North Robinson, O., March 17, 1879. 

 In Feb., 1878, 1 bought a colony of native 

 bees, in a straw hive. Last season it threw 

 off a large swarm, after which 1 took from 

 it about 50 lbs. of honey ; it did not swarm 

 any more and went into winter quarters 

 with plenty of bees and stores, and came 

 through all right, but they issued out Satur- 

 day the 8th inst., and have not yet come 

 back. They left about 12 or 15 lbs. of honey, 

 brood, both sealed and unsealed. 1 exam- 

 ined them about 10 or 12 days before they 

 decamped and found plenty of bees and 

 honey. What was the probable cause of 

 their leaving their hive ? I am well pleased 

 with the Bee Journal, ; you may consider 

 me a life-long subscriber to it. 



J. H. Eby. 



[The cause of bees absconding en masse 

 from their hives, as they often do, is as yet 

 not satisfactorily accounted for. Mr. Butler, 

 of Jackson, Mich., has reported a very 

 marked instance of the kind and one that is 

 entirely unaccountable.— Ed.J 



Monterey, 111., March 10, 1879. 

 My bees began to work on the soft maples 

 on the 6th. I use a cotton cloth over the 

 frames with a chaff cushion 2% inches thick 

 over it. I give no upward ventilation, the 

 entrance in the bottom board being the only 

 ventilation they get. I had 34 colonies, and 

 lost 1 by robbing. John Boerstler. 



Bethany, 111., March 10, 1879. 

 Bees in this locality are in good condition 

 generally, where good hives are used. We 

 had a good yield of honey last season after 

 the white clover bloom. Our bees are in 

 good condition after wintering. The Bee 

 Journal is a welcomed visitor. I regard 

 it as indispensable. A. M. Rhodes. 



Centerville, Iowa, March 13, 1879. 

 The past winter has been very severe on 

 bees in this locality, following closely upon 

 a scarcity of food last fall during the season 

 that bees usually provide their winter stores, 

 resulting in starvation. The efforts of a 

 few bee-keepers have distributed a large 

 number of colonies among the farmers who 

 aspire to the production of honey sufficient 

 for home use ; but little is sold in the mar- 

 ket, and that little at very low figures. 

 There are about 10 apiarists in this county 

 that understand bee culture pretty well, and 

 make a fair success, while a large majority 

 of the remainder have progressed so far in 

 the science as to almost believe that at the 

 death of the " King Bee " by some wonder- 

 ful legerdermain another "King" can be 

 produced. J. A. Talbot. 



Lowell, Ky., March 18, 1879. 

 Last fall I had 82 colonies to winter ; but 

 as the previous winter was so mild as 

 hardly to be called winter, I paid no atten- 

 tion to more than one-half or two-thirds of 

 them, thinking they would go through safe 

 any way. On January 25th, the first day 

 warm enough, I examined them. Five of 

 the weakest had died ; three having starved, 

 and the other two had left plenty of honey. 



Now fourteen more are gone ; six starved, 

 eight left honey, and some more than enough 

 to have wintered them again. Nineteen out 

 of eighty-two, is the worst loss I ever had ; 

 and is due mainly to the long continued 

 severity of the weather. From this time 

 there is no danger of the loss of any more, 

 unless we have an unprecedentediy cold 

 springy. A friend, about 20 miles distant, 

 wintered twenty colonies, by putting them 

 into a cellar during the cold spell, without 

 the loss of a single colony. 



I have used Bingham's smoker for the 

 past few years, and not one has had more 

 rough handling than it has, and still it is as 

 good as new. If any man can produce a 

 better one than Bingham's, he will confer a 

 great favor on the bee-keepers of the 

 United States. R. M. Argo. 



Rochelle, 111., March 17, 1879. 

 Last fall I had 40 colonies of bees ; now I 

 have but 10, and 2 or 3 of them very weak. 

 The others died mostly of dysentery. 1 had 

 them all out of doors till Jan. 20. Then I 

 put 24 of them into the cellar and left 8 out. 

 Of those put into the cellar 7 are living, and 

 of those left out 3 are living— 10 in all. Most 

 of them had plenty of honey. What shall 

 I do with the combs ? They are badly 

 daubed up. I fear the moths will trouble 

 me. The combs are straight and in Lang- 

 stroth frames. C. S. Hubbard. 



[For method of cleansing combs see the 

 first page of the Journal for March. 

 Fumigate them and put them into a tight- 

 covered box for safe keeping and protection 

 from moths.— Ed.J 



Warsaw, Out., Canada, March 17, 1879. 

 We have a long winter, snow being now 

 about 2 feet deep, cold has been severe— on 

 one morning 30 3 below zero. My bees, (82 

 colonies) are on their summer stands, 2 

 inches from the ground. These I buried in 

 the first snow that came last fall ; they re- 

 mained covered up, and the hives quite 

 invisible, till March 9th, when a few warm 

 days took the snow down, so that I could 

 examine them. I am pleased to say that 

 they are in good condition, only one dead, 

 and that one starved, no honey in hive. The 

 combs are dry and bright and the bees are 

 healthy and strong. I have 22 colonies in a 

 bee house and on these warm days they are 

 very uneasy, and many of them crawled out 

 on the floor, and do not seem to be in as good 

 condition as the 81 wintered out of doors. I 

 do not think there can be any better way to 

 winter bees in this far North latitude than 

 that of out doors, and well covered with 

 snow. I have tried it thoroughly and with 

 good success every time. Many of my hives 

 have only }4 inch ends next the snow, and 

 they are all right. The temperature is very 

 even as long as no part of the hive is ex- 

 posed above the snow. Geo. Garlick. 



Waterloo, Ky., March 10, 1879. 

 I had 13 colonies of bees in Langstroth 

 hives, and wintered on summer stands, with 

 straw cut up fine in the upper story. I have 

 lost 2 colonies, 1 from a leak in the side 

 which got the bees wet in the cluster and 



