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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



stkBSIif^Ml^M 





Good Season.— 20— James McCon- 

 nell, {123—100). Clay Village,^ Ky., 

 ou June 27, 1885, writes : 



During the season of 1884, I increased 

 my colonies, by natural swarming, to 123. 

 What I lost during winter and by spring 

 dwindling, besides uniting some, reduced 

 my number to an even hundred colonies, 

 with which 1 began the season of 188.5, 

 Some were weak, but nearly all were in 

 good condition. They are all now storing 

 surplus, but casting very few swarms. 1 

 have had only 9 from 100 colonies, and 3 

 of those were second swarms, though 1 

 follow Mr. Heddon's plan of hiving. We 

 have had a good season so far, and it is 

 showering to-day, which will continue the 

 season some longer. 



Report,— B. i;. Stokesberry, Clinton, 

 9 Ind., on July 1, 1885, writes : 



During the last winter 1 lost 4(5 colonies 

 out of .58 ; those that are left are doing 

 unusually well. The mortality among 

 bees in this section was about nine-tenths. 



Basswood Promises Well.— Harvey 

 Feathers, lloyalton,© Wis., writes: 



We are having a very cold season here 

 thus far, and the prospects are not very 

 good for a large yield of honey. On June 

 21 we liad a fiost, also on the '28th, whicli 

 injured the honey secretions very much. 

 The winter here was very disastrous to 

 bees ; fully .50 per cent, of them died. I 

 lost 40 per cent, of mine. 1 liave 125 colo- 

 nies left. They have only just commenced 

 to swarm. I have hived 14 swarms. They 

 are working splendidly on Alsike clover, 

 which proves to be the best honey-pro- 

 ducing plant we can raise here. 15a.ss- 

 wood promises an abundant yield of 

 bloom. Tlie trees are very full of buds, 

 which probably will not bloom In this 

 locality Defore July 25. So I am expect- 

 ing, if the weather is favorable, a large 

 yield of iioney from that source. 



Cyprians, Syrians, etc. — Geo. W. 

 Thompson, Grand Junction,© Iowa, 

 on June 27, 1885, says : 



I commenced the season of 1884 with 4 

 weak colonies in 8-frame Langstroth 

 hives, 1 increased to 8 colonies, and ob- 

 tained 240 pounds of comb honey. Last 

 fall I bought colonies in bo.\-hives, 

 making 14 colonies, which 1 wintered 

 safely. X sold one colony in the spring, 

 and my present number is 17. Will some 

 one please say whether 8-Langstroth 

 frames are enougli for a Cyprian colony V 

 About a year ago I'rof. Cook seemed to 

 think very favorably of the Syrian bees ; I 

 would like to know whether hestill thinks 

 as highly of them. 



(jiieen-Bee from Alt. Lebanon. — Gust. 

 Murbard, I'ortland,^ Oreg., on June 

 13, iaS-5, writes thus : 



It cainiot be but a matter of great pub- 

 lic interest in queen-shipping to know 

 that 1 have to-day received a Mt. Lebanon 

 queen-bee safely, with one-third of her 

 workers alive, direct from Asia, via Alex- 

 andria, Trieste, Bremen and New York, 

 without any recruiting on the way. The 

 queen came as far as New York by mail, 

 and thence by express. She arrived one 

 day behind the mail, by some delay in the 

 express offices, reaching her destination 

 just as lively as if just put up. I liave 



here to mention also that no one 

 should trifle with other people's prop- 

 erty neither at the post-office nor in the 

 express office, for what miglit appear to 

 them harmless sport, as the shaking of a 

 box with bees to hear the bees buzzing, 

 might prove great injury to tlie owner. 

 Some other person had cut a piece of the 

 cover off the box nearly large enough for 

 the bees to escape. That person perhaps 

 never dreamed of it, that if the queen-bee 

 had escaped, twelve dollars with expenses 

 would be lost ; nor that if all the workers 

 had escaped and the <|ueen-bee had been 

 left by herself, 'li'' would have had to die 

 for want of foo.i, as she is not able to un- 

 cap sealed honey. The post-office officials 

 and express office agents cannot be care- 

 ful enough in the selection of their em- 

 ployes, and they should first instruct 

 them not to let their youthful and playful 

 curiosity trifle with other people's prop- 

 erty. 



Late and Cold Spring.- T. S. Hall, 

 Kirby's Creek, (^ Ala., on June 25, 

 1885, writes : 



The honey-flow has been light so far 

 this season, on account of too mucli rainy 

 weather. The poplar failed to bloom. 

 Bees have swarmed but little, aud late. 

 We have had the latest and coldest spring 

 for years. The linden is just now in 

 bloom, and it is two weeks late. The 

 death rate here among bees was heavy, 

 fully one-third of them being dead in this 

 county. 



Bees in Good Condition.— A. J. & E. 



Hatfield, South Bend, 5 lod., on June 

 1, 1885, says : 



Our bees are working finely on the red 

 and white clover, and where both kinds 

 are growing together there are more bees 

 on the red than ou the white. Our bees 

 were never in finer condition for the 

 honey-harvest than at present. The lin- 

 den will commence blooming in a few 

 days. It is very promising now, and if 

 the weather only will be favorable, we 

 shall expect an abundant yield. 



Bees Crawling ont of the Hives to 



Die.— Geo. W. Melville, Durango,? 

 Colo., writes : 



Since my letter v^-as written on page 340, 

 I have discovered that around Canon City, 

 Colo., the bee-men have had tlie same 

 trouble, off and on, for some years. Their 

 method of treating this trouble is some- 

 thing after the following: Upon dis- 

 covering that bees are dying they close 

 them in the hivi^s and feed syrup tor a 

 week or t n days, allowing the bees to 

 take a fliglit after sundown cacli day ; 

 after this period has expired the bees 

 seem to be safe, and go forward as if 

 notliing had troubled them. Our theory 

 here is that during April (or the last week 

 in April), the bees gathered this poisonous 

 honey, and then the month of May being 

 cold and rainy, they were confined nearly 

 the whole iiiouth, consequently they fed 

 on this honey and died on account ot it 

 We think that if the weather in May bad 

 been so that the bees could have worked 

 right along, tliey would have escaped this 

 poison. What do the readers of the Bee 

 JounxAL think of our theory ? Will it 

 work if the same trouble conujs again ? 



Variations in tlie Honey-Seasons. — 



T. M. Anderson, Waxaliachie.c^ Te.x., 

 on June 25, 1885, writes thus : 



While in the creek bottom, a few days 

 ago, 1 found a colony of bees which had 

 located on some vines about 7 feet from 

 tlie ground ; they had built comb, gath- 

 ered honey, and were rearing brood, thus 

 suspended in "mid-air." Js not this a 



rare occurrence ? My brother and I have 

 13:3 colonies of bees, in Langstrotli hives, 

 and hi good condition, but they are not 

 gathering much honey this season. This 

 is the "off" year in this section. There 

 is a good crop of horse-mint (the main 

 honey-plant here), but it does not seem to 

 secrete much Iioney this year. Experi- 

 ence and observation has taught me that 

 bees only do well every other year in the 

 same locality in Texas, no matter liow 

 favorable things may seem during the 

 "off" year. Will some experienced l>i>e- 

 keeper explain this, and state whetlh.r 

 his bees have ever done real well for two 

 years in succession in tlie same locality ? 

 Mr. J. W. Eckman, of Kichniond, Texas, 

 writes me that liis bees are doing splen- 

 didly, but they did not do much last year, 

 while Mr. Tadlock's bees, at Luliiig, a 

 distance of 150 miles farther west, did 

 well. In 1883 Mr. Eekman's bees did 

 well, while Mr. Tadlock's had to be fed. 



White Clover Bloom.— B. G. Hogue, 

 Loydsville,o* Ohio, on June 25, 1885, 

 writes : 



Will white clover bloom this year, from 

 the seed ? Our dry weather, last fall, 

 killed most of the white clover. It has 

 come up very thickly, and the question is, 

 will it bloom this season ? Bees are not 

 doing any good now, as there is nothing 

 for them to work on. 1 think that damage 

 suit in Wisconsin is a "little far-fetched." 

 If that man would sue Nature for produc- 

 ing those pesky flies that bother the sheep 

 by tickling their, noses, and cause them to 

 die six months after with "grub in the 

 head," he would be getting nearer the 

 right thing ; but that would not be hurt- 

 ing his neighbor. 



[As white clover is an annual, ot course 

 it should bloom every year.— Ei>.] 



Cold Winter, etc.— A. C. Sanborn, 

 Ono,K) Wis., on June 15, 1885, writes : 



In the fall of 1884 I had 101 colonies, but 

 now 1 have only 41; many of these are 

 weak, and, in fact, all are backward. The 

 early part of the spring was unfavorable, 

 till about May 10, but since that time there 

 has been a good chance for the bees. The 

 past winter was very severe here, the 

 mercury having frozen many times. I 

 wintered most of my bees in an out-door 

 cellar built for that purpose. Twenty 

 colonies were put into a neighbor's cellar, 

 but about % of these perished. Tliis cel- 

 lar, 1 think, was a little too cold, and the 

 disturbance of a house-cellar has a bad 

 tetrdency. White clover is now in bloom, 

 but the basswood is the most reliable here. 



Bees Doing Well.— J. 11. Andre, 

 Lockwood,9 X. Y., on June 26, 1885, 

 says : 



I think that my bees are doing well ; 

 some colonies have stored from 15 tb 35 

 pounds of surplus honey, and cast a good 

 swarm besides. Some make a mistake in 

 not putting on surplus boxes early, as the 

 colony will cast one swarm nearly as 

 early, and a larger one, and it also has a 

 tendency to stop after-swarms, if they are 

 put on early. 



Bees iind their AUeged Depredations. 



— John Dunn, Tooele,*o Utah, on 

 June 20, 1885, writes as follows : 



I have taken great interest in reading 

 the articles on the defense-fund <irganiza- 

 tion. I think that it is just the thing in 

 which every enterprising bee-keeper 

 should be interested, especially if they are 

 situated as we are in this place ; for some 

 say that the bees have brought the codling 

 moth, and that they also injure the fruit 



