1870.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



95 



Genoa, Ills., September 9. — Please excuse my 

 being thus dilatory in not making an earlier 

 remittance for the Joarnal. This little amount I 

 could have turned to very good account in other 

 directions; yet, as I am circumstanced, I think 

 that one volume of the American Bee Journal is 

 worth three or four times as much to me as the same 

 sum laid out in any other way at home. For had it 

 not been for the Journal, I should long since have 

 been as many of my neighbors are — " one that used 

 to keep been.'" I am awaie that my location is not 

 naturally favorable for bee-keeping, as we sometimes 

 have two or three seasons in succession that are 

 hard on the bee business ; yet I am not inclined to 

 give it up so. In 1868, I put twenty swarms into my 

 kitchen cellar. Most of litem had not. one pound of 

 honey on the first of January ; but I made up my 

 mind to try the winter feeding to my lull satisfaction. I 

 took off cai^s, out a hole two inches by five through 

 the honey board, which was half an inch thick ; 

 fastened cotton cloth upon the under side, which 

 made a box large enough to hold all the food I 

 wished to put in at a time. The food was syrup of 

 good refined suijar. I took care that tht^y were all 

 Ventilated according to the size of the stock ; and as 

 the temperature would change in a measure with that 

 outside, I would regulate ventilation accordingly ; 

 and by constant attention they come out in the spring 

 with the loss of only two swarms, besides two that 

 became queenless. No more bees died than usual in 

 wintering ; and although the season last year was 

 wet and cold, tlicy managed to procure sufficient to 

 cari'y them through the winter in tolerably good con- 

 dition. But tliis si>ring •and summer the drouth 

 seemed to tlireaten them with starvation. We had 

 no rain from the last of March till the first of July, 

 with the excej.tion of two slight showers that did 

 not, either of them, wet the ground more than an 

 inch deep. Notwithstanding, with the white clover, 

 which put out some small blossoms and in u oist 

 ]ilaces where not pastured, continued fresh, and 

 some wild flowers, the bees kept along till the rains 

 came in July. Then the clover and other blossoms 

 came out quite fresh ; so for a few weeks the bees 

 gained a little and afforded some surplus honey. 

 Now the buckwheat is in full bloom, and the bees 

 seem to be taking time by the foretop, by improving 

 each hour, shine or no shine. The hybrid bees, as 

 well as tl e pure-blooded, appear to be exerting 

 themselves to vindicate the superior merits of their 

 ancestors ; and although it may seem cruel, I stand 

 ready, with open and greedy hands to receive their 

 hard-earned stores, and furnish tiiem with store-room 

 to euable tliem to continue on ano her willing task. 

 My eighteen acres of Alsike and two of raelilot 

 clover are entirely killed by the drouth. For three 

 years I have not only had to contend with adverse 

 seasons, but have been a target for friends and 

 neighbors to pop their jokes at, for my persistence 

 in such unprofitable business. But I had made up 

 my mind to fight it out on this line ; and by the 

 assistance of the American Bee Journal, with its 

 » able and ginerous contributors, am confident that 

 eventually I will come out all right. Though the 

 season has been a hard one, I have now taken out 

 honey enough to pay for all the sugar I have used 

 and for the four volumes of the Journal, and have 

 added one-third to the number of my stocks this 

 season — while many old fogies of my acquaintance, 

 who laugh at the idea of using patent hives or pay- 

 ing the trifling sum for the Journal, have lost some 

 nearly all, and others quite all of their bees. — A. 

 Stiles. 



Si'ARTA Center, V « '.pteraber 7. — I cannot 



think of getting along without the Journal. I 



supposed that I was doine extremely well in the bee 

 business, until I read Novice's reports, which are 

 surprising. I have kept bees four years, couiniencing 

 with nine colonies in box hives. At the end of the 

 first season, I had fourteen, all told. I buried them 

 according to the plan recommended in Langstroth's 

 " Hive and Honey Bee," and lost two. The second 

 summer I had fourteen new swarms, making my 

 stock twenty-six in the fall ; but, as the season was 

 a poor one, 1 had no surplus honey. I Iniried them 

 in clumps, as before, and in the sjjring found three 

 were nvn eat. This was the spriug of 1869. During 

 the ensuing summer, I had twenty-four new swarms 

 and nine hundred (900) pounds of surplus honey, 

 and began to know something of the habits, »fee., of 

 bees. In the fall of 1869, I built a bee house for 

 wintering, 10 feet by 20, outside measure, 8 feet by 

 18 inside. The walls were made bj' using two rows 

 of stiuiding, boarded up outside and insideol each row, 

 leaving an air space between the walls, and filling 

 between the studding with saw dust. This spring I 

 had forty-six good stocks, and have obtained 3 194 

 pounds of No. 1 honey. I have now one hundred 

 and ten (110) colonies, all but three or four in good 

 condition for wintering. I have no Italian bees, as I 

 wished to learn to manage and handle ihe blacks, 

 before tryiusj any that might require more skill. I 

 use Langstroth's " shallow things." All excejt five 

 of my swarms are in frame hives, and every comb is 

 straight with not over sixteen square inches of drone 

 comb to a hive. !Sixty-nine of my queens aie of the 

 present season. All my new' colonies we;e made 

 artificially, except six. I made them by starting 

 nuclei, aud building up by taking comb, honey, and 

 brood from strong stocks. I fed each colony a little 

 syrup every alternate day from April 1 to June 1. 

 Nearly all the surphis honey of this year is made 

 from or gathered from white clover tdossoins. Last 

 year it was from linden or basswood. — I should like 

 to know if Novice or others using the melextractor, 

 have had any trouble with the honey fermenting 

 after being canned. I have had several cans spoil. 

 It assumed a reddish hue and became watery in 

 appearance. I should like to know how to avoid 

 losing any in future. — A. B. CuENEr. 



Winchester, Va., September 10. — This has been 

 a good season for honey, but few swarms. I started 

 in the spring with sixty-four colonies and have had 

 twenty-one swarms. 'I'liey will n.iake a fine lot of 

 honey. I use the Langstroth hive. Some of my 

 neighbors that have ten or twelve old-fashioned box 

 hives, think the Langstroth hive costs too much, but 

 come to me every fall to buy honey. I have seven 

 colonies of Italian bees. I think they are superior 

 to the black bee, both for swarming and making 

 honey. I obtained my queens of Mr. Henry Alley. 

 I think he deserves great credit for sending pure 

 (jueens and actiuic honorably with his patrons. My 

 bees are not making any honey now, as there was no 

 buckwheat sown in tiiis part of the <ountry. The 

 most that we have to depend on in this country is 

 white clov^er and blue thistle. We sowed one jjound 

 of Alsike clover seed in Ajtril, 1869, aud mowed it for 

 seed July 2.5, 1870. I thought it a humbmx, but am 

 agreeably disappointed. My bees worked on it from 

 early morn till late at night. The farmers are much 

 {deased with it, both for hay and pasture. -B. F. 

 Montgomery. 



It cannot be too deeply impressed on the mind 

 of the bee-keeper, that a small colony should be 

 confined to a small space, if we wish the bees to 

 work with the greatest energy, and offer the 

 stoniest resistance to their numerous enemies. — 

 Langstroth. 



