®itr %ttUv ^ox. 



JSToblesville, Ind., July 3, 1878. 

 " The queen which I spoke of last month, 

 as not laying, was barren. She was super- 

 seded by a fertile worker, which 1 have 

 got rid of, by the help of the Jouknal.— 

 I find it an excellent companion and nd- 

 iJiser." L. M. Wainwkight. 



Cedar Vale, Kan., June 24, 1878. 

 " I never saw bees do better in any local- 

 ity. I brought 8 colonies last fall from 

 Henry Co., Ohio, on a freight car, with the 

 rest of my goods ; and with all the banging 

 in making up trains at the various stations, 

 they came all safely to Independence, Kan- 

 sas ; from there, 1 moved them 60 miles by 

 wagon over a very rough road, with the loss 

 of only 4 combs broken down and about 

 one pint of bees. I now have 16 very strong 

 colonies, with combs very full of honey." 

 D. Bartgis. 



Koseville, 111., July 1st, 1878. 

 "We never had such a swarming time 

 "With bees before, as we have had the past 

 week ; some colonies would swarm, time 

 after time, and we could see no reason for 

 it. We are getting a good deal of nice, 

 white clover honey in small sections. We 

 like tin separators ever so much ; they 

 cause the bees to finish each comb more 

 quickly, and can be taken out of the hive 

 sooner than if built without separators ; 

 consequently, the honey is very white, and 

 straightly built in the frames. We are 

 using a rack to hold the frames so that all 

 can be lifted out of the hive at once, which 

 is very handy in swarming time." 



Mrs. L. C. Axtell. 



Camden Point, Mo. July 1st, 1878. 

 Dear Editor.—" In bee-culture and 

 honey-producing business I am a novice, 

 but have learned enough to assure me that 

 three-fourths of the learned essays and long 

 winded paper theories are but to catch such 

 bugs as I. One year of experience, with a 

 sprinkle of your common sense advice is 

 worth half the science extant on the subject 

 to-day. As for patent hives, I have 9 differ- 

 ent kinds. If I were starting anew, I 

 would only use two kinds, the Langstroth 

 and A. G. Hill's winter hive. Hill, in my 

 opinion, has made a hit. I like the arrange- 

 ment for wintering so well. Langstroth is 

 a very cold hive, and great care is neces- 

 sary to winter safely in this cold, 6 month's 

 winter climate. 1 have 5.5 colonies of 

 mixed bees. Some almost pure Italians. 1 

 have extracted as nuich as 90 lbs. from one 

 hive, already. Honey dew has been very 

 heavy this spring ; indeed, it never was 

 known to be so great in this part. 1 have 

 scraped large drops from the leaves of the 

 trees, at 3 o'clock, p. m. And as an evi- 

 dence of the abundance of honey in the 

 fields, I deliberately placed a large comb of 

 honey on a fence post, in the middle of my 

 apiary, and not a bee touched it for 5 hours. 

 Such a gathering of honey, increase of 

 bees, and a longing after a colony or two, 

 by your neighbors, has never been seen in 



this country. One fellow (a granger), near 

 here, wanted a start so badly, that he stole 

 an old log gum, full of bees and honey, 

 from the Hon. Jas. Anderson, and carried 

 it a mile ; but, poor fellow, he had large 

 tacks in his boot heels, and this betrayed 

 him and he paid rather dear for his cupid- 

 ity. The Prize Boxes for surplus honey is 

 the trick, (two sides glass ;) and such 

 beautiful white honey as I have in over 200 

 of them would make the Thurber Bros, 

 smile to see it." Tom M. Moore. 



Berkshire, N. Y., June 14, 1878. 

 Nearly all advertisers of Italian bees 

 claim that they are larger than the blacks, 

 and, of course, can smell deeper and stinff 

 louder than any other bee. If the Italians, 

 are larger, it follows that the cells in the 

 brood comb must be correspondingly larger, 

 in order to get the advantages claimed for 

 them. Now, what I want to know is : 



1. Does "Italianizing" by simply intro- 

 ducing an Italian queen into a hive of black 

 bees, get those large bees with the long 

 proboscis ? For my part, I don't see how 

 Italians, reared in this way, can be any 

 better than the blacks, since they are 

 reared in the very same cells as the blacks 

 were. I don't believe you can .raise a 

 Brahma chicken in the shell of a Bantam ! 

 In my way of thinking, the only way to get 

 pure Italians, with all their advantages 

 over the blacks, is to import whole colonies, 

 and breed from them alone. 



3. What is the proper distance between 

 frames, and width of frame ? 



3. Will plain sheets of wax answer for 

 guides in section boxes ? 



Wm. C. Leonard. 



[1. Certainly, if large bees are wanted, 

 they must be produced in large cells. Those 

 produced in neiv comb are usually nmch 

 larger than those from old comb. Give a 

 colony a pure Italian queen and some comb 

 foundation, and you will get nice large bees. 



2. The proper distance between frames 

 is a little less than l}4 inches— from centre 

 to centre— about 1 7-16 of an inch ; about 1 

 inch being sufficient for the frame. 



3. Plain sheets of wax will answer for 

 comb guides very well, but comb foundation 

 is better.— Ed.] 



Napoleon, Ohio, July 6, 1878. 

 " The imported queen reached me safely, 

 on the evening of the 3d inst., and is devel- 

 oping into a fine looking queen, and appar- 

 ently a young one. She is laying, to-day, 

 and I am very much pleased with her, so 

 far. Bees are laying up large stores of the 

 best quality of honey from white clover, 

 and swarming but moderately. Basswood 

 is not yet doing much." D. Kepler. 



Hamilton, 111., July 3, 1878. 

 Editor Journal :—" Please inform 

 your readers that the Carniolan bees have 

 been tried by us. We have received 3 Car- 

 niolan queens alive, on an order of 5. We 

 found them in no way superior to the 

 blacks." Ch. Dadant & Son. 



