254 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[May, 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee Peeders. 



I have seen several kinds of bee-feeders de- 

 scribed in your Journal, but I think I have the 

 cheapest and the best, and as it will soon be 

 time to set our bees out from their winter quar- 

 ters and feed liquid sweets for early breeding, I 

 will try to describe my feeder, so that any one 

 can make it. 



As I use the Lansstroth hive, I will dei^cribe 

 it for that kind of hive. Take a bottom board 

 from a common honey box, about 5 by G inches 

 square and | of an inch thick ; for the bottom 

 nail blocks | inch high around the entrance in 

 the bottom, then nail on sides two inches high, 

 then run melted beeswax in the joints, to make 

 it water tight, then tack small strips from the 

 top of the blocks around the entrance, slanting 

 back to the bottom for the bees to walk out on, 

 then set it over a hole on the honey board, pour 

 in your feed, lay on a glass cover, so that by 

 lifting the top of the hive, you can see when the 

 feeder is out. 



A. M. H. 



Adams, III. 



Dear Bee Journal : — With sorrow we read 

 the account of the death of that most estimable 

 citizen and naturalist, your founder, Samuel 

 Wagner. Sad news, indeed, the March number 

 carries to the beekeepers of our land. His place 

 will not be easily filled. Not being personally 

 acquainted with Mr. Wagner, little did we think 

 he had lived beyond his three score and ten, for 

 " its vigorous editorials," which were generally 

 short, but pointed and always instructive, did 

 not show a man who had lived beyond his allotted 

 days. 



To his energy and intelligence, as much or 

 more than any one man, beekeeping has in a 

 few years been elevated from an uncertain, mys- 

 terious and ignorant business to a systematic, 

 scientific, and remunerative occupation. 



He was respectful and courteous to those he 

 deemed honest, and his criticisms, though often 

 severe, were just, and although modest, he 

 .shrank not to expose, with cutting words, the 

 noisy drones and pretenders in our great human 

 hive. He certainly was a good judge of human 

 nature. 



To benefit his fellow men seemed to be the 

 bent of his mind. He did not live for the pres- 

 ent alone, and many generations will have come 

 and passed away before the name of Samuel 

 Wagner will be forgotten, but "the silver cord 

 has been loosed," and 



" Like crowcled forest-trees we stand, 



And some are mark'd to fall ; 

 The axe will smite at God's command, 

 And soon shall smite us all." 



W. P. H. 

 Murfreesboro, Tenn., March 14, 1873. 



Italian bees, as a general rule, build more 

 drone or store comb than black bees. 



[For the American Boe Journal.] 



Wintering Bees. 



In reply to Novice, vol. 7, No. 8, p. 180, we 

 did not give that swarm any brood or young 

 bees. It was all the proceeds of one queen, and 

 Februfiry 12th, 1872, that swarm is on its sum- 

 mer stand, and the queen is putting in her best 

 licks, considering the season of the year. But 

 comparatively few beekeepers yet know what a 

 queen can do, providing we keep removing the 

 sealed brood to the outside, and give her empty 

 comb at just right intervals in the centre of the 

 cluster for her to breed in. We tried Mr. 

 Hazen's plan of giving brood to make up large 

 swarms (it once, and we know by experience that 

 if we cannot have our stocks in condition for 

 storing surplus, without that plan, it is an ex- 

 cellent one, for extra large swarms are what we 

 want for storing surplus, whether in boxes or for 

 the extractor. 



We are wintering our large hives on the sum- 

 mer stands, and thus far, February loth, 1873, 

 we are highly pleased with the results. We un- 

 derstand that Quinby & Root, Mr. Hethering- 

 ton, A. H. Hart, and several other prominent 

 northern beekeepers, have adopted that method, 

 and Avhy should we not'? 



We have to thank Mr. C. C. Vanduzen, of 

 Sproutbrook, N. Y. (who took the trouble to 

 call on us over a year ago), for valuable hints ou 

 that head. Many beekeepers have no good cel- 

 lars, and it is not always convenient to build 

 sj^ecial repositories. Then again, if all our bees 

 are in the cellar, and the house takes fire and 

 burns down, away go our little j^ets. Further- 

 more, our southern beekeejiers must have hives 

 that can be wintered on the summer stand. It is 

 as absurd to tell him (when he has no ice) to put 

 ice in his cellar to keep it cool, as it is to tell a 

 northern beekeeper to rub his hives with peach 

 leaves, to make his bees stay in the hives, when 

 there are no peach trees near him. 



Elisha Gallup. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Correspondence. 



Mr. Editor : I have lost seven stocks this 

 winter, by some disease I know nothing about. 

 They died suddenly, with plenty of honey. They 

 were in a warm house, well ventilated. Has it 

 visited the apiaries of any of the readers of the 

 Journal, and, if it has, can they tell me how it 

 can be avoided '? there seems to have been an epi- 

 demic among bees, this last winter in this dis- 

 trict. C. E. WlDENER. 



Cumberland, Md., March 25, 1872. 



Bees that were left out of doors have wintered 

 very poorly in this section. One-third have 

 died. Honey was poor. The dysentery affected 

 them badly. March 34th, and it is snowing 

 very hard. Please find enclosed a small amount 

 and continue the Journal. We could not do 

 without it. The sad news that we received in 

 the last number of the Bee Journal of the death 

 of Sanniel Wagner was shocking. I could hardly 



