374 



Versailles, Ky., July 12, 1879. 



On the 30th of June I swarmed a colony of 

 black bees by the exchange method, using a 

 nucleus with a young Italian queen to make 

 the exchange. Two days after the swarm- 

 ing, I noticed a ball of bees on the ground 

 in front of the hive of blacks, and on open- 

 ing it found a black queen nearly smoth- 

 ered, and she died finally in a short time. 

 Thinking the bees had merely destroyed a 

 queen cell in the hive and carried the queen 

 out, I thought no more about it until yester- 

 day, when looking through the hive I espied 

 a large fine Italian queen. About that time 

 I lost an Italian queen from a nucleus, about 

 8 feet from where the colony of blacks 

 stood, and thought she was lost on her mar- 

 riage flight. Can it be that she entered the 

 wrong hive on her return, killed the black 

 queen and took possession : 



R. W. Keene, M. D. 



[Yes, it is probable the young Italian 

 queen you mention mistook the hive and en- 

 tered it. We have heard of several instances 

 of the kind. Virgin queens are frequently 

 very hasty in "marking" the location of 

 their homes, and seeing but few bees flying 

 from the nuclei, are easily misled.— Ed.] 



Waveland, Ind., July 16, 1879. 

 About half a crop of honey in this county 

 (Montgomery) ; increase by natural swarm- 

 ing about one-fifth. Peter James. 



Libertyville, Mo., July 14, 1879. 

 On page 355, October number, 1878, Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal, I said that 1 had 64 

 colonies of bees, but as I sold 58 colonies in 

 November, only had 6 left, which I brought 

 through the disastrous winter, and when 

 fall comes I may give you a report from 

 those. There is but little honey being gath- 

 ered now, as white clover has disappeared. 

 I am greatly interested in your correspon- 

 dence department, especially the letters 

 from Messrs. Heddon and Doolittle. Suc- 

 cess to the ever-improving American Bee 

 Journal. J. B. Dines. 



Crown City, O., July 15, 1879. 

 1 have 100 colonies of bees, Italians and 

 blacks. Swarming was almost a failure 

 with bees kept in this county. I had 2 nat- 

 ural and 38 artificial ; 30 of my best colonies 

 1 never divided, as they were doing so well 

 in storing surplus honey. My bees are very 

 strong, and nearly all have young queens as 

 1 have been slaughtering the old ones. Hail 

 thumping so frequently on hives in the 

 Northern States, I think is the cause of 

 many colonies becoming diseased ; being so 

 frequently confused by hail causes them to 

 consume too much honey, and in many 

 cases the late-gathered honey, as many 

 Western bee-men use the extractor freely 

 and in many cases too much so in early 

 gathered honey. It is my opinion that 

 early gathered honey is the best to winter 

 on. By my plan of wintering, I never 

 dream of losing a colony. Honey will not 

 be one-third of a crop hereabouts ; very 

 dry. With a " tip of my 5c. bee-hat," will 

 say success to the Journal. 



C. S. Newsom. 



Ontario, Canada, July. 1S79. 

 For wintering bees, extracting and keep- 

 ing honey, I have built a house with con- 

 crete walls on a stone foundation, with a 

 space of 3 inches between the walls and the 

 inside plastering. But I find as soon as 

 the door and windows are shut that it is 

 very damp ; so damp, indeed, that a cloth 

 hung in it soon becomes moldy. 1 have a 

 hole in the wall, just above the ground, and 

 holes in the ceiling into the room above, but 

 find I cannot leave them open in winter as 

 they would admit frost, nor do I think if 

 they could be left open that they would be 

 of much use. I shall feel obliged for any 

 information that will enable me to get rid of 

 the dampness. W. P. T. 



Lawson, Mo., July 12, 1879. 

 Please give names of the inclosed flowers. 

 No. 1 grows about 15 in. high on the prairies 

 and seems to secrete plenty of honey. No. 

 2 grows on the prairie, and the bees fairly 

 swarm around a patch of it. It is not as 

 plenty as No. 1. No. 3 grows along small 

 streams, and is a favorite with bees. 



J. L. Smith. 



[Prof. Beal has kindly given me aid in 

 detei'mining the plants sent by Mr. J. L. 

 Smith : 



No. 1 is a mountain mint or basil, (Pic- 

 nanthemum lanceolatum). Though it has 

 somewhat the habit of the bonesets, the 

 form of the flower and the peculiar glands 

 of the leaves show its relation to the mints. 

 The mint family may well be said to rival 

 the composite family for its numerous and 

 valuable honey plants. 



No. 2 is Culver's root (Seronica virgin- 

 ica). This is a Scrophulariacious plant, 

 hence a near relative of the mullein and 

 famous Figwort-Scrophularia nodosa. 



No. 3 is wood sage {Teucrium cana- 

 dense). This is also a mint. I have re- 

 ceived it before, accompanied with similar 

 praise.— A. J. Cook.] 



Neosho Kapids, Kan., July 11, 1879. 

 About 50 per cent, of the bees in this lo- 

 cality died last winter. I have not been in 

 the bee business very long, commencing 3 

 years ago with 2 colonies, and last fall had 

 increased to 21 colonies by natural swarm- 

 ing. I put them all under a shed but 1 col- 

 ony, which I left on the summer stand ; it 

 wintered all right. Those in the shed ap- 

 peared to mix up with each other in Febru- 

 ary, when they had their first flight. In a 

 few days after I found several dead queens 

 on the bottom boards, and had but few bees 

 left in those hives. They had plenty of 

 honey. When spring came 1 had 9 strong 

 colonies and 1 weak one. I had 5 new 

 swarms about the 1st of May, and others 

 about ready to swarm killed off their drones 

 and have refused to swarm yet on account 

 of dry weather ; but we have had plenty of 

 rain since the 20th of June. I now have 15 

 strong colonies, mostly Italians. I have 

 about \% acres of buckwheat, which has 



