the level regions the flowers have dis- 

 appeared, innumerable sources of honey 

 present themselves among the mountains. 

 With us, migrating seldom occasions great 

 cost or difficulties, since tlie harvest locali- 

 ties, in most cases, do not lie far apart; 

 indeed, many times they are only a few 

 minutes outside of the range of the bees. — 

 Even from Prague, which is quite distant 

 from mountains, a journey to the heaths 

 takes no longer than \}4 to 3 hours bv rail. 

 Finally, I will make one observation:— 

 Would it not be an advantage to the bees to 

 be taken from the dry desert air of the 

 plains into the much cooler, damper atmos- 

 phere of the forest ?" 



Bees wintered well in the vicinity of Paris, 

 and accounts from various parts of Germany 

 show general success in wintering there. 

 From Italy, where the season is of course 

 further advanced, L'Apicoltore (Milan) for 

 April, brings the following report: "It is 

 not an inclination to fall into vain laments, 

 but merely as a matter of duty that we state 

 that the bad weather during the past month 

 has destroyed the first honey resources — the 

 rape blossoms and those of tiie fruit-bearing 

 plants. It is therefore not difficult to see 

 beforehand that swarming will be some- 

 what late this year and not very great." 



Alsace Lorkaine.— M. Dennler, one of 

 the editors or Der Blenen Zucchter, says in 

 the April number: 



"A good basis for ample returns during 

 1878 is laid. Wintering, thus far, has been 

 favorable. From the first of January until 

 the mi<]dle of February, continuous, yet not 

 too severe cold weather has kept our little 

 creatures in a normal and beneficial condi- 

 tion of rest. Since the latter date the weather 

 has been growing milder every day; the 

 early days of March appeared as real "spring 

 days, and the bees buzzed and carried in 

 pollen as in the month of May. The un- 

 pleasant days following have caused no 

 damage. The first cleansing flight took 

 place liere on the 14th of February. In the 

 rearing of brood the hives aie already toler- 

 ably advanced, particularly the straw 

 hives." 



Note the statement of M. Dennler's expe- 

 rience with straw hives for wintering. The 

 weather had l)een cold constantly up to the 

 middle of February, yet he says his hives 

 were well supi)lied with brood at that time, 

 some having two combs filled to the bottom 

 with sealed brood. Of course colonies lo- 

 cated in large wooden hives, having the 

 combs well packed above and at the sides 

 with dry chaff or straw, and the cover raised 

 to permit the escape of damp air, have all 

 the advantages of straw hives for wintering. 



Preserving Empty Combs.— At a con- 

 vention in Austria, Herr Gatter, of Vienna, 

 made the following interesting remarks: 

 "While traveling in Italy I met a merchant 

 who showed me a finii stock of empty combs. 

 This was at the hottest time of the yeaiv 

 and, astonished at not finding a trace of 

 moths about his combs, I asked him his se- 

 cret in preparing them. 'It is to chance 



that I owe it,' replied he. ' One day I de- 

 posited quite a quantity of scraps of comb 

 in a wareroom where there were also some 

 empty petroleum casks. Shortly after this 

 one of my sons, wishing to put something 

 else in the place occupied by the scraps of 

 comb, put the latter into one of the petrole- 

 um casks. These combs were forgotten, 

 and a long time afterwards when I found 

 them they had not suffered from thei'avages 

 of the moth. Since then I have preserved 

 my empty combs in petroleum casks. If I 

 wish to lise them afterwards I first expose 

 them to the open air in order that they may 

 lose the odor of the petroleum. If, after 

 some time, the cask loses its strong odor, 

 one can smear it with petroleum.' " A 

 dealer in furniture informs the writer that 

 among upholsterers and furniture dealers 

 the practice prevails of immersing and 

 soaking in naphtha valuable pieces of fur- 

 niture, in order to prevent moth larvse from 

 injuring the cloth or wood. One can have 

 a chest or long box to hang his combs in, 

 with a shallow pan containing petroleum in 

 the bottom, and the wood of the box can be 

 thoroughly impregnated with the same, so 

 that if the plan works as indicated, there 

 need be little trouble in keeping empty 

 combs during warm weather. 



The Origin of Bet.l Ringing for 

 Bees. — An Englishman told me, some time 

 since, that an English bee-keeper said to 

 him that bees had no ears, and, of course, 

 could not hear. He asked him why he rang 

 bells for them when they swarmed ? He 

 answered, that people Avere not there 

 allowed to cross fields and gardens, but the 

 law provided that a person could do so if he 

 was following a swarm of bees ; and the 

 ringing of the bell was to let the occupants 

 of the premises know that he was following 

 a swarm of bees. This is the best explana- 

 tion of the origin of bell ringing for bees 

 that I have ever heard. S. K. Marsh. 



Palo, Mich., May 10, 1878. 



Benton Harbor, May 4. 1878. 

 " What ails my bees ?" was the question 

 asked by a neighbor, who lives on the lake 

 shore, and who has, or had, about 15 colo- 

 nies, 7 of which have gone "where the 

 woodbine twineth," or somewhere else. — 

 Their hives contained plenty of honey, in 

 good and sweet condition ; plenty of brood 

 in all stages, no moths nor mold, nor signs 

 of any. They seem to be dissatisfied, and 

 swarm out. One swarm was stopped, re- 

 turned and queen's wing clipped; but they 

 afterwards went off, leaving but a very 

 few with the queen They seem to have 

 got the western emigration fever, which 

 is raging this spring. L. 



i^Now is the time to sow the Rocky 

 Mountain bee plant. It grows from 3 

 to 6 feet high and blooms from July till 

 frost. 



J. H. Nellis of Canajoharie, N. Y. 



will hereafter supply the VauDeusen Bee 

 Feeder at reduced prices. 



