1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



23 



now the white clover is setting in very thickly ; and 

 if nothing " turns up," the honey season of 1870 will 

 be the best of the decade. 



In my experiments in testing the virgin drone 

 theory I have gone three generations, and find no 

 change. I have to-day a queen of Dzierzon stock 

 mated with a black drone, whose drones are the only 

 one which I have allowed within miles of my experi- 

 menting stock. These drones have fertilized succes- 

 sively three generations of queens from the same 

 stock, and the last generation sliows as fully striped 

 and handsome colored bees as you ever saw, altliough I 

 do not think they are very smart, owing to bcint;; bred 

 " in and i7i." iiut the above facts I know ; and they 

 prove to me that the drone egg is in no way affected 

 by copulation. — J. E. Pond, Ju. 



Vervii.le, Tenn., June 13. — I am largely engaged 

 in bee-culture, and have nearly all the reliable books 

 on the subject, but prefer the Journal to them all. — 

 J. M. Bell. 



KleijSburg, Canada, June 1.3. — The wintering of 

 bees last season, in this locality, so far as I can learn 

 was truly a calamity, in consequence of the scarcity 

 of stores through tlie wet and cold weather we had 

 here last year. When I discovered that mine were 

 short of stores, T prepared syruji of clean coffee sugar, 

 as I got no houej^ and fed them. But unfortunately 

 I waited too long in the fall, as I still hoped the bees 

 might collect supplies enough to carry them through 

 the winter. No sooner had they taken up what was 

 provided by the hand of their keeper, than cold 

 weather ensued and prevented tliem from sealing it 

 up. I am of opinion that I had better not given them 

 any syrup, as that would have saved trouble and use- 

 less expense ; but one who admires such an insect as 

 the industrious honey bee, will do all in his power to 

 preserve them, if it be possible. If I had anticipated 

 any bad result from feeding them so late that they 

 could not seal it up, I am sure it would have been 

 done earlier. It is true I have been in possession of 

 the theoretical knowledge that bees should be fed, if 

 necessary, early enough to enable them to seal up 

 what is given, while warm weather continues ; but 

 unfortunately none of the authors on bee matters that 

 I have read, made it a point of such great importance 

 as it appears to be. They merely say that it ought 

 to be done, but do not state the disastrous conse- 

 quences of feeding so late that the sealing cannot take 

 place ; and thus I did not expect that the result would 

 be so bad, as in many things no ill accrues from 

 slight deviations or neglect. I may now say, how- 

 ever, that if the feeding is not done so ear'.y that the 

 bees can seal up what is given, tlie best way is to let 

 it alone ; for, as far as my experience goes, it is cer- 

 tain death to do it up as in mj- case. 



Will it do to feed bees for winter with clean brown 

 sugar syrup ? I never saw or heard the contrary 

 urged, except on doubtful authority. And how should 

 syrup be prepared to prevent crystalization ? This 

 is another important point. I never was able to pro- 

 duce such an article even with glycerine, prepand 

 according to a correspondent of the Jt)urual in the 

 number for April. But as I have not tried the syrup 

 inside the hive, I cannot say positively that the gly- 

 cerine is no prevention of crystalization. I made some 

 and kept it in a bowl standing for three weeks, and 

 it began to crystalize. Now would such an article be 

 fit to feed bees on for winter ? I should be glad to 

 hear something on that point, as I am deeply in- 

 terested, and so, I am sure, are many more of the 

 numerous readers of the Journal. — C. VVurstek. 



Poet Climton, Onio, June 10. — Bees are doing 

 well here — swarming and storing honey in boxes. — 

 P. S. Van Rensselaer. 



Minnesota Citt, Minn., June 16. — Bees are 

 doing very well here at present. Some Italian stocks 

 have swarmed five times. Bees are at work in STir- 

 plus boxes now. If everything runs smooth, or we 

 do not have any drought to cut off the pasture, we 

 shall get a good yield of honey. I shall keep a re- 

 cord of all the honey stored this season. I wish all 

 the bee-keepers would do the same, and report this 

 fall. So hurrah for the Old American Bee Journal 

 and its readers. — W. Rowlev. 



Salem, N. C. June 18. — The spring opened with as 

 fine prospects for bees, as I ever saw ; and continued so 

 until the 30th of May. Since that time we liave had an 

 abundance of rain, which has retarded swarming very 

 much. I have had about forty-five swarms this sea- 

 son, and have some fifty old stocks that have not 

 swarmed yet.— J. W. Hunter. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



The Honey Extractor. 



I see that friend Argo sort of hints that he 

 wants Gallup to say something about the honey 

 sliiiger. I have one of the Peabody machines. 

 After seeing tlie description of the various kinds 

 tliat is my clioice. And, come to see the critter 

 and work it, I really cannot wisli for a better. 

 Understand that there is no machinery about it; 

 actually uotliing to get out of repair, and it 

 works like a cliarm. It will last any man liis 

 lifetime, providing he dies in any decent sea- 

 son; or if he should take a notion to live ano- 

 ther generation, I thing the machine would still 

 be there and ready to clo service. And now, fr 

 how 1 have been udng the animal. Tlie season lias 

 been unusually good thus far ; and wlien I have 

 taken out two frames of brood from one of my 

 hives and supplied their places with two empty 

 combs, the bees would fill them with honey and 

 in many cases two or three times, before I could 

 bring the queen up to the scratch to fill them 

 with eggs ; and I could sling the honey out in a 

 jitfey. In other cases, where a natural swarm 

 has issued, before the young queen has com- 

 menced depositing eggs, every available cell 

 would be occuiiied with honey; and the way I 

 made the houej fiy was a caution to old brim- 

 stone times. Here in the two cases above stated, 

 we can see a practical use for the machine, at 

 least 1 can ; and can see in other cases that an 

 Extractor is actually indispensable. The won- 

 der is, how we ever got along without it. 



I find that honey of the present season's gath- 

 ering can be extracted until the comb is left al- 

 most perfectly dry. But honey that has remained 

 in the hive from last season's gathering, cannot 

 be taken out so clean, yet the most of it can be 

 taken out. I have tried a couple of combs of 

 last season's gathering, just to see how it would 

 work. On the day I tried it the weather was 

 quite cool — rather too cool for opening hives and 

 working the extractor. Still I wished to try it 

 under tlie most unfavorable as well as the most 

 favoi able circumstances. 



Hurrah for the Old American Bee Journal 

 — THE OLD STAND BY; the Honey Sliiig\r ; 

 and the season of 1870! If the season holds out 

 as it has commenced, I am all hunk-a-dori ! 



Elisiia Gallup. 



Orchard, Mitchell Co., Iowa. 



