color, with a black tip to her abdomen, and 

 the other a tolerably bright and fair queen.) 

 I introduced them all safely. The 2 dark 

 ones never raised a bee with more than one 

 yellow band; 1 of them perished during the 

 iong freeze, with her whole colony, and the 

 other died about the 1st of March, leaving 

 her colonv queen less. I think she was a 

 very old queen; she laid very sparingly 

 last fall, and when she died there was very 

 little brood in the hiye. The light queen 

 raises all kinds of bees, from clear black to 

 3 banded — mostly 1 or 2 bands. The oth- 

 er raises well marked bees, but of a very 

 dark leather color, and they are the worst 

 robbers 1 ever had. If there is any mis- 

 chief going on, they are at the head of it. 

 These are the facts, all can form their own 

 conclusions as to his business qualities as 

 well as his stock. C. T. Smith. 



Wittsburg, Ark., May 31, 1879. 

 I commenced with 24 colonies of bees in 

 Langstroth hives, last March ; had one de- 

 stroyed by a fertile worker. 1 have extract- 

 ed up to this date 600 lbs., and have taken 

 152 lbs. of comb honey. I have had only 6 

 swarms. This is my second year's expe- 

 rience with bees. We have no white clover 

 here. W. H. Newsom. 



Spring Lake, Mich., May 19, 1879. 

 I have lately visited several counties in 

 western Michigan, and am of the opinion 

 that more than 50 per cent, of the bees are 

 dead. Many have lost all by dysentery, 

 which I attribute to the following cause, 

 viz: That the spring frost killed the bas- 

 wood bloom, and much honey was made 

 from the blossom of the corn, which is in 

 its nature too relaxing. In proof of my 

 conclusion, I will state that in localities 

 near Lake Michigan, where corn is but little 

 grown, the disease has not prevailed; and 

 an individual located in a neighborhood of 

 corn fields, and who wintered successfully, 

 remarked that he did not, last season, fol- 

 low the usual practice of putting on honey 

 boxes until the bees had made sufficient 

 honey below on white clover to winter on. 

 W. H. Hammond. 



Weston, Texas. 

 One of my neighbors last year had a swarm 

 of bees come to his yard ; they took posses- 

 sion of an empty hive, and were working 

 finely before he knew it. This year another 

 swarm came and went into a hive where a 

 colony had died out ; it was in his orchard 

 over 100 yards from his house. They are 

 doing well. I have heard of such before but 

 never saw it till now. In the Journal for 

 August last I saw that a novice took a queen 

 from a colony, but they did not raise another. 

 Such is common in this country. I had 4 

 queenless colonies and had queen cells ready 

 for them, but neglected to insert them; when 

 I attempted to do so, the first queen was out 

 and had destroyed the other cells. I then 

 gave two of the queenless colonies Italian 

 brood, but they failed to raise queens till I 

 had given them brood 3 times. It seems to 

 me that an improvement could be made in 

 the smoker, by making the tin tube double, 

 one inside of the other, leaving an air-space 



between the two to keep the outer one cool, 

 which could then be kept bright and look 

 like a new one. Wire cloth in the end of 

 the tube to keep the fire, etc., from blowing 

 out, would be an improvement. This may 

 give an idea to some one. 



A. D. Buckley. 



Scran ton, Iowa, May 29, 1879. 

 I have a colony of bees that threw off a 

 very large swarm five days since, but they 

 would not cluster, went back into the old 

 hive, and came out again to-day. They 

 went back into the same hive again without 

 clustering. Now, I would like to know 

 what is the matter. It is a strong swarm, 

 and apparently in splendid condition. 



S. G. Gamble. 



[Evidently the queen remained in the hive, 

 or at least was not with the swarm.— Ed.] 



East Saginaw, Mich., June 2, 1879. 

 On page 250, of the Journal for June, 

 W. C. Nutt asks how short a distance will 

 it do to move bees, after they have marked 

 their location. You answered him cor- 

 rectly, if he wished to move them but a 

 few feet, but if it should be too far for that, 

 he will find in Vol. 4, page 235, apian which 

 1 have tried this spring, and find that it 

 works well, and not a bee has returned to 

 the old stand. It is not necessary to catch 

 the queen, but shake all the bees off into 

 a box and let them cluster there, like a 

 swarm, for half an hour ; run them back 

 into the hive like a swarm, and move them 

 any distance you wish, and thev will stay 

 where you put them. L. C. Whiting. 



Dexter, Mich., June 3, 1879. 

 I have been so busy during the winter 

 and spring so far, that I gave no attention 

 to my bees. I lost 3 colonies to May 1st, 

 by starvation. In the month of February I 

 should have given them some frames of 

 honey which I had, but I did not ; so they 

 died out. Spring has opened up finely. 

 Bees are storing well ; breeding fast. They 

 have had full benefit of the fruit and maple 

 bloom, making them strong in numbers. 

 A great many have lost heavily here, dur- 

 ing the past winter, with hives full of honey. 

 It pays to "pack" bees, even though it is 

 extra work and expense. A thing well 

 done, is twice done. J. H. Murdock. 



Council Grove, Kan., May 30, 1879. 

 A Mr. Hansett, of this county, saw some 

 bees at work on buckwheat, in a vicinity 

 remote from any bee-keep r, and concluded 

 there was a bee-tree near by. He after- 

 wards returned to the locality and put out 

 bait. The bees came to it, and he traced 

 them to Council Grove, a distance of 8 miles. 

 A few days ago I transferred a colony of 

 blacUs from one hive to another. I shook 

 and thumped the old hive, until there were 

 no bees in it, and removed it some distance 

 away; I then united a weak colony with it 

 they having a worthless queen which 1 

 killed. The job was finished about noon. 

 About 2 o'clock, I noticed the colony was 

 unsettled ; I went to the old hive, from 

 which the first colony had been transferred, 



