1872.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



129 



on the summer stands, those in the cellar came 

 out in the best of order, they could not have 

 wintered better anywhere. I was at his place in 

 the June after, when the bees were at work and 

 I could not pick out those wintered in the cellar 

 from those wintered out in the air, in fact they 

 were all good stocks, and Mr. E. was of the 

 opinion that it did not pay to put them in the 

 cellar. 



This rather conflicts with what has been said 

 in the Journal, but the reader can take it for 

 what it is worth. 



II. Alley, 



Wenham, Mass., Oct., 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



In the Apiary— July 4th. 



Who that cares to read the " Journal " would 

 not find more music in the murmer of a hundred 

 hives, than in the discharge of fire crackers and 

 small canon. My patriotism is not noisy, and 

 a well conducted apiary affords the best illustra- 

 tion of liberty without license that I know. 

 Listen to these bees ! For the last ten days, they 

 have been holding high carnival among the lin- 

 dens, and they sing out of pure joy at so much 

 prosperity. 



Golden belten Italians building straight combs 

 in-Langstroth hives, and filling the most exact 

 and artistic of section boxes with sheets of the 

 whitest honey. That I should call working 

 within constitutional limits. 



These hives, by the way, are in Lewiston, 111., 

 and are the property of Mr. Rufus Porter — an 

 attentive reader of the " Bee Journal," as of all 

 other journals upon the subject, and an indepen- 

 dent thinker, who experiments and decides for 

 himself. 



The two hundred hives composing his apiary 

 are about equally divided into two portions, five 

 miles apart. Last year commencing with half 

 this number, he realized seven thousand pounds 

 of surplus honey— a fair result for a very dry 

 season. 



But these items are notes by the way only 

 introducing the subject upon which I want a 

 little light. Yesterday, I accompanied Mr. Por- 

 ter in his walk among the bees storing up hints 

 and suggestions for my own future use, as I 

 watched the management of honey-boxes, liber- 

 ation of queens, &c. Among the hives examined, 

 were several containing queens imported from 

 Xtoveredo, Canton, Grison, Italian. Switzerland. 

 Edward Uhl, director, through the agency of 

 Geo. Neighbor & Sons, London — as per adver- 

 tisement in various numbers of the Journal for 

 1871. These queens were introduced in October, 

 and gave satisfaction up to the present time, 

 when bees, nearly black, are becoming quite 

 numerous in their colonies. There are no' one 

 or two banded bees, but the stocks are made of 

 distinctly marked Italians, with an intermixture 

 of these black bees, some of them reveal upon 

 close examination, bauds of a dark copper shade. 

 Now what does this change of color signify ? 

 Are the queens sent out by Edward Uhl of 



Rovercdo, really pure Italians or have these 

 queens never breathed Roveredo air? Will not 

 Mr. Adam Grimm or some one else, who has 

 experience itpon this subject, oblige us with 

 some information through the Journal. 



C. S. Rogers, 

 Elmicood, III.,, July 13, 1872. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Varieties. 



Mr. Editor : — I presume that the numerous 

 readers of your Journal think that all prominent 

 bee men should find time to write at least once a 

 month for the Journal. So I thought. But 

 about all the leisure I could boast of the last 

 three months is eight hours to sleep and rest my 

 weary limbs, excepting, of course, the Sabbath, 

 and I won't desecrate that day writing. 



I promised in the August number, page 3f, to 

 tell you whether the on'y queen I had tried to 

 fertilize in confinement, having a defective wing, 

 had met a drone. No, she did not. Her brood 

 was drone brood. Wait tells us he does suc- 

 ceed. We'll let him demonstrate it to us by 

 taking up Friend Furman, who, without doubt, 

 made the proposition in real earnest. I did not 

 write that piece with a view to discourage any 

 one. No, I would say go on and try all you can, 

 for bigger men than I say you will succeed, and 

 I hope that you will ; but I will not risk the life 

 of another queen in the attempt until I see it 

 proven a perfect success. 



Friend Birch, in present number, page tJ8, 

 seems to differ with me on the above, but he does 

 not, for I did not say the thing was impossible, 

 only in fertilization tents, wire cloth contriv- 

 ances, &c, etc. I still repeal it. 



Friend Birch also wishes to know how to in- 

 crease thirty swarms to one hundred, and obtain 

 so much honey, if the bees build their own comb. 

 I can better answer this by referring him to re- 

 ports in the past journals, how I increased thir- 

 teen swarms in 1869, to fifty-two, and a part of 

 this thirteen in box hives. 1 did not say 1 could 

 do it without the use of empty comb, but I 

 think I could in a first-rate season. I had very 

 little old or empty comb this season, and I am 

 very much surprised that I have done so well in 

 such a poor season. But the truth is, unless 

 bees can gather enough to winter on this fall 

 from fall bloom, I will be compelled to feedback 

 as much as I took away. 



I sold my strained honey at 20 cis., and if I 

 have to feed, it will be a syrup of twelve pounds 

 coffee (A) sugar to a gallon of water, with a 

 little cream of tartar, and heated to a boil. This 

 makes a better feed than honey. I have never 

 had a dysentery stand fed this way. My thirteen 

 stands were fed in this way in 1868, that sur- 

 vived the winter when all other bees around me 

 died. Mr. Burbank, of Lexington, fed the same 

 way at the same time, and so saved his bees. 

 This feed is almost twice as cheap as honey, and 

 I consider it better for wintering on. I agree 

 with Novice that it is almost a perfect remedy 

 against dysentery. 



