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THE AMEEICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[For the American Bee Journal . ] 



Bee-Keeping, and Scouts. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to say tliat I am very 

 much pleased with the Bee Journal. The 

 March number is worth six months' subscription. 

 I believe it is growing better and better. 

 "While reading Novice's anticipations for the 

 coming season, I see that others also have 

 "great expectations " of a good bee time com- 

 ing, just as I have. 



The long winter is almost gone, and we shall 

 soon set the bees out and let them fly. What a 

 humming and buzzing there will be ! Beautiful 

 sounds, how I do love to hear them ! I have 

 been opening some of my hives, and found 

 young brood in the largest stocks on the first 

 of March. I am expecting some early swarms 

 this spring. I intend letting some of my stocks 

 swarm naturally, and some I shall divide before 

 swarming time. I am going to get some Italian 

 queens, introduce, them, and go through all 

 those manoeuvers that I find explained in the 

 Journal, for I wish to know how to perform 

 all those necessary manipulations. I am not 

 exactly a novice for I have learned two things 

 in bee-keeping. One is, not to try to winter 

 small or late swarms ; and another is, not to 

 get out of honey by selling myself short. If it 

 is possible I will have bees enough to supply 

 the honey that is wanted. 



Bee-keepers tell about curious instances of 

 bees swarming and flying away to the woods ; 

 and none of them agree in thinking that they 

 have a hollow tree selected beforehand for a 

 home. Now I think this is not always the 

 case, though they may generally do so. The 

 first swarms, with which the old queens leave, 

 appear to know where they are going ; but late 

 swarms do not always. Four years ago, this 

 spring, a swarm of bees was seen going past 

 where I live, about nine o'clock in the morning, 

 flying very low and slowly as though they were 

 tired. They went on somewhat less than half 

 a mile, lit on a bush, and hung there while 

 they hunted up a tree to go into. They started 

 comb on the bush, then left and went into a 

 tree about forty rods from the bush, where 

 they were found and taken up in the fall. 



Another instance is where, in company with 

 others, we found a swarm of bees, in Septem- 

 ber, settled on the limb of a green spruce tree, 

 right in the open air. They had built three 

 sheets of comb about the size of a man's hat. 



I could give other instances ; but enough for 

 the present. 



Willi A3I C. Merrill. 



COLEBROOK, N. II. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Solution of the Query. 



E^°Tlie consumption of pollen, by the bees, 

 when building comb, promotes the production 

 of wax and effects a saving of honey. 



Mr. Davis, of Toungsville, Pa., in the Feb- 

 ruary number of the Bee Journal, has related 

 an occurrence of a colony of bees accumulating 

 a large amount of honey and pollen, and not 

 raising a Avorker or drone : and inquired in 

 what condition the queen was all the time. 



We do not know that we can give an answer 

 that will be satisfactory to all ; but will relate 

 an occurence that came under our observation 

 last season. 



We had removed a queen from a colony, and 

 given it a young one (vith every appearance of 

 being fertile. We had occasion to look into 

 the hive about ten days afterwards, and to our 

 astonishment found no brood, though the combs 

 were filled with eggs. Wo noticetl that some 

 of the eggs did not look right — some being very 

 small. The queen appeared to be all right. 

 We closed the hive, let it remain about a week, 

 and then examined it again. It had the same 

 appearance as it had at the first examination. 

 Some of the eggs seemed freshly laid, and some 

 had become contracted in size. We thought 

 best to destroy the queen and introduce 

 another. 



Mr. Davis' colony may have been in posses- 

 sion of a queen of this stamp. There was, as 

 he says, not a worker or drone reared in the 

 hive, for in the above case not one of the eggs 

 ever hatched. The queen in Mr. Davis' colony 

 may have died, or the bees may have destroyed 

 her sometime before he became aware of their 

 condition. 



If others can give a better answer to his in- 

 quiry, we should be glad to have it. 



C. B. BiGLOW. 



Perkinsville, Vt. 



[For the Amoricaa Bee Journal.] 



What a Wasp's Nest is good for. 



(H^PoUen is rarely found deposited in drone 

 cells. The bees probably find a diflBculty in 

 storing it in such wide cells. 



Bring wax to a boil, put in a layer of wasp's 

 comb, saturate it with wax, and drain it. It 

 makes the best bee feeder — better than boxes or 

 honey-comb. 



I shall try it in honey harvest as a substitute 

 for artificial combs, for bees to store honey in. 

 Would it not make a capital comb to put into 

 the comb emptying machine, being so firm and 

 hard ? Or, as it will stand heat enough to boil 

 wax, put the frames in a very hot room, and let 

 the honey run out. 



You say in your February number that you 

 had given up most of the paper to correspond- 

 ents. I think there are a great many useful 

 hints among the difierent articles, and shall be 

 glad always to see such. 



I am sorry I cannot, by doubling my subscrip- 

 tion, receive the Journal semi-monthly, in-, 

 stead of monthly ; and hope soon to see it so 

 patronized as to justify its more frequent issue. 



J. M. P. 

 Buffalo Grove, Iowa. 



