1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



77 



less attributable to that cause. Querist says' 

 where he lives, "sealed brood is not very likely 

 to become chilled during June and July — the 

 swarming months, and but few bees are necessary 

 to keep it at the proper temperature to mature." 

 We do not know where Querist lives, but we do 

 know that in Iowa in the months of July and 

 August, on replacing our frames after handling 

 them for sonie time, when the temperature was 

 rather low for those months, we have frequently 

 designated the place in the combs where young 

 brood existed, by piercing the combs in a circle 

 around it, with sliort stems of timothy grass, and 

 left them there for a day or two that 1 might be 

 sure to find the exact place and cells again ; and, 

 in many cases, ou re-examination, I found no 

 brood in those cells. I have repeatedly made 

 swarms in the Langstroth hive, and afterwards 

 found that the brood, in what I call the first stage, 

 was gone. J. W. Seay. 



Monroe, Iowa. 



[F.ir the .American Bee Journal,] 



Eeport of Apiary in 1870. 



The Field. The farmers cultivate their fields 

 for jn'oduce for the city. They are so frequently 

 broken up that white clover has a poor ojjpor- 

 tunity for an abundant crop. But little buckwheat 

 is sown. This season none of any consequence 

 within three miles. Fruit blossoms in the spring 

 were unusually abundant. 



The Season. The early part of the season 

 was favorable for gathering honey. The breed- 

 ing apartment of the hives was well stored with 

 brood and honey at the commencement of the 

 white clover harvest. This harvest was, however, 

 shortened by the drouth, and no honey was stored 

 in boxes altel' the middle of Jul}' ; and in some 

 cases honey was removed from boxes partly 

 filled. - 



Number of Colonies. I set upon the stand 

 in the spring twenty-three colonies. Of these, 

 three were in old box hives which were broken 

 up when they cast the first swarm, and the hives 

 converted to kindling wood. One of the remain- 

 ing twenty, from loss of queen or other cause, 

 failed entirely ; and a new swarm was introduced 

 to occupy its place. This left nineteen of the 

 old colonies, for giving swarms and surplus 

 honey. 



SuitPLUs honey in boxes. I find on adding 

 up the product from my hives, they have given 

 me one thousand and eighty (1,080) pounds of 

 suiplus. Perhaps in an ordinary field and poor 

 season I should lie content with this ; but I think, 

 with the experience of this seascm and some im- 

 provements in my hives, I could do better tried 

 over again. 



Of this 1,080 (or to be exact, 1,080^ pounds, 

 five coUmies give 625^ pounds, an average of 12o 

 lbs., and 74f lbs. more than half of the whole 

 surplus. One of the five best gave one hundred 

 and ninety-eight and a half (11)8^) pounds. 



I attribute this success of my best colosiies to 

 the following causes : 



1. A full foice of workers at the commence- 

 ment of the season. To secure this, I fed them 



two or three pounds of syrup, when first placed 

 upon the stand eaily in March. 



2. This gave them from one to three weeks 

 start of the <thers, in commencing work in the 

 surplus boxes. 



8. I think, further, one cause of such force of 

 workers was a most prolific queen. Twelve boxes 

 of six pounds capacity are now almost full of 

 bees, though without honey or comb, except one 

 or two. 



4. But this great number of workers, and early 

 filling the hives with bees, would not have given 

 the surplus had they not been satisfied not to 

 swarm. With the purpose to swarm and prepa- 

 ration for it, they would have given an early 

 swarm, followed by one, two, or three after- 

 swarms probably; and the 198 lbs. of surplus 

 have been placed in other hives in the shape of 

 arrangements and stores for wintering one, two, 

 or three new colonies of bees. 



In my experiments with bees, I have generally 

 found a loss of two weeks time in preparation 

 for swarming, in which little or no surplus honey- 

 is stored — the great body of the workers cluster- 

 ing out in idleness. Or if boxes were furnished 

 them and filled witli bees, I have been disap- 

 pointed on the swarm leaving the box empty of 

 bees, to rind it entirely destitute of honey. 



Although my advanced age and infirmities 

 moderate my ambition in the new business of bee- 

 keeping, and so limit my experiments that I have 

 never tried to increase my stock by artificial 

 swarming, I have no doubt but the greatest suc- 

 cess in the business can only be secured by the 

 use of non-swarming hives and artificial swarm- 

 ing. Overstocking the honey-field is, in my 

 settled conviction, the great obstacle in the way 

 of satisfactory success. This makes it necessary 

 to have the entire control of the increase of colo- 

 nies, to limit their number to the capacity of the 

 field. I hope to do better another season, from 

 knowledge gained by the experiments of the past. 



Jasper IIazen. 



Albany, N. Y., Aug. 12, 1870. 



[For tlie American Bee Journal.] 



Pour-Bauded Bees. 



Mr. Alley says, in the last number of the Jour- 

 nal, that Mr. Briggs "may bet a high figure that 

 no worker bee in this country ever showed four 

 bands." I beg respectfully to differ from him, 

 having a queen now in my possessinn which pro- 

 duces bees that plainly show four bands, when 

 filled with honey. 



I noticed this I)efore seeing anything about four 

 banded Italians, in any publication. It is true, 

 that the Baroness Yon Berlepsch wrote me early 

 in the spring that Dzierzon was .sdling such 

 queens, but that was the only time that I had 

 heard of them. The queen mentioned above was 

 raised by me last season, and is not j^urely fer- 

 tilized, as many of her bees show onlj^ one band. 

 Daniel M. Worthington. 



St. Dennis, Md., Sept. 5, 1870. 



A bee-hive is a school of loyalty and filial love. 



