148 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Glendale, Ohio, Nov. 25.— Bees have done remar^fflft/;/ 

 well with us the past season, making a very large yield 

 of honey. I notice that mine have their combs so full 

 of honev, that 1 fear there is not enoufih empty comb 

 for them to winter on. I have the Italian bees, which I 

 obtained from Mr. Langstroth, and find them greatly 

 superior to the common bee. In the neighborhood of 

 my bees one could see scores of them, at almost any spot, 

 on the red clover, in July and August. During that 

 time, which is unusual here, comb-building went on 

 briskly, and much honey was stored. 



I shall have to defer my report ou bee pasturage to 

 another season, on account of losing my memoranda. 

 It is to be hoped that we shall have manr other reports 

 on bee pasturage, in addition to the valuable ones we 

 have already had, in the Journal, from several sources. 

 I hope to ada mine another year.— John Husset 



CONSTANTiA, N. Y., Nov. 29.— Bec culture, in this part 

 of the State of New York, has been a failure the past 

 season, on account of so much wet weather : and a num- 

 ber of beekeepers will have to feed their bees this 

 winter. From eighteen good swarms of black bees I 

 did not get ten pounds of honey.— W. Sheldon. 



Watebville, Vt., Nov. 30.— Bees have not done very 

 well around here this season, on account of the weather 

 being so cold and wet during tke entire period. Swarms 

 ware late; few coming off before July 1st. Box honey 

 is scarce, there having been little taken off in this 

 neighborhood. There is quite a number of beekeepers 

 around here, whose be«3 are now dying from starvation. 

 The bees have been living on their winter stores since 

 August 16th— consuming on an average about twelve 

 (12) pounds, each, since that date ; and unless fed many 

 will starve before spring. We have now fully four 

 months to keep our bees in, before they can fly. 



Bee culture is in a rude state about here. There are 

 only two persons in this neighborhood keeping bees in 

 movable comb hives— myself being one of them. I 

 made me a "honey emptying machine" last \vinter, and 

 people looked upon it with wonder, and wanted to know 

 where I found such a thing as that, saying they had 

 kept bees for twenty years and never heard of the like 

 of it before.— O. P. Codding, Apiarian. 



Albany, Ills., Nov. 17.— My bees have done very well 

 this season. I had ten stocks in the spring, and' now 

 hare twenty-flve, all in good condition for winter. My 

 best stock swarmed twice and filled fourteen six-pound 

 boxes. The first swarm came off June 4th. I filled the 

 hive with empty combs. The second swarm came off 

 June 12th, and filled eight six-pound boxes. The first 

 swarm swarmed twice and filled eight six-pound boxes. 

 The first of tliese swarms came off July 9th, and filled 

 three and almost the fourth six-pound boxes. The sec- 

 ond came off August 5th. 



The four swarms at 85 each make S20 : and two hun- 

 dred pounds of box honey at 25 cents per pound make 

 $50— the increase of stock and the honey making to- 

 gether 870. If I had a iioney emptying machine, I could 

 take iO or 75 pounds more. 



T*ie bees in this vicinity gathered honey abundantly 

 up to the 2(5th of September. The original stock above- 

 mentioned commenced storing honey while th« cherry 

 trees were in blossom.— Andrew Bters- 



DO'S'ER, N. H., Dec. 3.— Next in importance to my reli- 

 gious papers, do I consider the Bee Journal. I am 

 unwlfing to do without it. Bees have not done as well 

 this season, as for two seasons previous: y»t the intelli- 

 gent beekeeper can receive ample compensation in sea- 

 sons like this for his time and expenses. Within please 

 find two dollars for the Bee Journal.— Jesse Meader. 



Birmingham, Iowa, Nov. 29.— I neglected to toll you 

 in my last note, that although my bees did well this sea- 

 son, and have atpresent more honey than they need for ■ 

 winter, yet the colonies contain fewer bees "than they 

 did at this time last season. The honey harvest was 

 very abundant here from August 13th bill October 1st, 

 and the queens had very little space to lay in during 

 that time: hence the small colonies at present. I have 

 always wintered my bees out of doors, but 1 reallv fear, 

 from tne present condition of my stocks, that if the 



coming wintei- is very severe, I shall lose a goad many. 

 —John Locke. 



Niagara. Canada, Dec. 10.— I found the last a very 

 poor season. The bees increased sutBciently, but honey 

 was very scarce. I had not one box filled, and had to 

 reduce my stock to the number I started with in spring. 

 F. G. Nash. 



Hartland, Vt., Dec. 14 —The past season was the 

 poorest that we have experienced. Bees have been 

 dying about here ever since the 10th of August. We 

 have kept bees four years, wintered them in our house 

 cellar, and have lost only one swarm since we began 

 keeping bees. We have now upwards of thirty stocks 

 in our cellar : but I am afraid that we shall not be able 

 to say next spring that we never lost but one swarm. 

 As we were anxious to keep our number full, we fed 

 tliose that needed it instead of un'ting them as we 

 should have done. Breeding not having been carried 

 on to any great extent, about here, alter the 20th of 

 July, our colonies are not as populous as they usually 

 were in the fall of the year. The past season will un- 

 doubtedly prove rather discouraging to many new 

 beginners, out not to us. Beekeeping always has bee» 

 attended with now and then a poor season; and there- 

 fore we anticipate to have plenty of box and machine 

 honey next .season.— Geo. M. D. iltrGGLES. 



North Bennington, Vt., Nov. 14.— I have read your 

 valuable Journal for the last two years, with a great 

 deal of interest, and prize it very much. I would not 

 do without it for double the cost : all the fault is, it does 

 not come often enough. 



I have been very much interested in bees tor a num- 

 ber of years, but never owned any till the fall of 1868. 

 I then bought fourteen colonies in box hives, all Ital- 

 ians but six, and those were liybrid. I had those six 

 Italianized by Mr. Carey, of Coleraine, Mass. They 

 produced finely marked workers, but the queens did not 

 seem to be very prolific. Five of them have died off. 

 I wish to tell you of a caper one of those swarms played 

 last spring, in May, when there was only about a quart 

 of black bees left in the hive, the rest being Italians I 

 went through the apiary in the afternoon, and just at 

 night; and all was quiet enough. Next morning, when 

 it was hardly light, I came to this hive, and lo ! the 

 Italians had gone to work in the night and killed every 

 black bee in the hive. When they had got through they 

 went to work as quietly and regularly as though civil 

 war was perfectly right. I know toey were not robbed, 

 for my other bees were not out, nor those of my neigh- 

 bors. 



I wintered my bees in the house, or tried to; but in 

 February I had to take them out, as they had become 

 uneasy— it being very warm for two or three days. I 

 carried them out in the evening and gave them air, but 

 did not let them fly till next day : then they did not all 

 rush out at once. I have had a building erected to 

 house them in this winter. It is 14 feet by 18, with 

 eleven feet posts, thus giving me a nice warm room to 

 work in when bees are not in, and a place overhead to 

 store hives, boxes, lumber, &c. It i'< vei"y handy, and I 

 would not do without it for the 8126 which it cost. Nov- 

 ice will agree with me when his beehouse is built. 



I am going ro adopt frame hives, for 1 see plainly that 

 we are behind the times in beekeeping here, where no 

 such hives are yet used. The bee fever ran very high 

 here last spring, as bees did well. There being an 

 abundance of fruit blossoms, they began to swarm 

 early; then followed a cola and rainy spell, raining 

 about all the time the white clover was in bloom. My 

 Italians got a chance to work on red clover a few days, 

 and they lugged in honey lively. That, I think, was 

 what saved them. I do not get any box honey ; but I 

 know of some beekeepers— not apiarians by any means 

 —who have brimstoned from ten to twenty swarms of 

 black bees at a time, for want of honey. By the way, 

 prices of bees are vei-y low in this vicinity this fall. I 

 heard a man offer 46 swarms, 200 boxes, and a lot of 

 hives, for $4 50 per swarm. He could not give them to 

 me. He has kept bees a nmnber of years, and supposes 

 it is time for him to run out ; and I guess he or any 

 other man will that buys bees up North cheap, where 

 they get foulbrood as they have it in that yard. 



I send you this, as I have never seen any article from 

 beekeepers in this quarter, in the Bee Journal. In- 

 closed you wll find two dollars, for renewal of subscrip- 

 tion. Wishing you and all beekeepers success, I am 

 yours truly. 



C. H. Babsett. 



