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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[May, 



We are in a position to form an estimate of the 

 general state of the bee-business, and the general 

 characteristics of bee-men. That there have been 

 immense losses sustained from one end of the country 

 to the other, is undeniable, and that this fact will 

 have the effect of utterly discouraging many bee- 

 keepers, is equally undeniable. The echo of their 

 discouragement is already making itself heard 

 through a portion of the agricultural press, who can 

 only find one interpretation of the winter's teachings, 

 and that. " Let bee-keeping alone." But it is only a 

 certain class of bee-keepers who are disheartened. 

 It is the negligent, easy-going, partially informed and 

 half-hearted class, those, in fact, who are unwilling 

 to be at the necessary cost of time, trouble and out- 

 lay, to master their business. Perhaps it is well 

 these should be discouraged. An element of faint- 

 heartedness is better got rid of out of an army, 

 whether of soldiers or bee-keepers. It is very cer- 

 tain that while the class of bee-keepers just referred 

 to, read the lesson of the winter in the one little word 

 "Quit;" another and a better class read several 

 lessons, which combine and coalesce in the word 

 " Persevere." Some of the lessons of the winter 

 may be briefly stated : 



1. Extensive loss may usually be traced to neglect 

 or oversight of some sort. A small leak will sink a 

 large ship, and a small oversight will ruin a large 

 apiary. For example, the cool fall weather sets in, 

 Jack Frost appears on the scene, but it is early in 

 the season, Christmas is yet far off, the bee-keeper is 

 very busy, perhaps called from home just when some 

 sudden cold snap comes; the bees are in the condition 

 they were during the summer, not fit for out-door 

 wintering; they become chilled, but though they 

 receive after care, it is too late. Or perhaps the 

 bees are put into their winter repository in good 

 season enough, but it is too early to close them up 

 for the winter ; they are left open and exposed until 

 a sudden dash of winter makes a raid upon them. 

 Our experience is that a chilled hive is like a frost- 

 bitten limb, peculiarly sensitive to cold all the rest 

 of the season. 



2. In order to successful bee-keeping, it is abso- 

 lutely necessary to read a good bee-journal, so as to 

 profit by the experience and views of others. 



3. Stocks must be wintered according to their 

 strength, and put into certain conditions corres- 

 ponding with the manner in which they are to be 

 wintered. It is naked folly to leave weak stocks 

 out of doors ; they may have a chance for life if 

 early and snugly housed, but left on their summer 

 stands they have not the ghost of a chance. Stocks 

 left out must be strong and well protected. Those 

 put in-doors require attention that the temperature 

 and ventilation may be right. 



4. The need of more careful experimenting in 

 regard to the best methods of wintering bees. Can- 

 not some plan be devised, by which every colony 

 shall have a warm-up, a dry-out, and a flight some- 

 time in mid-winter? We have thought a closet or 

 cage of white net in a warm room would answer the 

 purpose. It strikes us that if their imprisonment 

 could be shortened, and an opportunity given them to 



discharge their fceces outside the hive, the mortality 

 among them, even during the coldest winters, would 

 be vastly less. — From the Canada Farmer of April 

 15th. 



A Fit of Rhyme. 



W. W. Parks, of Clay Banks, Mich., has had a 

 visit from the muses, and gets off the following 

 poetical effusion. We presume it was the contem- 

 plation of some handsome Italian queen or other 

 that set the crank going : 



I. 



" 0, beautiful queen, 

 Why are you seldom seen 1 

 And shut up in a box, 

 Like a cricket in the rocks? 



It. 



" Like- Noah in his ark, 

 Always living in the dark, 

 Always in a quiet mood, 

 Tending carefully your brood. 



III. 



" While the workers are away, 

 Gathering honey all the day, 

 You're always at home, 

 Traveling o'er the snow-white comb. 



IV. 



" While the workers bring your food, 

 You fill the comb with brood. 

 Then farewell, my pet, 

 Keep in the hive , out of the wet." 



We suppose that poets, especially young ones, are 

 to be allowed considerable license, but we must 

 remind our friend, " W. W. P.," that Noah wasn't 

 condemned to darkness, inasmuch as he was 

 directed to make a window in the ark. The neces- 

 sities of the rhyme, no doubt, led to this mistake, 

 as in the case of Marjorie Fleming, who wrote some 

 lines on the death of a favorite cow, and said : — 



" She was killed by a splinter, 

 In the middle of winter." 



But truth compelled her to state, in a note, that it 



didn't happen in winter, in fact it was along 



some time in spring ; but "winter," was the only 



word that would rhyme with "splinter." 



Cross Italians. 



Mr. C. Wurster, of Kleinburg, Ontario, writes us 

 a very interesting account, rather long for publica- 

 tion, of his experience in Italianizing. He bought 

 a queen warranted pure, but her progeny were so 

 irritable he could do nothing with them. Suspect- 

 ing that thoy were hybrids, he returned the queen 

 to the breeder of whom he bought her, and received 

 another, who seemed very feeble, and after laying 

 a few eggs, disappeared, the bees proceeding to 

 build queen cells on the small piece of comb 

 containing the missing queen's eggs. He expeota 



