188 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Feb. 



f- 



of dead bees, and in nearly every instance there 

 was too much honey and few bees. In the pub- 

 lished reports of her travels in the spring of 1872, 

 she sets down the trouble to be too much honey in 

 almost every case. Now when we look and see 

 what effect too much honey will have on a swarm 

 of bees late in the season, we will see that it will 

 exclude the queen from the use of the comb to lay 

 eggs in, and in nearly every case the bees put into 

 winter quarters were those that were reared in 

 August, and could not have possibly survived another 

 two weeks of active service in the fields, yet we see 

 those bees called upon to survive five or six months 

 of bitter winter and then go on and rear others to 

 till their places, which would take at least 30 days 

 more ; but the fact is they could not live always. 

 Mr. Quimby said in the North American. Bee Jour- 

 nal: "More bees perished in the Middle and 

 Northern States during the winter and spring of 

 1872 than I have known in any season previous 

 during 40 years." A calamity so universal requires 

 close consideration into the causes that seem to 

 produce the result. Now if I have shown the causes 

 which produced such terrible losses among bees, 

 allow me a few more words and I will try and point 

 out the remedy, or the way we may prevent a simi- 

 lar calamity. Let every bee-keeper see that the 

 queen has erupt}' comb in the center of the hive, 

 then stimulate to breeding by feeding two or three 

 weeks before putting them into winter quarters, 

 and then we shall have young bees that can live, if 

 properly cared for, until the winter is passed and 

 the spring has come. 



J. W. HOSMER. 



Janesville, Minn., Jan. 19, 1873. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



" Nothing from Nothing, and Nothing remains." 



Now, Novice, I think it is a little too bad for you 

 to pitch into us little fellows so, for not getting any 

 more honey than we do. 



You tell usdo throw away our " old honey boxes " 

 and use the extractors instead. I would like to 

 have you come out here and handle over a few of 

 the stocks in this part of the country. 



I had a good many stocks that had their hives 

 nearly full of comb in the Spring, but there would 

 be lots of empty comb all through the summer, and 

 the bees could not, or did not at least, gather much 

 more honey than they needed from day to day. 

 Fourteen out of my twenty-one stocks have honey 

 enough to carry them through the winter, I think, 

 and the other swarms 1 will have to unite and feed. 

 Now what would you do in such a case as that? I 

 used the extractor all that I dared to. The old rule 

 at school used to be "nothing from nothing, and 

 nothing remains," but it puzzles me to figure out 

 how you can take something from nothing and have 

 anything left, or in other words, how you can use 

 the extractor on a stock of bees that have barely 

 enough in the hive to keep them from starving, and 

 the prospect mighty poor for any better harvest. 



1 expected to winter my bees out of doors, but 

 the kindness of brother Cramer induced him to 

 offer me a chance to put them in his cellar, which 

 offer I gladly excepted, and we have all of our bees 

 in their winter quarters, where they are so quiet 



that they look as if they were dead until we tap 

 gently on the hives when they lift their hats (or 

 wings,) to us to say they are all right. 



I have one stock that I gave an Italian queen to 

 late in the season, that are about half black and half 

 Italian, and in opening the hive it is always the 

 blacks that come at me, sharpening their stingers as 

 they tiy, while the Italians stay quietly on the frames. 



It is up hill business to get any of the bee-keepers 

 here to subscibe for the Bee Journal, for they are 

 all afraid they are going to lose their bees this win- 

 ter, and when asked, say, "wait until next spring 

 and then if I have any bees left I will subscribe." 

 Yours truly, 



W. M. Kellogg. 



Oneida, III., Dec. 4th, 1872. 



Explanation. 



Editok Journal : In my article in December 

 number of Journal, on my mode of wintering, I 

 forgot to state that I have a tight board fence round my 

 bees six feet or more high, to break the wind, and 

 not to have any hives set in the shade of the fence, 

 so every time the sun shines it warms up the hive 

 enough to keep the frost out of the hive, and by 

 this way the bees are kept perfectly dry, and it is 

 very seldom that they are tempted to come out, and 

 that only when the weather is warm enough so they 

 can void their excrement and get back to the hive 

 in safety. I think one reason of my heavy loss last 

 winter was, I was so busy I neglected to attend to 

 putting on the cobs in season. The cobs should be 

 put on before there is any frost in the hives, and if 

 there is not too much honey in the hive, the bees 

 will cluster on the under side of the cobs, and in 

 some cases, as I found to day, the bees come through 

 the cobs at the ends and cluster on the under side 

 of the paper. R. R. Murphy. 



Fulton, III 



fFor the American Bee Journal.] 



Intelligent Bee-Eeeping. 



1 have kept bees for thirty years, and I must 

 say that I have learned more by reading our stand- 

 ard Journal and other publications each year, for 

 the last four years, than I had learned in all my 

 previous experience. I have just been reading over 

 the three last volumes of the A. B. J., and will say 

 that it cannot be otherwise than a good investment 

 of time and means for any person, even those who 

 keep but two or three swarms, to do the same. Suc- 

 cess to tiie A. 15. J. and its readers. 



M. Nevins. 



Cheviot, Hamilton Co., Ohio. 



The Christian Union of Jan. 8, 1873, says, : 

 "A man in New Hampshire bought four swarms of 

 bees teu years ago, and now has an income of 

 $1,200 a. year from honey. Go and buy four 

 swarms of bees young man." To which good 

 advice, we add, learn how to take care of them 

 first. Not every man who begins by buying four 

 swarms of bees, ends by getting $1,200 a year out 

 of honey. Every beginner in apiculture, should 

 buy a good bee book, and subscribe for a good bee 

 journal if he desires to sucoeed. 



