TEE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



165 



the colony. Many young queens in 

 second and third swarms in the south 

 are lost in mating and require much 

 attention in order that they may be 

 successful, especially after the bee 

 dragon appears, as they are very fond 

 of queens and are apt to be cap- 

 tured while returning home, which 

 leaves the colony with no means to 

 reproduce another. Many small bee- 

 keepers here have three and four 

 swarms from one, and upon examin- 

 ation found many that were queen- 

 less owing to loss of the queen on 

 her w^edding flight. As soon as I 

 found the dragon fly so carnivorous 

 I stopped rearing queens. In south 

 Florida queens should be reared in 

 the early spring months and also the 

 best time to increase bees is before 

 the hot weather appears. The saw 

 palmettoes that I have spoken of be- 

 fore, that are so plentiful and from 

 vi^hich I expected to get early honey, 

 bloomed but little. They com- 

 menced trying to bloom in January 

 and have just put out their first ma- 

 ture blossoms, so that the bees 

 began to notice them. Its huge rival, 

 the cabbage (so called), has shown 

 but little signs of starting at this date. 

 The magnolia blossom is no bee 

 flower as its structure is such that 

 bees can get little if any honey. The 

 sweet bay, which is related to the 

 magnolia, is also a poor honey pro- 

 ducer yet very fragrant. It is well 

 to understand what flowers we can de- 

 pend upon for honey and the past 

 winter has taught much in that di- 

 rection. 



The average temperature for 

 March at 7 a. m., 54°, at i p. m., 83° 

 8 evening, 56°. Greatest variation 

 during the day, 62°. For April at 

 7 A. M., in shade, 62°, at i p. m., 82° 

 and at 8 evening, 63° ; greatest varia- 

 tion 34°. Our bees, that were fed 

 occasionally during the months of 

 January and February, at this date are 

 in much better condition in bees and 

 honey. In our next we will give our 

 experience in moving from a temper- 



ature of 90° in the shade, to New 

 York, and with what success ; also 

 will try to describe the country, and 

 to what extent it will pay to move bees 

 south for the winter, and back in the 

 spring before the pests of the south 

 commence. 



Chas. G. Ferris. 

 Sanford, Fla. 

 May 1, 1885. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



— Several parties are writing to 

 us complaining of the dealings of Mr. 

 George W. House. 



We trust that Mr. House will at- 

 tend to these matters, as quite prob- 

 ably he intends to do. It is sometimes 

 hard to know just what to do in such 

 cases, as we are not thoroughly ac- 

 quainted with all the circumstances. 



— The Haldimand Beekeepers' 

 Association met May 29th at Nelles 

 Corner, Ontario, 1.30 p. m. The 

 President, J. Armstrong in the chair. 



First topic for discussion : Report 



of winter losses and cause of losses. 



Many attributed their losses to the 



fact that the stores were not placed 



compactly enough in the hive, and 



owing to the long and intensely cold 



weather the bees were unable to 



leave the cluster to secure food or if 



they did it was accompanied by a 



great loss of bees. Doubtless much 



loss might be avoided during severe 



winters, if sufficient stores were 



placed in as few combs as possible, 



and all superfluous combs removed. 



We append the report : 



Jas. Collins, 16-14 



Geo. Warner, 5-1 



Bassbinder, 50-46 



M. Hunsberger, lo-o 



Selkirk, 18-3 



F. Mehlenbacher, 12-9 



John Boyer, 13-12 



R. Coverdale, ii-io 



Kendree, 30-25 



