say. I would kill them, and either look 

 for another bonanza, or try our only 

 remedy, viz : Breeding up a race that 

 can keep well, or that can get sick with- 

 out dying. 



I have stated the facts as nearly as I 

 can obtain them, and leave you to form 

 your own conclusions. After 3 years' 

 experience with this death among bees, 

 I (almost alone) pronounced it a disease. 

 I was laughed at by nearly all bee- 

 keepers, but not convinced to the con- 

 trary, as nearly every one had a different 

 way of accounting for it. 



Dowagiac, Mich., June 1, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Season in Alabama. 



JOHN R. LEE. 



The mortality among the bees in this 

 county has been very great, fully 50 per 

 cent, are dead. Situated as we are, in 

 the Sunny South, it would be reason- 

 able to conclude that they should win- 

 ter with very small loss. Usually this 

 is the case, but last season we had a 

 very severe drouth that dried up all 

 the flowers, reduced the bees to the 

 starving point, and but for the astors 

 that bloomed in October, the race of 

 bees would have become nearly extinct. 



Many good combs are left, which if 

 properly cared for, will be a great help 

 in building up again. Every apiary 

 should have some good place to keep 

 empty combs secure from the moth. 

 Some argue that we are past the brim- 

 stone age, but I think otherwise. It 

 should not be used to kill bees, but to 

 kill moths and their eggs. A large 

 quantity of valuable comb is lost every 

 year by carelessly leaving them ex- 

 posed. A good way, is to place them 

 in a tight box, 2 or 3 ft. square and 3 or 

 4 ft. high, so arranged as to take the 

 frames as they hang in the hive ; occa- 

 sionally burning brimstone under them. 

 In this way they can be kept ready for 

 use. 



Bees commenced carrying in pollen 

 on Feb. 11th, nearly a month later than 

 last year, but we are now having honey- 

 dew nearly every night. I first no- 

 ticed the bees humming about the 

 peach trees early in the morning, and 

 as there were no blossoms, they were 

 carrying in honey-dew. A box-elder 

 tree in Huntsville, was literally cov- 

 ered with this sweet substance ; many 

 of the leaves were covered with a green 

 louse or aphidse, but whether they pro- 

 duced the honey-dew, or whether the 

 sweet attracted them, is not settled with 

 me. If their eating the leaves causes the 

 sweet to ooze out, why is it not found 



on the underside of the leaves ? These 

 insects I found on both sides, while the 

 honey-dew on this box-elder tree was 

 all on top of the leaves, and no painter 

 could have put it on more evenly. At 

 first sight, they appeared as if they 

 had been smeared with grease ; the 

 taste was too sweet to be pleasant. I 

 noticed ants and flies helping them- 

 selves to the feast. The bees are build- 

 ing up rapidly, and since May are be- 

 ginning to swarm. Last year our first 

 swarm was on April 12th. 

 Huntsville, Ala., May 11, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Preparation for Wintering Bees. 



A. E. WENZEL. 



This is an absorbing topic among 

 apiarists, and many knowing ones en- 

 thusiastically make known their pecu- 

 liar modes of protection, prematurely 

 — " counting chickens before being 

 hatched " — all in accordance with their 

 own personal conveniences and situa- 

 tions as best afforded, but still no fiat 

 law to govern wintering bees satisfac- 

 torily as the best mode, under the vary- 

 ing circumstances, has been deter- 

 mined, for it has to be yet practically 

 tested for a series of years, with this 

 end in view, by special direction ; for all 

 reports however faithful, seemingly in- 

 dependent, have a taint of chance. 



I, too, fell into the rut — you will par- 

 don me— but thinking ''discretion the 

 better part of valor, ''not knowing what 

 might take place between " wind and 

 water," deferred, but can now con- 

 scientiously report for myself, for last 

 winter, in three words, " unprecedented 

 good luck." 



Looking back over a series of fifteen 

 years of bee-keeping, I have known ex- 

 periences, trying in the extreme to my- 

 self and family, while having onlv a 

 few colonies in primitive hives. One 

 time I was willing to discard the indus- 

 try as a nuisance ; but having a number 

 of colonies kept on shares, that, too, 

 resulted in like experience to my own 

 —no returns. Such harrassing events 

 I weathered through by dumb luck, till 

 accidentally I fell in with your valuable 

 Bee Journal., and now in this same lo- 

 cality, my family experiences no incon- 

 venience ; on the contrary, a pleasure, 

 especially the view of a minature vil- 

 lage, because we know now in a meas- 

 ure, how to compensate for those evils, 

 where formerly ignorance in manipula- 

 tion would lead us into the grossest 

 excesses of carelessness. 



Your valuable Journal brought me 

 vis-a-vis with this blundering, haphaz- 



