162 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



Ida Grove, Iowa. 

 Friend Alley : 



I moved my bees on April 5 and 6 

 according to your directions in the 

 January number of Api. I liave fifty 

 of your drone and queen-traps. I like 

 them first rate. 



E. R. 



Lawrence, Mass., Aj)r. 4, 1887. 

 Mk. Alley: My bees have had a 

 good flight to-day. I iiave loolced them 

 over, and found them in good condi- 

 tion. I saw one chap bringing in pol- 

 len. 



The APICULTURIST is far ahead of 

 any bee publication I have ever seen, 

 and I have seen quite a number. 

 Yours truly, 

 Chas. E. D. 



Walton, Ky. 



Friend Alley : 



Tlie queen I purchased of you two 

 years ago is still doing active business 

 and has about twenty daughters in my 

 yard, duplicates of herself, besides 

 many others elsewhere. One of those 

 sent last fall is prospering finely. I 

 have two ot her daughters, very fine 

 ones. 



Bees came through the winter in fair 

 condition, but the spring is wet, cool 

 and frequcait frosts, and I am afraid the 

 colonies will not get strong enough to 

 make good use of the honey harvest. 



L. J. 



\ Farmington, Mich. 



Mr. Alley : 

 Please continue the Api to my ad- 

 dress. I can't get along witiiout it, it 

 beats them all. Register my order for 

 a queen to go with it. 



A. II. W. 



THE DISAPPEARANCE OF 

 QUEENS. 



To Advertisers.— One of the ad- 

 vantages in advcriisiu." in the Ameri- 

 can APICULTURIST is the fact that the 

 proprietor or mantiger of the "Api" 

 has no advertisements in its columns; 

 thus none of those who advertise in our 

 paper do so in competition vvitii us. 



Bear in mind that the American 

 APICULTURIST is not a local bee paper. 

 We have more subscribers in any one 

 of the western stales than we have in 

 all six of the New England states to- 

 gether. 



C. W. Dayton. 



The report in early spring in my 

 locality was that bees had win- 

 tered well. Manj' removed them 

 from the cellars early in March 

 without an}' losses, but since that 

 time spring dwindling has been at 

 work, so that the losses are quite 

 numerous up to this date. 



Many report the disappearance 

 of queens from some unknown 

 cause. 



These losses may be partly ac- 

 counted for from the handling of 

 the combs and opening hives in 

 cloud}' or not very pleasant weather. 



From the timd the colonies are 

 removed from the cellar until the 

 15th of June it is dangerous to 

 queens to handle the bees at any 

 time other than in clear and pleas- 

 ant weather. 



I have opened hive after hive on 

 a cloudy day and on the next day 

 found Ihem minus queens and I 

 have known that rule to work in 

 two colonies out of three. 



In one instance I opened a hive 

 ten times on ten different cloudy 

 days and the queen was balled ev- 

 ery time before I left the hive. 

 Each time tlie queen was placed in 

 a cage for an iiour or two when 

 slie was again released and re- 

 mained unharmed. At last to as- 

 certain wliether she was balled for 

 protection rather tlian harm she was 

 allowed to remain balled and was 

 found dead at the entrance the 

 next morning. 



In my first season of beekeeping 

 being much interested in the worlv- 

 ing of the hives they were exam- 

 ined often and at any time, and by 

 June 1 only eight queens out of 

 thirteen remained alive. The fol- 

 lowing seasons such losses were less 

 and less until at present I seldom 



