THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



443 



c^, vsSi f^^^ TTT'^'T^'^ . - ^' ^ 



Good Crop of White Clover.— J. W, 



Sanders, Le Grand,© Iowa, on July 3, 

 1885, writes : 



Our bees in Central Iowa are just a- 

 booming now, and they are just wliere 

 they ousht to have been about June 1. 

 Swarming and all are about one month 

 late. I never have seen a belter show of 

 white clover than now. I rode over sev- 

 eral miles of country yesterday, and it 

 looks to me as if there are 500 heads of 

 clover to every bee In the country. Many 

 bees were lost by the hard winter and 

 sprini; dwindlinfr. From the best I can 

 learn, about one-half of them died. 



Moving Bees in the Hot Sun.— W. 



II. Downs, Stoueville,K3 Miss., on 

 June 29, 188.5, says : 



A few days since I moved 10 colonies of 

 bees, having transferred them successfully, 

 and loaded them on a wagon. I moved 

 them 25 miles and lost 9 colonies out of 

 the 10. The sun was too hot. 



Sowing B ncl£ wheat.— G. L. Rankin, 

 Weston ,+o Ky., asks ttie following 

 question : 



When is the best time to sow buckwheat 

 for fall honey, or for bees to work on in 

 the fall ? 



[It should be sown during this month, 

 and the earlier the better, in order to serve 

 the bees for fall use. Sow broadcast on 

 rich soil ; three pecks to the acre.— Ed.] 



Sheep and Gad-Flies.— Dwight Ful- 

 ness, rurnessville,~o lud., writes : 



We have owned a large tinck of sheep 

 for years, and witli large numbers of bees 

 in this vicinity I can testify that they do. 

 not molest the sheep wliile foraging. "The 

 plaintiff in this suit no doubt mistook the 

 troublesome gad-fly, for the bees. (See an 

 account of the same in " Randall's Sheep 

 Husbandry.") 



Bees are Busy.- 11— K. C. Aikin, 

 (11-21), Shambaugh,p Iowa, on July 

 4, 188.5, writes : 



Everybody seems taken with the Bee- 

 Keepers' Union ; I am, too, but more so 

 with the increase in bees and honey. I 

 am now getting my first crop of clover 

 honey. Never before has white clover 

 been abundant enough here to yield a sur- 

 plus. I have already increased my stock 

 from 11 colonies to 21, and I will easily 

 treble if not quadruple it by Sept. 1. One 

 new colony on scales has averaged IK 

 pounds per day since June 13. Basswood 

 will begin to open to-day, while clover is 

 yet good. Bees gathered as much to-day 

 as on any day. 



The Honey Harvest, etc.— James 

 Heddon, Dowagiac, p Mich., on July 

 6, 1885, says : 



The clover harvest is a good one here, 

 and basswood is full, and will open in 4 or 

 5 days. We are now practicing " modern 

 transferring" with over 50 colonies, and 

 with perfect and uniform success, not- 

 withstanding the cool nights. I would 

 never think of the old method again. 

 Reversible frames are a great blessing, 

 and I could not be induced to use any 

 other. Their advantages are beyond my 



greatest expectations. Mr. W. G. Fish 

 (on page 40(1) has given about all the argu- 

 ment or proof against the "pollen theory " 

 that I have seen lately. I never saw a 

 case, nor before heard of one, where bees 

 wintered on natural stores voided nothing 

 after a long confinement, or short one 

 either, for that matter. Is Mr. F. mis- 

 taken, or is it possible that some honey is 

 entirely free from nitrogen ? His hives 

 must have been so arranged as to well 

 protect their inmates from the 28° temper- 

 ature when it lowered to that point. It 

 still remains that diarrhetic excreta is 

 nitrogen— pollen. 



Alsilie Clover.— A. C. Goff, Syra- 

 cuse,© N. Y., asks the following : 



I send a clover blossom taken from 

 clover that grows about two-thirds as 

 high as red clover, and very fragrant. I 

 find patches of it in a field of red clover. 

 What is the name of it 1 



[The clover is Alsike. It is not uncom- 

 mon for patches to come up in red clover 

 fields, as a little of this seed is sprinkled 

 among the red clover seed in many cases. 

 Yesterday I saw a 10-acre field of this 

 Alsike clover in full bloom, and roaring 

 with bees. It was a good sight, and the 

 man who has it is getting an immense 

 crop of honey.— A. J. Cook.] 



Basswood Loolcs Promising. — Wm. 



E. Harris, Bay City,o+ Mich., on .July 

 3, 1885, says : 



The winter and spring losses in this 

 locality have been fully 75 per cent. Bees 

 are now building up lively on white 

 clover. Basswood bids fair to be a very 

 large yield. 



Expecting a Large Yield.- Fayette 

 Lee, Cokato,© Minn., on July 5, 1885, 

 says : 



I have 24 new colonies, and my apiary 

 now numbers 114. I shall extract honey 

 to-morrow, for the boxes and upper stories 

 are full. I have taken off some finished 

 sections, and now have 1,200 on the hives, 

 and 800 more to put on. The basswood 

 will be in bloom in one week, and then I 

 will be kept busy. I believe that I have 

 one of the best apiaries in the State, and 

 can show as good a record as any in win- 

 tering, tor I lost only out of 80 during 

 the past winter and spring. My bees 

 were in the cellar 150 days. I am getting 

 ready for 5,000 pounds of honey this year, 

 as the basswood is full of buds. I have 

 some colonies that have 18 frames to 

 work on, and besides there is a half-pail 

 ful of bees lying out. 



Transferring Bees, etc. — N. L. 



Minor, a deaf-mute bee-keeper of 

 Clarksville,(^ Mo., on July 5, 1885, 

 writes : 



The Bee Joitknai. has taught me many 

 new methods in bee-culture. There are 

 a great many basswood trees and nuich 

 clover along the hill about 400 to 500 

 yards south and about a mile west, north 

 and east of my apiary. My apiary is 

 nearly surrounded by the hill witli bass- 

 wood and red-bud trees. The bees are 

 busy gathering honey from basswood and 

 clover. 1 have read the discussion about 

 transferring bees from box-hives to new 

 hives, by Rev. O. Clute and Mr. James 

 Heddon. Mr. Clute really has the wrong 

 idea. There is something wrong in his 

 plan of transferring bees. I could easily 

 transfer bees from box-hives to new hives. 

 I will wager five dollars that I can trans- 

 fer bees at any time from February until 



fall. I transferred bees from box-hives to 

 new hives last OcUjber, and prepared 

 them for winter ; they are now in good 

 condition. Again, I transferred 14 colo- 

 nies in February and April. I favor Mr. 

 Heddon's plan," at any time." Some bee- 

 keepers have the idea that it is better to 

 transfer l)ees from old to new hives during 

 apjiic liliioni. I cannot agree with them. 

 IuMiteil2or 3 swarms, and they seemed 

 to welcome each other. They did not 

 fight nor quarrel. I extracted the honey 

 from some old colonies, but I got only a 

 little. 1 united some of them, and 

 then gave the empty combs to new 

 colonies, thus saving "them the time to 

 build new combs. I do not think it a 

 good plan to prevent swarming, nor to 

 divide colonies. I have 30 strong colonies 

 in splendid condition. 1 will be glad to 

 help any fellow-bee-keeper out of trouble. 

 I feel sorry for Mr. Freeborn, of Wiscon- 

 sin. Let us all try to help him out of his 

 trouble. I hope that we can do it. 



Abundance of Bloom, but no Nectar. 



— Robert Corbett,Manhattan,<5 Kans., 

 on July 6, 1885, says : 



Up to this date the seasons of 1883 and 

 1884 were very poor, but the present sea- 

 son has been the most discouraging of the 

 three, owing to the long continued cold 

 and wet dnring the months of May and 

 June, so much so that the bees killed 

 their drones till late in June, and the 

 wet still continues, with an abundance of 

 bloom and a starvation of bees. Bass- 

 wood has been in bloom for a week, but 

 there is not much nectar in it. White 

 clover, motherwort, catnip, mustard, 

 blue-vervain and sweet clover, all are in 

 bloom, and are fine to look upon, but there 

 is too much wet. So our prospects are not 

 very promising at present ; but our motto 

 is, " Try, try again." 



Plenty of Swarms and Honey. — B. 



T. Baldwin, Marion,© Ind., on July 

 7, 1885, writes : 



The basswood is in ftdl bloom, and is 

 the most abundant bloom that I have ever 

 seen ; but it is not yielding as much nec- 

 tar as it has done in other years. The 

 bees have taken the swarming fever the 

 worst that I have ever known, and if all 

 my queens' wings were not clipped, I 

 would have lost nearly every one that 

 swarmed. Five swarms came out a week 

 ago last Suiulay. They swarmed 2 or S 

 times a day for 4 days, when I broke it up 

 and divided the bees among other good 

 working colonies, and they went to work 

 at once. Six of my colonies have already 

 produced over 100 pounds of extracted 

 honey per colony. 



Robber Bees — Transferring, — G. W. 



Ashby, Valley Station, 5 Ky., writes 

 thus : 



Can any of the readers of the Bee Joxir- 

 NAL enlighten me on the following new 

 (to me) case : A swarm of bees came out 

 in due order, clustered, and was hived and 

 put some 25 or 30 feet froui the parent 

 hive. All seemed to be working finely 

 late in the evening, in fact too nmch for 

 so short a time after swarming, and when 

 traced up to see where such a constant 

 stream of bees went and came in such 

 quick succession, it was ascertained that 

 the swarm was robbing the parent colony, 

 it being near night when it was discov- 

 ered, I closed the entrance to a single 

 bee-space, hoping that they would forget 

 it by the next morning ; but the next day 

 they went at it with renewed vigor ; nor 

 would they cease till the parent colony 

 was carried some distance away and hid 

 in the weeds. I have been keeping bees 

 for nearly .30 years, and I have never had 

 such an occurrence. Again, I must say 



