188 



TH© MMEmic^ff mmm jO'URNJtii,, 



Hive>Entraiice!« and Veulilulioii. 



I would like to ask the readers of the Bee 

 JouuN'AL, how they close the main entrance 

 to hives in moving them from one place to 

 another, in and out of the cellar; and close 

 them in the spring and fall when the sun 

 shines, and ret the air and ground is so 

 cold that if the bees leave the hive, they 

 will chill and die before reaching the hive 

 again, this being one cause of spring 

 dwindling. In short, we often wish to 

 close the hive, and yet want ventilation 

 from the main entrance. 



Berlin. Wis. A. N. DeGkoff. 



Xlie WeatUer au«I Ilee-Koepiiig. 



The weather has Vieeu very warm here, 

 but it has "caught cold," and has been 

 very cold for the last twelve days, being at 

 zero and 1.D degrees below. The wind has 

 been in the northwest for some time. To- 

 day it is a little warmer, and the wind is 

 in the south. On Feb. IS I put 4 colonies 

 out of the cellar, and let them have a good 

 flight. I have made a pair of comb founda- 

 tion molds, and they work splendidly. 

 They are 11x11 inches. I can make foun- 

 dation enough in one day, to put into 3,000 

 sections, and the foundation is very nice. 



C. A. GOODELL. 



nies will find profitable employment over 

 at Mr. Afflerbaugh's, in carrying off the 

 stores which the poor Italians had worked 

 so hard to gather from the flowers which 

 Caruiolans had first visited. 



But now, seriously, are Carniolans given 

 to robbing the weaker races S No, sir! I 

 need not attempt to explain what causes 

 led to the robbery in the above instance, 

 but from my experience with from 50 

 to 100 colonies of Carniolans for the past 

 five years, I am sure that they are less 

 given to robbing than any other race. For 

 ten years previous my apiary consisted of 

 the same number of Italian colonies, and I 

 am very positive that I then had more 

 trouble with robbing than since. I believe 

 that I was the first to make the claim that 

 " Caruiolans were most exempt from rob- 

 bing of any known race," and now that 

 claim is made good, by a very extended ex- 

 perience. Let us have more reports of this 

 new, conquering race. 



Oxford, Pa. S. W. Morrison, M. D. 



4iiatUering; Houey in Florida. 



Our bees are gathering honey ^et from 

 the willow, and also from the huckleberry. 

 Orange trees are budding out very fast, 

 with a few blooms open, but the harvest 

 will not commence before March 1. Pros- 

 pects were never better than at this time, 

 for a fine honey season here. The saw 

 palmetto is budding out very prolificly,and 

 will be, from present indications, earlier 

 than usual. There are thousands of acres 

 all along the river, back of the swamp. 

 We are satisfied that there are no better 

 places than along the river here for honey. 

 We will extract, the coming week, to get 

 all the combs clean of mixed honey, so as 

 to get the orange honey in all its purity. 

 The weather is extremely fine and pleasant. 

 JriHN Crayokaft. 



St. P'rancis, Fla., Feb. 15, 1890. 



Tlic Lia»«t Sea»«on's Results. 



I commenced the spring of 1889 with 28 

 colonies, increased them to 48, by natural 

 swarming, and took otf 3,800 pounds of 

 comb honey in one-pound sections, and 700 

 pounds of extracted houey. I sold most of 

 the comb honey at 10 cents, and the ex- 

 tracted honey at 8 cents per pound. This 

 made an average of 125 pounds to the 

 colony, and when sold it brought *12. 00, 

 making, in even numbers, $336 for the 

 year 1889. Bees were put into the cellar 

 in good condition. Clark Pembekton. 



La Moille, Iowa, Feb. 38, 1890. 



upon the minds of my customers that the 

 gi'anulation of honey is in accordance with 

 nature, and also, inform them how to re- 

 duce it to the liquid state without destroy- 

 ing its natural flavor. Of course, some 

 people claim that my honey is not pure — 

 but •' all the same," the large majority of 

 my customers prefer the honey to be granu- 

 lated, and I shall not make any attempt to 

 keep them from enjoying their preference, 

 but shall go straight ahead in the line sug- 

 gested by Mr. Demaree. 



As to the style of package, I find that tin 

 pails with tight covers, not " strictly air- 

 tight," holding respectively 6^.2 to 35 

 pounds of honey, are verj' desirable sizes. 

 I retail 61., pounds of extracted honey for 

 .?1.00, and 25 pounds for -^S.OO. 



Bees are wintering in fine condition, and 

 the prospect for a large crop of clover honey 

 the coming season is very good. 



Fancy Prairie, Ills. P. J. Exgland. 



tiatlierins- Pollen Early. 



Yesterday was one of the warmest and 

 finest days for winter ever known in this 

 vicinity — the mercury being 69 degrees in 

 the shade. Bees were out very lively, and 

 and bringing in pollen in great quantities, 

 and large pellets at that. This is the ear- 

 liest known at least for 18 years, since I 

 have kept bees. For bees to bring in pol- 

 len in the winter, is something remarkable 

 in this section — 60 miles north of New York 

 city. The earliest I had known was on 

 March 6, some years ago. The bees have 

 had many flights this winter, and of course 

 they have wintered well out-of doors on 

 the summer stands. M. D. Dubois. 



Newburgh, N. Y., Feb. 37, 1890. 



An Experience Milh Bees. 



I had one colony of bees from the fall of 

 1888, which wintered all right, and I 

 bought 3 colonies of hybrids in the spring 

 of 1889, for A9.00. I took about 80 pounds 

 of comb honey, and have 6 colonies in win- 

 ter quarters. One swarm left me, and 

 another good colony was destroyed by the 

 hogs entering the bee-yard. My good wife 

 died last year, leaving me, and one daugh- 

 ter 6 years old. I am 36 years old, and 

 feel lonesome. Fued Vollmanx. 



Monroe, Wis., Feb. 26, 1890. 



Carniolan Bees and Robbinsr. 



Mr. N. W. Afllerbaugh, on page 134, re- 

 ports that he had a colony of Carniolan 

 bees last season that were very prolific, 

 very good workers, and fiUed the surplus 

 boxes rapidly, but which made a general 

 raid on his Italian colonies as soon as a 

 hone}' -dearth came on, " passing in and out 

 of every hive that he had on the place. . . . 

 In the morning they would be up before 

 the Italians." etc. Surely, a splendid testi- 

 monial for Carniolans, and 3'et, by a 

 strange process of reasoning, Mr. Afller- 

 baugh decides to destroy the stronger race, 

 and save the weaker. It is a pity, for the 

 weak is very commendable, but I hope that 

 Mr. A. will not always carry out his idea to 

 destroy the stronger. When Mr. A's neigh- 

 bor gets a few Carniolan queens, his colo- 



Cold M^eatlier— RobbinsT* 



The cold wave has struck this village, and 

 the ground is covered with snow, while the 

 wind is coming from the northwest freez- 

 ing cold. The probabilities are that all man- 

 ner of small fruits are killed in the buds. 

 My bees are in good condition for spring 

 work. I have been feeding them on honey 

 and rye flour. The combs are well fllled 

 with brood in all stages, from the egg to 

 the full-grown bee emerging from the cells. 

 Last Monday was a warm day, the sun 

 shining brightly, and the bees were out in 

 full force, busy carrying pollen and honey 

 which they gathered from the bloom of the 

 maples; but they have retired again to 

 winter quarters, and utterly refuse to do 

 any outdoor work until fair weather. Last 

 spring one of my colonies made an attempt 

 to rob another; I move the hives inhabited 

 by the contending bees, placing each on the 

 stand previously occupied by the other. 

 Each colony immediately settled down to 

 business, and gave me no further trouble. 

 LoDowicK D. Henderson. 

 Staunton, Ills., Feb. 38, 1890. 



A. 



Oranulated Extracted Honey, 



On page 133 of Gleanings, Mr. J. 

 Buchanan, a very successful seller of ex- 

 tracted honey, and, I presume, an expert 

 in the production of the same, advised this 

 in a recent bee-paper; "adding something 

 to the honey that will retain it in the liquid 

 state." In opposition to this, Mr. G. W. 

 Demaree, on page 1 17 of the Bee Journal, 

 says that the granulation of honey "should 

 be accepted as a matter in course, and the 

 minds of bee-keepers should Vie directed 

 towards the best methods of handling and 

 popularizing the article." 



I make the production of extracted houey 

 a specialt}', and am often compelled to buy 

 honey in order to supply the demand. I 

 never attempt to keep my honey from 

 granulating — but I do endeavor to impress 



Easily Poisoned by Bee-Stingps. 



I am a sort of assistant bee-keeper to my 

 wife, who has been engaged in the business 

 the past two seasons. I would enjoy it 

 tolerably well, were it not for some of the 

 peculiar eccentricities of the bees. They will 

 just " go for" me, while they will treat my 

 wife with considerable deference. There is 

 poison lurking in the "hive and honey-bee" 

 for me. I am very susceptible to poison 

 from sumac and ivy, as well as from bee- 

 stings. Sometimes slight stings, even on 

 my hands, will result in the swelling of my 

 eye-lids, accompanied with a burning, itch- 

 ing sensation about the eyes, as well as 

 other parts of the body, producing very 

 nearly the same effect as poisoning from 

 sumac. I was poisoned this winter, with 

 the same effect as from bee-stings, while 

 cleaning the propolis from sections. Can 

 some of the bee-fraternity tell me whether 

 propolis is a poisonous substance ! or was 

 this particular propolis gathered from some 

 poisonous plant f 



We are wintering some of our colonies on 

 the summer stands, packed in old boxes 

 with planer shavings, and they are appar- 

 ently doing well. We put the remaining 

 colonies into the cellar about the middle of 

 November, some of them going in rather 

 light in stores. The cellar is warm and dry, 

 being affected, to some extent, from the 

 heat of a furnace in another part of the 

 cellar. The bees have been very restless 

 all winter, and have come out of the hives 

 in large numbers and died. Some are now 

 in fair condition, while other colonies have 

 consumed their stores, and have to be fed. 

 One colony died, with candy (made accord- 

 ing to the recipes in the Bee Journal) over 

 the cluster. I think that it was too hard. 

 Two colonies showed signs of diarrhea, and 

 we took them out for a flight ou a warm 

 day, which proved an effectual remedy. 

 We could not keep bees without the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. Asa Morse. 

 Stanton, Mich., March 4, 1890. 



