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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Report, from F. W. Scbafer, Eddy- 

 ville.$ Iowa, on March 24, ISSo : 



Bees in this part of Iowa have win- 

 tered very poorly. Last fall I put 

 about 7.5 colonies into winter quarters, 

 and I have lost 20 colonies ; with the 

 exception of 2 or 3 colonies, all died 

 with the diarrhea. 



Bees Flying Every Day.— Mrs. S. C. 



Tyler, Utica,5 Mo., on March 29, 

 188-5, says : 



My bees are flying every day. They 

 seem to be as busy as if the world 

 was filled with blossoms, though they 

 get nothing but pollen. 



Hives and Separators.— J. H. Andre, 

 Lockwood,9 A. Y., writes thus : 



Use a "■ Simplicity " or Langstroth 

 body with a flat cap just deep enough 

 to cover a thick cushion ; make the 

 half-story to fit the same as the full 

 story "Simplicity." Put in cross 

 partitions and use any size of boxes 

 that you wish. If the lumber of the 

 half-story is one-sixteenth of an inch 

 thicker, it will make it a trifle smaller 

 inside, and the boxes will not bind on 

 the lower story when putting them 

 on. I like this style of hive for the 

 following reasons : As it lias a flat 

 cover the hives may be placed upon 

 one another ; the half-story and crate 

 are one. One gets the full size of the 

 hive for boxes instead of using the 

 room for a crate ; and if tlie half-story 

 is not desired, it may be laid aside at 

 any time. The hive takes up but 

 little room for in-door wintering, 

 which I consider much cheaper and 

 safer than wintering on the summer 

 stands. Separators may be dispensed 

 with if the sections are not over li'l 

 inches wide, if the sections are filled 

 with foundation. Separators take up 

 room, and there must be a space for 

 the bees on both sides of them, in- 

 stead of only one space where they 

 are not used. The 414x414 sections 

 will average about 14 ounces with 

 separators, and about 17 ounces with- 

 out them. A section 1^8 inches wide 

 will hold more honey without separa- 

 tors than one 'iJi will with separators, 

 and you get more sections on a hive. 

 and the bees will work better and fill 

 all of them more nearly at the same 

 time instead of leaving some un- 

 finished. 



caps on all of them, laid 3 or 4 slats 

 across the frames and spread oil-cloth 

 over the slats, and packed over the 

 oil-cloth with chaff cushions. Any 

 time that I would raise the oil-cloth, 

 the bees were all over the tops of the 

 frames, and could move from one to 

 the other just as they wished. I did 

 not allow any snow to lie around my 

 hives. The hives are made of 1-inch 

 pine lumber, and they were left on 

 the summer stands. I left all of the 

 pollen in that they had stored in 10 

 Langstroth frames, and the bees 

 reared brood all through January and 

 February, and to-day there is lots of 

 brood in all stages in the hives, and 

 plenty of young bees, too. They will 

 use a gallon of Graham flour a day. 

 This winter my bees had the very 

 best of honey to winter on. The bees 

 that died did not have the diarrhea, 

 for I have examined hives in apiaries 

 where the loss was the heaviest, and 

 there was no sign or smell of diar- 

 rhea, and the honey was bright and 

 clean. Where the loss is the heaviest 

 the bees were in box-hives, and the 

 -bee-keepers did not try to keep the 

 snow away from them, and we have 

 had some heavy sleets during the past 

 winter. My colonies were well equal- 

 ized last fall with bees and honey. 

 There were 3 colonies that had notli- 

 ing over them but the oil-cloth, and 

 to-day they are 15 to 20 pounds lighter 

 than those that were packed. I still 

 think that pollen has nothing to do 

 with wintering bees, for if they have 

 good honey and proper care, they will 

 come through all right. 



Lost Only One Colony. — D. R. Rose- 

 brongh, Casey, o Ills., on March 17, 

 188-5, writes as follows : 



This has been a very severe winter 

 on bees, and a great many bee-keep- 

 ers have lost all that they had ; one 

 man told me that he had lost 37 colo- 

 nies out of 42. I had 4-5 colonies last 

 fall, and I now have 44 which are in 

 good condition. I have some Cyp- 

 rian drones flying. I never had so 

 few bees die. as I swept up only about 

 2 gallons of bees and litter from the 

 cellar floor. I do not see why my 

 neighbors lost so many bees, "and! 

 none, comparatively, atid when the 

 bees had the same flowers to work on 

 last season. I tliink that the secret is 

 in the management. I use a one-and- 

 one-half story hive, and I left the 



Report, from Andrew Quist, Ho- 

 kah,o^ Minn., on March 30, 1885 : 



My loss of bees during the past 

 winter is 9 colonies, 4 colonies being 

 queenless and 5 having starved. I 

 put 74 colonies into winter quarters 

 last fall, and the C-5 remaining colo- 

 nies I think will come out in good 

 condition. They had a good flight 

 last week. 



Bees in Good Condition. — F. E. 



Manning, Reynolds, ^d Ills., on March 

 23, 1885, writes: 



My bees are all in good condition so 

 far. All except 10 colonies had a 

 flight recently, and they were breed- 

 ing strong, and some had capped 

 brood. I have lost only 2 colonies 

 this winter, and they were 3-frame 

 nuclei. As many colonies have died 

 in this section this winter as during 

 the winter of 1,S80-81. Almost all of 

 those colonies wintered on the sum- 

 mer stands have died. One of my 

 neighbors has lost 2.5 colonies out of 

 40 that were wintered on the summer 

 stands. What little I have used 

 foundation, has convinced me that I 

 can get straighter and nicer combs 

 with it than without it. Last June I 

 hived a swarm on 8 frames filled with 

 foundation, on Monday, on Tuesday I 

 put on 28 two-pound sections, and in 

 13 days after I put on the sections, I 

 took off 17 two-pound sections filled 

 and capped as nice as any I got dur- 

 ing the wliole_season. They had the 

 8 frames filled' with tirood and honey, 

 and then I put in two empty frames. 



and they filled them, and they did not 

 work any more in the sections. When 

 I packed them away in the fall, I took 

 out those 2 frames, which contained as 

 nice straight combs, filled clear to the 

 bottom-bar, as I ever have seen, and 

 the honey is as white as white clover 

 honey can be. I am wintering my 

 bees in the cellar with oat-chaff 

 packed over the brood-chambers. I 

 recently asked a bee-keeper how his 

 bees were wintering, and he said that 

 they had all frozen to death. I told 

 him that they had starved to death, 

 and by examining the hives, I found 

 that there was not 10 pounds of honey 

 in his 12 hives. Careless bee-keepers 

 will lose hundreds of colonies. I have 

 not fed my bees any yet, but perhaps 

 I will have to feed some in the spring. 



Not Disconraged. — I. A. Draper, 

 Dawson, (X Nebr., on March 25, 188-5, 

 writes : 



Last spring I begun with 15 colo- 

 nies, and during the season I in- 

 creased them to 29 colonies. The past 

 winter being a very severe one, I 

 have only 10 colonies left ; however, I 

 am not discouraged. As bees in this 

 section did not produce much honey 

 last season, I anticipate a good yiela 

 during the coming season. 



Bees are Swarming. — J. Y.Detwiler, 

 New Smyrna,© Fla., on ]SIarch 23, 

 I8S.5, says : 



Bees are swarming in some apiaries 

 here. At 3 p. m. to-day the mercury 

 was 60- above zero, with the wind 

 from the north. Bees are iaclined to 

 be quiet. 



Report, etc., from Chas. Harrold, 

 (15— 36), Hamburgh,? Iowa: 



My bees are doing well. We have 

 had a very cold winter, and for 34 

 days during December and January, 

 it was continuously cold, and after 

 that the bees had a good flight ; then 

 we had another cold wave for 12 days 

 in February. The following is a de- 

 scription of my reversible frame 

 which I prefer to any that I have yet 

 seen : The top and bottom bars are 

 made just alike, as are also the end- 

 bars; bore 2 gimlet holes in each of 

 the 2 end-bars, about 2 inches from 

 their ends. The reversing device con- 

 sists of 2 pieces of common fence- 

 wire for each frame, which are put 

 into the gimlet holes, tlien bent up- 

 ward, parallel with the end-bars, and 

 then horizontally outward from the 

 ends of the top-bar, thus forming 

 projections which rest on the hive 

 rabbets. This style of frame is more 

 easily made than the common hang- 

 ing frame, and I find no objections to 

 it in handling. In answer to Mr. S. 

 Daniels (page 103), the man who could 

 not find the queens, I would say : Put 

 a drone and queen trap at the en- 

 trance of the hive, take out all of the 

 frames, shake the bees in front of the 

 hive, and then the queen may be 

 found on the zinc after the bees have 

 entered the hive. In Italianizing col- 

 onies, I never take the time to look 

 up the black queens. 



