ntMM MMERICKPt PE© JOURNAL. 



divisions — even one or all can be nsed, 

 as is needful. These feeders are about 

 21 inches high, and will hold, when 

 tilled, 10 or 12 pounds of syrup — con- 

 venient in fall feeding — or as small 

 amount as one chooses maj' be placed 

 in a single part. Bee-space is left un- 

 der tlie whole bottom of the feeder, so 

 that the bees can pass freely over the 

 tops of the frames beneath the feeder ; 

 thus taking the place of Hill's device 

 10 that end. 



I place one of these feeders upon 

 each hive when putting in order for 

 wintei- in the fall, and any colonies 

 which seem to be likely to be short of 

 stores, may have a few pounds of sugar 

 syrup put into the central apartments 

 of the feeder, and the bees will always 

 cluster up inside and into the passages 

 of the feeder, if wintered in the cellar. 

 After carrying the hives out-of-doors 

 in spring, and looking them over, re- 

 moving the dead bees and clippings 

 of comb from thegbottom-board, re- 

 arranging the brood-nest, etc., if the 

 number of frames left with the two 

 division-boards are not as wide as the 

 feeder, one or more division-boards, 

 as the case may be, to make the whole 

 wide enough, are placed close up to 

 the side ones, the feeder placed on and 

 ■ luilts and other packing material 

 tucked snugly around the whole. This 

 done, the hives will not need looking 

 after for two or three weeks, if it is 

 known the queens are right, which 

 should be one of the first things to ob- 

 serve in overhaiding the hives. 



If queenless colonies are found, no 

 delay should be made in sending to 

 some bee-keeper farther South, and 

 procure a laying queen and introduce 

 at once, with the usual precautions. 

 But usually there is not much trouble 

 in having a queenless colony accept a 

 queen in early spring. 



ROBBING IN THE SPEING. 



One should be on his guard against 

 robbing in spring. Prevention is much 

 easier than cure. There is generally 

 the most trouble from robbing early in 

 spring before the blossoms have put 

 out very much, and the bees have little 

 to do but to " nose around " and kick 

 up a bobbery with their neighbors. 

 Generally, if the entrances are closed 

 so as to admit only two or three bees 

 at a time, and kept so from the time 

 they are first put on the stands, till 

 blossoms appear quite freely, and the 

 bees and something to dofmost colo- 

 nies will defend themselves against in- 

 truders, till blossoms in field and forest 

 call attention elsewhere. 

 Xivermore Falls, Maine. 



MINNESOTA. 



Our Win; 



TVriUcn Jur 

 BY BRII 



i'<l >ici'vaiils 

 ItiiKswood. 



and I lie 



llicA^nerlciui DccJminud 



ANIA .1. LIVINGSTON. 



ded, and just beginning to open on a 

 few of the tiees. 



Our country is prairie, uitli a nar- 

 row belt of timber along the lakes, 

 running tlircc miles north of this place, 

 and as far south. We are nestled 

 down — the bees and I— on the east side 

 of the trees. If we do not prosper 



On page HIO I wrote about our early j here in our new venture, it will not be 



honey-flow. After May 2, the weather 

 changed — cold rains with high winds 

 set in, and, liy June 1, the bees had 

 consumed all the extra stores, an<l 

 could barely live. I fed inine at times, 

 all through June up to the 25th. 



The country is yellow with mustard 

 — the result (jf Hax-culture for the past 

 three years, but, until the past week, 

 there was but little chance for the bees 

 to leave the hives, as it rained so much. 

 Four days the past week the mercury 

 has stood at 00 and 95^- above zero. 

 It has not rained until to-day, and our 

 winged servants have been busy and 

 happy. 



I wrote before that my 8 colonies 

 came througli the winter finely. My 

 husband bought a " barrel of bees" of 

 a neighbor in April, paying $4.00 for 

 it. That made 9 colonies, spring 

 count. That " early honey-flow " gave 

 them such a start that I now have 20 

 colonies. Three of them are after- 

 swarms, but all have now fine laying 

 queens from my best yellow colony. 



The first swarm was cast on May 27. 

 Spring opened so fair I thought that I 

 would amuse myself by a little exj)eri- 

 ment at queen-rearing. On May 12 I 

 had a frame with ten fine queen-cells 

 ready to hatch — but, alas, the weather 

 was so unfavorable that I did not dare 

 to make nuclei, as I had no bees to 

 .sacrifice on ray experiments, and so I 

 closed the hive with a sigh, and trusted 

 to the "survival of the fittest" to 

 mother the experimental hive. She 

 proved a beaut}' — the yellowest and 

 largest queen I have yet seen. She 

 commenced laying on May 25, which 

 we think is doing well for Minnesota. 

 I am only three miles from the south 

 line of this State. So my advantages 

 are more nearly like those of Iowa, for 

 bee-culture, I suppose, than Minnesota. 



WORMS ON THE BASSWOOD. 



Nature's fault. She has done her part. 

 Centre Chain, Minn., June 29, 1890. 



A REVIEW. 



PasI Expcrieiicei!) and Hrcsenl 

 Pro»|»ci'ts for a Crop. 



Written fur tlie MlchUjan Furmer 



BY GEO. E. HILTON. 



W The Northern Illinois Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, will hold its fall meeting at Harlem, 111b.. on 



Aug. 19, 1890. D. A. FDLLEK, SeC. 



Some correspondents reported the 

 worms destroying the basswood at 

 Alexandria last j-ear. Now they are 

 reported at Mankato. When I read 

 that they were so near, I went out to 

 look over our grove. That was June 

 1, and I could find one here and there, 

 munching away on a very large bass- 

 wood leaf. 



We have had so much rain that 

 vegetation is very rank. It does one's 

 eyes good to see the buds on our bass- 

 wood trees — they are so thickly bud- 



Taking into consideration the open 

 winter.the season thus far in Michigan, 

 and in fact nearly all over the United 

 States, has been discouraging. The 

 open winter induced breeding, and a 

 consequent unusual consumption of 

 stores. This condition kept the intes- 

 tines of the bees constantly loaded so 

 that were they confined to the hive a 

 few daj's they suffered more than they 

 ordinarilj- would in as manj- weeks. 

 This accounts for so manj- colonies 

 dying after spring had fairly set in. 



Fruit bloom was abundant, and 

 lasted a long time, but the atmospheric 

 conditions were not favorable to the 

 secretion of nectar ; then we have lost 

 ' millions of bees at a time when we 

 can ill}- afl'ord to, by the ignorant, yes, 

 and malicious spraying of the trees 

 while in full bloom. Of course the 

 intelligent fruit-grower knows it does 

 no good to spray the trees until about 

 the time the bloom is falling, and at a 

 time when the bees have fulfilled the 

 mission the Creator intended for them. 

 I know of no other way to educate the 

 ignorant and malicious than to demand 

 legislation for the protection of our 

 property. 



I notice some of our supervisors and 

 boards of review have no conscientious 

 scruples about levying even an enor- 

 mous tax upon us. I paid taxes on an 

 assessment of $950 on 100 colonies the 

 past season, and hold the receipts in 

 proof. Are we then not entitled to 

 protection ? I say yes, and shall ex- 

 pect at our next State convention to 

 see measures taken to secure it. 



Since fruit bloom I never saw such 

 a dearth of nectar. Vegetation seemed 

 to suspend operations, and now at this 

 writing, June 20, the raspberry, black- 

 berry ami white clover are all upon us 

 at once with only half as many bees as 

 a rule in the hives as there should be. 

 and would otherwise have been to 

 gather the harvest. Man} colonies 

 have starved or dwindled during the 



