colonies last Api-il. I would like to get a 

 queen that will produce as many and just as 

 good honey gatherers, and brighter queens, 

 than the one that I have taken one hundred 

 and fifty-eight pounds of honey from. 



Novice. 



Garland, Pa., Sept. .5, 1878. 

 Deab Editor:— Your suggestions in 

 regard to our National Society awarding 

 prizes at apiarian exhibitions, we think well- 

 timed and appropiate. It is not only neces- 

 sary that bee-keepers should attend our 

 conventions, but they should be made so 

 attractive, that it would bring both, con- 

 sumers and producers together for mutual 

 protection against our common enemy— the 

 sharks of our profession, and long may you 

 live to deal sledge-hammer blows right and 

 left, for the right against imposition and 

 fraud, in whatever form it appears-" 



Jno. F. Eggleston. 



Strait's Corners, Sept. 9, '78. 

 "The honey season has been poor; white 

 clover about half a crop, buckwheat a two- 

 thirds crop. With a good season I should 

 have doubled the amount of surplus. Bees 

 are all strong with plenty of stores for win- 

 ter. Shall winier twenty colonies in the 

 cellar and thirty-six out of doors, packed in 

 chatf. Is it necessary, in out-door winter- 

 ing, to cut passages through the combs 

 when they are provided with a passage way 

 over the top-bar of frames, with quilt and 

 one foot deep of chaff in front, and six 

 inches on each side and rear end ?" 



J. E. Pelham. 



[Certainly not. The passage-way over the 

 frames will do. Do not leave too much 

 space; two or three sticks placed across the 

 frames, sufficiently large to keep the quilt 

 up liigh enough for the bees to pass is suffi- 

 cient. — Ed. 



Detroit, Mich.. Sept. 9, '78. 

 "I commenced bee-keeping eighteen years 

 ago, when I found (mt that the cruel process 

 of killing bees to get at the honey was aban- 

 doned. Not knowing anything about bees, 

 I was cheated by a soldier of whom I bought 

 twenty colonies, which I had to reduce to 

 twelve in the fail. For safe keeping 1 put 

 them in a barn. The next winter, a very 

 mild one, killed half of them. 1 Italianized 

 the six remaining ones, and lost them all in 

 the next two years. After two years I 

 bought one colony in a common box-hive, 

 transferred it to one of my simple box-hives 

 with eight movable frames of the same size 

 as in the New Langstroth hive, and increased 

 them slowly. Now, I always keep them out 

 doors, have sometimes lost none, sometimes 

 one-quarter or one-third, but in the winter of 

 1874—5, when I went to Germany, I lost all 

 but six. Eight colonies of the twenty-eight 

 which I had last spring, I lost by robbers in 

 my own apiary and from others. They 

 might have been weak, but they were not 

 queen less, because I found brood in every 

 one of them. Of the twenty colonies, I 

 obtained eleven first, and live second 

 swarms. Some four or five colonies 

 brought three swarms, which I put back to 



the parent-colony. The nine remaining 

 ones gave most of the comb honey which I 

 secured this year, and the extracted winter- 

 killed colonies." Dr. Carl Brumme. 



Bricksville, O., Aug., 20, '78. 

 " The only reason why my report is not 

 from one-third to one-half more, is from the 

 entire destruction by fire of all my stock of 

 hives, frames, cases, sections, foundation, 

 etc., at the beginning of the season. I lost 

 four or five buildings and all my stock of 

 bee fixtures. Consequently when the 

 swarming season came on I was obliged to 

 place the bees in supers and tops, which of 

 course was not available for comb honey. 

 The season here has been a splendid one 

 and everybody's bees seem to have done 

 well. My greatest difficulty was to get 

 enough sections to keep them going." 



Chas. S. Burt. 



Platteville, Wis., Sept. 9, '78. 

 "We had a poor season for bees. White 

 clover yielded well, but basswood was a 

 failure. They are at work now on fall 

 flowers. I had to double up some fifteen 

 colonies. My bees in the 'Home Apiary' 

 are in the south-east corner of my land, near 

 the road, and they sometimes sting passers- 

 by. My neighbor on the east, bought the 

 farm knowing the bees were there, and is 

 bothered some by them. Am I liable for 

 damages if they sting those who pass in the 

 road, or sting iiorses and cause them to 

 ' run ' and do damage ?" E. France. 



[We cannot say how to decide the law 

 point, but if the case were ours, we should 

 move the bees to a more retired place before 

 another sun-set. We have no right to annoy 

 our neighbors, or cause them damage simply 

 for our own gratification. We think com- 

 mon humanity and courtesy would dictate 

 their immediate removal.— Ed.] 



San Jose, Cal., Sept. 4, '78. 

 " My yield of honey would have been fully 

 one-third more, but have been Italianizing 

 with a very fine strain of Italians. Received 

 bees from' several different ones, but do not 

 find any Eastern strain as fine in color or 

 looks, or as industrious, as our best Cali- 

 fornia raised Italians. My best ones come 

 nearly up to friend Brooks' standard, except 

 the drones are not quite all perfectly three- 

 banded. I think that this State will in time, 

 on account of its climate, produce the very 

 best strains of Italians. Will some one give 

 an essay on the best way to get the Italians 

 off from the combs ? They decidedly object 

 to being brushed off, and shake off very 

 hard." S. S. Butler, M. D. 



Vermont, 111., Sept. 10. 1878. 



"Enclosed find photograph of straw hive, 

 with which I have been experimenting. 

 Straw is l}4 inches thick, very compact and 

 thoroughly" painted on outside. The cor- 

 ners are of galvanized iron, and straw is 

 laced with copper wire, and they can be 

 made rapidly. W. J. Atkinson. 



[After a trial, we would like to hear the 

 result.— Ed.] 



