162 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Jan., 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Inquiries and Eemarks. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to ask several questions 

 through the Journal, and will try to answer 

 some in the first place. 



I received two splendid queens from friend Ben- 

 edict, on the 9th of Augu.st, and introduced them 

 to black colonies in the afternoon ; the first one 

 according to his directions, by placing her on the 

 comb near the centre of tlie chamber (only I 

 dipped her in sugar syrup scented with pepper- 

 mint ; with wliich I also thoroughly sjirinkled 

 the bees, shaking them up well before turning 

 them out of the box, instead of diluted honey, 

 as directed.) This was done at about three 

 o'clock, and the next day at about noon, I went 

 to the hive and saw a dense crowd of bees 

 in one of the entrances. I scraped them out, 

 and there they had the queen hugged up in 

 their centre. I released her and put her in a 

 cage, which I inserted between two brood 

 combs. She did not appear to be hurt, but the 

 next morning she was dead. Why did they 

 drag her out, after so many hours'? 



With the other one I followed D. L. Adair's 

 plan, by scenting all alike and dropping her in 

 among tlie bees. She was well received, and 

 has d(u^ well. On the evening of the sixth day 

 I braSed all the bees that^had killed their 

 queen from the combs in the chamber and re- 

 moved the chamber from the case that had the 

 Italian queen and put the other in its place. 

 I brushed the queen and bees all off in front, 

 and gave the chamber to the queenless colony. 

 On the eighth day I opened it and found two 

 queen cells capped, and three more started on 

 the face of a piece of drone comb. I caged the 

 two that were capped with Novice's cages, ac- 

 cording to his directions, and when I opened 

 the hive to see how the young queens were get- 

 ting alnong, I found the cages cut loose, so that 

 they dropped out when the sections were parted, 

 and both queen cells destroyed. Two of these 

 cells on the drone comb were capped over, but 

 neither of them ever hatched out. I tried the 

 cages on two more cells in another hive, and 

 they were also cut out ; but one of the queens 

 was all right, and is doing well. Now I would 

 like to know why it is so, if Novice's bees do 

 not cut them out ? 



Next, I would ask Mr. C. E. Widener why a 

 piece of wire cloth, two feet by four, would not 

 be as good, or better than a piece three feet 

 square, to make his wax extractor? It would 

 make a box of one foot square and two feet 

 high, which could be put in a much smaller 

 kettle, than a box nine inches square and three 

 feet long. 



Then, again, I would like to know what is to 

 become of the brood and eggs that are in the 

 combs when introducing queens by the German 

 proces.s, on page 98, November number.* 



Some one has asked how to keep the worms 

 out of the hives? I would answer, simply by 

 keeping your stocks strong, especially if there is 

 any Italian blood about them. 1 had a box 



* See note on page 167. — [Ed. 



hive of black bees that got weak, and one morn- 

 ing I saw robbers pitching into it. I closed the 

 entrance and carried it to the cellar, letting out 

 the robbers when I got inside the door. Next 

 day, about ten o'clock, I removed a stock of 

 hybrids (which I suppose has a black queen that 

 mated with an Italian drone, as I know of no 

 chance for an Italian queen to have got in there), 

 to the place from which I had removed the weak 

 stock, and set the weak stock in the place of the 

 hybrids, never dreaming that it was infested 

 with worms. Next morning I saw that some 

 cocoons had been carried out of it, and on turn- 

 ing it up I found a good handful of shatterings 

 that the bees had made in cutting out the worms 

 and cocoons, besides about twenty cocoons and 

 a great number of worms of all sizes. I cleaned 

 out the shatterings every morning, and in four 

 days all cutting out ceased, and I did not find 

 another worm i;i the hive all summer. This fall 

 I transferred it to a frame hive, and did not find 

 a single worm in the combs, though they were 

 badly cut up near the top of the hive. 



Trenton, Ills., Nov. 6, 1871. C. T. Smith. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Season of 1871, in the Oil Region. 



Mr. Editor :— It is a long time since I have 

 contributed anything to the Journal and as I have 

 seen nothing in it from any of the beekeepers in 

 the oil region, I concluded to write a few lines. 



We are on a level here now with many of our 

 friend beekeepers throughout this broad land, 

 for we have had a very ])oor season here for both 

 honey and increase. Very few swarms issued 

 this summer, in this section. I had only ten 

 swarms from seventy-six stocks. My first swarm 

 (a hybrid) came off May 19th, and this new 

 swarm swarmed June 27th. My first swarms of 

 black came off June 30th. 



The spring of 1871 opened exceedingly promis- 

 ing, both to the farmer and the beekeeper ; but 

 the drouth in May materially checked the pros- 

 perity of the latter. Our stocks were not as 

 populous on the 1st of June as they were 

 on the 1st of May. I saw drones flying in my 

 yard in April, which I never saw before since I 

 have kept bees — now seven years. 



Now as concerns the honey slinger, 1 do not 

 think its use would be altogether economical for 

 this section, as our only dependence is white 

 clover and buckwheat. Now suppose we had 

 abstracted the clover honey, and depended on 

 buckwheat for winter stores, would we not have 

 been far below the level of many beekeepers 

 who have a continuation of forage throughout 

 the season ? 



Old stocks generally are in good condition for 

 wintering, but the swarms are not. We have 

 had a very changeable season, with frosts in 

 every month except August, since October, 1870, 

 and of course shall have for the next six months. 

 Drouth was the cause of the total failure of 

 buckwheat honey. 



I met many of my neighbors at the election, 

 and alter inquiring after the welfare of my 

 family and bees, some wanted to buy bees, and 



