will be a corps of bee-keepers at work on 

 each and every problem, in numbers accord- 

 ing to the necessities of tne case, and all the 

 progress of our pursuit will be carried along 

 together.— Ed.] 



Martinsburg, Mo., Feb. 5, 1879. 

 I believe there will be a " big" loss of bees 

 this winter, from scarcity of honey— a dis- 

 position in almost all to divide, making too 

 weak colonies — and then the very cold win- 

 ter. Most have wintered on summer stands. 

 I lost one (the best of 14), plenty of honey 

 and had same fare as others— on summer 

 stands. Cause, I do not know. 



E. R. Douglass. 



Wayne, Mich, Jan. 28, 1879. 

 King-birds or bee-martins seem to be ex- 

 tremely curious in their tastes and habits; 

 their maws are always well filled with rose- 

 buds and other insects in the morning, but 

 never have any part of a honey bee until 

 drones fly, say from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.; 

 neither are they about the apiary until 

 drones fly, late in the morning. This is cu- 

 rious. They may catch queens, I cannot 

 say— can you ? I will take the chances and 

 save every king-bird and house-wren to 

 catch drones and bee moths. The king-bird 

 will perch on a dry limb at the apiary in 

 the morning and finding no drones will 

 leave until they are out. Moosh Amiel. 



[In all probability many of the birds that 

 have caused more or less apprehension to 

 bee-keepers are rather more of friends than 

 foes. No doubt the species you mention are 

 of more good than harm to us.— Ed.] 



Chillicothe, Mo., Feb. 4, 1879. 

 I purchased three colonies in the fall of 

 1877 which wintered well. One being in a 

 box and two in movable frame hives, (one 

 being the Quinby), I now use a hive 16% 

 inches long H}4 wide and 20 inches high 

 containing eight frames. My increase last 

 year was eight, four by artificial and four 

 by natural swarming. The first artificial 

 colony I made in June 1878 by transferring 

 those in the Quinby to 2 of my other hives. 

 I had eleven colonies to go into winter quar- 

 ters with, eight strong and three weak ones; 

 the latter made only six combs, and stored 

 only 20 to 25 lbs. of honey owing to the fall 

 crop being cut short by drought and early 

 frost. 1 had 125 lbs. of honey in the comb. 

 I prepared my bees for winter in the latter 

 part of November by placing a quilt over the 

 honey board, leaving a hole in the board 

 for the escape of moisture and filling the cap 

 with chaff, and left them on their summer 

 stands. They did not come out until the 

 middle of January ; since then they have 

 had several flights the weather, being warm 

 most of the time. They all but one seem to 

 be in sood condition. I do not think I have 

 lost more than a pint of bees to a colony. 

 This is my first year's experience in bee- 

 keeping. I have not succeeded as well as 

 some, yet I am not discouraged. I love my 

 pets as much as ever, and hope to succeed as 

 well another season. Last Monday when 

 the bees were flying I opened a hive which 



was troubled with moths, after taking up 

 three or four frames 1 found the queen hang- 

 ing on the comb apparently lifeless and for- 

 saken by the bees, there being none near 

 her. 1 picked her off the comb and held her 

 in my hand a short time ; finding her alive I 

 brought ner in the house and she soon 

 revived. 1 then replaced her in the cluster 

 of bees and they welcomed her as though 

 she had been absent a long time. I do not 

 see how she could chill in so short a time, 

 not being over six or eight minutes. She is a 

 year and a half old. The hive now con- 

 tains sealed brood. I want to know what 

 you think was the cause of her being for- 

 saken by the rest of the bees. Do you think 

 she was diseased or chilled ? 



F. S. Thorington. 



[Probably chilled— Ed.] 



Los Angeles, Cab, Jan. 26,1879. 

 If a bee ranch be situated on or near an ex- 

 tensive sulphur spring, will the sulphur do 

 any harm to the bees ? If pure water was 

 obtainable would the bees goto it instead of 

 the sulphur water ? Or if there was none 

 but the sulpur water would bees do well on 

 it ? Which do you consider best for Califor- 

 nia bee-men to use, barrels, 20 gallon, or 5 

 gallon coal oil-cans, for Eastern and Euro- 

 pean markets ? F. C. Hazen. 



[We never heard of the experiment of 

 giving bees sulphur water having been tried. 

 If any one has done so, we should be glad 

 to have them answer the question. As to 

 the package for shipping honey from Cali- 

 fornia—many coal-oil cans have been used, 

 protected in a half-box. But both ways will 

 be utilized hereafter as heretofore. — Ed.J 



Keisterstown, Md., Nov. 19, 1878. 

 In queen rearing I cut worker comb, (con- 

 taining eggs or just hatched larvae) down 

 till it looks like foundation, then "stick" 

 little hollow cylinders of wax (like thimbles 

 without any tops) % inch deep, exactly over 

 the eggs 1 inch apart ; hang in a queenless 

 colony. You can have as many queens as 

 you prepare eggs for. Make these cylinders 

 from natural comb, for 1 believe wax loses 

 its organized structure, (not organic compo- 

 sition) when melted. In the absence of a 

 better illustration, I will say, the change is 

 somewhat analagous to that which takes 

 place when the fat of a hog is " rendered " 

 into lard— the same thing, yet different in 

 structure. I have reason to believe that 

 bees can recognise this difference, and fear- 

 ing that all is not right, refuse to work as 

 desired— am afraid this will account for the 

 failure of many artificial operations in 

 queen rearing. The thimbles can be made 

 by pressing comb in a plaster cast of a nat- 

 ural queen cell. (Row will this tally with 

 the theory that the sex depends upon the 

 cell ?) I took a black queen, put her on a 

 block, and covered her with a thin clear 

 tumbler; in crawling about she aid about 

 20 eggs, which I put, with a feather, into 

 empty cells and hung in a nucleus hive. 

 From these eggs, they raised a queen and 6 

 workers. F. Della Torre. 



