THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



9Y 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Notes and Remarks. 



Mr. Editor: — I have received the October 

 number of the Bee Journal, and find many-in- 

 teresting subjects treated of in it, to which I 

 ■would, wit h your permission, add a few remarks. 

 Before I go further, however, let me thank you 

 for so ably conducting the Bee Journal, and I 

 hope that the time may shortly come when it 

 will make its appearance more frequently, and 

 not, as now, almost "like angels' visits, few and 

 far between." 



I see the last number speaks of the New Eng- 

 land Fair. I ought to have been there, and 

 shoidd have been, but was detained by a felon, 

 which w T as very painful, aud would have pre- 

 vented me from attending to my bees properly 

 if I had gone there. Then, again, my honey did 

 not satisfy me this year, as the season failed 

 very early, and I thought, besides, there would 

 be plenty entered for exhibition as good as any 

 I had. Had I supposed there would be so liitle 

 there, I should have attended with bees, honey, 

 and wax that "might be deemed worthy of a 

 premium." 



One of your correspondents asks about the 

 basswood tree, or American linden. I would 

 say that it is perfectly hardy, a rapid grower, 

 furnishing excellent forage, (the best, I think, 

 in these parts,) and is a fine shade tree. Why 

 could not our cities and towns be shaded by 

 them? The tulip tree is the same, with this ex- 

 ception, that I do not find the bees work to any 

 considerable extent on it here, even when drip- 

 ping with honey. Why this is so I cannot con- 

 ceive, but such has been my experience. It is 

 quite the contrary with the bass-wood. The 

 bees always resort to it when the weather is 

 favorable, and I have known them to work on 

 it by moonlight. 



Italians I am very well pleased with, although 

 they do not work upon red clover; neither are 

 they as peaceable, when handled, as has been 

 stated. They will resent an insult quicker, and 

 to a greater degree, than will black bees; but it 

 is the owner's fault if he is troubled with cross 

 bees of whatever kind, either black or Italian. 

 Keep your bees near the house, be around them 

 often, never strike at them, do not jar the hives, 

 and treat them with moderation, and they will 

 be harmless as Hies. 



I once thought that toads would eat bees. I 

 do not think so now, and for this reason. One 

 lives, and has for three years, under one of my 

 hives. I have tried him many times, the pres- 

 ent season, by offering bees to him on a stick. 

 He would not eat them; but offer him a drone, 

 and presto! it is gone. One day last summer, 

 when the bees were hanging out very strong, I 

 swept them all down on him. He sat as quiet 

 as he could till they crept back, when he hopped 

 away to his hole. 



I find that Mr. Langstroth's plan for winter- 

 ing bees is precisely the same as mine, except 

 thai my hives are double; conscquenlly, I do 

 not put any covering on the outside of them. I 

 lo t several stocks last winter, till I opened all 

 the entrances nearly as wide as in summer, after 



which I had no further trouble. I cannot, how- 

 ever, recommend shallow hives. Bees do not 

 do well in them in this locality, or in only few 

 instances. They do not swarm from them as ear- 

 ly as from a more compact hive, and there is no 

 advantage derived, except large box room, which 

 I think can be gained in other ways, without a 

 corresponding loss. I think bees kept in that 

 kind of hive are more liable to dysentery than 

 in other forms. The reason I give for this is, 

 dysentery is caused, in some instances at least, 

 by extreme cold, and as bees cannot cluster as 

 compactly in shallow hives, they are affected 

 accordingly. 



I do not wish to detract in the least from Mr. 

 Langstroth's hive, for he has originated a valu- 

 able improvement, without which bee-keeping 

 would not be what it now is. I used his hive 

 for a long time, and had a deal of trouble from 

 what I have just stated. I w T rote to Mr. L. last 

 spring, telling him that in my opinion they were 

 too shallow, and also too large. The past sum- 

 mer's experience has convinced me that I was 

 correct, as far as they were adapted to black 

 bees. For Italians they are not too large, aud 

 I am not sure that they are large enough. 



I think very much of my Italians, but I do not 

 believe that they will do near as well as has 

 been claimed for them. I have one great trouble, 

 which I consider the whole difficulty in keeping 

 bees, and that is foulbrood. Can no way be 

 devised, besides driving them out, to cure it? 

 There was a remedy claimed some time ago by 

 some one in Europe, I think. Why do we hear 

 no more about it? 



I will give my last experiment in regard to 

 Italians. It has been claimed that they are lon- 

 ger lived than the blacks. I took two hives this 

 season, one black and the other Italians, and 

 transposed the queens. At the present time 

 there is hardly a black bee in the one in which 

 the Italian queen was put, while the other is 

 largely predominant with Italians yet. I find 

 quite a difference with the different hives about 

 the time the young bees go to work. Some of 

 them get started nearly or quite two weeks ear- 

 lier than the others. Why is this? 



To conclude, this season hat? been the Avorst I 

 remember of. My honey yield has been better 

 than I expected, although it is small. Buck- 

 wheat finished off very veil, as some of my 

 s-tocks made from twenty-five to forty pounds 

 alone from this crop. 



I had nearly forgot to say that I am making 

 me an emptying machine on a different plan, 

 dispensing with the tub. It will, I think, be a 

 cheaper one than has yet been made. If sue 

 cessful, I will give you the result. It will not 

 be patented. Wm. A. Barnes. 



West Meriden, Oct, 5, 18G8. 



Tkeasure Found. — A gentleman in West- 

 ford, Maine, having occasion recently to replace 

 the floor in one of the upper stories of his house, 

 discovered, upon removing the flooring, that a 

 swarm of bees had taken possession of the space 

 beneath, as a depository for their gatherings. 

 He obtained ninety-eight pounds (if honey there- 

 from. 



