American Bee Journal. 



EDITED AND PUBLISPIED BY SAMUEL WAGNER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



AT TWO DOLLARS PER ANJS^UM, PAYABLE IN ADVANCE, 



Vol. V. 



riE:BR,XJA.I^^% IS^O. 



No. 8. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Experiences, Observations, Experiments, 

 and Results. 



The readers of the Journal will recollect that, 

 in the fall of 1868, I put thirty-three colouies of 

 bees in winter quarters, and also one queenless 

 stock which had been reduced to about a pint of 

 bees. Some of the said colonies were badly re- 

 duced in numbers on account of the unfavorable 

 season. However, all wintered, and wintered 

 well, Aviththe exception of two strong ones, which 

 I came very near losing about the first of March, 

 with what some people would call constipation. 

 This was in consequence of those two colonies 

 having a large quantity of sumac honey, which is 

 of a peculiar bitter taste and a very waxy nature. 

 The remedy I used was to give each of them a 

 couple of cards of good houej^ from other colo- 

 nies. This sumac honey answers a good purpose 

 at any time when the bees can fly out ; but is in- 

 jurious if consumed when they are confined to 

 their hive for any length of time. 



On the 24th of March, 1809, I commenced set- 

 ting out my bees. Every colony was thoroughly 

 examined, and I found two with two qvteens in 

 each. One of these queens had apparently just 

 been hatched, as the cap of the cell was still at- 

 tached to one side of it, and she looked very 

 young. The other two queens were both fertile, 

 and I took one of them away to suppl}' the little 

 queenless colony. This made an increase of one 

 swarm during the winter. I think this queenless 

 stock, consisting of only about a pint of bees, v.-as 

 a fair test of my plan of ventilation. I will here 

 ako remark that, from observations made in the 

 last two years, I am satisfied that when we come 

 to .nvestigate the matter closel}'', the presence of 

 two queens in one hive will be found not to be so 

 rare an occurrence as was formerly supposed. I 

 could give several instances which came under my 

 own notice within said time. 



Alter setting out the bees, equalising stores, &c., 

 I commenced feeding wheat flour, and they worked 

 on it for thirty days in succession, with the excep- 

 tion of two days, when confined on account of a 

 light snow. They began carrying in pollen on 

 the 17th of April, though they still kept at the 



flour a while longer. On the 18th they carried in 

 a considerable quantity of honey from elm tree 

 blossoms, and pollen from the willows and pop- 

 lars. In this time the thirty-four colonies used 

 up nearly two hundred pounds of flour. 



I kept on equalising brood and honey, and on 

 the 20th of May had every colony in excellent con- 

 dition. Here I will give my memorandum, just 

 as I find it in my diary : 



April 18. — Bees gather large quantities of pollen 

 and some honey from rock elm blossoms. 



April 26 and 27.— Cold rain. 



May 6 to 10. — Rock or sugar maple in full 

 bloom, with excellent weather for bees. 



May 11.— Early wild plums and wild red cher- 

 ries in bloom ; weather excellent. Then follows 

 a succession of cold rains, from the north, to the 

 0th of June. Thus we lost nearly all the benefit 

 of the wild plum and wild apple blossoms. 



June 8. — Nearly every colony has commenced 

 preparations for swarming. Though not one of 

 them had gathered sufficient honey at an}- time to 

 build a particle of comb, yet they kept up brood- 

 ing to the highest point. I bought four swarms 

 from a neighbor, and several hives of empty 

 comb. On the ISth of May I allowed an Italian 

 swarm to issue, and gave it a hive furnished with 

 empty comb. On the 11th I allowed a swarm of 

 mixed blood to issue, and gave it likewise a hive 

 supplied with comb. On the 18th I was com- 

 pelled to commence feeding all my blacks and 

 bees of mixed blood ; and continued feeding more 

 or less for tliirty-five days in succession. Our 

 sumac was all blighted, and so M'ere the bass- 

 wood blossoms, -which are our main dependence 

 for bee pasturage in July. The basswood pro- 

 duced abundantly from the 24th to 28th of July — 

 just three days. August was good ; September 

 was better ; yet a great proportion of the black 

 bees perished in midsummer for want or food. 

 One of my neighbors had nine colonies last spring, 

 and has now one good and two poor ones ; an- 

 other had six, and now has three ; a third had 

 thirteen, and now has three ; while a fourth had 

 three stocks of nearly pure Italians, and now has 

 seven, though he lost two swarms by flight. He 

 also returned five or six swarms to their parent 

 stocks. They kept issuing up to the 10th of Sep- 

 tember. To my own Italians I did not feed a 



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