268 



TH© MMMMICMH B'E® J@^R1«MI,. 



Oood Honey Season Expeoted. 



—J. K. Rich, Cato, N. Y., on April 10, 

 writes : 



I took my bees from the cellar to-day, and 

 found them in good condition. 1 wintered 

 28 colonies in tlie cellar, and 13 on the sum- 

 mer stands; I lost one of the latter for want 

 of stores. I have 13 colonies of Italians, 

 and 4 of Carniolans, and the balance are 

 blacks. 1 am very much pleased with the 

 Carniolans. The prospects are that we will 

 have a good honey season here. The white 

 clover looks well, and we had no ice-storms 

 the past winter to injure the baswood: 1 

 shall look for a large yield qt the latter. 



XUree Poor Seasons. — Lewis 

 Schuerr, Turnpike, Ta., on April 6, 18S9, 

 says: 



I am a boy 13 years old. My father has .50 

 cotonies of bees, and we have to feed them 

 now. For the last three years it has not 

 paid to put the sections on and off, as there 

 has been no honey. 



Xoad-Stools for Smoker Fuel,— 



H. M. Seeley, Harford, Pa., writes : 



I notice on page 230 that none who answer 

 queries use the same hee-smoker fuel that I 

 use. I have tried many kinds, and the best 

 for me is the toad stools growing on old ma- 

 ple and birch stumps and logs. They will 

 not go out until they burn out, and they give 

 all the smoke necessary— for me, at least. 



Early I>rones— <jiood Prospects. 



—John E. Turner, Woodington, 0., on April 

 9, 1889, writes : 



The weather is very mild here this week, 

 and the bees are just " boiling over." Mine 

 began to gather pollen from sawdust on 

 March 1+, but on the 1.5th they began to 

 work on the maples. They are all very 

 strong, and are breeding very rapidly. I 

 have a colony of black bees that has a lot of 

 drone-brood capped over. It is quite early 

 for drones to be hatching now! The white 

 and Alsike clovers are in good condition 

 here, and the prospects for a good season 

 are flattering. 



Alsike an«l Wliite Clovers.— 



Chas. K. Bi.xler, Iloyt, Iowa, on April 13, 

 1SS9, writes: 



Bees in this vicinitv have wintered ex- 

 ceedingly well. My :;(; colonies wintered 

 without loss. The hrst pollen was gathered 

 about March 15. from solt maples. Now 

 cottonw<ioil and elm are yeilding an abun- 

 dance of pollen, in f lie last week we have 

 had plenty of rain. White and Alsike clov- 

 ers are in splendid condition, so the pros- 

 pects are good for a splendid honey-year; 

 out we will have to waif, fortlie hopes of to- 

 day may be soon blasted. 



IVIiile Clover Looks Promising: 



—Chester G. Ridout, Hutchinson, Minn., on 

 April i:i, l.sS9, writes : 



The weather here is exceedingly fine for 

 this time of the year. We have had no 

 rain to mention this spring, and the grasses 

 and clovers are greatly in need of a heavy 

 shower. I took my l.' colonies of bees from 

 the cellar and idaced them on the stands 

 last Friday (April 5). and found all strong 

 and healthy ; with l)ut one exeeptiou they 

 liad plenty of sealed brood and eggs. 

 The one having no eggs or brood was short 

 of stores, and I was obliged to give it -1 



frames of sealed honey. With a little feed- 

 ing, however, I think it will build up for 

 white clover, which at present looks very 

 promising. 1 find that if a little tobacco is 

 mixed with the fuel when put in the bee- 

 smoker, the Grossest bees can be handled 

 with comparative safety. 



^Vintered in Fine Conililion.— 



S. M. Kelley, Kirby, Wis., on April 10, 1889, 

 says: 



I took 23 colonies of bees from the cellar 

 on April B, in fine condition. To day they 

 are very active, bringing in pollen from the 

 skunk-cabbage and pussy-willow, which is 

 abundant in this vicinity. 



Bees Wintered Well.-J. B. Dun- 

 lap, Rochester, Ind., on April 10, 1889, says : 



My bees have wintered quite well, and, 

 have been very bu.sy for nearly a month. I 

 wintered some colonies in the cellar, and 

 had :1 on the summer stands. I had 4 colo- 

 nies on the summer stand, but I lost one of 

 them. 



Early Pollen-Oatlierin^f. etc— 



M. R. Cullison, M. D., Adel, Iowa, on April 

 15, 1889, says : 



Last fall I prepared 44 colonies of bees tor 

 an extra hard winter, and as a consequence 

 they got too warm, bubbled over, and 13 

 colonies are left to tell the tale ! Shmild 

 the weather prophets be extinguished ? or 

 only the few, that continue to take just a 

 little stock in their predictions ? 



Wintered Extremely ^Vell C. 



A. Goodell, Mankato, Minn., on April 8, 



1889, writes : 



I put 17 colonies of bees into the cellar 

 and I put 17 out this spring, all very strong 

 excepting 1, and that is all right now. The 

 first pollen was gathered by the bees here 

 on March 19— earliest 1 ever saw it gathered 

 in Minnesota. The weather has been very 

 bad for the last 10 or 12 days for the bees ; it 

 is raining some while I am writing— the first 

 rain this spring. The bees have wintered 

 extremely well in this locality. 



Populous Enoug-li to Swarm.— 



S. D. Haskin, of Waterville, Minn., on 

 April 13, 1.S89, says : 



I never have had bees booming so in the 

 spring. They worked almost every day 

 since March 1. Sdine are populous enougli 

 to swarm, and keep up their happy hum all 

 night, though it often freezes quite hard. 

 A Mr. Kenny, here, makes sorghum mo- 

 lasses so pure that the bees will take it quite 

 freely. 



Cellar- ^Vinterins' Xlieory.— W. 



A. Hodge, Victory, Wis., on April 13, 1889, 

 writes : 



I have been watching the cellar-wintering 

 plan for a number of years, and I am fully 

 satisfied tliat the cellar is the place to winter 

 bees, provided that it is a good drv one, and 

 so arranged as to be ventilated when neces- 

 sary. Now for some of the proof : I put 

 into my cellar, last fall, 43 heavy colonies of 

 bees, and this spring I have taken out 4:j 

 colonies nearly as heavy as when I put 

 them in. My neighbor, only a short way 

 from ine, has a good, dry cellar, into which 

 he put about .50 colonies, and he has taken 

 out every one of them in good condition. 



Bees in 4jSood Condition.— Geo. 



Spitler, Mosiertown, Pa., on April 9, 1889, 

 writes : 



1 overhauled the bees, yesterday, that I 

 have packed out-doors, and I found thera all 

 in good condition. I have lost but one good 

 colony out of S.?. The bees carried in pol- 

 len at a lively rate ; none are queenless, and 

 there is lots of brood. I have some colo- 

 nies in the cellar that are all quiet, except 

 one. 1 will carry them out after the next 

 rain, which is coming soon. White clover 

 is in good condition. I have heard of but 

 few losses of colonies. 



Neglected Bees May Starve.— 



Christian Weckesser, Marshallville, Ohio, 

 on April 1.5, 1889, writes : 



We have just had quite a spell of cool 

 weather, and the bees have not been able to 

 do much, but generally they are in good con- 

 dition, though care must be exercised to 

 keep them supplied with stores till clover 

 comes, wliich promises to be good. No 

 rioubt bees that are neglected will starve be- 

 fore then, it they do not get more, accord- 

 ingly, than they have thus far. This will 

 not be very harmful, however, driving, as it 

 does, the careless out of the " field."' 



Swarms Expected Soon.— John 

 Boerstler, Vashon, Wash. Ter., on April 13, 

 1889, writes : 



Bees are doing well, and will swarm soon 

 —the drones are flying already. I think 

 that we will have a good honey harvest this 

 year. My hybrids are doing the best, I 

 think. 1 believe they will be ahead of my 

 Italians. They are the largest hybrids that 

 I ever saw. I have just received some 

 Chapman honey-plant seed from the depart- 

 ment of agriculture, at Washington, D. C. 

 I will give it a good trial this year. We 

 have had summer weather all along. Fruit 

 looks well. 



IjOSS of Weiftiit in Winter.- O. 



B. Barrows, Marshalltown, Iowa, on April 

 15, 1889, writes : 



On page 220, Mrs. L. C. Axtell says : " The 

 bees apparently have not consumed as much 

 honey as is usual in winter." Of o5 colo- 

 nies, carefully wei.jhed on putting them into 

 the cellar, and weighed again after taking 

 tliem out, the smallest loss was 5I4 pounds, 

 and the greatest loss was 33 pounds, the av- 

 erage being 13' _. pounds. There was no 

 perceptible difference in loss between those 

 put in on November 8, and those put in on 

 November 19 ; but perhaps there .was not 

 difference enough in time to be any test of 

 Dr. Mason's new tleparture. 



Prospects of a diood Season.— 



E. F. Quigley, Unionville, Mo., on April 13, 



1889, writes : 



The following is the report of the condi- 

 tion of bees in this (Putnam) county, so far 

 as heard from : 9S! per cent, have wintered 

 well, and .5 per cent, were queenless. Nearly 

 all the bees in this county are in box-hives. 

 The first pollen gathered was on March 15. 

 The weather is a little colder now. Bees 

 wintered in my apiary as follows: Carnio- 

 lans, 1st best; pure Italians, 3d; hybrids, 

 •M, and blacks 4th best. No amountof warm 

 weather would induce the Carniolans to 

 come out. They used less honey than any 

 others, and are the strongest of any now. 

 White clover is in fine condition, and the 

 prospects are good tor a large honey yield 

 for 1SS9. My 18s8 honey crop was 40 pounds 

 per colony of comb honey. 



