86 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



bees are doing well at present. I fear 

 that some of our bee-men will be disap- 

 pointed in the Spring. Those that did 

 not feed their boes last Fall, must soon 

 do so. If I had not fed my beos, not 

 half of them would come through this 

 Winter alive. A great many writers 

 complain of black bees, in the Bee 

 Journal. I had a little test last Sum- 

 mer. A black swarm issued on June 1 ; 

 sent out one swarm, and stored 75 

 pounds of surplus honey in one-pound 

 sections. An Albino swarm isssued on 

 June 7, gave no increase, stored but 25 

 pounds of honey, and were very cross. 

 I do not think this State will ever be- 

 come a successful one for bees. The 

 season is too short and uncertain. If we 

 have one good season, we have to feed 

 the profit to the bees before we have 

 another good season. About every man 

 I talk with knows just how to keep his 

 beos from swarming, but I see their bees 

 increase just the same. i shall try my 

 skill the coming Summer. I expect it 

 will result just the same. I will report 

 after the season. J. M. McCarty. 



Plainview, Minn., Dec. 30, 1891. 



Stored. Honey from Alsike Clover. 



In the Fall of 1890 I put 50 colonies 

 into the bee-cellar. Their stores were 

 poor honey, but they had all that they 

 had stored, as I did not take a pound of 

 surplus, and I also fed 200 pounds of 

 granulated sugar. In the Spring of 

 1891, when honey and pollen began to 

 come in, there were but 25 colonies, and 

 some of them were very poor ones. They 

 commenced to store in the sections when 

 the Alsike clover commenced to bloom, 

 of which I have a few acres near by, and 

 as long as it was in blossom, I saw but 

 few bees on the white clover, although 

 white clover was abundant ; but in the 

 Alsike there was a perfect roar from 

 morning until night. My best colony 

 and its i)rime swarm stored 90 pounds 

 of nice honey, and the poorest colony 

 stored none. The average, Spring 

 count, was 35 pounds of nice white 

 honey. I. W. Eoixins. 



Elgin, Minn., Jan. 5, 1892. 



Queen-Breeders. 



On page 23 Mr. A. C. Tyrrel says that 

 "sometliiiig is radically wrong with the 

 queen-breeders in this country." Is 

 there not something radically wrong 

 with Mr. Tyrrel ? He does not say how 

 many queens he has purchased, nor 



whether he has bought of more than one 

 breeder, but he accuses queen-breeders 

 as a class of being dishonest. I have 

 dealt with four of the leading breeders 

 of the United States in 1891, and they 

 have given me value for value, sending 

 good queens without any " theory " or 

 "fungus growth." Now, I do not intend 

 to say that he is not stating the truth, 

 but probably if he were to explain him- 

 self a little plainer, there would be some- 

 thing that he has not told that would 

 explain vvhy he has not got satisfaction. 

 If Mr. Tyrrel really has any grievance, 

 and the parties who sold him the queens 

 will not make it right, he should com- 

 plain of them, and not of all who sell 

 queens. I have just looked over the 

 books of S. F. & I. Trego, and find that 

 he is not one of our customers, and yet 

 we have to bear as much of the com- 

 plaint as any one, just because the 

 gentleman sees fit to attack queen- 

 breeders in general. S. F. Trego. 

 Swedona, Ills., Jan. 4, 1891. 



Large Crop Anticipated. 



We ought to have a large honey har- 

 vest in Northern Michigan next Sum- 

 mer. We have not had a " big " year in 

 this immediate vicinity since 1882 ; 

 when we secured 300 pounds per colony, 

 one-half milkweed; one-third basswood; 

 the balance was mostly from raspberry 

 and golden-rod. Since then we have 

 run from 100 to 200 pounds per colony 

 until the past season, when we dropped 

 to 60 pounds, all basswood and milk- 

 weed. I consider it a poor year when a 

 good colony gathers less than 100 

 pounds from milkweed alone. Why has 

 it been abused so much ? It is our main 

 dependence. It failed us last season 

 for the first time since I have kept bees. 

 On an average we get twice as much 

 honey from it as from basswood. 



C. A. Montague. 



Archie, Mich., Jan. 3, 1892. 



[While milkweed yields honey very 

 plentifully, quite often it cripples the 

 bees, or kills them, by the pollen masses 

 which attach to their feet. It soon 

 hardens, and being of a very glutinous 

 nature, it is hard to remove. Does it not 

 act in that way with your bees ? If not, 

 there must be a difference in the milk- 

 weed, or in the soil, or the atmospheric 

 conditions. You certainly have a local- 

 ity to be proud of, as your honey crop 

 shows. — Ep.] 



