1S71.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



139 



[Foi' the American Bee Journal.] 



Eeport from Le Eoy, Illinois. 



Mk. Editok : — I thouslit it, might not be un- 

 interesting to your numerous readers, whilst 

 sending you two dollars to. pay for the Journal 

 (which you have been good enoagh to send me 

 in advance of payment, if I would also send a 

 lew notes and observations on tlie past season. 



Bluebirds made their first appearance liere on 

 the 4th of March, and robin's on the 6th. On the 

 bth, I set twelve stocks of bees out of the cellar. 

 On the 14th, one stock was robl.ed. On the IGth, 

 bees gathered pollen from witcli hazel. On the 

 7th of April, bees gathered the first honey from 

 the yellow willow. On the ilth, came the first 

 clierry bloom. On the 10th, bees carried in rye- 

 tlour, and the first wren was seen. On the 14th, 

 transferred two stocks, one of which had no 

 queen, but a fertile worker. I gave it a queen 

 from another stock, and they have done well. 



The early spring opened llnely for bees, until 

 they raised so large a qnanlity of brood, that, 

 liad it not been for very high cold winds during 

 all the time cf the bloominn' of tl e fruit trees, 

 they certainly would have done well ; but their 

 large quantity of brood yjroved their misfortune. 

 i\Iany of the negligent beekeepers' bees starved 

 out and ran off; and I may class myself with 

 the number ; for one of my stocks, finding that 

 they could carry all the h(iney they had, took it 

 and departed, leaving considerable brood. There- 

 by liauLis a tale. On tlie third day, my runaway 

 bees returned, bringing with them another 

 swarm. After killing the black queen of this 

 accompanying swarm. I put all of them into the 

 hive which the deserters had left, fed them, and 

 took care of them till they could take care of 

 tl'emselves ; and they have since done very well. 

 Here, methinks, I lear some one ask, how I 

 knew that it was my runaway swarm ? 1 knew 

 it, because I have the only Italian bees within 

 ten or fifteen miles of this place ; and they had 

 a beautiful Italian queen, whose progeny was 

 hybrid. 



Many of the starved out bees came to my 

 house. They seemed to be aware that I knew 

 their wants, and would take care of them Some 

 would settle, as in regular swarming ; and when 

 such had a good-looking queen and a large num- 

 ber of bees, I would take care of them ; giving 

 them some empty comb, and feeding them. They 

 have done well in every case. Others that came 

 and would not settle, gave me a good deal of 

 trouble, and injured my bees very much. They 

 would force themselves into every hive in my 

 apiary, seeming to think, as it was certain death 

 to remain out. it could but be death to enter. 

 This kept up such a terrilde disturbance and war 

 among my bees, that I could scarcely go among 

 taem. I place<l cotton babs, saturated with ke- 

 rosene and camphor gum, at the mouth or en- 

 trance of my hives, but all did no good ; and 

 when they took to stinging me, I abandoned 

 them to their fate. 



About May lOth, be^s began to gather con- 

 sidei'alile honey, and again raised brood. Tlie 

 white clover came in bloom about the 20th, and 



by the first of June, they were ready and had 

 made x>reparations to swnrni ; but owing to the 

 bad weather, very few swarms issued. Owing 

 to the excessive drouth, the white clover blo.s- 

 sonis, and all other sources of honey, ^\el•e cut 

 off about the 25th of June ; and robbing became 

 the order of the day among bees. As in the 

 spring, the colonies having a large quantity of 

 brood and large stocks of bees, which all had to 

 live off the then a'ccumulatcd stores, they be- 

 came pretty destitute by the time the buckwheat 

 came in, and so weak in numbers when it did 

 (■(mie, that we got very little or no suriilus honey. 

 Yet our stocks generally are in good condition 

 to go into winter quarters. 



i have transferred bees in every week since the 

 middle of April { except in the month of July) to 

 the third week in October. I have lost none, and 

 all have done well. 



I have used several kinds of movable frame 

 hives, but I like one of my own improving (ou 

 which there is no patent) better than any that I 

 have yet seen or u.sed. There is no patent on it, 

 e.Kcept on the fiames, and for those I give Mr. 

 Lansstroth credit It is a plain, side-opening 

 box, with movable bottom and top, so that I can 

 use one, two, three, or more, for one swarm of 

 bees, if I wish to do so. But as this article has 

 already become too long, I will close. I clLou't 

 know when the time commenced with my Jour- 

 nal, but please do not let it end. 



A. T. Bishop. 



Le Eoy. Illinois, Nov. 9, 1871. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



A Moan from Maine. 



Deak Journal :— I always dislike sending a 

 bad report from Maine, not only on account of 

 its discouraging influence on bee-culture, but fen- 

 the fact that it is nut pleasant to recount one's 

 own misfortunes. Yet, justice requires a faith- 

 ful record ; therefore I send you a brief retro- 

 spective view of '"bee-ism" in Maine for 1871. 



Thanks to the fall pasturage of 1870, the bees 

 wintered well, and came through to the warm 

 days in April in fine condition. Then the season 

 promised most auspiciously ; but the cold and 

 dreary days of May more than counterbalanced 

 those favorable conditions, and down went our 

 sprits correspondingly. Still we could not be- 

 lieve that we were to have four poor seasons in 

 succession, and accordingly braced up our 

 courage and commenced stimulating, that our 

 hives might be full of workers for the time of 

 the fruit blossoms. Never have we witnessed a 

 more profuse display of these blossoms ; but 

 they came and vanished like a. beautiful vision, 

 and" the yield of honey was very light. There- 

 fore we were obliged to continue stimulating till 

 the white clover blo.ssomed, which was unusu- 

 ally late, and of sliort duration ; the drought 

 most effectually dried it up, after yielding 

 moderately for about ten days. Since July lOtli, 

 we have not been able to discover that our bees 

 have gathered a particle of honey ; consequently 

 stocks are sadly reduced in bees and stores. 



