most, if not quite certain, that this 

 poison, honey-dew, is gathered in spring, 

 summer and fall and about as certain 

 that it is sure death to bees V T know 

 of no way to determine whether a 

 colony has gathered honey-dew ; others 

 may. Sometimes we see them carrying 

 it in ; but many times it may be carried 

 in without our knowledge. 



Is it safe to extract all of the honey 

 in the fall and substitute some known 

 good food— pure candy as suggested by 

 Sir. Langstroth, say candy made of 

 sugar and Hour as suggested by Mr. 

 Wilkin, formerly of Cadiz, Ohio ; or 

 a properly made sugar syrup ? Many 

 have fed for a short time with the can- 

 dies and some have tried sugar syrup to 

 ward off dysentery, but with what suc- 

 cess I have forgotten, if I ever knew. 

 Mr. Bidwell, our late President, of 

 South Haven, Mich., placed many colo- 

 nies in vacant hot beds with apparent 

 success, but since that time I have 

 heard no more of it. 



I have been a sufferer to the number 

 of 80 colonies with dysentery and 140 

 with foul-brood, and would like to hear 

 from others on these suggestions. 



Wayne, Mich., April 14, 1879. 



For me American Bee Journal. 



Bees in Albany Co., N. Y. 



G.J. FLANSBTJRGH. 



To show the mortality of the past 

 winter and present spring up to date, I 

 will give results of nine bee-keepers 

 near here, the farthest being about 3 

 miles distant. They went into winter 

 quarters with 148 colonies ; their num- 

 bers varied from 2 to 60 each. Out of 

 the 148, only 32 are living, and some of 

 those are weak and in all probability 

 will not survive the late cold spring. 



The causes of this great mortality are 

 obvious. In the first place bees ceased 

 to breed here about the last of August ; 

 there being not enough fall flowers to en- 

 courage them to continue later. All 

 through the fall months they were like 

 hungry fowls. Honey could not be ex- 

 posed with safety at any time. Thus 

 many colonies went into winter quarters 

 weak, and with bees too old toperpetu- j 

 ate until the breeding season. Follow- j 

 ing this unfavorable fall was a pro- 

 tracted cold winter; the bees being 

 confined to their hives from December 

 until near April and being obliged to eat 

 on the borders of cold frosty honey, 

 which thinned their forces, causing 

 pressing necessity to discharge ; the 

 weather continuing cold and unfavor- 

 able for a purifying flight, and as a last 



resort those suffering most from want 

 of animal heat or warmth, daubed up 

 their combs and wetting one another, 

 soon died. 



The few that have survived thus far, 

 are generally in a backward state. As 

 the spring thus far has also been 

 cold and unfavorable for breeding, 

 many colonies that are weak do not 

 breed sufficient to compete with the 

 number of old bees dying off daily, and 

 so losses are yet to be expected. 



The apiary that I have charge of, 

 went into winter quarters on their sum- 

 mer stands with 69 colonies ; 12 died ; 

 the remainder, 57, 1 have reduced to 40 

 (one yet being weak) by uniting the 

 weakest ones, on the first warm days of 

 their flight. There are many colonies 

 dead which could have been saved, if 

 this method had been taken. 



Bethlehem City, N. Y. 



For the American Bee Journal, 



The White Sage— Large Yields, &c. 



WM. MUTH-RASMUSSEN. 



The engraving in December number 

 for 1878, does not represent the white 

 sage of California, but illustrates the 

 plant called ball sage, or blue sage, or 

 sometimes black sage in contradistinc- 

 tion to the white sage. The blue or 

 ball sage blooms earlier than the white, 

 the flowers are only one-half or one- 

 third the size of those of the white, and 

 of a bluish color, while those of the 

 white sage are pure white. The flowers 

 are similar in construction, but the 

 stems and leaves, and general appear- 

 ance of the two plants are entirely dif- 

 ferent. There are other varieties of 

 sage here, which however are not fre- 

 quent enough to come into considera- 

 tion as honey resources. 



It is claimed that the honey from the 

 blue sage is clearer and thinner than 

 that from the white. The blue sage is 

 not as abundant as the white, but is 

 beginning to spread out and take a foot- 

 hold in places, where it formerly was 

 very scarce. 



In last February number, page 78, M. 

 S. Baker states that one colony gave 

 1000 lbs. of extracted honey, besides 14 

 swarms. This is a mistake, uninten- 

 tional probably from Mr. Baker's side, 

 but gross enough to be corrected. Mr. 

 Claussen, the owner of the bees, told 

 me, at a recent visit to his apiary, that 

 the 1000 lbs. were from the parent 

 colony and the increase. Good enough 

 even for California. 



The bee-keepers here are agitating 

 the question of putting their extracted 



