16 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



now, and I think tliat a crossing of the bees 

 by raisins (jueens from one importation and 

 drones from another, will produce better 

 workers than raising queens and drones 

 from the same stock of bees." 



R. R. MUBPHY. 



Orange Co., N. Y.— "Last spring I had 20 

 hives, have now 32, and have obtained about 

 578 pounds of honey in four-pound boxes and 

 have about 100 pounds in frames. The hives 

 are now^ all in good order with more than 

 enough honey for wintering. The honey 

 here is of superior quality, being made from 

 locust blossoms ancl white clover ; there is 

 no buckwheat raised about this section, con- 

 sequently have no dark-colored or strong 

 honey stored in boxes. Being made from 

 such flowers, it is the finest flavored honey 

 produced anywhere. My apiary at New 

 Windsor Nursery is composed of Italian, 

 hybrids and black bees, but 1 flnd the Italian 

 far ahead, especially in times of scarcity of 

 honey. I had one swarm of Italians that 

 stored in boxes 66 pounds the last three 

 weeks of June, and have since made 23 

 pounds, also in boxes. Others have made 

 50 to 40, and so down to 10 pounds each. I 

 use a movable-comb frame hive of my own 

 getting up, and it has thus far proved a com- 

 plete success. While some with common 

 box hives andtheoldfashioned way of keep- 

 ing bees have very little honey or hives, I 

 now, after three years';practice, have more 

 honey and bees than I know what to do 

 with." Marcus D. DuBois. 



San Buenaventura, Cal., Dec. 4, 1876. — 

 " The large quantities of honey produced 

 in South-western California and deposited 

 mainly in San Francisco is being rapidly 

 sent ofi" to all ]>arts of the world, and sales 

 are becoming more easy at higher figures ; 

 yet the risks of sending comb-honey long 

 distances is making the demand for ex- 

 tracted honey greater ; thus bringing the 

 price of the two nearer together. This 

 county, Ventura, young in the bee business, 

 is one of the best in the state, and is rapidly 

 increasing in its number of colonies, and 

 our bee-keepers' conventions assistmuch in 

 perfecting their management. We have had 

 one shower of rain since last March, and ex- 

 pect some moi"e sometime tliis winter, al- 

 though it is now as warm and sunshiny as 

 in July." R. Wilkin. 



Nazareth, Pa., Dec. 4, 1876.— "I was at the 

 Centennial at the time of the honey exhibi- 

 tion, though too late to be present at the 

 Convention. I was pleased to meet the 

 greatest apiarian in the world, Mr. Harbi- 

 son, who has 3,000 stand of bees, and who 

 brought in from California 100 tons of 

 honeycomb. He kindly drew a sketch of 

 his hive, and explained his mode of pro- 

 ceedure and the arrangement of his surplus 

 boxes, and cheerfully answered the many 

 questions asked him, for which he deserves 

 tlie sincere thanks of those of us who were 

 present. I was also pleased to see Mr. 

 Latchaw, of Barkeyville, Venango Co., Pa., 

 exhibit his Union Section Extention bee 

 hive; he took the sections apart, showing 

 the combs with the adhering bees and 

 queen. It was a real pleasure to see so 

 many of our apiarian friends at the Centen- 

 nial. Accept my best wishes for you and 

 the continued success of The Am"ekican 

 Bee Jourxai.." Wm. Christ. 



®orvc$pondcucc» 



For the American Bee Journal. 



When and How to Change Queens. 



I find it profitable about once a year to 

 overhaul and change queens. When a 

 queen is 3 years old, even if a very good one 

 in the spring of the 4th summer sjje will 

 probably begin to fail, 4 out of 5 will do so. 



We change our queens about from July 

 1st to lOtli. Just when the white clover be- 

 gins to fail to secrete honey, at that time 

 the swarming fever is nearly over. We re- 

 move an old queen or separate a full colony 

 from a good stock of workers and start as 

 many queens cells as possible, and on the 

 ninth day after, remove a good cell and put 

 one in each hive, in the honey boxes on top. 

 Don't disturb the old queen; as soon as the 

 young queen hatches, she will crawl down 

 into the hive, and at once the bees will ac- 

 cept the young queen. The old queen will 

 soon be disposed of. Do not throw her out, 

 for if the queen larvfe is 2 or 3 days hatch- 

 ing, they will start other cells, and throw 

 out the yovnig queen. Put them in a top 

 honey box,and the bees will hardly ever cut 

 them out, and in this way an apiary can be 

 supplied with new queens very readily. 



Alfred Chapman. 



Hancock Co., W. Va. 



For the American Bee Jonrnal. 



Northern Minnesota Apiaries. 



The season of 1876 was rather a poor one 

 for bee men in Northern Minnesota; the 

 spring was cold and windy. From the 20th 

 of May to the middle of June honey was 

 more plenty; then dry, hot weather set in, 

 and honey was scarce till July 25, when 

 basswood came into bloom; then honey was 

 abundant for 2 weeks. The weather was 

 fine and the bees stored honey rapidly. 

 From Aug. 10 to Oct. 1 we had very un- 

 favorable weather for honey gathering; it 

 was cloudy or raining full one-third of the 

 time. Honey and pollen was plenty all 

 through the fall, altnough we had a heavy 

 frost on Aug. 26 and Sept. 1; after that the 

 nights were cold, and bees could work but 

 a few hours each day. Nov. 9 and 10, my 

 bees stored 2 or 3 lbs. of honey to the hive; 

 but what they found to gather honey from 

 is a mystery to me; everything looked dead 

 and as dry as a chip. 



I commenced last spring with 3 stocks; 

 when I took them out of the cellar, I trans- 

 ferred them from box hives into the "Nortli 

 Star" movable frame hive, with only good 

 comb enough to fill 5 or 6 frames to the 

 hive. I run them for increase of stocks. 

 Now I have 12 strong stocks in winter quar- 

 ters, in good condition. I got enough sur- 

 plus box honey to more than pay me for all 

 my trouble. 



Honey-plants are plenty here. In the 

 spring we have first the willow, poplar, 

 gooseberry, wild currents, plum, cherry, 

 june-berry, prickly ash, black and red haw, 

 raspberry, with many wild flowers; then 

 basswood and buckwheat, golden-rods, as- 

 tors, starworts, and many other frost 

 flowers. A. J. Haney. 



Todd Co., Minn., Nov. 29, 1876. 



