at the end of the season 

 what success I have, as I am keeping 

 close account of everything. 



Destro)ing Ants and Ant-llills.— .1. 



Reynolds, Clinton, ? Maine, writes 

 thus : 



Having been troubled for years wilh 

 ants and ant-hills about my apiary, 

 and after having repeatedly failed by 

 trying many of the remedies recom- 

 mended in various papers, I one day 

 noticed the maul (such as wood chop- 

 pers use for driving wedges when 

 splitting wood) lying by the side of 

 an ant-hill, and I immediately took 

 it, the ground being a little moist at 



