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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



she does not see what made them die ; 

 the hive was chock-full of comb. One 

 old man lost all of his, and wants to get 

 some more. They were in box-hives. He 

 says his nephew had some in those new- 

 fashioned hives, and they died ! He 

 thought they would not die in them. I 

 gave him a bundle of bee-papers — the 

 first he had seen. If he reads them he 

 will learn something, even if he is 80 

 years old. Charles Tarey. 



Houghton, N. Y., May 8, 1892. 



No liOss in Wintering. 



My bees have not had a good flight 

 since Oct. 19, 1892, and on Nov. 16 I 

 put 68 colonies into winter quarters. 

 To-day I have taken them from the cel- 

 lar all alive and well. This is the first 

 good day there has been this Spring. 

 There is no brood in any of the hives 

 that I have opened. My bees are the 

 strongest that they have ever been when 

 removed from the cellar. They were all 

 wintered in a room in the cellar 9x9 

 feet, and 7 feet high. I think I can 

 " take the cake " on wintering bees. 



M. F. Cram. 



West Brookfield, Vt., May 9, 1892. 



Willows and Wild Flowers Blooming. 



Bees wintered well. It is a cold, 

 windy Spring — not much for the bees to 

 get. The willows are in bloom now, and 

 some wild flowers are coming. Rasp- 

 berries and blackberries will soon be in 

 bloom, and then the bees will be all 

 right. S. Stout. 



Udall, Kans., May 10, 1892. 



Colonies Short of Stores. 



We have had a hard times for bees the 

 past Winter and this Spring ; the loss 

 will be serious, nearly one-half. They 

 have only had a chance to work about 

 one day in ten, since put out of the cel- 

 lar, and most colonies are short of 

 stores. W. Addenbrooke. 



North Prairie, Wis., May 10, 1892. 



Lots of Honey Left. 



I have 4 colonies of bees. They were 

 put into the cellar late in the Pall, and 

 I never looked at them until the begin- 

 ning of April, when I look them out, 

 and th(!y had lots of honey left yet. 

 They seem to do first-rate now. 



II. W. Brauer. 



Stevens, Ills., May 10, 1892. 



Comb-Foundation for Sections. 



Which is considered best, to use start- 

 ers or full sheets of foundation in sec- 

 tions ? Bees have wintered well in this 

 locality, but the Spring has been very 

 cold since they left their winter quar- 

 ters. W. G. WORDEN. 



Guilford Centre, Vt., May 11, 1892. 



[The large majority use full sheets of 

 comb-foundation in the sections. Only 

 thin, made especially for that purpose, 

 should be used for comb-honey. — Ed.] 



Wavelets of News. 



Preserving Empty Combs. 



If you have a lot of empty combs on 

 hand, and wish to preserve them for 

 future use, they will have to be looked 

 after carefully when warm weather 

 approaches, else the moths will destroy 

 them. After the combs get thoroughly 

 dry, the best place to keep them is in a 

 cool, dry cellar — so cool that the eggs 

 of the moth will not hatch, and so dry 

 that the mold will not ruin them. If it 

 is not practical to preserve them thus, 

 they may be saved almost anywhere by 

 hanging the combs about an inch apart. 



Combs are seldom destroyed by worms 

 unless they are close enough together to 

 allow the moth to biiild their web be- 

 tween. As combs hang naturally in a 

 hive, they arc too close to save well 

 without bees on them. 



Spiders are friends to the bee-keeper, 

 if he has empty combs to preserve. Let 

 them build their web between the combs 

 and worms will never be seen. Perhaps 

 it will pay for bee-keepers to start a 

 spider farm. They are useful animals. 

 — Eugene Secor, in the Farmer and 

 Breeder. 



Queenless Colonies. 



Such need not be lost, nor united to 

 other colonies. Another queen should 

 be procured as soon as possible from 

 some reliable dealer. 



This will not be a paying operation, 

 however, if the colony has become very 

 much dei)opulated, as in that case there 

 would not be enough bees to nurse and 

 protect the bees. 



Before the queen is introduced, the 

 combs should be carefully examined to 

 see if there is not an old queen, or a 

 virgin queen which might liave been 



