M 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to open the hives but once. Pome of the hy- 

 brids object at first to being shaken off so much; 

 but they soon learn to take it as a matter of 

 couri-e, and crawl buck into their hives and go 

 to work as if that was the way the bees had al- 

 ways done. 



This plan of operating Ins straightened all 

 our combs, removed all our irregularities, and 

 equalized our stocks, so that they are rapidly 

 becoming equally productive, one with another; 

 and in going over the hives we can see just 

 what each one is doing, and can supply brood 

 or whatever else is needed, with scarcely any 

 trouble and hardly any loss of time. 



The bass-wood honey has lately commenced 

 being brought in, and the aroma arising from 

 our machine is equal to being right among the 

 trees themselves. As it is sealed up in the jars 

 immediately, we have its full flavor preserved. 



Mr. Editor, we have put boxes on only two 

 hives this season, and we really do not feel as 

 if we ever wanted to see any more honey in 

 boxes. It is such a miserably slow business to 

 get them filled; and it seems to me that any one 

 who has had our honey, clear as crystal, in the 

 neat and clean way in which it is put up, would 

 not care to have beeswax mixed with it any 

 more. Our " better half" is expressing fears 

 that we shall soon have no room for any- 

 thing else than jars of honey, as they threaten 

 to fill the premises entirely. 



Mr. Editor, we are realizing our fullest expec- 

 tations with our bees, and our hugest dreams of 

 piles of honey. Hurrah for the Italians, for the 

 Bee Journal, and beekeepers in general ! 

 May their numbers never grow less, and may 

 they all have as much cause to be thanklul as has 



Novice. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Murfreesboro, (Tenn.,) July 15, 1868. 



S. W. Cole writes from Andrews' Chapel, 

 Tenn., that there are no Patent Hives nor Ital- 

 ian bees in Tennessee. I wish to say that of 

 Patent Hives there are, in our section of the 

 State, several, and perhaps too many. In the 

 spring of 1867, Mr. T. B. Hamlin, of Edgefield 

 Junction, and ourselves, commenced to keep 

 bees in the Langstroth hives. Mr. Hamlin 

 commenced at once to Italianize, and now has 

 seventy-five (7.1) colonies with fine impregna- 

 ted queens. Mr. Hamlin obtained Italians from 

 the best sources in this c untry, and also had 

 some imported expressiy for himself. 



Last fall we obtained an Italian queen from 

 Mr. Langstroth, which we did not succeed with. 

 This season we procured several from Mr. Ham- 

 lin, progeny of both his Langstroth and import- 

 ed stock, and have just destroyed our last black 

 queen. Thus we have not only Patent Hives, 

 but Italian Bees also, in Tennessee; and the 

 bees are in hands who will be as likely to keep 

 them pure as any in the coun ry. 



If Mr. Cole can call at either Mr. Hamlin's 

 or our place, he can get about as much informa- 

 tion in regard to both hives and bees as at any 

 one place in the country. 



MUNSON & "WlLLEY, 



Proprietors of Tennessee Nursery, 



MtTRFREESBORO, TENN. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Alsike Clover. 



i Mr. Editor:— I am al eady receiving inquiries 

 from some of the readers of the Bee Jouiinal, 

 about Alsike clover seed ; and whether the plant 

 is as good as recommended for bees. Others 

 who profess to have raised it, say that after the 

 first year it will run out. Now I am satisfied 

 that any one who sows the genuine -Alsike clo- 

 ver will, in two or three years, come to a conclu- 

 sion just the reverse. It is now over three years 

 since I first sowed it, and it is thicker on the 

 ground this season than ever before. As for the 

 height of it, you can judge for yourself, as I send 

 you a sample of it to-day by mail. Some of the 

 etalks that I send you measured over five feet in 

 length, when first pulled up. 



It is one month to-day since the bees first be- 

 gan to work on the blossoms. They have been 

 on it almost like a swarm ever since, "and will be 

 for about a week longer, when I shall cut and 

 cure it for seed and hay. 



Some of my new swarms, made the first of 

 June, have filled two boxes of honey weighing 

 about twenty pounds each ; and are now filling 

 the third. I have divided them again, mean- 

 time. The bees of some of my neighbors, out 

 of range of Alsike clover, have deposited but 

 little honey in boxes, and in a majority of cases 

 not any. The reason is, we have had extremely 

 hot and dry w T eather, which prevented the 

 flowers from yielding their usual amount of 

 honey ; and I have no doubt it had the same 

 effect, on the Alsike clover blossom. But, as I 

 had, this season, fifteen acres of it in bloom, and 

 only fifty stocks of bees to work on it, they of 

 course could find plenty to gather. 



I shall have a considerable quantity of the 

 genuine Alsike clover seed to dispose of the 

 coming fall and winter. I will give notice of it 

 when it is ready for sale, and the price, by ad- 

 vertising in the Bee Journal. 



H. M. Thomas. 



Brooklln, Canada West, July 13, 1866. 



[For the American Bee Journal. 



A Query Answered. 



In reply to your correspond nt, A J. Fisher, 

 I would say that I made several boxes long 

 enough to ho d ten frames each, from small hives 

 wherein I had been rearing queens. I then 

 paralyzed enough of the small colonies, as de- 

 scribed in a former article, to make a good 

 swarm, and put them into two of these boxes. 

 One, having no bottom board, was set on the 

 top of the other, and the twenty frames had 

 honey enough to last them until Spring, when 

 they were given some more. These swarms wcie 

 very conv. nient for dividing up early for queen 

 raising. They wintered as well as any swarms, 

 although made up from a dozen or more small 

 colonics. 



We have had a cold and rather unfavorable 

 Spring here for b es, as they gathered no sur- 

 plus until after the tenth of June. Since then 

 the weather has changed, and they are now 

 doing finely. J. L. Hubbard. 



Walfole, N. H. 



