302 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Shelbyville, Ky., Aug. 22, 1877.— "Bees 

 have (June first-rate. 1 have taken 300 lbs. 

 from tJ stocks, and increased to 13. My 

 Italians are tar superior to the spiteful 

 blacks." Geo. T. Horning. 



Prairie du Sac, Aug. 23, 1877.—" I have 12 

 colonies of black bees, but have no extrac- 

 tor. I intend to get one in the spring, and 

 also to try the foundation in surplus boxes." 

 11. G. King. 



Youngsville, Pa.. Aug. 18, 1877.— "Friend 

 Newman: My 170 colonies of Italians are 

 wading into the buckwheat with a zeal that 

 does one good to see. No black bees for 

 me. 1 tried them 20 years, and know 

 whereof I speak, Mr. Potter or any other 

 man to the contrarj^, notwithstanding." 



W.J. Davis. 



Madison, Ark., Aug. 24, 1877. — " The 

 queens 1 received from Mr. Henderson are 

 as beautiful as any I ever saw direct from 

 Italy; they produce fine workers; for 

 beauty and purity they are excelled by 

 none. The untested queen that he sent me 

 produces very fine workers. We have one 

 of the finest bee locations in the U. S. Our 

 honey season commences in March, with 

 the bud bloom, which is excellent for pol- 

 len; then come the fruit trees, arid in Ajiril 

 and May the poplar, which grow in abun- 

 dance, and the I'osin-weed. These are in- 

 strumental in causing swarming in May. 

 We are troubled very little here with moths, 

 in fact none where colonies are kept strong. 

 We have basswood or linn, tulip, gum, cj'- 

 press, and catnip, in abundance, and a kind 

 of swamp mustard that is a rich honey 

 plant; then the smartweed and various 

 other blooms equally as good. In fact, bees 

 have good pasturage here from March 15th 

 to last of Sept., and sometimes until Christ- 

 mas. I have seen cotton bloom on Jan. 1st, 

 and on Christmas day, 1875, the peach trees 

 were in bloom. Bees give an average of 50 

 lbs. of surplus per hive every year here. 

 This has been rather a poor lioney season 

 on account of rain. 



"1 use a hive of Chas. Reade's construc- 

 tion. I prefer it to any that I ever saw. 

 The brood chamber contains 9 frames, 12 

 in. square. It is so constructed as to use 

 supers if desired; the cap contains 9 frames 

 12x7, and if desired, can, by removing the 

 sides, be made double this size; we do so 

 when Italianizing. There is not much dan- 

 ger in getting the queens purely mated. 

 There are several bee-keepers here, but 

 they know little and take less interest in 

 their bees, they keep them for home con- 

 sumption. The old log gum is used mostly 

 here. We liave a home market for our 

 honey here, extracted at 15c., and comb at 

 20c. per lb. 



"I wish to know what is best to feed bees 

 to make them produce comb." 



Joel L. Kichardson. 



[Feed them good honey; wax is the /at 

 produced by feeding nutritious food. It 

 takes from 15 to 25 lbs. of honey to produce 

 one pound of wax. Wax exudes from the 

 folds of the abdomen of workers; thin 

 flakes or scales form and are removed by 

 the bees, and used for constructing comb. 

 Good, rich food is therefore essential.— Ed.] 



Kenton, Tenn., Aug. 24th, 1877.—" Had a 

 fine swarm of Italian bees to come out yes- 

 terday; they are doing well." 



J. W. Howell. 



Benton City, Mo., July 23, 1877.— "Our 

 bees are getting along very well, so far as 

 brood is concerned, but are not gathering 

 much honey. The spring was so wet that 

 we lost all peach and apple bloom. White 

 clover did but little good. Had some wil- 

 low, but no honey-dew. Our harvest has 

 been a poor one up to the present time, but 

 we have now a very fine prospect for fall 

 harvest, and I am trying to have my bees in 

 condition to take their share of it. I am 

 Italianizing, and find it very difficult to in- 

 troduce a virgin queen; my bees kill them 

 as fast as I put them in. I lost 16. Why is 

 this? I use all the precaution at my com- 

 mand. 



"I sent to Dr. Brown, of Augusta, Ga., for 

 a nuclei with imported queen, but owing to 

 a delay in the express, they were in bad 

 condition. The queen did not lay for two 

 weeks, although I built them up strong. 

 Now she is a very fine layer, only she 

 avoids drone laying. Until recently, I 

 could not get any drone eggs — the very 

 thing I wanted. 1 had suppressed all black 

 drones. She is a very fine queen and 1 am 

 well pleased with her. I put two sheets of 

 Italian drone eggs in the top story of a 

 black hive, the bees removed every drone 

 egg, leaving worker eggs. 



" Why are some Italian workers gray 

 romped, and some black-steak romped— 

 all from the same mother, and all showing 

 the 3 yellow bands ? Why is not a queen 

 reared in nuclei as large and good as when 

 reared in a full colony ? Why are they 

 ditferently marked? 



"Why does a drone rub its head and eyes 

 before leaving the hive ? Why are they 

 differently marked — all from the same 

 mother? 



"I use a queen nursery, after the plan of 

 Nellis." P. P. Collier. 



[A queen cell or young queen just emerg- 

 ing from a cell is usually received with 

 favor after the old queen is removed and 

 all other queen cells destroyed. It would 

 be well to sprinkle with sweetened water or 

 smoke them well, and try again. 



The bees removed the drone eggs no 

 doubt because they did not desire to have 

 drones, though you wanted them. 



Some impurity in the stock will account 

 for the varying in color, etc. 



Drones doubtless rub their head and eyes 

 before leaving the hive for the purpose of 

 being the better able to perceive a queen on 

 her bridal trip. The head of a drone being 

 nearly all eyes for tiiat especial purpose. — 

 Ed.] 



Dundee, 111., Aug. 14, 1877.—" I have in- 

 creased my 6 colonies of bees to 20, which 

 are all quite strong but 2. One of these 

 had a very curious-acting queen; she did 

 not commence laying until long after the 

 others, and then the eggs were very few in 

 the combs. The bees have now killed her 

 and are building queen cells." F, Perry. 



