836 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



average, 75 per cent. My bees are pure 

 Italians, and came out strong this 

 spring. They had nothing, to speak of, 

 but honey-dew to winter on. Other 

 bees had the same food, but most of 

 them are either black or hybrid bees. 

 We have had a great deal of wet 

 weather, and how the bee-keepers in 

 Minnesota manage to get enough to- 

 gether to swarm on, is more than I can 

 tell. I opened the hives to make sure 

 that all was right, and found queen-cells 

 capped in two hives, and more started 

 in others. Though there is not a head 

 of white clover in sight here, yet I was 

 afraid to let the bees take a new hive, so 

 I divided them to make sure of enough 

 stores to carry them through to the 

 clover bloom. There is a fine showing 

 for an extra crop of clover this year. 

 F. E. Burrows. 

 Delavan, Wis., June 9, 1892. 



Prospects are Improving'. 



Two-thirds of the bees in this county 

 died during the cold spring. I have 20 

 colonies left out of 30. One man had 

 about 85 colonies, and has only about 

 30 left ; another had 125 colonies, and 

 has only 20 left. My first 2 swarms 

 issued on June 7. Prospects are now 

 better than they were a few weeks ago. 

 Adolph Ott. 



Geneseo, Ills., June 10, 1892. 



Another Bee-Feeder. 



The following is a plan of a bee- 

 feeder, which I have been using, and 

 like very much ; the bees seem to be 

 proud of ii. Its length is 12 inches, 

 width 6, and depth 2Ji inches. I place 

 a 3^-inch board filled with Jii-inch auger 

 holes on the top surface ; place this on 

 the food, and the bees use it without 

 getting drowned. Make one, and try it. 

 I think you will be pleased with the way 

 it works. Geo. Sharpless. 



London Grove, Pa. 



The Weather — Poisonous Honey. 



In this part of Tennessee we will not 

 have any surplus honey to amount to 

 anything this year ; bees have no more 

 than made a living so far. The season 

 is cold, windy and wet. The bees would 

 have stored some surplus from poplar, 

 but for the cold, windy weather. I see 

 it stated that sourwood honey is a straw 

 color. Pure sourwood honey is as clear 

 as any water, and when placod in new 



white comb, it does not change the color 

 of the comb one bit. I notice that Prof. 

 Cook and Dr. C. C. Miller do not think 

 that there is any such thing as poisonous 

 honey. I wish they were right, but they 

 are badly mistaken. I know, without 

 one particle of doubt, that there is pois- 

 onous honey ; it is gathered from ivy. I 

 do not know its botanical name, but it is 

 called "ivy " here; and we have plenty 

 of laurel, but bees never work on it 

 here — honey-bees do not. Bees have 

 stored a surplus from ivy here only 3 

 years in 14, and I have seen but one 

 good flow from ivy, and that was the 

 year 1882. It blooms when nothing 

 else is in bloom that amounts to any- 

 thing, and I can tell by that when it has 

 any honey. I do not think that a person 

 could eat enough of the honey to kill 

 him ; but I am not certain of that, for 

 I have known of it nearly killing one 

 person. When a person gets sick on it, 

 he turns blind, and generally vomits. It 

 does not make every person sick that 

 eats it, but it makes the flesh tingle and 

 feel queer. Sam Wilson. 



Cosby, Tenn., June 8, 1892. 



Pouring Feed into Hive Entrances. 



I have practiced and recommended this 

 method for years. I have also tried 

 nearly all kinds of feeders. I am con- 

 vinced that my method is the most per- 

 fect in existence for feeding. A few 

 years ago I fed two barrels of granulated 

 sugar ; I did all the feeding at evenings, 

 and was less than a week at the work. 

 For winter feeding I poured in 10 

 pounds at a time, and on the following 

 morning I found all nice and dry, and 

 the syrup safe in the combs. The plan 

 is a most perfect one for feeding back 

 extracted honey at the close of the sea- 

 son, to get unfinished sections completed. 

 I have frequently commended the plan 

 to parties who seemed to doubt its suc- 

 cess, but after a trial they invariably 

 discard cumbersome feeders. Our sea- 

 son is late, but promises to be good yet. 



*■ Walter S. Pouder. 



Indianapolis, Ind. 



Experience in Bee-Keeping. 



I began two years ago with one colony 

 of black bees in a Langstroth hive ; had 

 no increase of swarms, and no honey 

 the first year. Last spring, however, I 

 bought a colony of fine Italians in an old 

 box, transferred them to two movable- 

 comb hives, introduced an Italian queen 

 to the queonless one, and in the fall of 



