300 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Bees in Good Condition.— Charlie W. 



Bradish, Greig,5 N. Y., on May 1, 

 1SS5, writes as follows : 



Last fall I put into the cellar 93 colonies 

 of bees, and I have lost 3 colonies and 1 

 nucleus ; the rest are in good condition. 

 1 put them on the summer stands the last 

 week in April. My bees are a cro.ss be- 

 tween Italians and German brown bees : 

 they winter better tiiau pure Italians. 

 There has been a great loss of bees in this 

 county, amonii box hive bee-keepers, who 

 will likely give up the business. 



Colonies Leaving tlieir Hives. — 



Henry Kohnadel, Fair Haven, ^ Ills., 

 on April 27, 1885, writes thus : 



Last fall I placed 30 colonies of bees in 

 a house prepared for the purpose, and this 

 spring 1 tooli; out 19 colonies in good con- 

 dition, one having the diarrhea. My bees 

 Wfie doing well "until yesterday, when 3 

 colonies came out of their hives as it they 

 were swarming, and went in with other 

 colonies, leavnuz plenty of honey and 

 young brood. This is something I have 

 never heard of before. 1. What was the 

 cause of their doing so ? 2. What is best 

 to do with the honey and combs in the 

 vacated hives ? Can I save it and put 

 other bees in these liives when I have 

 swarms ? 



[1. Something distasteful to the bees 

 caused them to leave the hive ; it would 

 be difficult to determine what that was, 

 unless we were on the spot and could get 

 some clue to it. 



2. All you can do is to give the frames 

 of brood and honey to weak colonies, and 

 use the hives for swarms, or when divid- 

 ing for increase. The empty combs 

 should be kept in a tight box and fumi- 

 gated with sulphur occasionally to keep 

 the moth from destroying them.— Ed.] 



Expecting a Good Season.— Wm. An- 

 derson, Sherman ,o» Mo., on May 5, 

 188.5, says : 



My bees are not doing as well as they 

 were two weeks ago. The weather is very 

 cool, and keeps everything back. Very 

 few bees are left in this neighborhood, 

 most of them having frozen or starved. 1 

 am looking for a good yield of honey this 

 year, as there was very little honey gath- 

 ered from wild howers last season. Last 

 year my honey was mostly from buck- 

 wheat and white clover, but all of the late 

 honey was from buckwheat, as dry 

 weather set in and caused everything to 

 dry up, and thus it cut short the fall crop 

 of honey. 



Backward Spring.— H. O. McEl- 

 hany, Vinton, o» Iowa, on May 2, 1885, 

 writes : 



The loss of bees has been about one- 

 half ill some localities here, and not so 

 much in others. The spring is backward, 

 and a good many bee-keepers have lost 

 from spring dwindling. Bees are now 

 gathering pollen from box-elder and elm. 



Report, from O. C. Stickles, Can- 

 ton,,^ N. Y., on May 2, 188.5 : 



On N'ov. 1.5, 1884, I put 49 colonies of 

 bees into the cellar, and on May 1, 188.5, 1 

 took out 44 colonies in good condition, 5 

 of the original number having starved. My 

 cellar ha,s no ventilation, except what is 

 given by a window, and I thnik that is 

 quite sufficient. I have never lost a colony 

 in the cellar, when the bees had plenty of 

 honey to winter on, unless a colony be- 

 came queenless. 



Colonies Strong and Breeding.^-A. 



E. Manum, Bristol,*© Vt., on May 4, 

 1885, writes thus : 



My bees have wintered well, consider- 

 ing the severity of the past winter. My 

 loss is 4 per cent., caused by starvation, 

 mice and queenlessness. There was no 

 diarrhea among them. The balance are 

 very strong, and are breeding rapidly ; I 

 never had bees any stronger at this season 

 of the year. I hear of great losses around 

 here among the box-hive bee-keepers. 



Report, from B. E. Foster, Utica,© 

 X. Y., on May 4, 1885 : 



On Nov. 38, 1884, I put 31 colonies into 

 winter quarters, and I removed them on 

 April IS, 1885, there being left 17 colonies 

 as good as any in this State. I do not 

 want much honey or many bees in the 

 hives when ]iiit up for winter, and let them 

 liavi' all the jiollen they store. Of tlie 4 

 colonies hjst, 1 was queenless, and 1 was 

 in a box-hive, so I did not know whether it 

 had a queen or not, but the other 3 were 

 the best in the whole lot— strong in bees, 

 and had plent\' of honey— and they had 

 the diarrhea. If I have a good bee-house, 

 and the hives contain a few bees, and just 

 enough honey to bring them through, and 

 if each colony has a good queen, I have no 

 fears of winter, at least such has been my 

 experience. 



Using Combs from Depopulated 



Hives.- John Yoder,Springtield, Out., 

 on April 28, 1885, writes thus : 



The past has been a very hard winter on 

 bees. All the small bee-keepers have lost 

 nearly all, and the larger bee-keepers at 

 least half of their bees. I liave lost 43 

 colonies out of 90, and consequently I 

 have on hand all their combs (364), which 

 have more or less honey in them, and all 

 are more of less soiled, as the bees died of 

 diarrhea. I would like to have the fol- 

 lowing questions answered : 1. What is 

 the best and quickest way of getting my 

 empty combs occupied ? 3. Would it pay 

 to buy untested queens at swarming time, 

 and put them into the old hives when a 

 swarm issues ? As my bees are blacks, 

 would the above be a good way to im- 

 prove my stock ? 3. How can I best 

 clean the old combs, or if scraped as clean 

 as possible, will the bees readily accept 

 them ? I have left from last year 300 nice 

 combs (in all over 600), and, of course, I 

 want to increase my number of colonies, 

 but not at the expense of honey. 



[1. Give the queens plenty of room for 

 eggs, by using the empty combs, and then 

 divide the colonies as soon as they be- 

 come populous enough. 



3. Yes ; if you do not care for pure 

 stock. 



3. The bees will clean the combs, if 

 given a few at a time, better and cheaper 

 than you can do it.— Ed.] 



Still Cold and Snowing.— L. Reed, 

 Orono,© Mich., on May 8, 188.5, re- 

 ports thus : 



On April 6, my bees had been in the 

 cellar for 147 days, when I removed them 

 for a flight. I returned them to the cellar 

 after tiaving their flight, and again put 

 them out on April 35, and thev soon began 

 to carry in pollen. I lost 6 colonies out of 

 34, 4 having starved, and 2 were queenless; 

 the rest are in good condition, strong in 

 bees, but light in stores. I am now feed- 

 ing them, and shall continue it during 

 this month. The past winter was the 

 coldest 1 have ever seen, and we are hav- 

 ing a backward spring ; today the ground 

 is white with snow, and it is still snow- 



ing. Although we have had some warm 

 days, yet this morning 1 covered up my 

 hives with blankets and old carpets so as 

 to keep the bees as warm as possible. It 

 froze quite hard last night. I am very 

 well satisfied with my success in winter- 

 ing my bees, considering the hard winter. 

 The most of the bees in this locality are 

 dead. 



Honey and Beeswax Market. 



Office of the American Bek Journal, t 

 Monday, 10 a. m.. May 11, 1885. ( 



The following are the latest quota- 

 tions for honey and beeswax received 

 up to this hour : 



CHICAGO. 



HONEV.— Demand is light and receipts are also 

 lightas itapproacbestheend of the season. Prices 

 range from in@l5c. for beat grades of comb honey, 

 and for extracted. .5(470. 



BBESWAX.-Yelk.w, 27030c. 



R. A. BCKNETT. 161 South Water at. 



BOSTON. 



HONEY.— We quote the following prices : Fancy 

 white comb in 1-lb. sections, l*-;(ailMc. • the same in 

 2-1 b. sections, 15@l*ic; fancy white ('aliforniaii-lbs., 

 li2(S.l4c. Extracted weak, 6@8c. Sales very slow. 



BEESWAX.— 32 cts. per lb. 



Blake &■ Kiplet, s7 Chatham Street. 



NEW YORK. 



HONE Y— Of late we have had quite a stir in our 

 honey market, and comb and extracted has moved 

 freely. Since Sept. 1, IK.S4, we liiive received 

 U)7,fX)2 lbs. of comb honey in 1 and 2-lb. sections, 

 and 1 l2,im<j lbs. of extracted. We quote prices ob- 

 tainable as follows: Fancy white comb In 1-lb. 

 sections, I4@15c; the same in 2-lb. sections. 13®14: 

 Fair to good white comb in 1-lb. sections, I2@13c: 

 the same in 2-lb. sections, Il@12c. Fancy buck- 

 wheat comb honey in 1-lb. sections, yc: the same 

 in 2-lb. sections, 8c. Ordinary grades not wanted. 

 Extracted white clover in kegs or barrels, 7@8c: 

 extracted buckwheat, or dark, in kegs or barrels, 

 eae^c. 



BBESWAX-Prlme yellow, crude, 32ffl33c. 

 McOaul & HILDRETH BROS., 34 Hudson St. 



CINCINNATI. 



HONEY— Nothing new has transpired in the 

 market. Demand has Improved for good qualities 

 of extracted honey, but the large stock on the 

 market keeps prices low. It brings 5@9c on arrival. 



BEESWAX— It is in good demand and brings 

 2ecs.3nc on arrival. 



C. F. MUTH. Freeman & Central Ave. 



BAN FRANCISCO. 



HONEY— Nothing is doing on export account, 

 and very little local tradiug. There is considera- 

 ble honey still on the market, but stocks do not 

 include much of strictly choice quality. While to 

 extra white comb, 8@Mc; dark to good. 4@7c: ex- 

 tracted, choice to extra white, 4V®.'>^c: amber 

 colored, 4'4@494c. 



BEESWAX- (Juotable at 23025C— wholesale. 

 O. B. Smith & Co., 423 Front Street. 



ST. 1,0 Dig. 



HONEY — Steady; demand and supply both 

 small. Comb, 12<314c per lb., and strained and ex- 

 tracted .'j^{3)fiC. 



BEBSW AX-Flrm at 32@32Xc. tor choice. 



W. T. ANDERSON & CO.. 104 N. 3d Street 



CliBYBLAND. 



HONEY— Since our last report there has been a 

 little better demand for honey, and some sates 

 have been made at 13hi^l4c for best white honey 

 in 1-lb. sections. Second quality is still very dull 

 at 1 20 1 3c. Extracted is notsalableatany price In 

 our market. 



BEESWAX.- Scarce at 28@30. 



A. C. kbndel. 1 1.*} Ontario Street. 



KANSAS CITY'. 



HONE Y— Trade is picking up a little. Induced by 

 the extreme low prices at which it is selling. Still 

 there is not the demand there should be. Stocks 

 of all kinds now are full, and more sellers than 

 buyers. Choice white comb l-lb. sections. I3(sjl4c: 

 2-lb. sections, I2(«13c per lb.: extracted, 5(<ji7c. 



BEESWAX.— None in the market. 



Clbmons.Cloon & Co., cor. 4th & Walnut. 



SAN FRANCISCO. 



HONE Y— We quote comb honey in 2 lb. sections 

 13®l4c; extracted, eV«c. 



GEO. W. MEADE & ('c. 213 Market. 



