AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



67T 



miums are very liberal, and will be 

 fairly divided among the Hoosiers who 

 help gain them ; while the high honors, 

 which are far more valuable, we will 

 bequeath to the children of our fair 

 land. Our entire work is now mapped 

 out, and we desire every county in the 

 State represented by one or more re- 

 liable bee-keepers, to whom will be for- 

 warded at the proper time the work 

 assigned them, with instructions. The 

 Presidents or Secretaries of each Pair 

 association of our State will please for- 

 ward to us at once, the address of one 

 or more of their most energetic apiarists. 

 We guarantee to do the rest. Nothing 

 but prompt action at this time will in- 

 sure success. R. S. Russell, 

 Prcs. Ind. State Bee-Keepers'' Ass'n. 

 Zionsville, Ind., May 7, 1892. 



Very Backward Spring'. 



To-day is very cold and wet. The 

 bees are confined to their hives as they 

 have been most of the time this Spring. 

 My loss the past Winter and Spring has 

 been about 70 per cent., and those that 

 were left are in very poor condition for 

 this time of the year. The cause of loss, 

 I think, began about July 10, 1891 ; 

 white clover failed about that time, and 

 we got no Fall flow, consequently the 

 bees were in poor condition for Winter. 

 Everything is behind time here this 

 Spring. Gooseberries are only begin- 

 ning to blossom. Plum and cherry trees 

 will bloom in a'' week or so, if the 

 weather turns warm soon. Corn-plant- 

 ing will be two weeks late, at least. 



G. B. Dakrow. 



Langworthy, Iowa, May 9, 1892. 



Out-Door Wintering of Bees. 



Score another for out-door wintering. 

 According to the reports in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for May 5, of Messrs. 

 Judkins, Snow, Hines, Norton, and 

 numbers of others, all cellar-wintering 

 advocates, give their losses running 

 from 20 up to 50 percent. Last season 

 was the poorest in my recollection, in 

 this locality, with the mercury as low as 

 20° below zero in Winter, and poor 

 honey to winter on, yet my loss is only 7 

 per cent. The bees were on the summer 

 stands, and the loss would not have 

 been so heavy, but I had La Grippe to 

 attend to (or rather, it attended to me), 

 so I could not wait on it and the bees at 

 the same time. My bees are doing finely 

 now. T. C. Kelly. 



Slippery Rock, Pa., May 7, 1892. 



Sour Honey and Dead Bees. 



I neglected to report the condition of 

 bees in this section last Fall, but heard 

 nothing uncommon, so it is not particu- 

 lar. Bees have come out pretty well, 

 but are spring dwindling, or dying off 

 after they were taken from the cellar, 

 or unpacked. There seems to be some 

 kind of thin, watery honey that runs out 

 of the combs where bees have died. Is 

 it sour honey, unfit to seal over? or is 

 it something else ? Does that thin, sour- 

 tasting stuff have anything to do with 

 the bees dying ? I put 24 colonies of 

 bees into the cellar last Pall ; some were 

 late swarms that came out in August. I 

 lost 2 during the Winter, and 5 more 

 during the Spring. They all seemed to 

 have honey. The weather is backward ; 

 fruit-trees are ready to blossom, but 

 bees can only fly a day now and then. It 

 is cold, wet weather generally. The 

 Italians are the best of all the bees I 

 have seen. I do not need a bee-veil or 

 gloves to handle the Italians. 



Ira N. Lyman. 



St. Peter, Nebr., May 3, 1892. 



[In all probability the sour honey 

 mentioned is what caused the death of 

 the bees.— Ed.] 



Unfavorable Weather for Bees. 



Bees have wintered poorly in this part 

 of Michigan. The average loss will 

 probably be 50 per cent. Two-thirds of 

 mine have pulled through up to date, 

 but these cold east winds are using them 

 up, and preventing brood-rearing ; but 

 warmth is coming. 



Wm. Anderson. 



Imlay City, Mich., May 10, 1892. 



How the Bees Wintered. 



It has been a hard Winter on bees, as 

 near as I can find out by inquiring. 

 Three-fourths of the bees in this county 

 are dead. (Some have lost all.), I put 

 32 colonies into a cellar on Nov. 17, 

 and by Feb. 1 they commenced to die, 

 and I commenced to feed sugar candy, 

 but die they would. It was so cold that 

 I could not get them out for a flight, 

 and they died in a filthy mess. Diarrhea 

 was the cause, or poor honey. To-day 

 finds me with but 9 colonies out of 32. 

 One colony that I transferred and gave 

 an Italian queen in September, and fed 

 sugar syrup, wintered nicely. Give me 

 one kind of food, and plenty of it with 

 young bees, and it will be all right. One 

 old lady has lost all her bees. She says 



