I keep my cellar dark, but go into it with a 

 lamp as often as I have occasion to. My 

 experience has exploded many a fine theory, 

 such as : Never disturb them during the 

 winter. Neither have I ever been benefited 

 by winter flights, and have quit it entirely 

 and set it down as an erroneous theory. 

 Palo, Mich. S. K. Maksh. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How I Raise White Clover Honey. 



As s©on as white clover connnences to 

 bloom, divide the strongest swarm. I use 

 the Langstroth hive. It should be done 

 before queen cells are started. Take a new 

 hive, painted like the one you wish to 

 divide, and from the old one remove 5 

 frames, (3^), containing brood of ail ages 

 with the adhering bees, into the new one, 

 leaving the queen in the old hive. Put a 

 division board in the new hive, set boxes 

 on the frames, close up J^ the entrance 

 and leave it on the old stand. Remove the 

 old hive 20 or 30 feet away, fill it out with 

 empty frames and the job is done. 



In a few hours a large proportion of the 

 old worker bees will return to the old stand, 

 enter the new hive, thus crowding it. They 

 will commence building queen cells in the 

 brood chamber at once, while the surplus 

 bees will be forced up into the boxes, and 

 begin work. By the time a queen is ma- 

 tured the boxes will be filled with nice, 

 white honey. Enough bees will remain in 

 the old hive to keep it prosperous, as it has 

 a laying queen. W. C. Towle. 



Eugene, Ind., May 7, 1878. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Burch vs. Novice. 



Mr. Editor:— It is not my desire to 

 excite any ill feelings or controversy 

 through the columns of our valuable Bee 

 Journal,, yet, the desire to see fair play 

 prompts a lew words on my part ; and it 

 certanily does seem to me that Mr. Burch 

 should have borne his loss, in the matter of 

 comb foundation, without calling on Novice 

 to make it good. At that time it was but 

 an experiment, and Mr. Burch could surely 

 only have ordered it as such. 



A. I. Root has had to bear a great deal of 

 abuse at various times, and perhaps he 

 deserves some of it, though I have liad some 

 dealings with him, and the trade was on 

 the square. But Novice nuist certainly 

 "rise and explain" about that deficiency in 

 the weight ot the beeswax. 



Some time ago, the columns of our bee pub- 

 lication contained the announcement that 

 a new work on the honey bee had been 

 published, and the title thereof was a taking 

 one, " Money in the Apiary," and it was to 

 tell us all how to double our profits ; and, 

 Mr. Editor, as I had never got all the money 

 that I wanted from my apiary, I forthwith 

 enclosed the desired "2.5c., and sent for it ; 

 waiting anxiously, in the meantime, for its 

 arrival. Just imagine my feelings when I 

 received an envelope, (a conunon buff one), 

 with my bee book inside of it. I must con- 



fess I never felt so badly sold before. The 

 size of it being 3x5 inches, and containing, 

 all told, 19 pages of reading matter and a 

 few advertisements ; and one of the most 

 important of its teachings is, that we must 

 re-queen all of our colonies the first thing 

 we do in the spring. And where is the 

 successful bee-keeper who does it ?" t|^^^ 

 Cambridge, 111. J. V. Caldavell. 



Bee Interests in Los Angeles, Cal. 



N. Levering is editing a column called the 

 " Bee-Keepers' Column," in the Los Ange- 

 les Star, being requested to do so by the 

 Convention lately held in that county, from 

 which we extract the following : 



SWARMING 



The swarming season is upon us, and 

 from all we can learn bees are casting an 

 unusual number of swarms, but not so large 

 as ordinarily. They seem disposed to re- 

 trieve the losses of the past and are spread- 

 ing out their forces rather thin. One, and 

 perhaps the only reason that can be assign- 

 ed for this is that colonies generally, were 

 quite weak at the commencement of the 

 working season, which opened upon them 

 quite luxuriously, and inspired their work- 

 ers at once to action, and her majesty of the 

 hive to active duties to augment her forces 

 to gather the coming bountiful harvest, 

 there being a large surplug of empty comb 

 at her service. We are often asked the 

 question, how to prevent swarming ? The 

 only cure that we can prescribe is artificial 

 swarming, or cut out all the queen cells 

 every eight days. Care should be taken to 

 remove every cell, for should there be one 

 left a swarm will certainly follow. Many 

 absconding swarms are passing through the 

 country en route for the mountain of Hepsi- 

 dam, or a lodge in some vast wilderness. 

 There is no general rule by which the 

 apiarist can tell when they are going to 

 swai'm, they often swarm when least ex- 

 pected, and need careful watching from 

 about eight o'clock in the morning till four 

 in the afternoon. 



bee-keepers' meeting. 



Meeting met pursuant to adjourment. 

 President A. J. Davidson in the chair. 

 Minutes of last meeting read and approved. 

 The President stated that he had received a 

 communication from Mr. Wilkins, of Van- 

 tura county, stating that there were about 

 2,200 colonies ot bees in that county to be- 

 gin the season with. Packages for market- 

 ing honey was then taken up and discussed. 

 E. W. Sinclair advocated shipping in barrels, 

 ironed hooped and thoroughly waxed on the 

 inside, which he said might be done by 

 bringinsj; the wax to almost a boiling heat 

 and pouring it in at the bung hole, corking 

 up and rolling the barrel quickly, so as to 

 spread the wax in all parts; then turning it 

 out. It would take about one pint to a 30 or 

 36 gallon barrel. J. E. Pleasants, of Ana- 

 heim, stated that the bee-keepers in his part 

 of the county were going to ship in barrels 

 this season. Twenty-six gallon barrels were 



