652 



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noted breeders, and it any one of the 

 queens was pure they were all pure, as 

 they were all alike, and of their purity I 

 have no doul)t. I reared several hybrids, 

 and had a few purely mated queens from 

 them. Now for the results : 



When compared with the best Italians, 

 they are very cross ; the hybrids the same. 

 In April their brood-nest was less than half 

 that of the Italians : in May they bred 

 rapidly, and were the firfet to make prep- 

 arations to swarm, though only having 

 about seven eighths as much brood as the 

 Italians. They swarm much worse than 

 the Italians, especially in July and August, 

 when little or no honey is being gathered. 

 having to be fed, or starve. They are 

 stronger to winter, from the fact that they 

 breed more in the hot weather of July and 

 August, and when they are not getting 

 honey. The Italians require more care to 

 keep the brood-nest strong in the fall, or 

 when honey is coming in very freely. The 

 Carniolans got about two-thrids as much 

 honey for me as the Italians— in fact, I find 

 them inferior in my locality in every 

 desirable trait. 



As to their wintering, I can say nothing 

 from experience, both races having win- 

 tered perfectly without loss— 25 Carniolau 

 and hybrid colonies, and 146 Italian colo- 

 nies. I keep none but strong colonies, and 

 work them tor honey, allowingno increase. 

 I have been producing honey for 20 years. 

 and I think that I have had enough experi- 

 ence to judge fairly between the different 

 races, haviug produced about 200,000 

 pounds in that time. I have totally and 

 forever discarded the Carniolans— at least 

 in this locality ; and I have no queens of 

 any kind for .sale. My advice to those 

 who desire testing the above race is, to go 

 slow and not waste much money until you 

 know that you are right. 

 Deer Park, Mo. E. C. L. L.incH. 



Any weather that seems to stop the flow of 

 DPctar, that is so cool that it checks or stops 

 the flowers from opening, or is so hot that 

 it dries the nectar up in the flowers : such 

 a storm or rain as Mr. Theilmann speaks of 

 Krst washes all the honey out of the flowers, 

 aijd then it generally turns cool, and 

 nearlv stops the flowers from putting forth 

 for a few days, nearly as fast as they do 

 when warm weather prevails. 



Mr. Theilmann thinks that a good honey- 

 flow and bark-lice are connected in some 

 way. It is just the reverse here to what 

 it is with Mr. T. A poor honey season here 

 is the time that the aphides put in an ap- 

 pearance. It has been that way ever since 

 I have been in the bee business, which is 13 

 years. 



I have seen the bark lice eject the honey 

 from them lots of times. I have seen it 

 come from different kinds ; some have 

 wings, and some do not. Those that have 

 wings do not have any until full grown, 

 and then they fly away ; but there is 

 another sort that have no wings, and are 

 about the size and shape of a grain of cof- 

 fee, and the color of the bai-k. The honey 

 comes out of them on their backs, and 

 small drops come out about once in every 

 minute, and keep right on in that way. 

 The small drops come out and stay about 

 long enough to be seen, when, with some 

 power of their own, the aphides throw off 

 the drops at a right angle behind. 



Sami.-el Wilson. 



Cosby, Tenn., Sept. 11, 1890. 



Au Kntliiistiaslic Uee-lVlau. 



I began a year ago with one colony, and 

 now I have five. They are hybrids, and 

 good workers. I am very enthusiastic, and 

 try to learn all about them that I can from 

 the papers, and the Bee Jorux-^L makes 

 very plain a good many things that were 

 hard to understand. S. M. P.iUKER. 



Lohrville, Iowa, Sept. 12, 1890. 



Ulooni Failinar «" Secrete i^eclar. 



I have read Mr. Tbeilmann's article on 

 page 602, and I now want to try to tell 

 some of my experiences and observations 

 on the cause of flowers failing to secrete 

 neutar in some years. Most bee men think 

 that electricity has everything to do with 

 the secretion of nectar. I can say (and 

 know what I am talking about) that it does 

 not have anything to do with the secretion 

 of nectar. I have proof that proves be- 

 yond a doubt that this is correct. 



Where I live there is plenty of linden, 

 sourwood, and what is called " mountain 

 ivy " — I do not know its botanical name — 

 but I know that when the ivy has any 

 hooey, sourwood and linden will tail to 

 have honey without doubt. The ivy blooms 

 first, and but two weeks before liaden, and 

 four or five weeks before sourwood. If ivj- 

 fails to have any honey, linden and sour- 

 wood will have honey, as certain as it 

 blooms. Let every bee-man that lives 

 where linden, sourwood and ivy abound, 

 watch carefully, and they will see that the 

 above is true. 



All flowers that bloom or open like lin- 

 den, sourwood, apples, peaches, cherries, 

 etc., have the honey in them before they 

 bloom— if it is not there before the flower 

 opens, it will not be there at all. Any bee- 

 man can test that to his own satisfaction. I 



A Species ot S|»aiiisli-'\ee«lie. 



I send by this mail a few flowers of what 

 we call Spanish needle in this locality. 

 Whole fields of 40 to 80 acres that were 

 sown to wheat and oats are a perfect yel- 

 low mat of these flowers. I would like to 

 know it there is more than one variety of 

 this plant. Is it not possible that some of 

 our bee keepers get this plant aud golden- 

 rod a "little mixed i" That is, call this 

 flower "golden rod," and vice versa. I 

 think that the above, to some extent, ac- 

 counts for the great diversity of opinion 

 among bee-keepers, as to the value of the 

 golden-rod as a honey-plant. If I ever saw 

 a golden-rod jslant or flower, I do not know 

 it_there is none here, or else it is called by 

 a different name. 



The flowers I send are the best honey- 

 yielding flowers we have— colonies often 

 gathering a surplus of 100 to 150 pounds 

 each of fine, rich, yellow honey, from this 

 plant alone. The white honey crop was 

 almost a failure here. I got a surplus of 

 about 15 pounds per colony. My fall crop 

 will be about 40 pounds, per colony, of ex- 

 tracted honey. Bykon Ii.\ms. 

 Worcester, Mo., Sept. 8, 1890. 



67 ; I sold 4 swarms, and I have taken off 

 1,000 pounds of basswood honey, and there 

 is about 1,000 pounds ot fall honey. Fully 

 half ot the basswood did not bloom at all, 

 so we will not have more than ».j of a crop. 

 I never have lost a colony in winter. 

 Somebody says that a bee cellar must be a 

 ?jec-cellar. I could uot get all of my bees 

 into my cellar last winter ; it is only a hole 

 10 feet square under my log house, with an 

 outer doorway to go in. I have always 

 wintered my bees in it with my winter 

 supply of garden-truck. Last winter I had 

 28 colonies of bees, aud 30 bushels of pota- 

 toes, besides meat, vinegar and soap bar 

 rels, and a lot of garden-truck, so I could 

 not get down on the bottom ot the cellar. 

 We go down through a trap-door in the 

 floor, and some one wentdown about eveiry 

 day after something. I leave the entrance 

 just the same as- when on the summer 

 stands, and pack a surplus case of dry 

 leaves and put it on top. I dug a hole in 

 the ground 2 feet deep, and just large 

 enough to let the other 14 colonies in, and 

 made a tight cover with boards, and cover- 

 ed them up with dirt, leaving a hole in the 

 center 6 inches square, tor ventilation. I 

 also put a hole through the outer door 

 cellar-way, that I could open and close to 

 cool the cellar. I kept it at about 40 to 4o 

 degrees, and I saw uo difference between 

 those in the cellar and those in the cave. 

 The cellar is always dry. 



The bees are working on golden-rod and 

 wild sunflowers now. The AMERic.iX Bee 

 JouKXiL has been worth -^oO tome in the 

 last two seasons. Geo. H. AruiNC.ER. 



Bonniwell's Mills, Minn., Sept. 13, 1890. 



Prof. C. M. Weed replies to the above as 

 follows : 



The specimen sent differs slightly from 

 Spanish-needle IBiileiis frondosa), but is 

 that species rather than any other. It 

 I>robably is a hybrid between D. Frondosa 

 and some species of coreo.psis.— C.M.Weed. 



Bees Gatherea I>illle Honey. 



Bees have done verv little here the past 

 season, considering that there is lots of 

 clover (white, red and Alsike), and that my 

 12 colonies came out in good condition 

 last spring, with one exception. I do not 

 understand why thev have done no better. 

 I sowed four acres of Japanese buckwheat 

 that bloomed profusely, and the bees 

 worked on it continuously, still X have sev- 

 eral old colonies that have not stored an 

 ounce of honey in the sections. What 

 honey I got last year and this, came from 

 new colonies. Bees here the past season 

 took a great notion to abscond. I lost d 

 colonies that I know of, and I think that 

 many others left— it was the general com- 

 plaint I have come to the conclusion that 

 bees for profit in this place is a poor busi- 

 ness. I wintered my bees out-of-doors last 

 winter, and packed barley-straw and chatt 

 around them, except in front, where 1 

 placed a wide board ; but it took me nearly 

 all summer to get them far enough from 

 each other to work about them. Will some 

 one tell me at what time in the spring to 

 put the bees out of their winter shelter 

 without injury:: If so, it will relieve, me 

 from quite a quandary. 



Wm. M. Maxwell. 

 Oakland, Iowa, Sept. 15, 1890. 



Experience witli Bees, WiuteriiiK 



Three years ago last spring I commenced 

 with 3 colonies, increased them to 7, sold 2 

 swarms, and took 300 pouuds of honey. 

 The second year they increased to 19, and 

 I took over 600 pouuds of comb honey. 

 The third spring one colony swarmed out. 

 aud one was queenless, which left me 17 : 

 they increased to 42, and I tookover 1,500 

 pounds ot honey. Last spring I put out 

 42, one swarmed out, and some were weak, 

 and May was cold and dry, so I doubled up 

 until it left 36 strong colonies, increased to 



Susqnelianua County Convention 



The Susquehanna County Bee-Keepers' 

 Association met at the graded school build- 

 ing at SpringviUe, Fa., on Saturday, Sept. 

 13 1890, with a good attendance, consid- 

 ering the weather. In place of a regular 

 programme, those present were invited to 

 ask tor information upon any points which 

 they did not understand. All questions 

 asked were fully and freely discussed, in 

 which discussions we were ably assisted by 

 prominent bee-keepers from ad.io)ning 

 counties. All present departed for their 

 homes feeling that the meeting had been 

 both a pleasant and profitable one. 

 Harford, Pa. H. M. Seelet, Sec. 



