THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



159 



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Fulton Co., Ky., April 6, 1877.—" My 15 

 colonies wintered well. I lost 3, the honey 

 being stolen from them." G. Ilisch. 



Woodville, Miss., April 6, 1877.— " Honey 

 is coming in faster than I ever knew it at 

 this season of the year before, but many of 

 the colonies are weak." 



Anna Saundeks. 



Whitesides Co., 111., April 6, 1877.—"! 

 wintered 83 colonies including some light 

 stocks; 3 starved, one left on summer stand 

 died, another died, cause unknown, and 3 

 were queenless." K. K. Murphy. 



Ripon, Wis., April 5, 1877.—" Spring is 

 cold and late ; bees are all in winter quar- 

 ters; this is the latest that they have been 

 kept back with me for 30 years. 1 am win- 

 tering 110 swarms; I cannot tell what their 

 condition is yet. The last season was very 

 poor. I have always taken the Joubnal, 

 am very glad to see the improvement you 

 make from month to month." R. Dakt. 



Hartford, Wis., March 24, 1877.—" We 

 have wintered 734 colonies. They are in 

 six different places. We hire a girl to take 

 care of them in each place, and iiave other 

 help to use in either as needed. We could 

 not get along with any of the extractors ad- 

 vertised; they are too slow for us. We 

 made one to hold 10 frames, to extract 300 

 lbs. per hour, and three others holding 8 

 frames each. We make everything we use 

 in the bee business, except the tin work 

 and barrels. Last season was a poor one; 

 we got 8,000 lbs. of extracted and 1,000 lbs. 

 of box honey. This is not a good place for 

 box honey, as the nights are too cold, driv- 

 ing the bees out of the boxes, and they are 

 slow about returning. We winter in two 

 cellars and four bee houses built on the 

 ground with walls 16 in. thick, filled with 

 sawdust or fine coal." Crowfoot Bros. 



Wellsville, Mo., April 2, 1877.—" In the 

 March number of tlie Journal there is a 

 cut of a hive by Mr. Bull, called the " Ne 

 Plus Ultra,'" and claiming, as the name 

 implies, nothing more beyond— a perfect 

 hive. In the fall of 1867 I bought an in- 

 dividual right of the Langstroth hive of R. 

 K. Otis, now deceased. I paid :58.00 for it. 

 Previous to this I was well acquainted with 

 it, knew the exact size of liive, frames, 

 etc. Had read, in the Journal discussions 

 on its merits, pai'ticular on its shallowness 

 as being a detriment to successful winter- 

 ing, particularly in the North. When I 

 commenced making new hives I concluded 

 to change the proportion and adapt it to a 

 colder climate. 1 was then living in North- 

 ern Illinois, latitude 42 deg. I accordingly 

 shortened the hive 2 in., made it 2 in. 

 deeper and one frame less, and it has been 

 a very good hive with me; but I never 

 dreamed I was using the Ne Phis Ultra 

 hive till I saw the cut in the March num- 

 ber. My hive and the Ne Phis Ultra 

 differs only in two things: My frames are 

 just 1^ in. shorter, and I don't use nails in 

 the upper corners of the frames for them to 

 hang oy. I much prefer a frame to hang on 

 its own top bar. The loose bottom is a 



nuisance in handling. Now, it may be a 

 good plan for every man to give his own 

 hive a name, but 1 much prefer' to give 

 "Honor to whom honor is due," and I claim 

 all hives with movable frames are Langs- 

 troth's, whether they have the exact pro- 

 portions of his or not." John Babfoot. 



Crystal Springs, Miss., Apl. 2, 1877.—" On 

 March 23rd, I had a fine swarm of bees; 

 others on the 25th and 2Gth. They. are get- 

 ting out early. We have a prospect now 

 for a good crop of fruit." J. W. McNeil. 



Montgomery Co., Ind., April 4, 1877.—" I 

 have had a " Bull's run defeat," in winter- 

 ing bees. I put them in a cellar that I win- 

 tered bees two seasons before with success, 

 but the winter just passed has from some 

 cause almost destroyed my apiary. I have 

 about 20 very weak colonies, and am caring 

 for them as best I can. If there had been a 

 flow of honey last September or the first 

 part of October, I am satisfied my bees 

 would have wintered better; there was con- 

 siderable uncapped honey when I put the 

 bees in the cellar. Some had dysentery, 

 others died without soiling the combs. I 

 tiiink I injured my bees by extracting too 

 closely in the first part of the season. Bees 

 kept in the ordinary way suffered much. 1 

 put 48 colonies in cellar, a number of them 

 were small, but suffered no more than 

 stronger ones. The temperature ranged 

 from 32 to 40 deg." Isaac Sharp. 



[ It is evident that the bees died for want 

 of sufficient wholesome food. You extract- 

 ed too closely, and what they gathered after 

 was uncapped, and probably very poor 

 honey. Hence the mortality.— Ed.] 



Lawrence Co., Ind., April 2, 1877.— "I am 

 a dear lover of nature and its products, 

 especially the bee. I have 13 colonies in 

 good condition. They have wintered well. 

 They are of a mixed variety, black, hybrid, 

 and Italian. I think the hybrids superior 

 to either the full black or Italian. They 

 are carrying in pollen from the maple and 

 elm. 1 gave them flour but they soon left it 

 aud went for the natural pollen. I have 

 kept bees for 15 or 20 years, and would not 

 do without them, even for pleasure, if there 

 was no profit. This is not a very good bee 

 country, but what honey we get is of the 

 best quality. It is mostly from poplar and 

 white clover. I get from .50 to 100 lbs. of 

 box honey from good hives in good seasons. 

 Last season was one of the best for several 

 years. I propose to sell a part of mine, as I 

 have no time to attend to them all. I am a 

 close reader of tlie American Bee Jour- 

 nal, and consider it the best bee paper of 

 the day, and no bee-keeper should be with- 

 out it." G. W. DoDsoN. 



Atchison Co., Kansas, April 4, 1877.— "My 

 curiosity is considerably excited by the 

 article on page 134, by Jewell Davis: 'How 

 to Italianize Blacks,' etc. I want to know 

 all about ' that nursery,' as I want to use it 

 myself. Four years since I went into my 

 garden to hoe cabbages, and found a good 

 swarm of black bees on a small, dwarf pear 

 tree. 1 fixed up a small box, I had at hand, 

 aud put them in. I now have 10 colonies, 

 all in fair condition; four hives very strong. 

 Two of them are Italianized; have them all 

 in movable-frame hives. Although 61 years 



