88 



TIIE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Oct., 



have one thickness of cotton cloth large enough 

 to cover the frames and also the top edges of the 

 hive, and lay upon this two or three old news- 

 papers tacked together. T herehy give Novice 

 permission to try one without charge. 



B. LtJNDERER. 



[For the Amer can Bee Journal ] 



Introducing Queens. 



On page 96, vol. 7, of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal, I mentioned a plan on trial for introducing 

 queens. It worked well and I cannot see any 

 possibility of failure with it. If any one is about 

 to receive a valuable queen which he wishes in- 

 troduced without any risk, I think it will pay 

 him to take the trouble to introduce in that way. 

 The plan is simply this : Bore a two-inch auger 

 hole in the bottom of a Langstroth hive, tack a 

 piece of wire cloth over the hole on the inside of 

 the hive, and another on the outside ; put into 

 it one or more frames containing only sealed 

 brood, some of which is just gnawing out ; be 

 particular not to leave a single bee on the comb, 

 put in the queen, close up the entrance bee-tight, 

 and place the hive over a full colony with no in- 

 tervening honey board. The heat from the full 

 colony rises, and in live or six days the hive of 

 the new queen may be removed and opened, or 

 the entrance may be opened without removing. 

 I find the following entry in my last year's 

 journal in regard to the queen thus introduced : 

 She was received by mail, August 1st, and put 

 into the hive in the afternoon, with her half- 

 dozen attendants and a couple of frames of comb 

 containing a small quantity of brood ready to 

 hatch. 



'• August 4, a few eggs and quite a cluster of 

 bees ; August 0, young bees flew ; August 7, 

 bringing in pollen." 



As to the bees flying when five days old, T think 

 I could not be mistaken ; moreover. Novice men- 

 tioned something of the same kind when bees 

 were hatched without any old bees. I am some- 

 what inclined to think there may be some mis- 

 take about them bringing pollen at six days old, 

 yet I can hardly see how there could be any. 



I am having an up-hill time trying to increase 

 my bees. I had two queens in movable frames 

 with about bees enough for one, and four box- 

 hives (bought this spring) and one Langstroth 

 hive, with comb built crosswise, making in all, 

 two weak swarms in frame hives, and five box- 

 hives. 



As yet I have got only on" young queen to lay- 

 ing, and lost her by putting in an empty hive and 

 setting in place of a full one without waiting for 

 them to start queen cells. The season has been 

 very backward and cold. 



I place a box-hive in an empty frame hive, 

 obliging the bees to go down through the frame 

 hive, and then when the box-hive is removed, 

 the bees take more kindly to the frame hive. 



C. C. Millek. 

 Marengo, III., June 19, 1872. 



[For the Aiu?ricau Bee Journal.] 



My Failure. 



Mr. Editor : — As you solicit the success and 

 failure of beekeepers throughout the country, I 

 will send you my experience for the last year, 

 although it is not very flattering or encouraging 

 to any one. The past winter was a very hard 

 one on bees, the worst one I ever knew or ever 

 heard of since I have paid any attention to the 

 keeping of bees. I lost two-thirds of my stock 

 with what is called bee cholera or dysentery, and 

 on an average, two-thirds of the bees in this 

 county died of the same complaint. Bees are 

 doing nothing here this season. They will not 

 gather honey enough to winter on, unless things 

 change decidedly from what they are now. There 

 i^ basswood enough within half a mile of me 

 for two hundred strong stocks to work on, and 

 do a good business, but this year it was a total 

 failure. The bees were killing drones all the 

 time it w T as in bloom. I thought that basswood 

 never failed of yielding plenty of honey, but it 

 was a failure with us here this season 



Friend Gallup thinks that basswood will beat 

 the world for honey. That is simply his opinion. 

 I guess he would not think so if lie and his bees 

 were in this section of the country. 



Many have assigned the cause and remedy for 

 this bee malady. No cause that I ever have seen 

 yet is at all satisfactory to me. Some claim that 

 it was sour honey that killed the bees. I will 

 admit that if there was sour honey in the hive, 

 and they were obliged to eat it or starve, it would 

 prove injurious. I examined hives that had not 

 a particle of sour honey, it was as thick and solid 

 as I ever saw. I would like to know what killed 

 bees in such hives as that? I am afraid I am 

 spinning my yarn too long about my failure with 

 my bees. If it was about some great success or 

 uncommon yield of honey, it would sound much 

 better. * * * * * 



I have sent you a new subscriber. If every 

 reader of the American Cee Journal would add 

 even one new subscrib r to its list, it would help 

 the bee cause much. D. Mar-ii. 



Illinois, August 5, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journil.] 



Notes from Northwestern Ohio. 



Bees in this section of the Stute wintered so 

 poorly last winter, that at least one-half perished 

 mostly from the disease we call dysentery. Of 

 those that survived, a majority were weak in the 

 spring; and owing to the cool, backward spring 

 they were yet weak on the first of June. 



There was very little honey gathered until 

 about the 25th of June, and then we had an 

 abundant harvest until about the 10th of July, 

 when the linden ceased to yield honey and all other 

 flowers were dried up with the excessive drouth. 

 Since July 10th, up to about the 10th of August, 

 bees have not gathered enough to sustain them, 

 but have had to go back upon their stores. One 

 thing I notice, which tj me appears uncommon, 



