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frozen ; others greatly reduced in numbers. 

 Of the 44 left I made 28 strong colonies, 

 saving the queens of the other 16 with what 

 bees would adhere to the combs. As I 

 had plenty of extra combs, I would give to 

 these weak ones as they needed it until 

 swarming commenced, when I would take 

 a queen from one of them and give to a 

 swarm, putting the old queen back in the 

 hive she came from. After giving a queen 

 from one of these weak colonies, I would 

 insert a queen cell and raise another. In 

 this way I have increased to 92 colonies ; 

 nearly all of which are well filled with bees. 

 After using up all my extra combs, I had 

 recourse to comb foundation, and my expe- 

 rience is that foundation is better than 

 combs, at least the swarms to which I gave 

 it have done better than those given combs. 

 I have taken 1,965 lbs. of extracted honey — 

 none in the combs ; 800 of this is poplar, 

 the rest sour-wood, and is very nice. The 

 sour-wood season is nearly over, and the 

 probability is I have taken all I will get this 

 year. J. F. Montgomery. 



Mansfield, Pa., July 7, 1879. 

 Having just commenced bee-culture, and 

 wishing to make it as profitable as possible, 

 I wish to find through the Journal the 

 best and most practicable hive. Like all 

 other machinery, I suppose there are several 

 first-class hives. I am now using N. C. 

 Mitchell's adjustable hive for which I paid 

 $5 for a farm right, and have since been told 

 that I was swindled out of so much money 

 and should conclude that I was, from the 

 reading of the last Journal. One of my 

 neighbors sent a Mrs. E. Cotton money for 

 one of her controllable hives and method of 

 handling bees last April, and hears nothing 

 from his money or the hive that bees make 

 such an immense quantity of honey in. 

 She is now put down by him as a humbug 

 and a swindler. The information that I 

 have received through the American Bee 

 Journal has been of great advantage to me 

 thus far, and I can recommend it to all bee- 

 keepers. H. C. Bailey. 



[There are several good hives in the mar- 

 ket, either of which can be used with profit 

 in the hands of skillful apiarists. As much 

 depends upon location, quality of bees, and 

 skill of the bee-master, as the peculiar con- 

 struction of hive. For all purposes, we 

 think the Langstroth hive far the best.— Ed/] 



Woodman, Wis., June 24, 1879. 

 In regard to the patent atmospheric bee- 

 feeders, I saw one in Scotland in 1858. made 

 somewhat in this shape : The upriget part 

 is a tin can about the quart size and shape 

 of an oyster can. The lower horizontal 

 piece is a small flat tin pan about % of an 

 inch deep, and soldered to the lower front 

 side of the upright piece, which has an 

 opening cut away in front the full width 

 of the can on the lower edge of the can 

 and opening out in the can underneath; the 

 opening is about J£ in. deep. When the can 

 was filled it was tipped back, and the feed 

 poured in from the bottom and fed to the 

 bees by shoving the lower pan into the 



opening in front of the hive; and the feed 

 would not run out any faster than the bees 

 could take it away, as the can is air-tight on 

 top and as the pan rilled the entrance to the 

 hive, robber bees could not get in the hive 

 or to the feed. An old oyster can will make 

 a good feeder. I write this to show that I 

 do not think any man can get a patent on an 

 atmospheric bee-feeder as a new principle, 

 as it was patented 20 years ago. Bees are 

 doing splendid now. John Murray. 



Valley Station, Ky., July 5, 1879. 



I send you a few leaves of a small bush or 

 weed. It grows among the rocks on the 

 walks around the pork house in Louisville ; 

 the bees are now on it from early morn till 

 late in the evening. Only one place where 

 it is found ; only one house where it grows. 

 It has a sweet scent, and has been in bloom 

 for more than 4 weeks ; it keeps blooming 

 as it grows in height, some of it is now 

 about 3 ft. high, and keeps branching out 

 and blooming. From the stalk at the ground 

 many branch out, and it appears to flourish 

 almost on the naked rocks. It may be the 

 Rocky Mountain bee-plant or mignonette, 

 as the seed you sent me never came up, 

 consequently I never saw any. 



[1 presume, without much doubt, that the 

 plant is sweet clover or melilot, though a 

 piece of stem a few inches long, with not a 

 single flower, is never sufficient to enable an 

 accurate determination. 



Our teasel bed is now in bloom, and cov- 

 ered with bees the day through. It com- 

 menced to bloom a week before basswood. 

 1 have never known a year when the latter 

 (basswood) has been so loaded with flowers. 

 Even small trees are crowded with bloom, 

 and the odor along the forest for miles is 

 like that of a room full of tube roses. 



Rocky Mountain beeeplant, Cleome inte- 

 grifolia, should be planted in autumn. 

 Spring-sown seed will generally fail, unless 

 the season is very wet. This is a very im- 

 portant fact.— A. J. Cook.] 



St. Joseph, Mo., June 28, 1879. 

 I was taken with the bee fever last sum- 

 mer, and in consequence purchased 9 hives 

 of bees— a dead-sure moth-miller trap and a 

 patent for a hive. All I lacked was 100 hives 

 of bees fixed with a moth-trap near each hive 

 and my fortune was made. The railroad com- 

 panies would each run a track to my apiary 

 for the sake of getting my patronage, and 

 Europe would furnish me a market. The 

 dead-sure moth-miller trap was tried faith- 

 fully on one of my best hives. Result : 

 Moths killed the bees, and I burned the 

 hives out to kill the moths. I never tried it 

 again. I have on hand 4 colonies of black 

 bees and 1 nucleus of Italians in movable- 

 frame hives, and 6 empty hives ; outlay 

 $46.20, income nothing. I subscribed for 

 the Journal, with the hope of finding 

 something in it to help me out of my di- 

 lemma. I read the June number through 

 twice, advertisements and all, and it just 



