THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



205 



Kenton, Tenn., May 2, 1877.—" 1 have 44 

 colonies of bees, all but 3 in good condition, 

 and they are queen less. I started in the 

 spring of 1873 with 4 colonies in box gums. 

 I have increased from natural swarming. I 

 have them now in 2-story Langstroth hives, 

 and about half of them Italianized." 



J. W. Howell. 



Hubbard, O., May .3, 1877.—" I report 18 

 stocks on hand. May 1st; 13 were wintered 

 on summer stands, packed round with hay, 

 chaif on top; 6 were kept in cellar, 3 of 

 which had a fiy in Feb., the other 3 were in 

 cellar till April, and came out in as good 

 condition as the others, 2 rather weak, the 

 others in good condition." J. Winfield. 



Jersey Co., 111., April 18, 1877.—" Last 

 year was a poor season for bees here. They 

 did tolerably well until about July 20th; 

 after that they gathered but little honey, it 

 being too wet. They went into winter 

 quarters in poor condition and wintered 



Eoorly; some having lost nearly all their 

 ees. Nearly all who keep bees here have 

 them in the old box hive, set them up in a 

 corner of the yard, and let them go it on the 

 'root-hog-or-die' principle, and the conse- 

 quence is they liave lost heavily by it. 

 Mine came through the winter all right, and 

 ai'e breeding np finely now. I winter on 

 summer stands with quilts over the frames 

 and filled in with straw. I fed some last 

 fall. What we want here is more subscrib- 

 ers to the Journal, to dispel some of the 

 ignorance that exists in regard to bee-keep- 

 ing. 1 saw an old bee-keeper the other day, 

 who said he had lost 14 out of SS colonies, 

 and most that were left were weak. He 

 said bees should never be fed; wanted no 

 Italians or frames in his hives; had kept 

 bees for 30 years; knew all about them; yet 

 he had not been able to get more than 30 lbs 

 of surplus per hive in one season. But we 

 see he fails to comprehend the first prin- 

 ciples of bee-keeping." H. D. Edwards. 



Fayette Co.. Ky.. May 14, 1877.— "Friend 

 Newman: The Barnes saw you sent me 

 has come to hand all right, and I am much 

 pleased with it. With a little practice I 

 think I can operate it well. It cuts smooth- 

 ly and leaves the work in good style." 



L. M. Land. 



Fremont Co., Iowa, April 28, 1877.—" I 

 cannot report as favorably as I expected 

 in Feb.; then my bees were taking a clens- 

 ing fly on their summer stands, and seemed 

 to be nearly as strong as when they went 

 into winter quarters. But since that time 

 we have had a taste of spring dwindling, 

 and met with some loss, and would have 

 lost considerably more had I not united 

 several weak ones that were too weak to 

 build up. The spring has been very un- 

 favorable, as the weather has been cold and 

 rainy, and bees have been unable to gather 

 anything, and the prospect now is that the 

 fruit bloom is killed, as to-day finds us with 

 fully 3 inches of snow on the ground, and 

 the fruit trees that were blooming yester- 

 day are to-day covered with snow and ice. 

 I think our wholesale dwindling this spring 

 was caused by a lack of young bees at the 

 beginning of winter, and most likely the 

 fruits of our honey drouth which comuieuc- 

 ed about the middle of Aug.. which in a 

 great measure stopped tlie breeding that 



should have kept up until Oct. The bees 

 that I wintered out-of-doors in a shed pre- 

 pared for the purpose did better than those 

 in the celler, but my weakest ones wei'e 

 kept in the cellar which was dry and free 

 from frost. I only lost one by dysentery, 

 and that was a black stock, the only one I 

 had. The Italians showed no signs of 

 dysentery. 



"In my article in April number, page 135, 

 there is a slight mistake. It should have 

 read thus: *we got a little surplus from the 

 linden bloom; but from about the middle of 

 Aug. honey was a failure.' " 



John L Martin. 



Jasper Co., Iowa, April 34, 1877.—" Bees 

 have come out worse here, this spring, than 

 ever before. I put 67 in the cellar last fall, 

 but now have only 37 left; some of them 

 weak. My bees were all right in Feb.; we 

 had good and warm weather during that 

 month, and I put my bees out. March set 

 in rough and very cold; then I put my bees 

 back in the cellar again, and from that time 

 on they began to die and seem to be at it 

 yet. They look and act healthy one day 

 and the next they are sickly and crawl out 

 of the hive and die, with the hives full of 

 honey and pollen. But I did not fare any 

 worse than others. The oldest bee-keeper 

 in the county has only five stands left out 

 of about 100. Another has 3 left out of 39; 

 others lost all they had. Of the last named 

 there are a great number throughout the 

 county. Last season bees did well here, 

 both in swarms and surplus honey." 



Christian Griebeling. 



Chickasaw Co., Iowa, April 23, 1877.— "By 

 the January number 1 learn that O. O. Pop- 

 pleton has considerable trouble in wintering. 

 I am in the same latitude, but I have no 

 trouble. I winter in the cellar altogether, 

 while he winters out-of-doors. My bees did 

 well last winter. Out of 18 I lost only 1. 

 The cellar was somewhat damp and some of 

 the combs were mouldy. I did not have 

 any ventilation. I think every cellar ought 

 to have a good ventilator, where bees are 

 kept. My method of wintering is: first, to 

 have plenty of wholesome stores; secondly, 

 to have all good, young, thrifty queens; and 

 thirdly, to have a good, dry, well-ventilated 

 cellar; with all these points in view I think 

 bees can be wintered with safety. I gener- 

 ally leave my bees out until settled cold 

 waather comes, then I put them in, leaving 

 off the caps, to give upward ventilation. I 

 use the American frame, and like it much 

 better than any I have yet seen. I use the 

 honey quilt on my hives, and leave the bees 

 in the cellar undisturbed until April 1st, 

 then set them out and they are all right. 

 Last spring I had only 10 stocks when blos- 

 soms came. Increased to 20, and got about 

 400 lbs of mostly extracted honey, and sold 

 it readily at 30c. and 35c. per lb. I could 

 sell more, without any trouble." 



Ed. J. Hill. 



Koshkonong, Wis.. April 33, 1877.— "Nov. 

 34, 1876— No. of stocks placed in cellar. 99; 

 temperature, most of the time, from 38= to 

 40\ Feb. 7— Gave bees a chance to fly; 

 temperature from 40' to 42\ Finally it ap- 

 proached and past 50% when, on April 4th, I 

 placed them outside again. Loss up to date, 

 11 stocks, and a few more likely to follow." 

 D. P. Lane. 



