queen took going and coming. On tlieir re- 

 turn tiiey clustered again, and 1 put tliem 

 back, giving tiieni some brood. They have 

 given me no trouble since. I have now in- 

 troduced tlie queen into a full colony, and 

 await further developments. Has any one 

 seen the like before? J. H. Bupp. 



[It is not strange that the bees should go 

 ■with the queen on her bridal excursion, 

 when they liave no brood left in the hive.— 

 They often do it. The only thing strange is 

 her return after so many days. Still, this 

 sometimes occurs. Mr. L. Chandler re- 

 ported such a case only a few weeks ago. 

 Others have reported tlie same thing.— Ed.] 



Palestine, Ind., Aug. 5, 1878. 



"Friend Newman:— While reading the 

 August number of the Journal 1 saw an 

 article headed 'A Young Man's Experience,' 

 and I began to think he commenced in a way 

 similar to that 1 did. In 1873 I purchased 

 'Quinby's Mysteries of Bee-Keeping,' and 

 tliis I read and re-read until I had almost 

 committed it to memory. 1 now had a good 

 book but had no bees to practice what 1 had 

 learned. 1 finally purchased a colony in an 

 old box hive, and being late in the spring I 

 did not transfer them that season. The next 

 year in June I divided them, and I then had 

 two colonies— one in aQuinby and the other 

 in a box hive. In the fall 1 found a ' bee- 

 tree,' which I cut and saved. While this 

 -was going on, I was looking in every paper 

 I saw, for an advertisement of some bee- 

 paper. At last I found one; it read like this: 

 ^National Aqricidturist and Bee Journal, 

 3 months for io cts.' I immediately sent the 

 amount, and received three numbers of the 

 paper. In this I saw the 'Bee-Keepers 

 Magazine' advertised, and immediately 

 sent for it one year. In the Magazltie I saw 

 the American Bee Journal advertised, 

 and sent for it one year, and can truly say 

 it is the best bee-naper I have taken. 



I now have 34 colonies of bees, all in mov- 

 able frame hives— some in the Langstroth, 

 and some in the Improved American. I in- 

 tend to use all Langstroth hives next season. 

 I intend to go to the ' Exposition ' at Chi- 

 cago this fall, and will visit your ' Museum.' 



This has been an average season here for 

 bees; linn lasted but a few days. We never 

 get much honey from linn on account of wet 

 weather. Success to the Journal. 



M. E. Loehr. 



Lincoln Apiary, Mich., Aug. 11, 1878. 

 "I have been a bee-keeper for 25 years. 

 Bees have done well here until this season; 

 spring opened a month earlier than usual; 

 bees wintered well; March and April was 

 fine; bees were raising brood fast until the 

 first of May, when it set in cold and rainy. 

 About the middle of the month we had 

 several hard frosts which injured the red 

 raspberry very mucli and killed the bass- 

 wood blossoms entirely. The first swarm I 

 had was Jan. 28, and they are swarming 

 yet; 1 had a large swarm yesterday; they 

 are making honey now faster than they 

 have before this season. 1 hardly know 

 what to do with the swarms that come out 

 now. I would cut out the queen cells but 



they are crowded from top to bottom with 

 bees. I never saw so many bees and brood 

 in the comb; they are full, outside cards and 

 all. I have not taken any surplus honey 

 yet, although I could from some of them. 

 I think I shall give it to the late swarms. 

 Bees generally do well here all through this 

 month and until fhe middle of September. 



Weil, I have just been out looking at the 

 bees. It is about 9 o'clock in the morning, 

 and I never saw bees working stronger than 

 they are this morning, and have been for 

 the last 2 weeks. They are at work on 

 buckwheat and fire-weed, and another weed 

 that I do not know the name of. It grows 

 about 4 feet high and has a pink blossom. 

 It blossoms up and down the stalk for 2 

 feet; when ripe it has a pod which is full 

 of cotton. I would like to know the name 

 of it. Bees make honey fast from it. I 

 send you a sample of it that I may leara 

 what it is. 



We have a great many honey plants here. 

 The red raspberry is abundant; blackberry, 

 basswood, &c. The great trouble is in win- 

 tering. Last winter was an open winter, 

 but generally we have steady cold weather 

 and deep snow. I wintered successfully 

 last year, and a year ago last spring I had 

 25 colonies, some of them weak. They 

 swarmed too much in the fall; I had 75 

 colonies. I got 700 pounds of extracted 

 honey and 400 pounds of comb or box honey. 

 1 had no extractor of my own; 1 l)orrowed 

 one and took this amount from tliem at <me 

 time. One man in the next town from me 

 extracted 1,200 pounds from 35 colonies. 

 He started in the spring with 12 colonies. 

 That is what bees will do here if well man- 

 aged. L. Reed. 



[The plant sent us was Epilobium angiis- 

 tifolium, or the willow herb. To receive 

 700 pounds of extracted honey, and use a 

 borrowed extractor seems to us rather pecu- 

 liar, unless you divided the proceeds with 

 your neighbor.— Ed.] 



Chicago, Aug. 5, 1878. 

 " Last spring Messrs. Thomas G. Newman 

 & Son, very generously made me a present 

 of a nucleus colony of Italian bees, and very 

 thoughtfully ordered them from the Rev. A. 

 Salisbury. In due time they came to hand, 

 were transferred to a North Star Hive, and 

 upon the arrival of fair weather and floral 

 facilities, entered upon their career as a 

 colonized community; and although I had 

 charge of the apiary connected with the 

 American Bee Journal, I removed these 

 to my residence for experiments, to deter- 

 mine possibilities as well as settle proba- 

 bilities. They were placed in my back 

 door-yard, close to the walk traversed per- 

 haps a hundred times a day. The queen 

 was so handsome and prolific, the bees so 

 large and beautiful, and their dispositions 

 so amiable and industrious, that our bees in 

 the back yard soon became to be recognized 

 as much (mr pets as those which were in the 

 liouse. From the one small frame and its 

 few bees, and the large queen, we have 

 already 2 North Star Hives, with their 10 

 frames each, full of large, bright, triple- 

 banded bees, and 1 frame of eggs, larvae and 



