110 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



[Nov., 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Bees in Beunington, Vermont. 



Mr. Editor. — The season in Bennington has 

 been very good for bees, that is, considering 

 that tlicy were in poor condition last spi'ing. 

 IMany colonies died last winter in this town, and 

 I should think it safe to say that one half our 

 bees tlien perished for want of honey. I was 

 not at home in February to attend to mine, and 

 lost five colonies before I was aware of their 

 being so short of sui)plies, which I discovered 

 only after losing my best stock of Italians. It 

 was quite warm in January, and one day was so 

 like spring that I carried my hives all out, and 

 for a couple of hours it seemed like swarming 

 time. The weather was so mild that my bees 

 began to breed considerable, and so used up their 

 honey. When I removed the dead bees from 

 one of my hives, I found brood in three combs 

 sealed over, a spot as large as my hand in each, 

 besides eggs and larvpe. 



February was very cold, and a terror to light 

 swarms. I set my hives out again the last of 

 March, and had then only fiften stocks. Three 

 of these I united with others, thus reducing the 

 number to twelve. One of these got discouraged, 

 and tried to form a partnership with another 

 colony, but got killed in tlie operation. Thus, 

 by the first of May, I had only eleven colonies 

 I'emaining, and they were very weak. I fed 

 them every day till I began to see they were get- 

 ting stronger. Then, thanks to the Bee Journal, 

 I knew enough to double their feed aS they in- 

 creased in numbers and the hives in weight of 

 brood, for they could not of course get much 

 honey till the first trees blossomed. The weather 

 then became warm and pleasant, and the bees 

 got a good start in life, so that when clover and 

 red raspberries bloomed, they were soon ready 

 to march out and take a limb of a tree on their 

 own account. I soon had twenty-five swarms 

 and began to think hives and all would swarm. 

 Besides those we hived, four swarms took the 

 wings of the morning. By the way, a great 

 number of swarms ran away this year to the 

 woods. I found a small swarm about three miles 

 away from home. They came over a barn I was 

 painting, and clustered near by. I hived them in 

 a powder keg, and carried them home at night. 



I have taken two hundred and twenty-five 

 (325) pounds of box honey from my bees, be- 

 sides ten six pound boxes partly filled, of which 

 I take no accomit. I have twenty-one hives to 

 winter. They are very heavy, too heavy, I fear, 

 to winter well ; but hope for the best. Bees 

 within half a mile of mine have not done any- 

 tliing at all ; because they had no care or feeding 

 in the spring, and when summer came they were 

 merely ready to begin their si)ring's work. I 

 think it pays to feed bees as well as other stock. 



I have only two swarms of black bees, and 

 some hybrids, the rest are pure Italians. I re- 

 ceived two queens from Mr. Gary this season, 

 and inserted them all right. Tliey were, to all 

 appearance, accepted and owned for four or five 

 weeks, wlien one day I found one of them thrown 

 out dead on the bottom board ; and if it had not 



been for the Bee Journal on the superseding of 

 queens, I should not have known what the trou- 

 ble was. The other is all right so far, and the 

 young bees from both queens are beauties. I 

 never saw finer, and am well satisfied with them. 

 My bees are all descendants of Mr. Gary's stock, 

 and another year I shall get some more from 

 him and other breeders, to avoid breeding in 

 and in. 



I have never yet seen a honey extractor at 

 work, but there is one within a few miles of me 

 and I am going to see it. If it proves to be the 

 one thing needful in my case, I shall go for one 

 another year. 



I have procui'ed some of the Rocky Mountain 

 bee plant seed from Mr. Green, and if it is good, 

 as I have no reason to doubt it will be, I shall let 

 you know all about it. 



The season has been quite favorable here, not 

 as dry as it was in some places ; and our crops 

 are very good, with an abundance of fruit. Tak- 

 ing every thing into consideration, I am well 

 satisfied with my bees and their labors last sum- 

 mer. When I bought my bees, a man in the 

 same business blowed a good deal and said it 

 wovdd not be a great while before I would run 

 out witli my Italian bees and wintering in the 

 house. Last year (^ISGO) he had in the summer 

 sixty-six colonies. He fed two barrels of sugar 

 this spring, as he says, and now has twenty or 

 twenty-one colonies. Who has run out ? I fed 

 half a barrel or one hundred and twenty-five 

 pounds of sugai'. He don't "fool away his money 

 for Bee Journals, nor Italian queens." 



C. II. Bassett. 



North Bennington, Vt., Oct. 5. 1870. 



[For the American Bee Joiirna!.] 



The Season in Massachusetts. 



After reading the various accounts in the Jour- 

 nal as to how bees have done in other parts of 

 the country, I think it will not be out of ijlace 

 to let its readers know what has been going on 

 in Massachusetts, or rather in a part of that 

 State. 



About May 20th our bees commenced to col- 

 lect honey rapidly, and from that time to June 

 7th, honey was very abundant, and I never saw 

 bees put into the hives and surplus boxes faster. 

 From June 7th until July 1st they did very little. 

 In fact we had then ten days in succession when 

 no honey was collected ; and by tlie 1st of July 

 pasturage failed altogether, as it generally does 

 here in New England. I never knew bees to put 

 honey into boxes later than July 12th, and that 

 for only one year, since I have kept bees. 



Perhaps it will be new to some of the readers 

 of the Journal to know the fact that bees do not 

 collect honey here, in Essex county, as a general 

 thing, later than the first week in .Inly ; and 

 this season they did not work later than the last 

 day of June. Very little honey was put into 

 boxes between June 7th and July 1st. Had the 

 season held out as it gave promise in May, honey 

 would have been plenty in Massachusetts. 



I have a few hives that did very well, consider- 

 ing how short the honey harvest was, and to let 



