172 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



honey Avas very limited in all flowers. We bad very 

 few swarms of black' bees in this county. Most of the 

 Italians swarmed, and made some surplus box honey. 

 — A. Chapman. 



West Point, Iowa, Jan. 1, 1870. — I am well 

 pleased with your Journal. I do not think I could 

 do without it, for I tind something of interest in 

 every number ; so that I think it has well paid me 

 for taking it. I have now twenty stands of bees ; 

 fourteen of them are Italians. Bees have done very 

 well here last summer. — C. Whitlock. 



Newburtport, Mass., Jan. 3. — I bought a swarm 

 of Italian bees, about one year ago, and this was my 

 first experience in bee-Uecping. Of course I felt my- 

 self incompetent to maurigo them successfully and 

 ma'ie inquiry for some work on the subject and 

 learned of your Bee Journal. I at once sent for it, 

 and am satisfied that no man ought to keep bees 

 without it. I did not get it in season to learn how 

 to set them to breeding as early as they ought, in order 

 to have a strong swarm when the honey season came 

 in ; and then, too, it has been a poor season for 

 honey. Near the coast we had cold nights and 

 easterly wi^ ds much of the time ; and were it not for 

 the fact that my bees did much better than any other 

 in Old Essex, I might be discouraged. They did 

 not swarm, but I took, in boxes, forty pounds of 

 honey. I took them to the county fair, and there 

 obtained the first premium of four dollars. There 

 were three or four old bee-keepers present, with 

 their experience and new style of hives, and friend Alley 

 with the rest. All said their bees did nothing this 

 year, and we must try again and see who will win. 

 By the way, I am about to make a hive, different, in 

 some respects, from any I have yet heard of. After 

 I have proved it, 1 will report what success. — D. T. 

 Batcheldor. 



Gonzales, Texas, Jan. 3. — My bees are doing very 

 well, and are very ricli. They made me seven hun- 

 dred pounds of honey last summer. I could have 

 taken more, but concluded to let them have an ample 

 supply, as I want to increase my stock. I expect to 

 send to Kentucky in the spring, for a patent hive. 

 — L. W. Cochran. 



Ili.tofolis, Ills., Jan. 13. — Bees have done better 

 in this section of the country the past season than for 

 several seaS' ns jirwious. From ten hives I had an 

 increase of twenty, and seven hundred (700) pounds 

 of surplus honey. I am much pleased with the 

 Journal, and think every bee-keeper ought to take it. 



— G. BOUGHTON. 



Rei> Oak Junction, Iowa, Jan. 3, 1870.— Bees 

 have done extremely well in this part of the country. 

 Some strong Italian stocks have given as high as 240 

 lbs. of choice surplus honey. Most of it was 

 extracted with the "Honey Extractor" except that 

 gathered from the Golden Rod, which was so thick 

 and adhesive that it would uot separate from the 

 comb, forcing comb and honey together through the 

 screening, under a fast motion. — The average yield of 

 all my Italian stocks, for the past season, was 143 

 lbs. 4oz. Most of the surplus not consumed by the 

 family, was sold at home, the balance in Red Oak 

 Junction— all at 40 ets. per. pound. Who can say : 

 bee-keeping does not pay bitter than any other occu- 

 pation.— To keep bees without your Journal, would 

 be like keeping bees without the movable comb. — E. 

 Kretchmer. 



Rich Valley, Minn., Jan. 3. — I get little sym- 

 pathy here on the subject of bee-culture, from 

 people in this section, though they watch ray 

 operations with interest. They seem to regard such 

 new-fangled inventions as movable frames and honey- 

 emptiers as entirely beyond their comprehension. I 

 am but a novice at the business myself (am twenty- 

 three years of age) and my experience dates back 

 only three years. I have never bought any patent 

 hives or Italian bees, and was first interested on the 

 subject by reading Mr. Langstro'h's great work, 

 which I beleve to be the best book on bees extant. 

 Two years ago I bought a few stocks of bees in box 

 hives ; and have since constructed several hives for 

 my own use, with Langstroth frames, twelve inches 

 in length hj eight in depth, (what would Gallup say 

 of them, for this climate?) I think tliat it would 

 be almost impossible to winter bees in them, on 

 their summer stands, here on the pra ries. But in 

 the cellar it is easy, with upward ventilation. Un- 

 less that is given, the comb speedily become mouldy, 

 the bees become uneasy and their abdomens dis- 

 tended with a watery excrement ; and they leave their 

 hives whenever a light is taken into the cellar. But 

 with plenty of veutilation at the top of the hive, L 

 have not lost a single colony of those wintered tti the 

 cellar. When bees are active and at work in the 

 summer season, they keep up a constant circulation 

 of the air through their hive ; but when clustered 

 together for warmth in winter, they have no means or 

 do ng this. Hence the need of upward veutilation to 

 let the moisture of their breatliing escape from the 

 combs and hive. 



Last spring I constructed a honey-emptier — getting 

 a tin can made as di scribed by Novice, and making 

 the other parts myself. It cost me about live dollars. 

 But instead of the iron shaft and gearing, I made the 

 centre shaft of wood, with the top end rounded, so 

 that it could be turned with a cord, as described by 

 J. L. Hubbard. But I soon found the cord a nuisance, 

 for by rolling the rounded end of the shaft between ^ 

 the palm of my bands, I could give it the proper 

 motion easily enough, and empty the combs from two 

 of my small frames in a few seconds after they are 

 placed in the machine. Such an operation greatly 

 astonished the old fogies about here. However, 

 though greatly increasing the yield of honey, I found 

 that the honey thus taken would not bring as much 

 in the market, by ten cents in the pound, as box 

 honey — the latter selling at 30 cents, and the former 

 at 30 cents. Nevertheless I think a great deal of my 

 honey-emptier lor family use. 



And now, Mr. Editor, accept ray good wishes for 

 the Journal. If there are two objects that American 

 bee-keepers should be proud of, they are Rev. L. L. 

 Langstroth, and the American Bee Journal. — L. M. 

 Lindley. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Cheap Paint for Hives. 



As it is time for making hives, and they need 

 some paiut, if it is intended that they should be 

 durable. White lead paiul is considered, a poor 

 article for such purpose. "What is needed is 

 some cheap and good substitute, ajid one within 

 the reach of every bee-keeper. Can any one 

 furnish a recipe in the Bee Journal, for the bene- 

 fit of all its readers ? 



D. H. CoGGsnALL, Jr. 



West Groton, iV. Y. January 7, 1870. 



