THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



149 



[For the American Bee Journal. ] 



Bee Journal, 



Contributions and Subscriptions. 



A new subscriber to tbe Bee Journal, re- 

 siding in the city of Memphis, Tenn., writes 

 me thus : "I have just received the Bee Jour- 

 nal. I observe that nearly all the Bee Jour- 

 nal correspondents are from Northern climales, 

 and that their experience in wintering bees dif- 

 fers materially from mine in this latitude. I 

 never house my bees, but let them remain on 

 their summer stands all winter, believing that 

 they will do better there than if housed. My 

 bees are wintering finely. They usually cast 

 their swarms from the 10th to the 20th of April, 

 depending on the earliness or lateness of the 

 spring." 



Remarks.— The Bee Journal designs to be 

 national in its character, and therefore calls for 

 the experience of bee-keepers in Southern as 

 well as in Northern latitudes. But in whom 

 does the fault lie if we do not get the experience 

 of bee-keepers in the Southern States ? It seems 

 to us that they alone are to blame, for the columns 

 of the Journal are open to all. As for myself, 

 I am very anxious to hear more about the bee- 

 culture of the South, how the bees are wintered, 

 how many months in a year bees gather honey, 

 how long the surplus honey harvest continues, 

 and the specific sources from which the honey is 

 obtained. Please give us the names of your best 

 honey producing plants and trees, and such 

 other items as you may think will interest us. 

 Let us have a perfect shower of contributions on 

 bee-culture, not only from the South but from 

 the North also, and from the East and the West. 

 We must take the editor of the Bee Journal 

 by surprise ; and, if we do, we may soon expect 

 to see an enlargement of our paper — for we all 

 should have an interest in the present welfare 

 and future usefulness of the Journal. But 

 when sending articles for publication, please do 

 not forget to send along the names and money 

 of new subscribers. Why cannot every present 

 subscriber add one new name at least to the 

 present list ? If you will I am quite sure that 

 we can soon roll up the list to ten thousand pay- 

 ing subscribers. How many readers of the 

 Journal will agree to send in ten new names of 

 subscribers during 1869? How many will join 

 with me to send in fifty new names, each, within 

 the year ? During the past six months, I have 

 6ent the editor nearly twenty -five new names, 

 and with very little effort too. And I have 

 pledged myself to send fifty names during 1869. 

 Cannot many other devoted apiarians and zeal- 

 ous friends to the improvement and extension of 

 bee-culture resolve to do so likewise? 



M. M. Baldridge. 



St. Charles, Ills. 



The bee-keeper must not judge of the state of 

 his hive in the spring by its weight alone, because 

 at that time the number of young bees and lar- 

 va? in it weigh heavy, and may impose on the 

 unwary for real wealth, when the stock of 

 honey is nearly exhausted. — Wildman. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bee-Feed— A System. 



»\ 



Mr. Editor : — Since bee-feed seems to range 

 almost from lager-beer up to pure honey, and 

 from wheat flour down to oat meal, I will, with 

 your permission, also give the readers of the 

 Bee Journal my method of feeding — premis- 

 ing that, as honey is pure food for bees, we 

 should feed no impure substitute. 



I take eight pounds of coffee sugar, add seven 

 pounds of boiling water, and evaporate one 

 pound — making fourteen pounds of syrup, mea- 

 suring about ten pints. Thus I make by weight 

 any amount needed ; set it by in crocks ; and 

 feed, by measure, to each stock the quantity it 

 needs. In my estimate I have always counted 

 one pound of sugar thus fed equivalent to one 

 pound of honey. 



For the last four or five years I have used 

 syrup exclusively at all seasons of the year, and 

 for every purpose needed. And for experiment, 

 I have wintered several strong stocks almost 

 exclusively on it, with good success; giving 

 them their entire winter supply about the latter 

 part of September, which they quickly sealed 

 up. To any one who may think it contains too 

 much water, or that it will not pay for the 

 trouble of making it, I would say— "try it !'• 

 By following the above method I am never 

 "guessing," but always know exactly what I 

 am doing. 



Henry Crist. 



Lake, Stark Co., Ohio. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Necessity of Ventilation. 



I have again proof that bees in their hives re- 

 quire the ingress of fresh air in order to health 

 and life. I was this tall absent in New York un- 

 til late in November, and when I returned I 

 found the weather here had been for nearly 

 a month quite cold, and the hives considerably 

 covered with snow. Desiring that my little fa- 

 vorites might have the opportunity of unloading 

 themselves again, in the event of an expected 

 thaw, before a close hibernation of 4^ months, 

 1 did not move to put them in until the 17th of 

 December, when I tound the frames in all the 

 hives covered with frost to within a few inches 

 of the living cluster. They were otherwise in 

 very good order, save in one hive in which all the 

 bees were dead, although a good stock with 

 plenty of honey. 



On looking for the cause I found this hive, 

 which was a well made one, closely sealed above, 

 and the melted frost had rundown and frozen 

 over the front entrance, until it was entirely 

 closed. So evidently, in a changing tempera- 

 ture, their own breath had been the means of 

 sealing them up unto destruction. My bees need 

 ventilating. 



My wintering house is a kind of clamp, cov- 

 ered around and over with earth, and that again 

 thickly with buckwheat straw, through which 

 runs a ventilating chimney, with also a ventila- 



