THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



71 





Bee men hail returning Spring, 

 Then bees and bee-men gaily sing. 

 Soft balmy breezes gently blow, 

 And soon will come the honey How. 



Bee-men in May, when it is warm, 

 Watch hourly for the coming swarm ; 

 Have hives all ready neat and clean, 

 To hive the swarm and mother queen. 

 West Toledo 0. John . Jamison. 



DOES IT PAY TO USE FOUNDATION* ? 



Mr. Editor : Locations differ so 

 much even within a few miles that it 

 is a hard question to answer, but in 

 my experience it pays better to use 

 fdn. in getting good straight work- 

 er brood combs. I find in this location 

 that strips of starters in the brood 

 chamber or L. frames are not just the 

 thing, (too much drone comb), and 

 with the Alley Queen Trap it is a great 

 draw-back to their working, as the 

 drones fill the traps so fast. Then 

 again, why have so many useless 

 drones ? Only on account of the bees 

 having their own sweet will in build- 

 ing so much drone comb. This can 

 be done away with by the use of fdn. 

 The past season I used one-half story 

 hives, and I found with only strips of 

 fdn, in brood frames scarcely a drone 

 comb. In fact, out of fifteen swarms 

 hived in half-stories there was not 

 enough drone comb built to make two 

 full combs or one whole L. frame of 

 drone comb. This point is to be well 

 considered by the bee-keepers who lack 

 the means or lack fdn. at time of hiv- 

 ing swarms. T. J. Ashmeade, 



Williamsm, X. Y. 



Editor Am. Bee-Keeper : Please 

 find enclosed pay for the Am. Bee- 

 Keeper until Jan. 1st, 1892. I con- 

 sider it a very nice bee paper. I have 

 fifty colonies of bees and they are do- 

 ing well this spring. Our first honey 

 flow began this week from red bud. I 

 see nothing said about this flower in 

 the bee books, so I send you a small 

 spray of the flower that you may see 

 how the bush blooms. I wish you 

 would have some one from the South 

 write for your paper. We do not need 

 cellars to winter in here, and ten frame 

 hives are too large to suit me. I pre- 

 fer eight frame instead. I consider 

 Italian bees to be the best, although 

 Hybrids are very good and profitable 

 in this locality. Yours, &c, 



J. F. Teee. 



Elmont, Texas, April 12, 1891. 



We do not know that we have ever 

 seen any of this flower of which you 

 send, and do not think it grows iu this 

 locality. We shall endeavor to have 

 an article occasionally from some bee- 

 keeper in the South, and in fact have 

 two or three such articles now, but 

 have not had the space to print them 

 yet. We will, however, soon. — Ed. 



Dear Edetor : In reading the many 

 interesting notes in your paper a little 

 incident comes to my mind of which 

 I will tell you. During the past sea- 

 son I was going to purchase a swarm 

 of bees of my father, so I set my hive 

 about three rods from the Apiary 

 awaiting the swarm. In a few days 

 I chanced to go past the hive and to 

 my surprise found a good swarm at 

 work in it which had gone in of its 

 own accord. 



I noticed an article about "Ants in 

 and about hive-," and would say that 



