26th of August a large swarm came out, fol- 

 lowed by seven more by Sept. 5th ; and still 

 more to my suprise, a new generation of 

 drones came out. The honey gathered this 

 fall is of a fine quality, and the bees are do- 

 ing well at this time. This honey has been 

 mostly gathered from a weed that is common 

 in this portion of Mississippi. 1 know of no 

 name for this weed. Enclosed I send you 

 some blossoms and a leaf ; can you name 

 it ? It has very small seed. The roots live 

 all winter in this climate. I have had many 

 reverses in this new enterprise, but contem- 

 plate persevering in the business. H. W. 



[This is a species of Eupatorium. It is 

 probably E. hyssopifolium. There are 

 some. 20 species, all good for bees so far as I 

 know.— W. J. Beal.J 



Addison, N. Y., Oct. 11, 1879. 

 I lost all of my bees but 1 colony. I pur- 

 chased 8 more ; they increased to 20 ; Igot 

 but little box honey ; still I think they will 

 winter all right. It has been dry here, this 

 summer ; there were no flowers to speak of, 

 only now and then a little shower, not more 

 than a good heavy dew ; and then the wind 

 would turn aronnd in the north or west and 

 be cold and chilly, and sometimes would 

 shut the bees in for one or two days. It is 

 now cold and frosty and of course they have 

 gone in for winter. Honey is scarce in this 

 section ; increase has been very small. 

 Some of the bee-keepers have had no in- 

 crease nor any box honey ; in a few isolated 

 places they have done well. I do not know 

 the reason why there is so much difference, 

 unlest it is on account of the red Raspberry, 

 that is so much more natural in some places 

 than in others. S. B. Borden. 



Kane, 111., Sept. 30, 1879. 

 On July 9th, I received an Italian queen 

 and 2 worker bees in a cage from a queen- 

 rearer ; the queen was in a dying condition 

 and one worker was dead, I fed the live bee 

 all the honey it would take and turned it 

 loose at dark, and returned the dead queen 

 to the sender. The next morning the same 

 bee came buzzing around the door screen. 

 My daughter remarked several times that 

 she would go and feed that poor little bee, 

 but it left ; where it went, 1 know not. 

 The hive No. 8 that I spoke of in the Bee 

 Journal for September, page 420, stands 

 within 25 feet of the door where the bee was 

 last seen. The young queen in that hive 

 had been out 10 days and the colony was 

 then very weak and to my great surprise the 

 brood in that hive hatched out on the last of 

 August was all 2 banded Italians (bright) 

 and have increased till they are now strong 

 and in good working order. There are no 

 Italians nearer me than 8 miles. 1 have one 

 queen hatched out since that ; her brood is 

 black. No. 8 contains the only mixed bees 

 in my apiary of 16 colonies. I received a 

 pure Italian queen of Mr. Alley on the 7th of 

 August ; her progeny all have 3 bright 

 golden bands, and the queen's wings are 

 clipped ; the hives are 25 feet apart. She 

 has no drones yet. I would like to know 

 how this all happened. Please tell me. My 

 bees are yet in fine condition. I got no 



honey from my bees this season. I gave 

 some full combs to the poor colonies and I 

 procured a lot of Shuck's bee feeders and I 

 am feeding all the late colonies. The rob- 

 bers from the timber are yet troublesome to 

 me. The honey crop is a total failure here 

 and the bees generally are in poor condition. 

 The buckwheat crop is a failure here ; the 

 weather is yet dry and cool. 



Radford M. Osborn. 



[Your young queen probably met an Ital- 

 ian drone from the woods.— Ed. J 



Lansing, Mich., Oct. 15, 1879. 

 I notice in the Journal of this month a 

 letter from my father in which he states 

 that I am a graduate of the Agricultural 

 College of this State, under Prof. Cook. 

 This is a mistake on the part of my father, 

 and the result of a wrong impression. I 

 was a student there for two years but owing 

 to the illness of my mother was unable to 

 remain and take my degree. While there I 

 did not take bee-culture as a study but 

 watched with interest the successful man- 

 agement of the apiary by Prof. Cook and 

 his able assistant, Mr. Fisk Bangs, now of 

 South Haven. On returning to the college 

 by the suggestion of Prof. Cook I adopted 

 bee-keeping as an occupation, and allow me 

 to say that to his kind advice and the valu- 

 able teachings of his Manual, I this day owe 

 my success as an apiarist, and would advise 

 every one to obtain Prof. Cook's Manual, 

 for no library is complete without it. 



George L. Perry. 



Rienbeck, Iowa, Nov. 10, 1879. 

 I have read the Journal for November 

 and am very much pleased with it. Bee 

 interests are much improved in the last few 

 years. Bees have done better in this section 

 than some other localities. Do bees gather 

 honey from the white willow ? That is the 

 first thing to come out in the spring and it 

 is just swarming with bees at work on the 

 tags or blossoms. There are miles of willow 

 in this country and plenty of white clover. 

 There are no Italian bees in this section. 

 We must improve our stock. 



D. S. BURBANK. 



[Bees do gather honey from the white wil- 

 low.— Ed.] 



Bloomingdale, Mich., Nov. 18, 1879. 

 Last year I wintered my bees without 

 loss ; they were packed in 2 long boxes ; one 

 had 13 in, the other 10 ; placed 28 inches 

 from center to center ; I packed all round 

 and between them with chaff, but none in 

 front. I put cloth on the top of the frames, 

 and then put the chaff on, well packed ; the 

 boxes are 2 inches from the ground. I 

 banked up with dirt and left them so all the 

 time. I leave the chaff around the body of 

 hive during the summer, the roof being on, 

 of course. I reduced them by sale down to 

 19 in the spring ; I have sold about $100. 

 worth of honey in Chicago ; have eaten 200 

 or 300 pounds of honey in the family. I in- 

 creased the colonies to 33, mostly by swarm- 

 ing. I have now 27 all packed and in fair 

 order. It has been a poor year for honey. 

 John Crowfoot. 



