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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



so concentrated that the heeson the lower range 

 of combs warm the upper set. The lower 

 frames in winter contain a comparatively small 

 portion of their winter stores, affording the bees 

 abundant room to cluster. The heat arising 

 from the bees below enables them to ascend 

 with safety to their stores above, when wintered 

 in the open air. Besides these advantages, the 

 same amount of bees can rear one third more 

 brood than in the shallow one story form of 

 hive. Now this does not injure Mr. Lang- 

 stroth's hive, for no man can make a bee hive 

 that is worth the lumber required to make it, 

 unless lie uses the principle that he has patented. 

 Nor does Mr. Langstroth pretend that a better 

 form of hive cannot be got up. 



I have tried the clamp, and the cellar, and 

 out door wintering; and the above described 

 hive, for out door wintering, has worked out 

 the most satisfactory results, in getting through 

 the winter cleaner and with fewer dead bees, 

 and in better condition than in any other hive. 

 Now I never like to spend much time in 

 puffing my own inventions, but would simply 

 suggest to other bee-keepers the propriety of 

 trying the same experiment for themselves. As 

 this has been the poorest season ever known in 

 the West, of course unless we feed bountifully 

 in the latter part of winter and early spring, 

 there will be large amounts of bees lost. 



There are other things indispensably necessary 

 to be done, in order to succeed at bee-culture. 

 It is important to adopt the nucleus system, for 

 the reason that the parent stock should not be 

 left to raise a queen, for the simple reason that 

 if they start a queen from an egg just deposited 

 in the cell, it requires sixteen days before she 

 emerges from tbe cell, and at least ten days 

 more before she begins to lay eggs, and will lay 

 only a few for several daj's. Then it requires 

 twenty-one days for these to emerge from their 

 cells, and the young bees must be at least nine- 

 teen days old before they join in gathering 

 honey and pollen. Thus sixty-six days pass 

 away before these workers take the place of 

 those that passed away during the period to 

 supply the present hive with a fertile queen. 

 The parent hive meantime becomes destitute of 

 brood, and the populatian so reduced that they 

 cannot store up surplus honey, or can do so only 

 occasionally. Providing a supply of fertile 

 young queens from nuclei, to take the place 

 of such as have become exhausted or super- 

 annuated, is essential to successful manage- 

 ment. 



All queens that are not prolific should be dis- 

 carded before the honey season fairly sets in ; 

 and no colony of bees should be allowed to 

 remain queenless a day longer than is absolutely 

 unavoidable. And in order to obtain sealed 

 queen cells, for the multiplication of stock and 

 as a provision for contingencies, I am satisfied 

 from actual experience, that it will pay well for 

 all trouble and expense to keep reserve queens 

 on hand all the time — thus enabling the bee- 

 keeper to meet every emergency, whether 

 queenlessness arise from superannuation, ex- 

 haustion, or accident. 



James McMullen. 



Oskaloosa, Iowa. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Loss of Bees in Kentucky. 



Mr. Editor : — In the January number of the 

 Bee Journal, I saw an article taken from the 

 Louisville Democrat, headed " Extraordinary 

 Exodus of Honey Bees, &c," which I am dis- 

 posed to believe, without knowing anything of 

 the particular case alluded to, to be composed 

 of fact and fiction in about equal proportions. 

 Mr. James Broil has probably experienced what 

 hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of bee-keep- 

 ers all over Kentucky, except perhaps the 

 mountain districts, have experienced — namely, 

 the loss of all their bees. But that his and his 

 neighbors' bees all "lit out" suddenly and mys- 

 teriously, in one night, needs confirmation. He 

 had probably not noticed his hives much for 

 some time, and, when he did look at them, was 

 much surprised to find them deserted ; but 

 where their inhabitants went he is not able 

 to say. 



The description of the condition of the bees 

 for a "circuit of twenty-five nules" around the 

 farm of Mr. Broil, after making the proper de- 

 ductions for the extravagance of the writer, 

 who was evidently trying to produce a little 

 sensation, or was writing under the influence of 

 one, will answer very well for three-fourths of 

 the whole State of Kentucky. I am constantly 

 hearing, from every direction, of great numbers 

 of bee-keepers losing sometimes nearly all their 

 bees. There is no doubt but next spring will 

 show a fearful loss of bees in this State. Bee- 

 keepers are puzzling their wits to find out the 

 cause of this loss. It seems that Mr. Broil 

 and his neighbors, according to the Louisville 

 Democrat, think the "mildness of the weather 

 up to so late a season " caused it. Others, hav- 

 ing discovered that there is little or no pollen 

 in the hives, think that is the cause. And so it 

 goes, just as a man happens to notice something 

 which he had never noticed before. 



As I am rather a novice in bee-keeping, I 

 shall not attempt to speak positively as to the 

 cause of this loss of bees, though I am pretty 

 well convinced that it can be accounted for on 

 well known principles. Last spring, just after 

 the peach trees bloomed, there came a very 

 severe frost, or rather a succession of frosts, 

 which destined a great part of the fruit blos- 

 soms. Then followed a long cold and wet spell. 

 The queens stopped breeding, and the Lees 

 drove out the drones. Owing to the severe 

 drouth the fall before, the white clover, which 

 is the principal dependence for spring honey, 

 was a failure; and there was very little bloom 

 on the black locust, which precedes the clover. 

 In fact, there was an entire failure of swarms 

 and surplus honey, as the honey season, 

 throughout the spring and summer, was very 

 poor. I think the queens bred less on this 

 account, and consequently the stocks of bees 

 were rather weaker than usual. I think, too, 

 that the queens must have stopped breeding 

 earlier in the fall. Late in the fall the weather 

 was mild, and the fall pasturage for bees pretty 

 good. Now the bees having no brood to feed, 

 did not carry in any pollen of consequence, 



