1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



233 



if I could not put them to work in boxes. So as 

 soon as the boxes I put on first were about two- 

 thirds full of comb, I raised them all up and put 

 twelve more empty ones under them ; thus having 

 twenty-four boxes and two caps on one hive, by 

 taking the cover off one cap, and putting that on 

 the hive, and the other cap on the top of it. I 

 found that a strong stock would fill the entire 

 twenty-four boxes almost as soon as they would 

 twelve, as it gave them all room to work. In this 

 way, I obtained almost twice as much honey from 

 stocks treated in the above manner, as I did from 

 others equally as strong, but on which I only put 

 twelve boxes at a time. 



One of my bee-keeping friends in this county 

 stated some time ago, through the Journal, that 

 with him the hybrids gave the best satisfaction as 

 honey gatherers. Having been frequently asked 

 my opinion on the subject, I would say that all my 

 experience goes to show that as long as honey is 

 plenty, a hybrid stock will gather as much honey, 

 perhaps, as a stock of pure Italians will, but no 

 more ; but after white clover and basswood blos- 

 soms are gone, one swarm of pure Italians will 

 store as much honey as two swarms of hybrids, 

 since after white clover and basswood are gone, 

 bees in this section have to depend principally on 

 the second crop of red clover for the most of the 

 honey they obtain, and pure Italians are much 

 better workers on that than the hybrids are. 



A. W. Dawley, of Mankato, Minn., writes: "All 

 bees that were divided and put into winter quarters 

 on the Hosmer plan have mostly died this winter. 

 Hosmer has lost, I understand, about sixty stocks, or 

 rather, as I call them, nucleuses." 



M. S. Klum, of Sherman, Texas, writes : " Mr. 

 Furman says he would like to have bee-keepers try 

 watermelons for bees. During the dry weather last 

 fall I cut melons open and set them with all the 

 rinds we eat the meat out of, and my bees visited 

 them in large numbers, and I suppose stored some 

 honey from them." 



Samuel Byram, of Mitchellsville, Tenn., writes: 

 " Quite a number of bees have died during the cold 

 season here — some have lost half, and others one- 

 third of their stocks." 



L. B. Cullen, of Columbia, Tenn., writes under 

 date of March 17 : — " Bees are doing well, plenty 

 of drones out." 



N. H. King, of Folsom, California, writes : — 

 " The best honey here is obtained in these foothills, 

 where the buckeye shrub abounds. The bees store 

 much good honey even from the buckeye, but it has 

 the curious effect of deforming the young bees, 

 causing them to come forth minus a leg or a wing, 

 and also at the close of the season, the old bees, or 

 most of them, turn to robbing at a furious rate, till 

 the honey is all consumed. Then the robbing 

 ceases, and most of the stocks recuperate from the 

 honey-dew or fall harvest. I know of but three 

 stocks besides my own, within several miles of me." 



Albert Potter, of Eureka, Winnebago Co., Wis., 

 sends us a full and interesting account of his ex- 

 periments in wintering bees. He tried a straw 

 house, double-boarded hives filled in with cut straw 



and chaff, putting in the house cellar, and various 

 other methods ; thinks the cellar plan the best, as 

 he lost fewer that way than any other. He thinks 

 Novice wrong in advocating extracted honey so ex- 

 clusively, as he could only get 10c. a pound for it, 

 and that with difficulty, while box honey sold 

 readily at 25c. 



J. F. Bingham, of Alleghan, Mich., writes under 

 date of March 17 : — " My bees were taken out yes- 

 terday after just four months of total darkness, in 

 good order; they had natural honey only." 



G. T. Fearon, of Pratt's Hollow, N. Y., writes: — 

 " The past season has been a very poor one for bees 

 with us. I commenced the winter of 1871-2 with 

 445 stocks. By the following June I had lost 170 

 of them. They were wintered mostly in the house 

 and cellar. Those that wintered out-doors I think 

 did the best, as they had a fly in February. I lost 

 a good many of those that were wintered in the 

 house and cellar by leaving the hives, queen and 

 all, and going into other hives ; also carrying out so- 

 many on the same day, they got to robbing and fol- 

 lowed it up all the spring, so that I lost more after 

 I set them out, than I did in the winter. I also lost 

 a great many by the queens dying from some un- 

 known cause. The past season I have not got honey 

 enough to pay for the sugar that I have fed. The 

 past winter I commenced with 320 colonies. I am 

 wintering mostly out-doors, with snow shoveled 

 around the hives for protection. I have already lost 

 30 stocks, mostly, to all appearance, by the bees 

 eating up through and not moving to get to their 

 honey. I am in hopes I shall have enough left for 

 seed to fill up some of my old hives, and use up 

 some of my old comb." 



T. E. Griffin of Owensboro, Kentucky, writes: — 

 "Well, old Bee Journal ! It has now been one year 

 or more since I began to read your intelligent 

 pages, and I can say that I have been very much 

 interested and instructed. I have learned some- 

 thing about the world and its ways, as well as 

 much about bee-ing." 



A. W. Davis, of Walworth, Wis., says : — " I would 

 be pleased to see in the A. B. J. one or more lessons 

 in the A, B, C, or first principles of apiculture, for 

 those that are just beginning (or intend to) in 

 scientific bee-keeping. I don't suppose many are as 

 thick-headed as I am, and I don't want any to be 

 two years, as I was, learning the necessity of, and 

 how to keep stocks strong, and many other things. 

 Therefore, will some of the veterans give us a chap- 

 ter or two on management for the season, something 

 like the following : Subscribe for the American Bee 

 Journal ; get bees into moveable frame hives ; 

 contract the hive by division board, for what pur- 

 pose, and when, and management until hive is full 

 of bees ; stimulate, for what, when and how ; ditto 

 midsummer, if dearth of honey, and to end of 

 season. 



Martin Piussell, of Randolph, Wis., writes • 

 " Bees suffered fearfully in this locality a year ago, 

 but this winter they have gone through better> 

 although it has been very severe." 



A. B. Mason, of Waterloo, Iowa, writes, March 

 18: — "Many colonies of bees have died in this 



