742 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



or straw color, gathered from sour-wood 

 and sumac. My neighbor, Mr. F. A. 

 Tate, says that his bees avei-aged 80 

 one-pound sections of honey the past 

 season, though they are blacks. My 

 average was TO pounds per colony, but 

 I had some that stored over 100 pounds 

 of comb honey. I now have all my bees 

 in frame hives. I will say from experi- 

 ence, give me the Italian bees for gen- 

 tleness and industry. 



W. M. Scruggs. 

 Tracy City, Tenn., May 21, 1892. 



Bee-Keeping' in Florida. 



Florida is not first in the ranks of 

 honey-production, though a land of 

 flowers. As we have a very warm 

 climate, I winter my bees on the summer 

 stands in single-walled hives, and I am 

 quite successful in that way. We have 

 varieties of honey-yielding plants and 

 trees growing wild, and our honey-flow 

 begins in February. Fruit bloom, 

 maple, orange, ti-ti, haw, wild plum, 

 poplar, jessamine, and many other 

 plants, last usually until June. My bees 

 wintered well, and came out early this 

 spring. I began extracting honey on 

 April 27, and one colony's combs 

 weighed 63 pounds before extracting. 

 The worst enemy I find of my bees is 

 March winds. The bees seem to want 

 honey more than their hives, and upon 

 filing out they find it, and, returning 

 heavily ladened, fall at the entrance of 

 the hive on the ground and chill, and 

 are never able to recover again. My 

 bees swarmed on March 21, and I gen- 

 erally get surplus honey from such colo- 

 nies. I think the season will hold out 

 well this year, and a good crop be ob- 

 tained. Good crops and good quality 

 bring good money and good feelings. 



J. B. H ALLEY. 



Blountstown, Fla., April 29, 1892. 



" Taking the Cake" on Wintering. 



On page 678 Mr. M. F. Cram, of West 

 Brookfleld, Vt., claims that he "can 

 take the cake" on wintering bees. Well, 

 give him my share. But I would like to 

 know what kind of bees he has. They 

 are certainly something new, or are they 

 the kind we used to find in the meadows 

 wlicn harvesting — often found in mouse- 

 nests. Those never breed until May or 

 June, lie says they were; put into win- 

 ter quarters on Nov. 16, and at tlui date 

 lie wrote. May 9, 1892, he says: "To- 

 day 1 have taken them from the cellar, 

 all aliv(! and well." The time between 



these two dates just lacks seven days of 

 six months, yet he claims they are the 

 strongest he has ever had, and those 

 that he has opened had no brood on 

 May 9. I have Italians, one colony of 

 Carniolans, some blacks, and some 

 hybrids, but my bees were breeding in 

 the latter part of January, and have 

 continued to do so ever since. If they 

 had not commenced to breed before the 

 first of May, I would have given up all 

 hopes of any honey this season, as I 

 would think the bees would be like my- 

 self — a little too old to do'very much. I 

 hope if Mr. Cram reads this he will 

 accept it as it is given — -in the spirit of 

 friendly criticism. T. C. Kelly. 



Slippery Rock, Pa., May 22, 1892. 



Wavelets of News. 



Cyprian Bees. 



Excellent honey-gathering bees have 

 been introduced from Cyprus. When 

 the Venetians owned the island, 200,- 

 000 hives of bees were kept there. 

 People used honey for sugar in those 

 days. Now there are only 30,000 hives 

 of bees owing to oppressive taxes levied 

 upon the industry by the Turks. The 

 residents are usually unwilling to sell 

 any of their bees, believing that those 

 left behind will fly away after the ones 

 which are disposed of. Accordingly, the 

 purchaser is commonly obliged to buy 

 50 colonies in order to secure 50 queens. 

 This is apt to be a bore. Mr. Benton 

 found it so on one occasion when he 

 tried to carry a number of earthenware 

 hives across the country on nuileback. 

 Some of the hives got broken by an acci- 

 dent, the bees attacked t4ie mules, and 

 Mr. Benton was badly stung. If he had 

 not been thoroughly inoculated with bee 

 poison in moderate doses during pre- 

 vious years, he would undoubtedly have 

 died. — Washington Star, D. C. 



Introducing Queens. » 



There is always some risk to run, in 

 introducing queens, except the method 

 of taking a few combs of hatching brood 

 with no bees at all, and putting them in 

 a tight box with the queen. Young bees 

 will hatch out and will not attempt to 

 sting or ball the queen. Some of the 

 brood will perish by this method, as 

 there are no bees in the hive old enough 

 to take care of it. 



