AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



511 



the hives for Winter stores, and for 

 Spring breeding. 



I then went to sec John Frost, of 

 Exira, where I spent the evening in 

 chatting about bees. In and around 

 Exira the bees are wintering well so far. 

 There was not much surplus honey 

 taken last year. 



The next day I visited W. C. Frazier. 

 of Atlantic, who, with his wife, were 

 just recovering from a siege of sickness. 

 Mr. F. was just beginning to do out-door 

 work again. He showed me his 20 colo- 

 nies of bees, and some daughters of what 

 he purchased for 5-banded queens ; but 

 if those are samples of the 5-banded 

 bees, the breeder from whom the queens 

 were purchased must be very far in the 

 rear, as none of them showed more than 

 3 bands. Mr. F. showed me another 

 colony of 5-banded bees, that were the 

 actual thing ; and well may he feel 

 prouud of such beautiful bees. The 

 mother of these latter bees was pur- 

 chased from another breeder of queens. 

 I also was shown several colonies fi'om 

 imported queens, that were uniformly 

 3-banded, and all of a darkish color, 

 but they were there, all the same. Mr. 

 Frazier is the apiarian editor of the 

 Iowa Homestead. 



I next called upon a Mr. Best, who is 

 a brother-in-law of Mr. Frazier, and 

 lives on an adjoining farm. 



I learned that in and around Atlantic, 

 there will be lots of starved bees, if they 

 are not fed, as they are short of stores. 



From Atlantic I went to Wiota," where 

 I saw the Levering brothers — Charles 

 and Lawrence. I examined their bees, 

 and found them wintering splendidly so 

 far, both in the bee-cave and on the 

 summer stands in chaff hives. 



After leaving Wiota, I was caught in 

 a blizzard, and stopped at the home of 

 Chas. Baker. I then went to North 

 Branch, and called on F. D. Barney, 

 who, in connection with his farm of 100 

 acres, has an apiary of 45 colonies. He 

 did not obtain much surplus honey last 

 year. He is wintering his bees in a 

 trench dug about 18 inches deep, run- 

 ning north and south. After putting the 

 bees into it, he put slough hay and 

 planks over them, and also put earth 

 taken from the trench, on the hay. Mr. 

 Barney's bees are in bad condition ; I 

 think he will lose one-hatf of them. I 

 may have something more to say about 

 Mr. B.'s repository, later. 



D. H. Reamer, of Nelson, was the next 

 bee-keeper I visited. He began last 

 Spring with 11 colonies, and in the Fall 

 had 27, with about 400 pounds of sur- 



plus comb-honey, gathered in Septem- 

 ber. He sold 250 pounds for $50, and 

 the increase of bees for $100, besides 

 having 10 colonies left. His expenses 

 were $35. In connection with the bees 

 he worked a farm of 80 acres. He made 

 a good showing for a poor year. But 

 Mr. Reamer knows how to take care of 

 bees, and gives them a place to store 

 their surplus when needed. 



Lastly, I called on J. Armbaugh, of 

 Coon Rapids, who said that in his locality 

 bees were wintering fairly well. 



The localities mentioned in my trip 

 are where the Tennessee honey-prophet 

 (see page 311) said there would be the 

 greatest honey failure in 1892, of any 

 place in Iowa. Le-t us take care of our 

 bees, and see if next Fall we cannot call 

 him a " false prophet." 



Coon Rapids, Iowa, April 4, 1892. 



Facts M\ Italian anl Black Bees. 



W. S. DOUGLASS. 



I have read Mr. Ellingwood's article 

 on page 192, in which he condemns the 

 Italian bees. Six or seven years ago I 

 became a subscriber to the American 

 Bee Journal, the editor of which then 

 advertised Italian queens for sale, and I 

 sent for a tested queen. I had at that 

 time about 30 colonies of pure brown or 

 native bees. I introduced the queen 

 about the middle of August — too late to 

 ascertain their working qualities. 



The next Spring this Italian colony 

 cast 2 swarms, so I then had 3 colonies 

 of Italian bees. 



My native bees had increased to about 

 45 colonies. The season was a poor 

 one ; but from the 3 Italian colonies I 

 secured 200 pounds of comb-honey; and 

 from my native bees I got 600 pounds 

 of comb-honey. The Italians averaged 

 about 67 pounds per colony, while the 

 natives averaged only about 133^ 

 pounds per colony. All had the same 

 attention. 



The foregoing are the positive facts. 

 Mr. Ellingwood's Italians certainly must 

 have been a very poor grade of Italian 

 bees, to let the blacks out-strip them. 



TEXAS SPBING-TIME IN MARCH. 



Bees have wintered here as usual. All 

 they need is plenty of honey. My 190 

 colonies had from 15 to 30 pounds each, 

 and I found out of 190 only 2 queenless. 

 Wild peach, elm, red-bud, cotton-wood, 

 wild plum and fruit-trees are in full 

 bloom, so the bees are having all they 



