1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



71 



ViRDEN, Ills., August 8.— We never had so good a 

 season of white clover, in my recollection, as the past 

 has been ; but it has been so dry since that the bees 

 have done nothinji since the 1st of July. Our fall 

 pasturage too will be short, on account of the drouth. 

 Last year I got all my surplus honey after this time, 

 mostly from Spanish needles and red clover. There 

 will be very little of either this fall, consequently I 

 do not expect much more surplus honey. I have 

 increased my bees from twenty-live colonies to sixty- 

 five. — J. L. Peabodt. 



Paw Paw, Mich., August 8. — The ever welcome 

 American Bee Journal was received as usual. It 

 contains a variety of reading matter from all sources, 

 and it sounds like glad tidings unto all people. I 

 have only one fault to find — it should come on the 

 first and fifteenth of each month. How can that 

 desirable end be accomplished ? Will not our brother 

 bee-keepers co-operate to bring it about ? Bees have 

 done finely here, this season. — A. F. Moon. 



EiPON, Wis., August 8.— The Journal comes to 

 hand promptly every mouth, accept my thanks for 

 the eflbrt you make to furnish us with a first class 

 paper.— E. Dart. 



TowANDA, Ills., August 9. — The season for honey 

 in this section of the country has not been the best or 

 the poorest. Bees on the prairies did not swarm 

 much, and there was great complaint of their leaving 

 for the timber. One man here found fourteen (14) 

 bee trees in one grove. But in the timbered portion 

 of the country, the bees swarmed wide and gathered 

 the usual amount of honey, namely fifteen to twenty- 

 five pounds per stand. 



Increased attention is being given to the culture of 

 bees here, and I hope I shall be able to send you a 

 much larger list of subscribers for your excellent 

 Journal. 



An accident occurred in the apiary of Mr. Cyrus 

 Jones, in this township, that would probably come 

 under the head of " Anger of Bees." While his hired 

 man with the team, was hauling some old lum')er 

 from the yard, the horses became frightened and ran 

 directly aniongt he bees, knocking over seven stands 

 and becoming fastened for a short time in a cherry 

 tree. The bees swarmed out not only from those 

 stands that were run over; -but from most of the 

 others (there being some twenty stands in all) sting- 

 ing the horses terribly. The horses became frantic, 

 rearing and plunging, broke loose from the tree, and 

 ran into the next lot, breaking the wagon badly. One 

 of them died in about tliree hours, and the other in 

 the course of the day. While they were fastened in the 

 tree, one of the men in throwing water on the horses, 

 to cool I suppose the anger of the bees, lost his hat. 

 The bees lighting on him stung his head and face so 

 badly tiiat his life was in danger. The horses were 

 stung in their ears, nostrils, and bodies so badly that 

 by taking a corn knife and scraping their sides, you 

 could draw out thousands of stings. Mr. Jones esti- 

 mates his loss at about five hundred (.500) dollars. 

 This accident occurred last spring. What would 

 have been the best to do, in such a case ? — S. C. Wake. 



Wenham, Mass., August 11. — The wea'her has 

 been very dry and hot all summer ; but during the 

 last few days we have had plenty of rain, though the 

 air is not cooler. — H. Alley. 



Lexington, Kt., August 12. — The July number of 

 the Journal failed to come. I began lo fear you had 

 ceased to publish the Journal, as I did not receive 

 one for so long, niat I hope will never happen, as 

 long as it is doing tlie good to the bee-keeping public, 

 that it now is. Long life to you and it. — Dr. J. 



DiLLARD. 



Lisle, N. T., August 13. — As your correspondents 

 commenced boasting early. I should like to hear 

 from them again, to learn whether the drouth afi'ected 

 them as much as it has us, in this part of the country. 

 I think bees never did better than they did during 

 raspberry time. It then became so dry that they 

 have not got much since, till now that they are work- 

 ing on buckwheat freely. From one double Lang- 

 stroth hive we have take seventeen full six pound 

 boxes, and the bees are working in six more.- They 

 filled both hives themselves, except six frames that 

 were transfenvd. I think this is doing very well, as 

 it will make eighty pounds in frames more than they 

 need to winter on. We are sure of thirty-six pounds 

 more. We have a good many young swarms that 

 have already over one hundred pounds of box honey 

 taken off. I will give you, this fall, the total result. 

 I think it will convince people that bee-keeping pays. 

 —II. 8. Wells. 



Campbell's Cross, Ontario, August 13.— I have 

 the first four volumes of American Bee Journal bound 

 in two, and would not take five times their cost if I 

 could not get them again. I would freely pay double 

 to get them twice a month. It would pay to get 

 them, if a person has only one hive, or no bees at all. 



Bees have done well, in this section, this season. 

 They swarmed two weeks earlier than usual. We 

 have plenty of swarms and surplus honey. Second 

 and even some third swarms will gather honey 

 enough to winter on. My bees are all in frame hives. 

 The Thomas hive is all the go in Ontario. Aly bees 

 are nearly all Italians, bred from the stocks of J. H. 

 Thomas, Brooklin, Ontario, and Henry Alley, Wen- 

 ham, Mass., — both of whom I could recommend, 

 their stock of Italians being very pure and well 

 marked. — H. Lipsett. 



Gnadenhutten, Ohio, August 15. — We have had 

 a prosperous season, this summer, both for honey and 

 swarms. The weather was good from the time the 

 fruit trees blossomed until the close of the white 

 clover blossoms. It is refreshing to the drooping 

 spirit to have a season of plenty after such poor sea- 

 sous as the previous two were. Our success would be 

 better if we had some reliable plants to supply honey, 

 after the white clover is past. That is now our main 

 dependance, and when it is a partial failure our late 

 swarnis cannot gather sufficient store to last them 

 over winter; and buckwheat is at best an uncertain 

 source for honey. 



As there is considerable rivalry among inventors 

 about patent hives, and divers contrivances are 

 recommended to bee-keepers as the iie j^lus ultra of 

 perlecti(jn, I will state that some years ago I invented 

 a side-opening leaf hive, with a sliding bottom board. 

 Either front or rear side is a door, through which tlie 

 bottom board slides. At the opposite end of the hive 

 from the door, in the side of the hive, is a frame or 

 yoke, fastened to the sides of the bottom-boaid and 

 reaching half way up tlie side of the hive. On top of 

 said yoke are clasps fastened loosely to the yoke with 

 wire rivets. These clasps hold tiie frames by means 

 of wire hooks driven into the frames and hooking 

 over a shoulder on top of the clasps. The clasps 

 move sideways, and allow the frames to lie moved 

 sideways, like the leaves of a book, and also to be 

 taken ott'. The part of the hive with a hook in, has 

 a piece of wire driven in at the bottom, to serve as a 

 pivot, and works in a gimlet hole in the bottom 

 board. In operating with the bees in, the door is 

 opened and the fastenings made by the bees are to be 

 cut loose ; then the bottom board with the frames is 

 drawn out of the hive. It is perhaps as good a side- 

 opening hive as any, with the additional good (|uality 

 that there is no patent on it. Any one is at liberty 

 to use the invention. For myself, I prefer top open- 

 ing hives, as more convenient. — S. Luethi. 



